German Memories in Asia - A Tsunami Mission to Northern Jaffna

We reached closer to the high security zone of the expanded Palaly Army camp area.


Our vehicles stopped near a military barrier manned by the Sri Lankan Army. There were two pick-up vehicles coming towards us, and the officers started to check our identification. Thereafter one pick-up vehicle drove in front of our vehicles and the other one came behind. We were travelling under military escort towards the Palaly Army camp, the main base in the Jaffna Peninsula.


We could see both sides of the road-abandoned houses once occupied by the Jaffna residents. By the on-going war, they deserted those houses and after the consecutive governments declaration as the high security zone, the one residential area had become a ghost - area. Only the Army points at every other few meters were seen. The destruction resembled worse than that of the Bosnian and Afghan ghost towns.


Our vehicles were passing the abandoned houses into the military camp area negotiating many bend and curves and reached near the Airport area. The Palaly Airport had turned into a domestic Airport and an Air force base. It doesn't have a long runway. Those days the Airport was a stopover for many school-going students on visits.


I had visited in the school days nearly three decades ago that area. I had hardly seen any military base at that time. Even near the runway, we could have seen farmers busy in cultivation. But those days were beyond recall now.


Our vehicles were finally stopped near the military hospital in the base. The German relief team was waiting for the visit of Major General Sunil Thennakoon, the Sri Lankan Army Commander of Jaffna.


The students started to unload the medicines and handing them over to the Army officers. But Fredrike Wagner suddenly interfered and asked other intern students to stop for a while the unloading. She told, "We should wait until Dietmar Doring comes". He had gone to meet the Maj. Gen. at his office with Dr. Jayalath.


When Maj. Gen. came to the premises and met the German Praktikum (Internship) students and others, I had a good conversation with him for a while. He told us how a Sri Lankan Army soldier helped to rescue a Tamil boy when he was carried away by the tsunami waves, but he died by subsequent heavy waves.


We finished our mission in the Army base and proceeded to the next destination, a collecting center for tsunami victims in a far-flung northern part of the Jaffna Peninsula. We were passing nearly a three-mile long road passing over the Jaffna Lagoon in its both sides.


Sea gulls were in the distant vicinity circling over the Jaffna lagoon with other small seabirds and creating various sounds. The kites in their turn in the distant sky were moving and turning like gliders in slow motion and making the evening lagoon a carnival of birds. We were moving enjoying nature's wonder along the narrow and lengthy passage.


For the German internship students the tropical Asian beauty of different kinds might have created a joy in their mind. They were filming the beautiful scenes with much enthusiasm.


We had finally reached the last destination of our northern mission. The collecting center was looking after various camps, which was harbouring some of the affected families in the Northern coastal areas facing the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.


Dietmar Doring and Dr. Jayalath were having a meeting with the relief coordinators there. The students were keenly watching, pondering on what they were discussing. After the meeting the students were once again busy in their relief work by unloading the final stock of medicines and equipment. Once the unloading was over a smile of satisfaction seemed to dwell on every face.


We began our journey back to the south.