Women, War & Displacement in Sri Lanka: Lessons for India’s Northeast Region

“Paddy fields have become mine-fields in Sri Lanka” – Ms Shreen Saroor at a speech in New Delhi, 9 November 08

On Sunday, 9th November 2008, Manipuri Women Gun Survivors Network and Control Arms Foundation of India hosted a talk in India’s capital New Delhi by Ms Shreen Saroor, a renowned human rights activist from Sri Lanka on the topic “Women, War and Displacement in Sri Lanka”. Various eminent individuals from different walk of life took an active part in the talk.

Other panelists who spoke on the occasion constituted of Mr K.R. Ratnavale, Attorney-in-law of Sri Lanka; Prof. Bhagat Oinam, Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Ms Ashima Kaul, journalist, Mr Riju Raj from Supreme Court. Several NGOs, lawyers, women’s groups, media, students took an active part in the event.

The Sri Lankan Conflict started in July 1983 predominantly between government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE was fighting for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam in North and East of Sri Lanka. The protracted armed conflict in Sri Lanka between government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has led to 70,000 deaths and the internal displacement of over one million people.

At present almost half a million people, out of the country’s population of 21 million, remain internally displaced.  According to UNHCR, the number of refugees is 134,948 as per the data collection work in  June 2008. The possibility of a lasting peace came win December 2001 when a ceasefire was declared in December 2001. The ceasefire later broke down on 2 January 2008.

During the ceasefire, over 4000 people were killed and many more displaced. According to Associated Press Agency, Sri Lankan government has poured a record 1.5 billion dollars in just one year alone in 2008 in war efforts to crush the Tamil rebels. As the year 2009 dawns,  situation continues to be extremely tense in Sri Lanka.

It is with this background that Ms Shreen spoke on 9th November 2008 in New Delhi. She narrated her personal experiences of war, displacement and humanitarian crisis which is happening in Sri Lanka at the moment due to the on-going conflict. She narrated a moving account of her own family who was displaced in the year 1990 from the Mannar Region located in Northern Sri Lanka by the LTTE. She then started working with some of the 75,000 Muslima who were evicted to the eastern region of Puttalam.

It was in 1999 that she started the Mannar Women Development gathered together 10 evicted Muslim women and returned to Mannar in North of Sri Lanka as they wanted to recapture their identity and to go home. Ms Shreen also started a multi-ethnic, multi-religious organisation called Mannar Women Development Foundation.

The foundation now works in 101 villages and has the largest micro-credit programme in entire Sri Lanka. Later Shreen and her organisation started working on issue of domestic violence. They tied black ribbons around their mouth and stood vigil in front of homes where women were physically abused.

Ms Shreen also talked about the militarization of societies that has come about in Sri Lanka and spoke about the mushrooming of several armed paramilitary groups which have proliferated in Sri Lanka due to the ongoing war. Arms supplies have come in from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other governments. Aerial bombings have occurred in Northern Sri lanka. Shreen mentioned, ” Paddy fields have become mine-fields in Sri Lanka”.

Following Shreen’s talk, Dr Oinam Bhagat of Jawaharlal Nehru University and later K.R Ratnavale , a noted Attorney of law in Sri Lanka spoke similarity of the situation between Sri Lankan conflict and Northeast Indian conflict. First was the ongoing conflict itself which has become a huge crisis. Secondly the fact that both Sri Lanka and India’s Northeast are under emergency law such as Armed Forces Special Powers Act in Northeast India and Prevention of Terrorism Act in Sri Lanka for the last three decades.

According to Dr Bhagat, “Such emergency acts are illegimate acts of a legitimate  state”. And in words of Dr Ratnavale, “this draconian law has resulted in leading Sri lanka to such a stage where around 10 people are killed every day. So, a kind of genocide is happening in Sri Lanka”. The participants at the meeting recognised the need to start working on mapping and understanding the militarization and increased weaponisation of our societies in both the regions.

There is a  need to start a movement in South Asian region to make disarmament meaningful to the lives of many living in the region to bring about a respect for livelihood, health, education, human rights, semblance of peace and justice. The meeting also called upon government of India to act with responsibility and commitment to bring the conflict in Sri Lanka to an end. The meeting ended with a resolve that people living in South Asia region should join hands together and stay vigilant and work towards ushering in a dawn of a conflict free South Asian region.