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Medical equipment from Omaha is likely being put to good use in helping the injured of Sri Lanka after eight bomb blasts rocked that island country in South Asia on Easter Sunday.
Nick Batter, 32, said Sunday that he and other volunteers had visited the country a few years back to deliver supplies donated by the Nebraska Medical Center and Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy, including an autoclave for sterilizing surgical instruments. It was Batter’s 15th trip to Sri Lanka since the tsunami of 2004.
“We became involved there as just a group of (college) freshmen looking for opportunities to volunteer help after the tsunami,” said Batter, who graduated from Harvard in 2009 with a degree in history. “Since the tsunami, we’ve largely partnered with existing hospitals and schools to bring them equipment they need and construct new facilities.”
Much of the medical donations were delivered to the teaching hospital in Batticaloa, a major city in the eastern province of Sri Lanka. Batter and two volunteers returned in March to check up on previous work.
“That equipment is old for the medical facilities here (in Omaha), but I am sure it’s being put to good use today in Batticaloa,” Batter said. “The credit should go to Nebraska and Creighton for their donations, we were really just making the deliveries and connecting the dots.”
Batter, who works for Hawkins Construction, said he got in touch with friends in Sri Lanka soon after the news of the bombings broke. More than 200 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in eight bomb blasts that rocked churches and luxury hotels — the deadliest violence the South Asian island country has seen since a bloody civil war ended a decade ago.
The civil war was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil. The insurgents created an independent state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island. After a 26-year military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, bringing the civil war to an end.
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Defense Minister Ruwan Wijewardena described the bombings as a terrorist attack by religious extremists, and police said 13 suspects were arrested, though there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Wijewardena said most of the blasts were believed to have been suicide attacks.
The explosions at three churches and three hotels — most of them in or around Colombo, the capital — collapsed ceilings and blew out windows, killing worshippers and hotel guests in one scene after another of smoke, blood, broken glass, screams and wailing alarms. Victims were carried out of blood-spattered pews.
Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthony’s Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a variety of countries, including the U.S. were recovered.
It’s Batter’s belief, from talking with friends in Sri Lanka, that the attackers were likely religious extremists. The terrorists chose churches and hotels that attract tourists from western countries. While these attacks included Christian churches, in the past Muslims, Buddhists and other religious communities have also been attacked. Those acts have not garnered much attention, he said.
“They want to hurt the government, so they target westerners,” Batter said. “Much of the country is dependent on tourism and (the bombings) are a way to get at the government.”
Even during the civil war, Batter said he felt relatively safe during his volunteer missions. Although there were “some hairy situations,” he said.
“Historically, we’ve been able to move around with ease,” he said. “For the most part, they didn’t deliberately target westerners.”
Batter believes Sunday’s bombings could cause violence between religious groups in Sri Lanka to escalate, but he said it’s a small minority who are a threat. Muslims, Buddhists and other sects have all been targeted, he said.
“These actions represent only a a small number of people, including the Muslim community that was heavily victimized during the civil war,” he said. “The best way to look at this tragedy is that the people there would react the same way we would here. They are worried about their families and their friends.”
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
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https://www.omaha.com/news/metro/omahan-adds-context-to-horrific-easter-sunday-bombings-in-sri/article_b610a468-a33f-5173-a923-04d72cb09d5a.html