HomeA Reuters News Report
Resilient Sri Lankans are back at the daily grind in Colombo one week after a truck bomb exploded in the central business district, killing 18 people and causing millions of dollars in damage. Life has gone back to normal, business is booming," said Vaseeharan Nesiah, a multimedia producer. "Nobody seems to care," he added.
LTTE terrorists exploded the bomb killing 18 people, injured more than 100. The bomb exploded in the parking lot of the Galadari Hotel, and the huge crater it caused and the mangled cars it left are still there. Concrete also still hangs in the basement of the nearby World Trade Centre (WTC), which alone suffered an estimated at $5 million to $7 million in damage.
Workers are still putting new tiles on the roof of the finance building across the car park, and some are busy fixing boards on windows of other buildings and hotels that were smashed in the blast. There are new military check points, and traffic jams resulting from the blocking of some main roads into the downtown business district have become a common sight. But people are back in their offices in the ravaged buildings, which officials say suffered no structural damage.
The stock exchange and the Central Bank were damaged in the blast but quickly went back to work, and the government has promised financial and other help to enterprises hit by the explosion. The shock and horror of the blast, which came days after the United States included the LTTE on its list of 30 "foreign terrorist organisations", was quickly absorbed.
"It's a relief in some sense. It is over. Not many people died since it was a holiday. It has yet again proved our resilience. Life will get on," said a top corporate executive. Hussain Cassim, director of Overseas Realty Ltd, the company that owns the World Trade Centre, said most tenants of the two 39-storey towers were already back.
"The back to business mood is very promising and it greatly influenced to reinforce confidence after the blast," he said adding there was little pessimism or extreme dejection over the blast and the devastation it brought. A similar explosion destroyed the Central Bank last year, causing much more damage. Nearly 100 people died and more than 1,400 were injured.
"Life was back to normal five hours after the blast," said stock broker Sarinda Unamboowe. He said foreign investors who had set up in Sri Lanka had discounted these incidents since they were aware of the risks. "We have made a decision to stay in this country and we are here" Unamboowe said.
It is now known that this devastating bomb was financed by the German welfare money. Many of the 40,000 Tamil asylum seekers and refugees in Germany who receive welfare money donate - voluntarily or under pressure - to the international organisation Welt Tamilien Verein (World Tamil Movement) which provides funds to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
In a recent interview, Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaranathunga said the LTTE, alias Tamil Tigers, wreaks continuing havoc in its path - from the forcible conscription of Tamil girls and boys of 11, 12 years to the destruction of the normal lives of the Tamil people in the North & East of the country, and the devastation caused by the bomb explosions in Colombo, the LTTE has left a trail of destruction for their own people, they say they are attempting to liberate, as well as for all other Sri Lankans. The recent bomb explosion in Colombo is one other such attempt by the LTTE.The military conflict is drawing to a close with the Sri Lankan Government now in control of about 80 percent of the populated areas of the North. The implementation of the Constitutional amendments and the political proposals would marginalise all proponents of violent solutions to the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka.
The economy and the people of Sri Lanka have been sufficiently strong and resilient to handle these situations and bounce back to normalcy. We are today stronger because of our confidence that effective solutions have been found to the ethnic question and shall be implemented.