and so to Jaffna

Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote. It has been an interesting, fraught, incredibly tiring and ill few days. Coupled with that the frustration of the telephone system and internet connections, here in Jaffna, have created an atmosphere of despair. But things are getting better now and I am on the mend.

So let me tell you what has been happening since I left Colombo. I am now in Jaffna. This is a peninsular that sits at the very Northern tip of Sri Lanka. It is made up of islands and lagoons. Although it is controlled by the Government it is cut off from the rest of Sri Lanka by the land held by the Tamil Tigers. So all supplies come either by sea or air. It is the heart of the Tamil culture on Sri Lanka and is very Tamil. Hence the Governement keeps a very tight grip on it, the people and anything that gets in or out.

I was up at 3.45am on Friday to go to the airport to get the flight North. Well, I say airport, actually a military airfield with much security, but smiley, pleasant soldiers who actually were not at all threatening. The first thing I noticed was the fact that every soldier did not even want payment to get out of your way (which is pretty much the norm at Kabul Airport). Instead they smile and try to assist. Now I was due to get the 7.30 flight to Jaffna. However, as a Johnny foreigner in these parts I needed special permission to go to Jaffna. So we get a letter from the Ministry of Nation Building saying they recommend me as a decent sort of chap and they send this to the Ministry of Defence. They then have their say and finally a letter is passed to the air force giving them permission to let me into their airfield.
OK, so far so good, except we get to the airfield at 4.30am and there is no paperwork there and the offices will not be open till 8!

So we wait and wait. The 7.30 flight leaves, and we wait. Finally the nice man at the gate puts through a call at 8, they fax him the permission and I am allowed through.

The next flight is at 11.45, so we head for the terminal on a bus and get to the check in area. Now this is all pretty standard except there is a list of items you are not allowed to take to Jaffna and this includes AA batteries, like in the myriad of small portable electrical devices we carry around these days. But, my man in Jaffna needs batteries.

So, I have to secrete them in my laptop bag and when it is my turn to empty the bag for the nice soldier so he can go through it all, I have to make sure he doesn't quite see the pocket they are hidden in. All goes well, and we head for the plane, I am now a smuggler!!!

The flight is uneventful, just one hour and we arrive at the Jaffna military airport. Now the next bit is just a touch funny. We get off the plane and are herded into a bus with blacked out windows. This is to ensure we cannot see anything inside this High Security Zone. The bus drives for around 15 minutes and eventually we park up and get out. From behind a high dirt bank, I can see the tail fin of our plane about 50 yards away. Where we have been driving for the last 15 minutes no-one seems to know. Then it is time to be interviewed, why are you in Jaffna, what are you doing etc. until the quiz master is happy and you go out and get into, yes you have guessed it, a blacked out coach. Not forgetting it is unbearably hot all this time, and of course, I have never sdone this befroe, so you simply follow the crowd and do what they do. WHen they stop, I stop, when they proceed, I proceed. The next coach trip is a good 20-25 minutes through the High Security Zone until we get to the outskirts. Here we all meet our local contacts, and they return our cases. Did I tell you they also take all mobile phones and cameras away from you before the flight and return them at this point.

What is a High Security Zone, I hear you ask. Well, Jaffna is only about 20 miles from the front line of the war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Army which is now reaching a critical phase. In fact, Jaffna was a Tiger stronghold up until 1995 and held by them. Some of the Jaffna peninsula is still held by the Tigers, hence the proximity of the front line. So the fighting in Jaffna has been fierce and recent, and the signs of this are everywhere with building blown up and destroyed, full of shell holes etc. At night we can hear the artillery guns firing from Jaffna at the Tamil Tigers Front Line.

The Army created HSZ's around their installations all over Jaffna, by simply removing the people who lived there, destroying the houses and mining the area to make it a huge buffer between them and any attackers. Probably half the land in Jaffna is taken up by HSZ's and minefields where the inhabitants can no longer go.

Think about that, half the area in your locality simply swallowed up by the Army and minefields laid. You DO NOT enter these areas.

So, I have arrived, my man is there to meet and greet me and we head back to the house and office.

Jaffna, is quite beautiful and has everything an idyllic paradise should have. It is hot (OK, too hot to work), smiling friendly people, palms and coconut trees, beautiful lagoons - and a war with Army checkpoints at every junction and a 9pm curfew. I will tell you about living here soon.