Colonel terms such introductions, when the Chairman of the Common Amenities Board P. Weerahandi took a lorry load of assistance from Colombo, along with a group comprising his family members, including children and a few friends to help distribute the parcels. After a rather uncomfortable five-hour drive to Medawachchiya, we were escorted from there to the ancient village of Padiggama some 12 miles into the interior near Vavuniya District border. When we arrived there after a drive of about another half an hour, true to the Thawalama principle of not handing out doles, the Colonel and the nearby Sarvodaya organistaion at Padaviya had organised a mass Shramadana to clean up the village of all surrounding shrub jungle and the drains and roads. These people had grown so lethargic, their argument for not doing such work upto then had been that in case of a terrorist attack shrub would have given them plenty of cover to hide. Since the area is virually surrounded by thick jungle any terrorist could similary use the same cover to launch a suprise attack.
Terrorist threat is ever present.
We found that out of about 125 families that make up this village, at least 80 had fled the area soon after the land mine attack in the nearby village of Gonamariyawa on June 28, killing eight policemen including a Sub-Inspector. And some of the families had returned only a few days before our arrival there. But according to the head homeguard of the village W.P.B. Wimalasinghe, they are now far better prepared to take on a terrorist strike on thier own. For unlike soldiers and policement from other areas sent to defend villages like Padiggama, these people are no aliens to the terrain. Having hunted in these jungles for more than a thousand years, it is the Tiger terrorist who would have to beware.