The Refugees’ Plight and the Urgency of Reconciliation

INTRODUCTION

“Is it a celebration of victory of peaceful, peace-loving people over those who were violent or those who were terrorists? Or is it a celebration of the victory of one group over another? Will this victory lead to a dominant and suppressive authority in the hands of one group over another group who will be made refugees or internally displaced for long years or for eternity?” For Sarath Fernando, moderator of the Movement of Lands and agriculture reform and human rights activist, Sri Lanka needs to start answering these decisive questions for its future. The fate of the refugees and the society that will be born out of almost 30 years of war: these are the issues that are beginning to concern the people of the Island nations’ south as celebrations of the government’s victory over the Tamil Tigers’ wind down.

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In the refugee camps in the North, there are over 300,000 people who survived the last stages of the battle between the Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The end of the conflict has opened the question regarding their future and the chances of coexistence between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority. Fernando believes that there is only one way to defeat and overcome terrorism and that is reconciliation between the people and the different components of society. “Reconciliation is a process of bringing together an understanding between people by overcoming the sufferings, hardships, misunderstandings and mistrust, which were created in the process of the war and also the longer process of political conflict and ideas that led to war.”

The first step that needs to be taken is to return the refugees to their homes and restore their lands. Wickremabahu Karunarathna, leader of the New Left Front, says it is a “crucial issue” on which the Colombo authorities must be clear. “If the government claims to have identified and removed 10,000 rebels among the 300,000 refugees in the camps, for what reason, therefore, must it continue to keep these people behind barbed wire?”

Sarath Nanda Silva, President of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, says after having visited refugees in Cheddikulam: “I may be punished for what I am about to say, but the refugees cannot wait any longer for the normal course of justice in this country.” They must be returned as soon as possible to their homes and lands. And the conditions in which they live are so dramatic that they force Silva to warn: “We have to provide for their needs. If we fail in this, we will be damned.”

Concerns are growing that the number of malnourished children is higher than earlier estimated among thousands of recently displaced in Sri Lanka. It is estimated that 13% of the IDP population is younger than five, with one in four or some 10,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition, humanitarian sources said. According to a survey by the Colombo-based Medical Research Institute, in March, in six out of the then 13 camps, 25.5% of children suffered from global acute malnutrition, of whom 5.2% were severely malnourished and needed immediate rehabilitation with therapeutic food and treatment. However, since that survey was conducted, the number of camps and IDPs has ballooned, leaving many to believe that the numbers are significantly higher now.

The Republic of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) has been engaged in an ethnic conflict since 1984 between a Sinhalese majority (nearly 74% of the population, the majority of whom are Buddhist) and a Tamil minority of Indian origin (13%, mainly Hindus). In early 2008, in a matter of months, the government soldiers gain control of the territories formally controlled by the Tamil Tigers, until the complete surrender of the rebels last May. The military operations have caused a large evacuation and great suffering for Tamil civilians, while the Church and NGOs declare a “humanitarian emergency.” The conflict has weakened the economy, which has been in decline since 2001, on account of the damage suffered by the major industry of tourism. The war in Sri Lanka has caused a total of 70,000 deaths and another 1.5 million refugees. www.asianews.it and www.fides.org

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