Sri Lanka marks a dark anniversary
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO - On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the 1983 anti-Tamil operation
in Sri Lanka, there are few signs that any positive lessons have been learned
from the gory events that changed the island nation's history and sent a once
booming economy into a downward trajectory.
Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the think-tank Center for
Policy Alternatives and an often-quoted political analyst, says billions of
dollars have since been spent on the quarter century of ethnic strife that
followed "Black July".
"We are nowhere near a solution than we ever were," he said, adding that the
present government does not seem interested in a
negotiated settlement.
Most victims from the Tamil minority community are reluctant to speak about the
terrible tragedy that befell them on July 24, 1983, and thereafter. "Why talk
about the past?" said one elderly Tamil woman when asked to comment.
Widespread riots broke out in Colombo and southern Sri Lanka a day after 13
government soldiers were killed in an ambush by Tamil rebels in the northern
city of Tamil-dominated Jaffna. Angry mobs from the majority Sinhalese
community retaliated by attacking and killing Tamil residents, raping their
women and setting fire to homes and shops. The pogrom followed bouts of
anti-Tamil violence in 1958 and 1977.
A Tamil industrialist, K Vignarajah, spoke of how his wife, who owned and
managed two garment factories that were razed, was devastated by the events.
"Sarada [wife] was shocked and shattered by the events. We lost a house too but
thank God nothing happened to us," he said, adding that soon after the couple
and their 10-year-old daughter left for Britain.
"Sri Lanka would have been a paradise and even better than Singapore if not for
this conflict," Vignarajah, now an international consultant on garments and a
stock market investor, said. "It is the absurdity of chauvinistic politicians
who are responsible for this situation. We have many friends among the
Sinhalese," he added.
Vignarajah's daughter lives and works in Britain, but he, after spending time
in the southern Indian city of Chennai, has returned to Sri Lanka.
In the early 1980s, Sri Lanka - the first South Asia country to liberalize its
economy, far ahead of India - had a booming economy and was heading for the
kind of prosperity enjoyed by the "Asian Tiger" economies when the conflict
reversed the trend.
Will Sri Lanka ever recover from this crisis? Noted peace activist Jehan Perera
believes the situation has improved compared to the pre-1983 period as people
now freely speak out on Tamil rights and Tamil autonomy. "Unlike earlier there
is no animosity by the Sinhalese against the Tamils. Earlier, because of the
Tamil insurgency [and demands for an independent homeland], many Sinhalese saw
the Tamils as their enemy."
Perera added that there is a widespread view that the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which has been leading the war against Colombo to secure a
separate homeland in the north and east of the island for the Tamil minority,
must be "crushed". "This is not an anti-Tamil feeling," he insists.
During the July 1984 riots, many Sinhalese residents saved the lives and
properties of Tamils from the gangs defying a curfew to maraud and rampage.
Some Tamils were sheltered in Sinhalese houses during the violence as the
mostly Sinhalese police and military looked on. The estimates of casualties
varied from between 400 to 3,000 Tamils dead while more than 18,000 houses and
commercial establishments were razed.
Hundreds of thousands of Tamils fled to India, Europe, Australia and Canada
while Tamil youth joined various Tamil militant groups, including the LTTE, in
droves. The LTTE later emerged as the most ruthless guerrilla group in the
world, set up funding and promotion offices overseas and coerced Tamil
expatriates to fund their war machine.
Many professionals from other communities have also left the country and still
remain out as Sri Lanka struggles to contain a conflict that has cost more than
80,000 lives - including combatants from among the military, the rebels and
civilians - besides untold billions worth of damage and lost opportunities.
Tourism, among the country's chief revenue earners, is now struggling to
recover while garments exports and remittances from over a million Sri Lankan
workers in the Middle East make up for the main earnings now.
Since 1983, the total economic loss, according to some estimates in 1998, is
1.27 times of Sri Lanka's gross domestic product while a million people have
been displaced internally. However, the economy has grown at a creditable 5% on
an average annually since 1983 while drawing small levels of foreign
investment.
The 33-month-old government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, after a couple of
months trying to talk to the LTTE, launched a military offensive two years ago
that has seen a great degree of success. The rebels have largely been driven
away from the eastern region and have suffered serious reverses in parts of
their main stronghold in the north.
Journalists are not permitted into the war zones. The few conducted trips by
the military are not enough for an independent assessment of what parts remain
under LTTE control or where its reclusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran
operates from. Kilinochchi, the town where the rebels have their official
headquarters, is constantly bombed by government war planes.
"I can't see any peace [in the near term]," said Saravanamuttu, adding that the
army commander who said the rebels would be destroyed by the end of 2008 now
says it will take the whole of 2009. "Even if the government succeeds in
chasing the Tigers from their headquarters, they will go into the jungle and
resort to guerrilla warfare as before, unless there is a political settlement."
Perhaps the worst consequence of the protracted conflict has been the rising
level of lawlessness in society prompted by a sense of impunity that some say
has origins in the fact that none of the perpetrators of the 1983 violence were
brought to trial. Human-rights violations, by all parties, have steadily
increased over the years.
Lately, the number of abductions of civilians - mostly Tamils suspected of
being connected to the LTTE - has intensified, while assaults and harassment of
journalists, critical of the war, have increased. This has not helped the cause
of Tamil-Sinhalese amity.
Clashes between the Tamils and the Sinhalese majority originated with British
colonial rulers favoring the Tamils in administrative, educational and economic
situations. Post independence the situation reversed, with the majority
community ruling the country and cornering plum jobs and the larger chunk of
resources. Soon Sinhalese and Tamil sub-nationalism began to grow and became
sharply polarized.
"I am not bitter and have no regrets but I feel sad for my country," says Chris
Kamalendran, an experienced Tamil journalist and a victim of the riots.
Kamalendran, living with his father, mother and other family members in the
predominantly Sinhalese town of Homagama, south of Colombo, saw a mob - of
mostly neighbors - set fire and loot the family home. "I was angry, hurt and
wanted revenge," he recalled, adding that he was restrained by moderate
Sinhalese friends.
Kamalendran - like many Tamils and Sinhalese - is desperate for a solution in
his lifetime so that "my daughter won't suffer". Believing in communal amity,
he has married a Sinhalese woman and has a daughter who follows Buddhism, the
majority religion. But, he said, the problem will drag on "until a national
leader capable of providing a viable political settlement emerges".
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
