Sri Lanka: Tamil ex-stronghold Jaffna on the road to recovery

2015-02-23

Jaffna is the former stronghold of the Tamil Tigers, the infamous Sri Lankan guerrilla group. This legendary peninsula at the northern tip of Sri Lanka was ravaged by three decades of civil war between Tamils and Sinhalese. Almost six years after the end of the war, our reporters returned to Jaffna to offer a glimpse into a city that’s struggling to limp back to normality after a brutal war.

It was impossible for us to obtain a journalist visa to travel to northern Sri Lanka. At the time that our story was filmed, in December 2014, Sri Lanka was in the midst of a presidential election campaign. Any foreigner wishing to travel to the north, mainly inhabited by Tamils, had to obtain a special permit from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence. So we went to Jaffna as simple tourists.

We had a close call while we were on the train to Jaffna, and were stopped by military officials who thoroughly inspected our documents before letting us proceed. It was not an easy story to film - Sri Lanka’s military is traditionally wary of Western journalists, and we had to remain alert at all times. In the end, we didn’t have to look far to see traces of the war. All around us there was evidence of prejudice and discrimination against Tamil citizens.

But there was also hope. The Sri Lankan government has heavily invested in the reconstruction of Jaffna. In recent years, the region has enjoyed unprecedented economic growth, which has benefitted at least some Tamils. We met young Tamils - Hindus and Christians - working in modern jobs. Unanimously, they expressed a desire to move on and leave the war behind, but they remained keenly aware of their minority status in a country where the government and the army are controlled by the Buddhist Sinhalese majority.

During the course of filming our report, we also met victims of land mines, displaced Tamils living in harrowing conditions in refugee camps, brave journalists who live in fear of the state, and former LTTE fighters who have managed to rebuild their lives, one step at a time.

In recent months, since we returned from our shoot, developments in Sri Lanka indicate that the country is at a turning point. The newly elected President Maithripala Sirisena has supported reconciliation with the Tamils. A few days after being elected, he announced that the government would release Tamil detainees, and the army would return the land confiscated from the Tamils. These measures have yet to be implemented but they signal concrete hope. Sri Lanka could finally find peace and reconciliation, half a decade after the end of the war.