Light Shows...

May 29th:

There is never a dull moment when traveling with Gihan - his stories are so out of the ordinary - they are much stranger than fiction!

We were driving over to his house from BLA/LT's house last night about 10pm, taking the back roads to avoid traffic.  At one point he says we could have been there sooner if there was a straight road, but the road is circular, skirting the petroleum refinery.  Ordinary comment.

Then the guard rail drops across the road - there is a train approaching at the railway crossing.  Ordinary event.

Then we see men in uniform (army?) with heavy duty guns.  Even to my untrained eye, these look like no ordinary guns, these could kill an elephant  or more.  I still think this must be a gate guard of the refinery coming out to help with traffic at the railroad crossing - naive me!  But then there are several of these men - they can't possibly all be entry gate guards to the refinery...?

So I ask Gihan who these people are.  Well, they come out when the trains come out - the trains that carry refined petroleum oil.  This was a big "Tiger" target once upon a time, and this is a ritual left over from those days.  When the train crosses the road, these gunmen - employed to protect the train and the oil in the train - all come out and train their guns on the traffic.  If anyone makes a false move, they will shoot and ask questions later. I suppose this is how it is in any war zone.

He said there were several Tiger airplanes that came over to bomb the refinery, and some succeed too.  This is a hugely densely populated area.  So I asked if the people had to evacuate for the smoke.  He said people had to evacuate for the hear, they would have been crisped had they stayed!

After the first attack it seems the built in defense mechanism of the refinery was activated. Apparently this place was build many decades ago with the possibility of attack in mind.  Here is one of the defense mechanisms... There is a large ring around the perimeter of the premises that can fire bullets in to the air to make a canopy of bullets. These bullets are fired every 20 seconds or so, making a canopy of bullets around and above the refinery, taking down anything that crosses this protective bubble - a strange light show. He said he saw small aircraft get hit and go down.  He said some of the pilots were found hiding in the back alley near his house. 

Scary times. War is a terrible thing. I am glad the war is over in this part of the world. I am glad I was not personally subjected to it this time.