The shadow of war

Asna Ali-Saturday, November 30, 2013 

The violence in Sri Lanka may have ended but

long-standing grievances on both sides have not vanished


When the conflict between government forces and Tamil separatists effectively came to end in 2009 after more than two decades, Sri Lanka began its journey towards increasing its regional power. 

With the help of loans from both China and India, the country has been rebuilding and putting itself on the map as an important member of the regional and international community. The Commonwealth summit held there earlier this month was supposed to be an important milestone in this journey.

Unfortunately for the Sri Lankan government, everything did not go according to plan. The international community has become ever more emphatic in its demands that the Sri Lankan government initiate investigations into the war, particularly its final few weeks when it is rumoured that many human rights violations occurred. 

Throughout its long period, this conflict claimed many thousands of lives and, according to UN reports, many of these happened near the end. The rebels were hemmed into a small area along with numerous civilians. 

It is reported that these people were used as human shields by the rebels and also that armed forces deliberately fired into known civilian areas and safe zones. Investigations into the matter by the Sri Lankan government have been deemed inadequate by many.

It is for this reason that even as the government was busy issuing defensive statements, the leaders of India, Mauritius and Canada refused to participate in the Commonwealth Summit to register their protest over Sri Lanka’s reluctance to carry out large scale investigations into its civil war. 

During the summit, Tamils lined the streets holding up pictures of their dead or missing loved ones for the world to see. The spotlight was not on the summit’s agenda or Sri Lanka’s triumph over ethnic conflict or the progress it has made ever since. 

Instead, British Prime Minister David Cameron, one of the leaders who did attend the summit, used this opportunity to visit survivors of the conflict and make his own strong opinions known on the subject. Reiterating the views of other world leaders, Cameron called for investigations into war crimes. 

Though the Sri Lankan government has been adamant in the past that claims about war crimes are false and that it has the right to carry out any probe into the matter at its own pace, the events during the Commonwealth Summit have left it wrong-footed. 

Finally caving in to the demands, it has now been announced that a census will be conducted to find out the full extent of loss of life and property during the civil war period – from 1983 to 2009. 

However, this census is being deemed inadequate by human rights groups who have pointed out that several surveys of this nature have been called for in the past but their results are biased. There are no enquiries into war crimes and violations of international law by the armed forces. 

As Sri Lanka continues its march towards normalcy and ‘healing the wounds of war’, many observers look on with concern. It has been suggested that extremist sentiments in the country have not evaporated with the end of the civil war. Rather, they have found new targets in other minority groups like Muslims and Christians. 

A conflict that has lasted a whole generation is sure to have long shadows. The violence may have ended but long-standing grievances on both sides have not vanished. The dead, the disappeared and the displaced call for justice. 

Here’s hoping that Sri Lanka will emerge from this shadow more united and not with another ethnic conflict on its hands.

The writer is a business studies graduate from southern Punjab. Email: asna.ali90@gmail.com