Saving Sri Lanka

Pandemonium in the Streets May 18, 2009

Although Sri Lankans are celebrating what may be the end of a 25-year war, the situation in the cities has gotten even more dangerous for civilians, especially Tamils and foreigners.

Although most people are finally free of the fear of the Tigers that they’ve lived with for years, Tamils are afraid to leave their homes in Colombo. Anti-foreign sentiment has reached a fever pitch. Encouraged by the government, soldiers have been trying to intimidate foreign nationals. Today, a soldier at a checkpoint in Colombo aimed an an assault rifle at an American woman in an attempt to bully her.

Yesterday, a violent protest was organized by the JVP (the Sri Lankan Communist party) outside of the British Embassy. Eggs and stones were thrown, a window broken, and an effigy burned. Part of their anger is because they don’t appreciate British Foreign Minister David Miliband (whom they accuse of supporting the Tigers) sticking his nose in and trying to help the country. Apparently, they feel like they’ve got things well under control and don’t need any outside assistance at all. Right, clearly.

It’s the government’s role to model how it would like its citizens to behave. A responsible government would tell its citizens to be gracious in victory and remind them that this type of mob violence was what created the problems in the first place. It certainly wouldn’t encourage them to hector foreigners in a country whose economy is largely tourism-driven. If this group of leaders can’t send a positive message to its people, perhaps its time for the people to demand a different group of leaders who can.

Suspicious Foreigners? Call our Hotline. May 18, 2009

The Sri Lankan government has set up a phone number for people to call to report foreigners who criticize the government, so they can be deported. It’s constantly advertised on the radio. The number was initially ten digits when first introduced about a week ago, but has now been reduced to three so it can be more easily remembered. To our knowledge, this initiative was meant unironically, with the government seeming to have no awareness of how totalitarian it is, or how bad it makes them look. Read about it here.

Peace on the Horizon? May 17, 2009

The Tigers are preparing to surrender, or at least open negotiations, as they find themselves only prolonging the suffering of the Tamils caught in the crossfire. It is to their credit that their official statement explains their surrender by saying “it is our people who are dying now,” hopefully referring to those Tamil civilians–for awhile there, it was looking like those civilian casualties were a cost the Tigers were willing to bear.

This could mean an official end to the war. That’s good news, of course. The bad news is there is still the matter of the refugee camps and displaced civilians, as well as the psychological scars, the independent Tiger-sympathizers who may still continue to attack, and, of course, the bumbling, bullying, juvenile government who will continue to marginalize and persecute Tamils as if they don’t grasp the connection between those policies and the emergence of the Tigers as a force to advocate for Tamil rights.

The good news, though, is that without the continued militiary operations as a distractor, and with the Tigers (hopefully) less able to silence moderate Tamil voices, perhaps Sri Lanka can try again to work towards equal rights for Tamil citizens; this time with diplomacy and dialogue taking the place of mobs of angry students with automatic rifles. That is, if the government is willing to listen and engage maturely.

Independent Journalists Deported May 17, 2009

The UK journalists who were able to get the first independent photographs from the refugee camps have been deported by the Sri Lankan government. The team, led by Nick-Paton Walsh, was ordered to leave the country after their not-so-flattering report of conditions in the camps, which the government, of course, flatly denied (despite the photographic evidence). Once again, does the government not understand how bad it looks for themselves when they kick out the only independent journalists who have squeezed past their defenses? Can they really be that scandalously stupid that they thing they’re helping themselves? It’s almost as if they are following, step-by-step, the instructions of a book called How to Make Your Government Look Like a Bullying Authoritarian Regime to the Rest of the World.

Hospitals May 15, 2009

Reliable reports of the Vavuniya, Mannar and Trincomalee hospitals (where civilians being evacuated from the conflict zones are currently being treated and kept) indicate the enormity of the human tragedy being played out in the North.

Husbands without wives. Wives without husbands. Mothers without children. Children without parents. Entire families destroyed by war.  A heavily pregnant young woman arrives at a camp and waits anxiously for her husband and two-year old son who were following behind. Days of anguish later, a friend recognizes their rotting bodies on the side of the road – knocked off their bicycle by a shell – and breaks the news. A mother fleeing with her two young children is forced to make an agonizing decision when her older child is hit by shrapnel – she leaves him to die alone on the road in order to save her younger daughter.

The mental suffering induced by these experiences is too severe to be imaginable. To lie in a hospital ward, knowing that the last few minutes of your beloved were painful, frightening and horrific. To feel the guilt that you left them behind in the face of cold, persistent bombs and shells.  To think that you must, if you ever can, begin a new life without them.

But for most of the people caught in the war, a “new life” may in fact be very difficult to build.  What visitors to these hospitals have also reported is that a vast majority of the patients are themselves injured in ways beyond repair. Old and young alike lie helpless in their beds, missing legs and arms. Even infants have not been spared. In their current state of local and international invisibility, it is uncertain whether they will be granted the relief afforded by the rehabilitation programs and prosthetic limbs so readily available in the West. For now, at least, the most likely future thus remains one of inescapable immobility.

Their war injuries speak of a grim existence ahead. Addressing the physical consequences of disability will be a challenging task to the nation’s already overburdened health system. Addressing the mental consequences of war, however, will be almost impossible under the practically nonexistent structure of psychological healthcare that manages to survive today. Those lastingly injured by the fighting will thus be hard-pressed to find reliable and sufficient support as they struggle with their disability.

Of course, these physical injuries will also have severe ramifications for other crucial areas of their lives. The most significant of these is what being disabled means to their profession. The majority of Northern families are highly reliant on farming, with skills being passed down from generation to generation. Even if these people can return to their land, the obstacles presented by the loss of arms and legs will mean that they will not be able to resume the livelihood that they are most skilled at.  Worse, a disruption of even one generation – and in this care, there are up to three generations of family wounded – could signify the irreparable loss of carefully cultivated skills.

If historical patterns of government strategies are taken into account, it would portend an even worse scenario for those who lie injured in the hospital beds of the North. The land of this area is valued for its fertility, with pre-conflict productivity comparing favorably with the rest of Sri Lanka’s agricultural regions. If its original owners are unable to farm, it is not unreasonable to predict that the government will expand its resettlement schemes to make prime use of the land.

An unofficial objective of past resettlement schemes has been to change local demographics to benefit the majority ethnic group. Regardless of whether it is Tamils or Sinhalese who occupy their land, however, such resettlement will be a severe blow to those who own it. Land is a marker of identity for Tamil people.  Passed down from generation to generation, land plays a significant role in family heritage and social status. In fact, land is such an integral aspect of personal identity, that Tamil people speak of “belonging to the land” rather than of the land belonging to them.

The loss of family land would thus be a devastating addition to the injuries and trauma they are already suffering from.  The casualties of surviving the war will run deep, stripping them of their independence, their livelihood, and ultimately their very identity. It is difficult to tell if they foresee what lies ahead; it can only be hoped that this will not come to pass.

It could be warned that ignoring the needs of the people could lead to future rebellions or resuscitations of the LTTE, as we will be making the mistakes of the past anew. This may very well be true. But for now, let us lay theoretical predictions aside. Though we are barred from any human communication with the people of the North, and barraged with propaganda that hopes to erase their existence, we must strive to acknowledge their anguish. Though we may struggle to forget, we cannot deny that the death, destruction and terror of the innocent people in the North is a reality – a reality that will persist so long as we continue to be silent.

Arrested, Released, and Abducted Again! May 15, 2009

The first week of March, human rights defender Stephen Suntharaj, a 39-year old father of three was taken by armed, uniformed men. Possibly because a colleague witnessed the event, the authorities were forced to treat it as a legitimate arrest rather than an abduction (see White Vans of Terror). The officials had no charges to bring him up on, so they turned the house inside out in vain, hoping to find something incriminating. Stephen was held for two months, during which his worried family counted the days till his release. On the appointed day, their excitement was crushed when they found out that his discharge was not going to happen that day, or the next, or the next, ostensibly due to bureaucratic foot-shuffling; excuses were made about incomplete paperwork or that it wasn’t his turn in line that day.

On May 7th, Stephen was finally released by order of a local Supreme Court. His wife and children, ecstatic to have him back, accompanied him to the police station to retrieve his passport and ID. As they left the station, not three hours after his release, Stephen was abducted again by men in a white van, in front of his screaming family. The day of his court-ordered release.

The good news is that Stephen was heard from several days later; some people, noting that abducted people are general never seen again, feel that if he was to be killed, he would have been shortly after his abduction. So hopefully that is not his kidnappers’ intent. At any rate, Stephen is still separated from his family, undergoing questioning and possibly torture. His wife is appealing the international community for help. With a word, the government and Ministry of Defense could have Stephen released. To think of the suffering they have put him and his family through is heart-breaking.

Little Girl Abducted and Killed May 7, 2009

Read this terrible story from the town of Batticaloa; 8-year-old D. Dilushika was kidnapped last Wednesday on her way home from school. Her body was found on Saturday in a well. Nothing in the article overtly states that the killing was politically motivated, although the girl’s father went missing several years ago. Still, it is not uncommon in Sri Lanka for groups to kidnap people and demand ransom. In a peaceful Sri Lanka, in which the police and government are not diverted by war, preventing and investigating these type of crimes would be the primary function and priority of the police, as opposed to a nuisance, afterthought, and distraction. In that way, no matter who is directly responsible, this girl can be thought of as an indirect casualty of war. Our condolences go out to her family.

First Independent Photos of Refugee Camps May 7, 2009

The first independentally-filmed pictures from the refugee camps where Tamil escapees from the war-zone have been assigned are out. Shortages of food and water, dead bodies, sexual abuse…it’s just as bad as we thought. It doesn’t look like the luxurious vacation spot the government would have had us believe, does it?

Humanitarian Concern = Aiding and Abetting Terrorism? May 7, 2009

As you walk through the streets of Colombo, a bright red poster may catch your eye. The ominous faces of three notorious criminals glare at you relentlessly from their roosts on the city’s cement walls. They have been caught in the most treacherous crime of all – supporting the LTTE.

The culprits?

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Norwegian Minister of Development Erik Solheim.

Giddy with its unprecedented victories, yet fearful of the threat that this may all slip away from them yet, the government is pushing urgently to crush the LTTE. Though the final eradication of this enemy comes at the cost of thousands of innocent lives, the government is not deterred. That these lives are Tamil lives probably does not add much to their level of concern. The barbed wire detention camps being raised for the Tamils of the North (echoing, in their permanency, the Palestinian refugee camps) demonstrate that to government eyes, all of its Tamil citizens are either terrorists or potential terrorists. It is thus easy to understand why it would not matter if a few thousand here and there disappear in the ultimate battle for Sinhala supremacy.

The government does, however, have real concern for the implications of any ceasefire arranged to save these lives. Past ceasefires have been used by the LTTE, sometimes secretly, sometimes more openly, to regroup, rearm, and strengthen their defences. Given that the government has invested all its resources – literally all (it is now seeking a $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund) – it just cannot afford to fight any further. Furthermore, the political regime which holds the presidency and dominates national politics is highly dependent on winning the war to maintain its supremacy. While its power and popularity are unparalleled, it has built up its position solely on the war. It has managed thus far to distract the public eye from its failings – the unaffordable cost of living, the corruption and the deterioration of democracy, among others – by trumpeting its military victories, both real and imagined. To lose the war would thus be the ultimate form of political suicide.

By capitalizing on war, however, the government has backed itself into a corner. Its persuasive propaganda, though a useful tool to gain support for its extreme forays into warfare, has now created a population which will not be satisfied with anything but the comprehensive victory which it has been promised. Although the entire international community has turned its eye towards the plight of the Northern civilians, although the government is perilously close to being charged with genocide, the vociferous demands of the people cannot be quelled.

The characterization of Miliband, Clinton, and Solheim as defenders of terrorism is a grave step indeed. This charge arises from their calls for a temporary ceasefire so that thousands of innocent men, women, and children may leave the life-threateningly dangerous environment they are currently imprisoned in. For many watching the war, this is a measure that seems long overdue. However, to the government and its enthusiasts, a ceasefire becomes a lifeline to the failing LTTE, and is thus considered an act of “aiding and abetting terrorism”.

But the government has come to a crossroads on which there is no turning back. It can listen to the people whose inflexible nationalistic mindset it has bred and continue with this bloody, pitiless course of war. Or, it can lend its ear to wisdom and make choices that reflect the values of international law and human compassion. It must find a way to escape the ideological cage it has constructed so that its Tamil citizens can be guarded from inhumane suffering and death. And it must gather the courage to choose justice over political survival, especially when so many lives hang in the balance.  If not, this government will be no different from the ethnocratic regimes of the past – but its mistakes will be on such a massively heartrending scale that they may never ever be forgotten.

Tigers Ask for Help, Government Keeps Fighting May 4, 2009

The New York Times printed a short article which says pretty much everything there is to say, and I’m including the link here. Suffice it to say that the government has reached a point where the Tigers are strategically beaten but the government continues to attack. This is a problem because at this point, they are doing much more harm to the civilians trapped in the “No Fire Zone” (don’t be fooled by the name, the civilians are not safe there, and many cannot escape) than they are to the Tigers. If the Tigers unconditionally surrender, the government says it will stop the seige, but even that outcome is not perfect. If there is one thing the government has shown throughout this entire ordeal, it’s a callous and stubborn unwillingness to learn anything from this war. If they completely beat the Tigers, there is no cause to assume that they will treat Tamils any better than they have been. The whole reason we’re in this situation in the first place is because the government marginalized Tamil citizens.  If they don’t work hard to troubleshoot the problems that got them into this mess (and again, why would they feel the need to, if their path to victory is paved with force instead of negotiation?) then the problems in Sri Lanka are far from over, both on the side of the Tamils from the government, and of the Sri Lankan people from what’s left of the terrorist sympathizers (no small number) who will continue attacks due to simmering resentment. Read the New York Times piece here.