End Game

It's been quite a tumultuous few days here in Sri Lanka with the news that the conflict in the north is finally over and, according to the government, the leaders of the LTTE - including Prabhakaran - are all dead. It's actually been quite surreal being here in Kandy knowing that only a couple of hundred kilometres away heavy fighting was going on. In some ways it often felt like it could have been happening in another country completely. It's a relief though that the fighting is over as thousands of civilians were caught up in the fighting. I really hope that the end of the conflict will result in changes for the better, but unfortunately I have my doubts that the current government is serious about addressing the root causes of the conflict and fear that this victory will be used as an excuse to maintain the status quo.

According to reports today the UN and international aid agencies are requesting the government to allow them to have access to the over 250,000 displaced people that are languishing in camps in the north. Unsurprisingly the government seems very reluctant to allow outsiders access to the camps - probably because they don't want the outside world knowing what has been going on over the past couple of months.

Yesterday during his address to the nation the president declared today as a public holiday. I thought there might be more going on as for the past couple of days there have been firecrackers going off constantly, but perhaps the onset of the monsoon has dampened spirits somewhat. When I was out and about yesterday I saw on a number of occasions groups of young men driving around in vans and three-wheelers shouting and waving the Sri Lankan flag, whch made me feel very uncomfortable. There's a sizeable Tamil population in Kandy and although there haven't been any reports of violence, I'm worried that something might happen that could result in violent clashes. Personally I find it quite repugnant to be celebrating while so many people are still suffering.

Because of the rain I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with myself today. Last night I was thinking about going for a swim, but of course that's out. Might see if Maggie and some other friends want to go to the Citadel for lunch. It's not actually raining at the moment, but it's been raining heavily all night and most of this morning.