(아시아/스리랑카) 스리랑카는 중국의 진주목걸이인가?

출처: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29628189

26 October 2014 Last updated at 20:11

Sri Lanka's recovery 스리랑카의 재건: Are new roads the way forward? 새로 닦은 도로가 그 자체로 밝은 미래와 직결되나?

Better, faster, smoother roads have been a central part of the government's efforts to rebuild Sri Lanka after a long and brutal civil war and the 2004 tsunami. The BBC's Jasmine Coleman takes a trip along some of these roads to see whether the distances between places - and people - have been bridged. 더 좋아졌고, 더 빨라졌고, 더 달리기 쉬워진 도로들은 장기간 잔인한 내전과 2004년 스나미를 겪은 후 스리랑카 정부가 벌인 노력들 가운데 핵심사업이다. 비비시 통신원 자스민 콜레만이 지역간 사람들간에 차이가 메꿔졌는지 알아보기 위해 이 도로들 가운데 몇 군데를 둘러보았다

The road north of Trincomalee takes you past hollowed-out homes - bare concrete stumps between here and the beach.

"Sri Lanka is a peace place now," our driver Tharindu says as he drives us in air-conditioned comfort.

We are travelling through an area badly affected by the civil war with Tamil separatists. It was also hit hard by the tsunami that devastated the country in 2004 and left some 40,000 people dead. 우리는 타밀 분리주의자들과의 내전으로 심각한 피해를 입은 지역을 여행하고 있다. 이 지역은 2004년 스리랑카를 대재앙을 안겨다준 4만명의 사망자를 낸 스나미로 타격을 입었다.

The fighting ended more than five years ago now but craters are still visible between the palm trees. 전투는 5년 전 종료되었으나 여전히 싸움의 불씨(분화구)는 팜트리 사이에서 보인다.

We pass temporary housing for refugees, the buildings covered in the logos of Japanese cement companies. A rubbish collection truck on the road is sponsored by Unicef. A new church is built by Americans.

Each has a sign to say who paid.

Red earth, blue road 붉은 땅과 파란 도로

As we head from Trinco, as it's known, to Negombo - east coast to west - we glide onto smooth, clean tarmac.네곰보로 알려진 트린코에서 떠나 우리는 달리기 쉽고 깨끗한 아스팔트 포장길을 달린다.

The road is wide, that bluish colour, with white toothpaste lines separating us from the rusty red earth.

This is just part of the hundreds of miles of new and improved highways that cut across the country.

Many of Sri Lanka's new roads appeared largely empty 스리랑카에서 새로 포장된 도로들 대부분은 엄청 한산하다

Every corner seems to bring more troops of orange-clad workmen; more discussions about which route is better, faster, after all the changes.

It is hard not to notice all the new tarmac. The one thing that is not so obvious is who is paying for it all.

Chinese pearls? 중국의 진주라고?

China has become Sri Lanka's biggest investor since the war. Its loans and grants fund a portfolio of infrastructure projects that includes a power station, city docks and an airport. 내전이래 중국이 스리랑카의 최대 투자자가 되었다. 중국의 차관과 보조금은 발전소, 도시의 부두, 공항과 같은 사회기반시설을 건설하는데 도움이 되었다.

Over a third of Chinese money - a total of $5.2bn (£3.25bn) last year - goes on road projects, according to Sri Lanka's ministry of finance and planning. 스리랑카 기획재정부에 따르면, 지난해 중국돈의 3분의 1(52억달러)이상이 도서건설에 투입되고 있다. 

Last year, five schemes to regenerate roads were being undertaken with Chinese funds worth $1.7bn (£1bn), while a further $2.6bn (£1.6bn) was secured in Chinese loans. 지난해 도로를 보강하는 5가지 계획들이 17억 달러 상당의 중국 자본으로 추진되었고, 26억 달러는 중국차관으로 확실해졌다.

China has denied accusations it is creating a "string of pearls" - a circle of influence to challenge India's position in the region. 중국은  이 지역에서 인도가 차지하는 위치에 영향력을 행사할 수 있는 서클인 "진주 목걸이"를 만들고 있다는 비난을 부인하고 있다. 

But President Xi Jinping described the island as "a splendid pearl" before a visit just last month. 그러나 시진핑은 이 섬을 방문하기 앞서 "눈부신 진주"라고 극찬한 바 있다.

In the last year, projects have been under way to improve 8,400 miles (1,400km) of road 작년 1,400키로의 도로를 보수하기 위한 프로젝트가 진행되고 있다.

Tharindu seems pleased with the developments. 타린두는 이런 변화에 만족하는 것처럼 보인다.

He chomps on a chocolate biscuit and tells me how he prefers to work as a driver than work his normal job in a bakery. He gets to see more of his country, he says, and he earns more money. 그는 초콜렛 비스켓을 우걱우걱 씹으며 말해주길 자기는 제과점에서 일하는 것보다 운전사로서 일하는 게 더 좋다고 한다. 왜냐하면 자기 나라를 더 많이 볼 수 있고 돈도 더 번다.

As he talks, we pass stalls laden with papaya, custard apples and melons. 그가 얘기하는 동안 우리는 파파야, 커스터드 애플, 멜론이 놓인 좌판을 지난다.

Beauty salons, electrical stores and furniture shops line up along the road. Women with long black plaits and brightly coloured skirts hold umbrellas against the sun, their hands full with shopping and children.

The government says Sri Lanka needs to build the roads, and then people will be able to rebuild their lives around them.

Elephants must cross the new roads to get to water tanks 코끼리들은 물탱크게 가기 위해 신작로를 통과해야 한다

Travelling through the middle of Sri Lanka and into the dry zone brings you miles of flat, thorny scrubland and bamboo forest.

Tharindu brakes sharply as we come almost bumper to trunk with some of the country's more unusual road users.

A family of wild elephants - yellow eyes and pink tongues - pass in front of us.

They are on their way to one of the island's ancient man-made lakes.

The reservoirs, or tanks as they are known, were built by the island's Sinhalese kings from about 1,700 years ago to provide much needed irrigation.

Further along the road, we pass another feat of ancient infrastructure - Sigiriya, a medieval castle city perched on the top of a huge outcrop of rock.

Sigiriya rock is surrounded by the remnants of pleasure gardens and ponds

The hydraulic systems that once fed ponds and pleasure gardens here are so remarkable that, even today, there are fountains that spout plumes of water after heavy rain. 과거에 연못이나 유람지를 채웠던 수압장치들은 지금 너무 훌륭한 것이어서 지금도 비가 많이 내리면  물줄기들을 뿜는다. 

Human distance 인간적 거리감

Big building projects in Sri Lanka are nothing new but it is clear that not everyone is moving forward so quickly. 커다란 건축공사는 스리랑카에서 신기하게 아니다. 그러나 모든 사람들이 다 신속하게 앞으로 나아가는 건 분명히 아니다.

Dirty exhaust fumes spill from rickety old buses, made in India. Passengers peer from blackened windows as they queue behind the latest stretch of roadworks.

While the new roads undoubtedly cut travel times for the country's mobile and wealthy, many others are still waiting to feel the benefits of all this development.

Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, a development economist, says the roads reduce the "physical distance between places". 도로는 "장소와 장소 사이의 물리적 거리"를 줄여준다고 발전경제학자 무투그리스나 사르바난탄은 말한다.

But more needs to be done to reduce the "human distance between peoples". "사람과 사람 사이의 인간적 거리감"을 줄이는 게 더 필요해 보인다.

Most of Sri Lanka's Tamil population live in the north and east of the island 대부분의 스리랑카 타밀 사람들은 그 섬의 북부와 동부에 살고 있다

"The roads re-built, refurbished, or newly built in the former conflict-affected districts have had very limited impact on the local populations in terms of new investments, markets, and jobs," he says.

"Of course, the travel times have been significantly reduced and journeys have been more comfortable for people and producers but transaction costs in terms of time and money have not come down."

He says the country now needs an efficient public transport system, the re-establishment of the rule of law, and "sound governance".

Sri Lanka's opposition have raised concerns about the roads, talking of dizzying interest rates on Chinese loans, failed projects and corruption.

They highlight the people in the former conflict-affected areas still living in temporary housing - and those still waiting for the wounds of war to heal.

In August, President Mahinda Rajapaksa stopped three UN investigators visiting Sri Lanka as part of a report into allegations of war crimes committed by government troops and rebels in the closing months of the civil war.

The effects of the tsunami can still be seen along the Trincomalee coast

One UN-backed report has estimated that 40,000 civilians were killed in the last five months of the 26-year conflict, mostly by government shelling. The Sri Lankan authorities deny this.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International says the authorities continue to crackdown on dissent with the aim of "intimidating and punishing those who attempt to communicate concerns about human rights violations".

Sri Lanka's government has just called presidential elections for January - two years early, and two months before the planned publication of the UN's human rights report.

The roads are likely to win President Rajapaksa votes. But the way ahead still looks rocky.