Source : Financial Times
It is hard to imagine things could change so much in just a year after the end of a bloody civil war. In Sri Lanka’s east, in rural Punani near the coastal city of Batticaloa, Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim women work together in a modern factory owned by textile maker Brandix producing garments for Marks & Spencer and Tesco.

As other potential foreign investors should note, the state of the art, new factory stands in contrast to the state of this region in March last year , when the island’s civil war was still a daily reality.

Punani used to be part of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s eastern stronghold. The rebels, who were fighting for a separate homeland in the island’s north and east until their defeat last May, began to lose their grip on the area after the region’s commander defected to the government.

They were eventually driven out of this area after fierce fighting but last March the minefields had yet to be cleared and bands of fighters still roamed the jungles and villages.

To guard against rebel activity, sentries were stationed every 50 metres on the road to Batticaloa supported by pillboxes. All vehicles were extensively searched before leaving the last checkpoint in the majority Buddhist Sinhalese south. These searches could take half an hour as the car was all but dismantled to check for smuggled weapons, explosives or people. A drive down this road at night was a nerve-wracking experience, with LTTE cadres and government militias taking no prisoners.

Off the main roads, among the villages, the security was just as tight. Villagers would have to get off buses and walk through checkpoints displaying their identity cards every few kilometres. It could take teachers travelling to the villages from Batticaloa city hours to commute the 40 or 50 kilometres’ distance.

Today, very little of that is in evidence. The pillboxes are starting to take on the look of those abandoned in Europe after World War Two (although Sri Lanka’s mostly earth and timber structures are not as grand).

There is an occasional sentry but he looks intensely bored and is rarely seen near the road these days. The most action he might have seen recently is a stray elephant. Guns are slung over soldiers’ backs and many of them seem to pass the time by talking on their mobile phones with friends or family.

This peaceful state of affairs was unimaginable just a year ago. The only hope is that people do not now take it for granted.

The ethnic tensions that led to Sri Lanka’s 25-year war could easily re-ignite into the open. The island’s challenge now is not to forget just how bad those days were and prevent history from repeating. The government hopes more factories such as the multicultural Brandix facility will give people a livelihood other than fighting. It may be a showcase. But it’s a showcase that investors should consider seriously.