In 1989, Mohamed Lateef had just got married and had taken ownership of a rice farm and was looking to settle down to a quiet life of farming and raising his family. That dream quickly shattered in 1990, when Lateef and 70,000 other members from the Muslim community were forcibly evicted from Northern Sri Lanka by the LTTE, only taking with them minimal possessions and limited amounts of cash with everything else being confiscated by the Tamil Tigers.
Without knowing where they were going, these desperate people moved south in whatever mode of transport they could find. Most of them trekked miles and miles, days on end with many perishing on the way. Eventually Lateef and the survivors found themselves in Puttalum, a town with a sizeable Muslim settlement. There they were received by the locals and housed in makeshift refugee camps.
Twenty one years on, and Lateef is still in Puttalum with his family, living in the makeshift refugee camp, in a coconut-leaf hut affording little respite to the elements, relying on daily wage earnings to support his family which has now grown to include 3 children, the oldest being 15, all born in the Saltern Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Puttalum.
“I don’t think about the past. It just makes me sick. There is no future for me to think about. I gave up thinking about the future a long time ago. I just think about the present and how I can give my family at least two square meals a day,” he says wearily.
This incident has been largely forgotten in the annals of the Sri Lankan conflict. Successive governments have failed to provide adequate reprieve and support for the displaced who find themselves in a political wilderness without much of a voice despite having representation in the government. Problems with education, proper shelter and sanitation plague the camps and so the displaced people are dependent on menial jobs or handouts from philanthropists or the government and humanitarian organisations. On top of this, it has also become a delicate commercialized, criminalized and corrupt political scene.
“Yes we get support” remarks A.B. Niyas, the camp leader of the Saltern IDP camp, cynically. “Every so often we get the refugee tourists, who come and see us, take photographs, give us some money, promise additional help and disappear.”
Puttalam still houses approximately 100,000 displaced persons across 141 welfare centres, from the five districts of the Northern Province. Over the recent years, Puttalam has also played host to some Tamil and Sinhala IDPs who have been driven away from their homes in Batticaloa and Trincomalee. The town is beginning to buckle under the pressure of hosting a large IDP population.
Recent incidents in the town have exposed these cracks. There is now a new fear that tensions between the area's original Muslim inhabitants, who have grown tired of the newcomers taking their jobs and, increasingly, buying their land, could lead to further crisis.
"We did all we could for them when they first arrived," says Naleer, an amiable businessman and Puttalum Resident. "But they're placing an unbearable strain on resources. They work cheap, so they've taken people's jobs. They take education, healthcare, too. They are supported by the government and INGOs on top of this. We do not get anything from them. The situation has created a lot of hate." Many critics go on to say that the refugees are perpetually in this situation of desperation without doing much to help themselves, since they know that there will always be sympathetic support.
This is a charge that M. Rahman, an activist from a local CBO set up by the displaced people refutes. “We just want to go back home. We don’t want to live anywhere else. We are from Jaffna or Mullaitivu. We lived side by side with our Tamil neighbors without much problem. We want to go back to that”
Until the 1990 incidents, the communities co-existed fairly harmoniously in the north. Eighteen years after the evictions, the displaced Muslims still speak affectionately of their old Tamil neighbours and given the chance would return back to their home towns. 34-year-old Fatima Shafeek, a mother of two, vouches for this. “I was born in Jaffna and that will always be my home. If I am given the chance I will go back“
After the Ceasefire Agreement was signed in February 2002, a number of these displaced families returned to their homes in the North only to find their houses occupied by displaced Tamils, or rebels, or destroyed. Those who stuck it out once again left back to Puttalum when the security deteriorated.
As for Lateef, what does he make of the situation? Well just ask his ten year old son Mujeeb where home is. He will reply that home is the coconut-leaf shanty in a camp in Puttalam.
So as the world celebrates World Refugee Day, 21 years on from when they were first evicted, the flame of hope needs to be reignited for these forgotten IDPs of Puttalum, to one day find resolution to their problems.
Amjad Saleem
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a slightly longer version of this was posted on Groundviews
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sri Lanka. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Understanding the Need to Talk
The moment was poignant. A Buddhist Monk in Sri Lanka addressing a group of religious leaders in Tamil. The meeting was held by the North East Interfaith Forum at the Mahatma Ghandi Centre in Colombo in January 2011 to discuss practical actions that religious leaders could take towards post conflict reconciliation in the country.
For a country that has been ill at ease with the close relationship between Sinhala nationalism and Buddhism, the feat of a Buddhist Monk being able to converse in Tamil should not be underestimated. Sri Lanka is emerging from a conflict that has been rooted in a difference of culture, language, ethnicities and ultimately religion. Ultimately it has been rooted in miscommunication and misperceptions.
Hence any steps towards reconciliation would have ultimately started with the need to address miscommunication and misperceptions. The acknowledgement of the need to speak in a common language (either one that is neutral or the language of the ‘other’) is a first step.
Though the conflict was not directly related to faith, because of the inter relationships between culture, ethnicity and religious belief, faith has ultimately become a theatre in which the conflict has played out (your faith intertwined with your ethnicity has often highlighted your support for or against the conflict). Thus the coming together of the religious leaders was symbolic in attempting to arrest the misperceptions surrounding the role of faith in causing the conflict. The role of the religious leaders should also not be underestimated because for millions of Sri Lankans, religious leaders hold an influential role in their lives. By gathering together to express solidarity, the religious leaders were conscious of the influence they could hold on others.
In their deliberations, the religious leaders touched on many issues of concern for them which they felt they needed to address. What was also significant was the realization to move away from just rhetoric and to address burning issues of concern between them.
The deliberations touched on 6 aspects that was felt to be important to the group:
1) The realization of the need to move from an atmosphere of clash to an atmosphere of alliance. In other words, the first step towards understanding and reconciliation is the need to take a conscious decision that the moment for conflict is over. If anything the transcendental moment of lucidity has meant that there needs to be an alliance to move forward.
2) The realisation of the need to acknowledge the 'other'. This in effect means that importance is placed on someone who is 'different' to you. The Buddhist Monk speaking in Tamil provided an opportunity to recognise Tamils as a significant player in this process.
3) The need to move beyond victimhood. Very often it is easy to play the victim and to say that everyone is against us. However this does not get us very far and we become isolated and distrustful
4) The need to take responsibility. Playing the victim means abrogating responsibility for one's actions and blaming everyone else apart from yourself in what has happened to you.
5) The need to create a space. This can not be underestimated, as a space opens opportunities for dialogue and starting the process of understanding each other. The space for discussions is what has somewhat been constrained in the past
6) The need to acknowledge the past. This is an important step as it gives credence and importance to every stakeholder. The past should not become a ball and chain for the future, but it should be understood in order for us to move forward but not allowing the negative feelings associated with the past to weigh us down.
These 6 steps are somewhat a progression in terms of ideas as they represent certain milestones in people's journey's towards reconciliation. The mere fact that religious leaders are now taking the initiative to get involved highlights how important reconciliation is for the country away from the political nuances of the corridors of power. The religious leaders had assembled to share a declaration of solidarity in calling for a new environment to establish village level action committees in order to address grass roots issues. As they deliberated over key action points, it was clear that they were united in one thing: the need to develop a new vision for the country.
This in itself needs support.
Amjad Saleem
For a country that has been ill at ease with the close relationship between Sinhala nationalism and Buddhism, the feat of a Buddhist Monk being able to converse in Tamil should not be underestimated. Sri Lanka is emerging from a conflict that has been rooted in a difference of culture, language, ethnicities and ultimately religion. Ultimately it has been rooted in miscommunication and misperceptions.
Hence any steps towards reconciliation would have ultimately started with the need to address miscommunication and misperceptions. The acknowledgement of the need to speak in a common language (either one that is neutral or the language of the ‘other’) is a first step.
Though the conflict was not directly related to faith, because of the inter relationships between culture, ethnicity and religious belief, faith has ultimately become a theatre in which the conflict has played out (your faith intertwined with your ethnicity has often highlighted your support for or against the conflict). Thus the coming together of the religious leaders was symbolic in attempting to arrest the misperceptions surrounding the role of faith in causing the conflict. The role of the religious leaders should also not be underestimated because for millions of Sri Lankans, religious leaders hold an influential role in their lives. By gathering together to express solidarity, the religious leaders were conscious of the influence they could hold on others.
In their deliberations, the religious leaders touched on many issues of concern for them which they felt they needed to address. What was also significant was the realization to move away from just rhetoric and to address burning issues of concern between them.
The deliberations touched on 6 aspects that was felt to be important to the group:
1) The realization of the need to move from an atmosphere of clash to an atmosphere of alliance. In other words, the first step towards understanding and reconciliation is the need to take a conscious decision that the moment for conflict is over. If anything the transcendental moment of lucidity has meant that there needs to be an alliance to move forward.
2) The realisation of the need to acknowledge the 'other'. This in effect means that importance is placed on someone who is 'different' to you. The Buddhist Monk speaking in Tamil provided an opportunity to recognise Tamils as a significant player in this process.
3) The need to move beyond victimhood. Very often it is easy to play the victim and to say that everyone is against us. However this does not get us very far and we become isolated and distrustful
4) The need to take responsibility. Playing the victim means abrogating responsibility for one's actions and blaming everyone else apart from yourself in what has happened to you.
5) The need to create a space. This can not be underestimated, as a space opens opportunities for dialogue and starting the process of understanding each other. The space for discussions is what has somewhat been constrained in the past
6) The need to acknowledge the past. This is an important step as it gives credence and importance to every stakeholder. The past should not become a ball and chain for the future, but it should be understood in order for us to move forward but not allowing the negative feelings associated with the past to weigh us down.
These 6 steps are somewhat a progression in terms of ideas as they represent certain milestones in people's journey's towards reconciliation. The mere fact that religious leaders are now taking the initiative to get involved highlights how important reconciliation is for the country away from the political nuances of the corridors of power. The religious leaders had assembled to share a declaration of solidarity in calling for a new environment to establish village level action committees in order to address grass roots issues. As they deliberated over key action points, it was clear that they were united in one thing: the need to develop a new vision for the country.
This in itself needs support.
Amjad Saleem
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