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Sri Lanka Democracy Forum and South Asia Solidarity Initiative Sponsor Event on Humanitarian Crisis and the Future of Peace in Sri Lanka

Around 120 people attended an evening of poetry, music, and debate entitled, �War and the Future of Peace in Sri Lanka: Some Critical Perspectives,� at the Alwan for the Arts in New York on February 27, 2009. YaliniDream and troupe began the night with a blend of poetry, theater, and music on topics ranging from the experiences of war refugees to the culture of violence within armed groups. Ahilan Kadirgamar, spokesperson for SLDF, started his talk by saying that both sides have committed grave human abuses, including war crimes. He called for greater scrutiny of the humanitarian situation by the United Nations and a resolution of the humanitarian crisis. This has to go hand in hand with a campaign for a political process to address the concerns of all of the minorities and democratization, he added. Nirmala Rajasingam, SLDF activist from London, began with a Tamil poem about �armed men cutting down trees that refused to bow down� and how a �great forest of resistance would arise again from those broken stumps.�

Her talk described the growth and entrenchment of majoritarian thinking in Sri Lanka since independence. She emphasized the need for a movement for democratization, constitutional reform, and peace among Tamils, Muslims, Up-Country Tamils and other minorities in conjunction with progressive Sinhalese to challenge the majoritarian state. Both speakers emphasized the devastation on all sides resulting from decades of nationalist ideology. The lively, hour-long discussion, moderated by Bhavani Raman of the South Asia Solidarity Initiative, went into topics such as building a multi-ethnic movement in the context of intense polarization and violence, the immediate humanitarian needs of the people, human rights accountability on all sides, the role of the international community and Sri Lankan diaspora, and what a political solution might look like.

Remembering the bloody Watershed of July 1983 and Reflecting on our Political Culture

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the bloody month of July 1983.  A tragic month in the history of Sri Lanka when thousands of Tamils were exposed to rampant mob-violence carried out with the support of government ministers.  It was a watershed in Sri Lanka’s post-colonial political culture of majoritarian autarchy, when the minorities lost all confidence in the state’s willingness to protect their lives and property.  The violence which consumed Tamil civilians in all parts of the country outside the North and East was also repeated in two organized massacres of over fifty Tamil political prisoners in Welikada high security prison.  While the causes and factors driving the ethnic conflict go back to the careless abandon with which our political forebears gave over to narrow communal nationalism in the competition for votes after the Donoughmore reforms of 1931, July 1983 was the starting point of the civil-war and the rapid decline of the country into its current tragic chaos.

The trajectory of events from July 1983 to now have been replete with failures and missed opportunities on the part of successive governments, the Tamil nationalist movement, and the various political actors engaged with Sri Lanka.  However even during such dismal times as the riots of July 1983, great acts of courage were shown by civilians from all communities who came forward to protect their neighbours at considerable personal risk.  Such acts of courage and humanity have been repeated on all sides of the ethnic divide throughout the history of the war.  There were even in the darkest times, individuals and political actors who have pushed the cause of justice and acted with great moral courage.  While mourning the deaths of all those killed in the course of the ethnic conflict we must reflect on past failings, the current predicament, the malignity of our political culture and consider the future for democracy, justice and pluralism for the younger generations that have been brought into conflict devastated Sri Lanka. 

In reflecting on the historical significance of July 1983, in the rise of militancy and the militarism, and the increasing violence throughout the country, we must recognize how July 1983 repeats itself in many other forms.  We must remember the massacres of pilgrims in Anuradhapura in 1985, the massacres of TELO cadres in 1986, the onset of ethnic cleansing of the Northern Muslims, the Mosque massacres in the East and the counter massacres of Tamil civilians, and of the massacres of soldiers, policemen and militants that surrendered.  We must also reflect on the efforts at resolving the ethnic conflict, and the manner in which such efforts were stymied by the chauvinist forces in the South and narrow nationalist forces on all sides. Where have we arrived today? Have we come all that far from July 1983 and the years following it?.

-- From SLDF Press Release, 25 July 2008

About SLDF

SLDF is a multi-ethnic forum of expatriate Sri Lankan human rights and democracy activists, with activists in North America, Europe, India and Australia. The SLDF positions are determined by an international Steering Committee of 22 members. While SLDF's strongest presence is in London, there are informal chapters in Toronto, New York and Berlin. SLDF has continued as a non-funded network of voluntary activists. Over the last six years, since its inception in November 2002, SLDF has campaigned to stop the use of child soldiers, to stop political killings, to protect Muslim rights, for equitable post-tsunami reconstruction, for free and fair elections, and a permanent political solution that meets the aspirations of the Tamil and Muslim communities. SLDF was initiated with the aim to bring in human rights and democratization into a sustainable and just peace in Sri Lanka.

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