Frequent flyers
I'm still grappling with jetlag, trying to write my first blogs for AlertNet and process what I found out in Sri Lanka/Indonesia.
The weird thing about being there was that it was all kicking off in SL while I was there. I was awoken by the powercut the Friday night - the first night of the Tamil airraids. I had collapsed exhausted after the 12 hour journey back from Batticaloa and - with impeccable journalistic instincts at first though I was just perturbed because the fan in my room had stopped. It wasn't until later that I realised what had happened. Saturday night I flew on to Indonesia to find an airport surrounded by military, checkpoints and long queues. I only just made my 0005 flight; at least however the flight went out. The night after the airport was again closed at night, a pattern that is now becoming regular; in fact Reliefweb is reporting today that the airport will be closed at night for the foreseeable future. http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/YSAR-733SKC?OpenDocument
It's been an extraordinary time. Here's Roland Buerk on the Tigers new tactics.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6496381.stm

(Ironically....this made my journey home easier; I had to swap to a Malaysian Airline flight direct from KL to Heathrow rather than stopping off in Colombo.)