May 2009 Sri Lanka Report
On the 19th of May, 2009, the President of Sri Lanka delivered a 40-minute television address to the nation announcing victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the end to South Asia's longest-running civil conflict. In his remarks, the President noted that it is his duty to protect all people in Sri Lanka, including the minority Tamils. Spontaneous as well as planned victory celebrations were held in many locations in the ensuing days, including in many countries where there are sizeable Sri Lankan emigrant populations. There were also counter-protests and demonstrations from some Sri Lankan diaspora who may have supported or had some regard for the separatist movement. Appeals came from many national and international quarters calling for the Government to move quickly to ensure the long-term grievances of the minorities are fully and genuinely addressed in order to solidify a just and sustainable peace for all Sri Lankans.
The Government, with many offers of support from UN agencies and other humanitarian actors, began addressing the tremendous economic, psychological and physical costs of the 26-year war on its citizens and the urgent humanitarian needs presented by the displacement of an estimated 300,000 internal refugees, many of whom suffered greatly in the last weeks and months of the military campaign. NPSL had previously begun exploring the possibility of opening an additional fieldsite in the North in Vavuniya and is poised to assist in supporting the protection needs of this recently-displaced population, once permission is granted for NPSL to work in this area.
The Context and Work of the NP Teams
While the final confrontation in the military campaign was played out in the northeast corner of Mullaithivu District, Nonviolent Peaceforce teams continued to provide international protective presence in its three field sites in Jaffna in the North, and in Valaichchenai and Batticaloa in the East, as well as maintaining its presence in the capital of Colombo, where NPSL is headquartered.
In May NP field workers attended more than 40 meetings with a wide variety of stakeholders. Such meetings support and facilitate needed networks and build relationships of trust at the grassroots level. They also build awareness and coordination among actors at multiple levels to meet humanitarian needs and improve the overall human security situation for vulnerable civilians. The teams also responded to numerous family requests for intervention and support, including fielding 29 new cases and 24 follow-up consultations to previously-reported cases. Such interventions can require a variety of strategies, including responding to emergency requests for international presence or accompaniment; building individual or community confidence for nonviolent problem-solving; activating or facilitating community networks to reduce rumours or build bridges between community actors at times of crisis or tension; and building awareness or advocacy with other stakeholders or potential sources of support for families through both governmental and non-governmental structures.
Using its wide networks of relationships throughout the districts where NPSL operates, the teams focus their activities on the following four broad areas:
Protecting Children
Having never experienced life outside the context of war, the direct and indirect impact of a generation of war on children and youth, especially those in the North and East of the country, is far-reaching. NP teams coordinate their child protection and child rights efforts with UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations, particularly UNICEF, as well as with government structures, such as Probation Officers, the Department of Child Protection, Village Child Rights Protection officers, the police, and with civil society actors at the community level. There is also a government plan to establish Provincial-level Child Protection Committees to supplement the work done at the district and community levels. NP teams work with families whose children have been directly affected by the armed conflict and coordinate with Save the Children to identify options and needed reintegration activities for children and youth who have previously been part of an armed group.
In Batticaloa District this month, child rights and protection stakeholders held a series of meetings to discuss rehabilitation and reintegration strategies in a post-conflict context, including soliciting the help of children and youth and their parents in assessing what has worked in the past when ex-combatants returned to their home communities, and in identifying the needs and challenges they will face. The main consultation event drew about 70 people, including children and parents, government actors from key agencies, as well as child protection representatives of UNICEF, Save the Children, Sarvodaya, and Nonviolent Peaceforce. The goal is to improve reintegration programmes for ex-combatants --including psycho-social support, vocational training, and job placement--and to increase the responsibility of local authorities to better protect children.
Not all vulnerabilities have ceased with the end of the fighting, and fears of continued forced recruitment, or re-recruitment, into armed groups continue to be voiced. The effects of long-term vulnerability and mistrust, poverty, lack of infrastructure and resources, and weak community institutions will all need to be addressed over a long period of time. In some cases, youth have been compelled to give up their vocational training programmes in order to take up some unskilled labor to bring in some much-needed income to their families. Current fears in Batticaloa also include some school children being abducted by unknown people in April and May, with one 8-year-old's body found in a well; another found alive near Valaichchenai but with severe injuries; and 4 youth gone missing in Batti Town this month.
In Jaffna, authorities are coordinating their efforts to re-unite separated families, monitor children's homes, address the needs of school drop-outs, and monitor child labor. Among the recent influx of internal refugees coming into Jaffna, 380 separated and vulnerable children were identified, and efforts were made to get all children involved in school activities, either within the welfare camps or in the neighboring schools. In some areas where there is no functioning village-level child protection committee or children's clubs, the team will work to support community capacity-building in this regard. In one area where NP has had a long-term relationship and presence, the security situation has improved and the community was able to have a Temple Festival, an important Hindu cultural and religious event, for the first time in three years.
Promoting Human Rights
Promotion and protection of human rights for all ethnic and religious communities undergirds much of the work of NP, including our work with children and with internally displaced persons (IDPs). Coordinating with the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission (HRC) and assisting local human rights defenders to carry on their activities under difficult circumstances is on-going. In Jaffna, meetings were held with two key partners as NP seeks additional funding from the European Union for human rights promotion and protection in Sri Lanka.
The teams also assisted families or individuals with a dozen accompaniments this month so they could safely access human rights services and resources. In Batticaloa a coordinating forum for human rights is being discussed to consist of a focal point person for each of the 14 divisions within the district, with monitoring of the processes to be carried out by the Human Rights Commission, UNHCR (UN High Commission on Refugees), and NP. In one division, NP has been given permission by the Divisional Secretary to begin a mapping and needs assessment of the area.
Providing Presence in IDP Camps and Resettlement Areas
NP teams are part of district and national level coordinating bodies related to the needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs), both in formal camps or welfare centers, and in areas where they are being returned or resettled. NP has been requested by local and national actors to help provide monitoring and protective presence in the Vavuniya District where as many as 300,000 IDPs are being temporarily housed as a result of the fighting this year in Mullaithivu District. Once resources are secured and permission is granted by the government for NPSL to fully access the areas where the IDPs are being sheltered, NP is prepared to deploy a team there.
In Jaffna, with the influx of more than 11,000 refugees to the North this year, tensions have been raised as IDPs compete with local communities for limited aid and resources, and communities continue to raise concerns regarding fishing restrictions and the number of High Security Zones which prevents the ability of families to move about the district or to resettle in their home areas. By month's end 9 permanent and 2 temporary camps were established. While nine humanitarian agencies were given permission to access the displacement camps, only two managed to actually do it, as the procedures and processes were confused at different locations and at different levels of permission.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is returning to Jaffna after its departure from the district in 2006. The NRC has been an active partner of NPSL in Batticaloa District throughout this period. The Valaichchenai team provides office space to the NRC in its office annex so that people in more rural areas of the northern part of the district can access NRC services. In Batticaloa about 700 families displaced from Trinco District two or more years ago are still trying to gain permission to return to their home areas, part of more than 6800 people stranded in Batticaloa since 2006. The teams also regularly provide presence in several resettlement areas consisting of more than 800 families. In one regularly-visited area, the team was invited by local partners this month to attend a locally-organized "Peace and Harmony Cricket Tournament". Such community events are just beginning to be possible again and help bring a sense of stability and normalcy to the youth and families who are recovering from the long-term impacts of growing up in the midst of armed conflict.
Supporting Community-Based Structures
In order for peace and stability to come permanently to Sri Lanka, local initiatives and structures must be supported and strengthened. NP teams build relationships of trust within the communities where they live and work in order to play a facilitating role to local peacemakers and to encourage nonviolent problem-solving when problems do arise. At the grassroots levels, relationships with the lowest level government servants (or GSs) are of particular importance, as well as with village societies, such as RDSs (Rural Development Societies) and farmers' and fishermen's associations.
In Batticaloa the team participated in the important monthly meeting of the Community Protection Network held under the auspices of CHA (the local Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies). In Valaichchenai, the community networks facilitated by the team are functioning well, including an Early Warning Network that includes approximately 100 people that can be communicated with quickly to help dispel rumours and otherwise help mitigate potential violent situations as they arise. The network also serves as a Community Information Network, sharing important community news. This month, examples of information shared included: news of a bus/train accident outside of the district involving many people from a local community; an incident when 30 school children were admitted to Valaichchenai Hospital and the source was traced to food poisoning; and reports of incidents where people are being given land deeds claimed to be from absentee landlords but later revealed to be fake. A second network of Tamil and Muslim grassroots organizations continues to use the safe office space in NP's annex and to work together across ethnic lines. This month their skills were built when they were able to take a USAID-sponsored seminar on proposal writing. Such capacity-building will have long-term positive impacts on their ability to maintain and grow their organisation's community involvement and activities.
In all these areas, NP teams are making a difference in the communities where international and national staff live and work to build bridges across community divides with a nonpartisan, nonviolent, and protective civilian presence.
