The Power of Good People by Para Paheer

Author:Para Paheer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wild Dingo Press

THE WHITE VAN

Tensions were mounting in the days following the round-up and the encounter with the masked man, but life had to go on.

Para and Jayantha still had to travel to work each day along the hazardous Mannar-Pesalai road. The most dangerous part of the journey was at the checkpoints where everyone had to stop and wait while the Sri Lanka Army soldiers checked their ID cards. It was common for people to be pulled aside ‘for questioning’, and the uncertainty of the outcomes made every interaction with the army traumatic.

After every checkpoint followed long stretches of the bumpy, potholed road, which left the slow-moving travellers vulnerable to being shot or kidnapped by soldiers from either the army or the LTTE.

‘Every day something terrible happened,’ Para says. ‘Usually there was no reason, no warning. We did not know how to relax; we had to think and stay alert all the time. This was the reality of the civil war—we weren’t part of it, but we couldn’t escape it. We didn’t like it, but we couldn’t change it. We just had to accept it. We all tried everything we could to keep safe, out of harm’s way and to not attract attention. The daily news reports at the time were awful—dead bodies were found in ditches with marks of torture, women were raped, children were harmed. But we had to carry on, because that was “normal for Sri Lanka” at that time.’

Para and Jayantha discussed the alternatives. They wanted to continue teaching because that was their vocation and their employment. They knew their pupils were working hard to achieve high scores and proceed to university. But the daily commute to their schools was taking its toll, particularly since the round-up earlier in the week, which had left them both feeling apprehensive and anxious.

Jayantha suggested that they leave the motorbike at home and travel by bus because they knew the LTTE would not deliberately attack a bus, and if the army intercepted it there would be many witnesses if anyone was arrested. But Para preferred to use the motorbike because he thought it was more manoeuvrable and it would be easier to avoid any incidents. Danger could come from either side.

The third day after the round-up, Para and Jayantha had compromised and were queuing at the army checkpoint on their motorbike, close behind the bus, when a massive blast from the trees lining the road ahead threw everyone to the ground.

‘A Claymore bomb had been detonated,’ Para says. ‘Some soldiers died at once, others opened fire in the direction of the attack, although I didn’t see anyone in the forest. We all stayed down until it was over, then everyone was told to line up and show their ID. Our ID showed that we came from Jaffna, so we were told to wait, along with everyone else who came from outside the district. We should not have worried, because we knew we had done nothing wrong and we had government ID because we were teachers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.