Jaffna Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam has visited final battlefield in Mullaitheevu for the first time since the fighting ended.
Bishop Savundaranayagam, visibly shaken by his unpublicized visit to the war zone on Jan. 29, described the chaos he found there as unbearable, UCAN, a Catholic news report said.
“Devastation is everywhere” and threatens our people’s future, he said.
The bishop is the first to be allowed to visit the war zone after fighting ended last May. The government still prohibits civilians, UN agencies, NGOs and the media from visiting the area.
Thousands of people were killed, injured or disabled in the final battle near Mathalan and some 300,000 were forced to flee the area.
The bishop said rebuilding lives in the area was an “unbearable burden” on the people there. The land has gone barren.
“Villages and rice fields are covered with jungle and undergrowth, houses have been reduced to rubbles and heaps of burned vans, buses, cars and motor cycles clog the roads” the bishop said.
“People have lost their life savings. It is going to be an unbearable burden to our people to rebuild,” the bishop has told UCA News.
An emotional Bishop Savundaranayagam wondered whether civil life could be restored, the news report added.
The Bishop also traveled with the army to the devastated villages of Mankulam, Oddusuddan and Puthukudiyiruppu.
