Kilinochchi is much different than during the war, says the BBC correspondent

Many areas there have been largely shut off from the rest of the country and the world for more than five years.

But now two years after the war ended the government has announced that the north is open for foreigners to visit without restrictions.

The BBC's Charles Haviland is the first journalist to cross into the former LTTE heartland since the announcement earlier this week and he sent this report from the town of Kilinochchi.

'International frontier'

The checkpoint into the north is large and sprawling and with its Sri Lankan flag flying feels a little like an international frontier.

Kilinochchi, once the jungle lair of the Tamil Tiger chief is now a neat garrison town, like so many villages dotted around the north, where at the moment the military is never far away The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kilinochchi

This is a point from which many have been turned back.

You still do need to get permission but on Saturday with the right papers we were waved through by good humoured soldiers.

Much of the land to the north was completely de-populated in the last bloody phase of the civil war which lasted three years from 2006.

Now most of this land, much of it reclaimed by arid jungle vegetation is getting its people back as they leave the big refugee camps and return to their home villages though their original houses are long gone.

NGO's must still hold landmine awareness sessions as mine hazards still exist.

Most returnees lost family members in the war and with few job opportunity's things are very tough for people who have already lived through great tragedy.

There are many shops and cafes run by the military.

At one soldiers serve up tea and pastries and put on daily film shows for the local Tamil children.

Kilinochchi, once the jungle lair of the Tamil Tiger chief is now a neat garrison town, like so many villages dotted around the north, where at the moment the military is never far away.