[WA-News] HE ETHNIC CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA: A PANEL DISCUSSION

[Jennifer Radloff]

>THE ETHNIC CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA: A PANEL DISCUSSION
>
>It was the last day for the NGO Forum at the World Conference Against
>Racism, Xenophobia and Related Discrimination (WCAR), with NGOs from
>around the world still making last ditch efforts to have specific concerns
>included in the compiled NGO Draft Declaration. The official UN conference
>of government delegates began simultaneously. And the historical NGO
>document is ready to be put to the test before the governing parties of
>the world.
>
>Palestinians, Indian dalits, Japanese buraku mins, Falung Gong followers
>and Romas have found the space to voice their concerns before an
>international community and as the NGO Forum was about to drop the curtain
>in the Asia Pacific Caucus, the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and the
>situation of the country's ethnic Tamils and the Muslims were discussed by
>a panel chaired by a Buddhist monk, the Venerable Baddegama Samitha Thero.
>
>Sri Lanka NGO delegate Ratnaval explained that "The struggle for equality
>which began very peacefully in the 1960s, ended up as an armed conflict
>because of the merciless suppression and oppression of ethnic Tamils by
>the Sinhalese Government."
>
>The Prevention of Terrorism Act and other 'Emergency' laws are being used
>to violate civilian rights, including freedom of expression. "The acts of
>arbitrary arrests under suspicion, detention for prolonged periods ranging
>from a month to years without a court hearing, and disappearances are made
>legitimate under these draconian laws, which have been enforced for almost
>20 years and are being supported by powerful countries like the USA,
>Israel, China and the UK," Ratnaval further stated.
>
>Speaking about the discrimination against minority women in Sri Lanka,
>another NGO delegate, Saroja Sivachandran, said assaults, including sexual
>assaults and even gang rapes by security forces, against Tamil women were
>not uncommon, as in the case of Krishanthi Coomaraswami, who was gang
>raped and murdered by army men.
>
>NGO delegate P P Sivapragasam, described how Tamils are subject to basic
>discrimination in civic matters. "Tamils who originally migrated to Sri
>Lanka during the British colonial rule in the 1820s and work mainly on the
>plantations in central Sri Lanka, form a different ethnic group from the
>Tamils in the north and east who are native to Sri Lanka. The immigrant
>Tamils are not  even after close to two centuries of being resident in the
>country  given full citizenship. They are subject to a 'Pass' identity
>system and restricted to the plantations, which they cannot leave without
>special permission," he said.
>
>The meeting ended with pledges of support to the struggles of displaced
>people in Sri Lanka, including Muslims, a severely neglected community in
>the country. One respondent urged for a coalition of all Muslims and
>Tamils around the world that could serve to pressurise the government to
>address their problems.
>
>A member of the audience, a supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
>Eelam (LTTE), asked that the international community should not "equate
>state terrorism to the violence from the freedom fighters. LTTE came into
>being only after the suppression from the Sri Lankan government."
>
>The meeting didn't raise the questions, however, as to why the LTTE turned
>down offers of peace talks by the government thrice. Also there has been
>no highlighting the fact that the Sinhalese are one of the endangered
>races on the globe. And about the Sinhalese victims in the context of the
>ongoing war.
>
>The issue of the Sinhalese people and the Sinhalese language on the verge
>of extinction, has not been brought up in the NGO Draft Declaration either.
>
>Miuru Jayaweera a program producer in Young Asia television, Sri Lanka is
>alos a team emeber of the ISIS International, women's media team from
Durban.