Sights set on peace
After decades of civil war, the Tamil Tigers and the Sinhalese majority are finally coming to the negotiating table. Jon Greenaway returns to Sri Lanka to report on the prospects for conciliation. (extract)
Bomb crater-result of an attack by the Sri Lankan Air Force on Vadaramachy East, March 2000. Photograph by Jon Greenaway.
'By 3.50am the first Black Tiger group was positioned in front of the squadron of helicopters. The second was near the jet fighters that were being deployed in the escalating war in the north.
The two teams attacked in unison, raining automatic-weapon fire, anti-tank shells, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives on the aircraft and on the startled soldiers who rushed from their barracks to engage them. In the ensuing 45-minute battle, three Sri Lankan defence personnel were killed and eight Tamil guerrillas died on the tarmac. Two attack helicopters and six fighters (bought at great expense from China, the Ukraine and Israel) were destroyed.
Anxious passengers who had flown in on Air Lanka flights from Muscat and Jakarta heard the fighting and asked what was happening. Most likely an air-force personnel drill, they were told.
When the walls began to shake as the shooting and explosions came closer, staff and passengers fled the building in panic. The surviving rebels crossed the runway, engaging defence forces all the way, and occupied the vacated terminal. Three modern Airbus planes belonging to the national airline were blown apart, two by grenades fired at them from the roof of the terminal. The other would later be written off after being sprayed with 200 rounds of small-arms fire.
At 9.30am, six hours after the attack began, three more airmen were dead and all of the Tigers had perished. Three of them took their own lives by detonating explosives strapped to their torsos. The country woke to the undeniable truth that the war could not be won.'
Jon Greenaway is a freelance writer living in London. jon@greenaway.net
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