Interview by Ethirajan Anbarasan, UNESCO Courier journalist
Sunila Abeysekera, flanked by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, receives a UN Human Rights award from Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The war has left scars in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
On May 18, 1999, demonstrators outside the office of Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga demand the release of all prisoners of war and the opening of peace talks.
In June 1999, women in Chemmani village carry pictures of their missing loved ones as excavations begin at a common grave nearby.
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A victorious struggle Intimidation is nothing new to 46-year-old Sunila Abeysekera,
the Executive Director of INFORM, a leading Sri Lankan human rights organization
set up in 1989. In 1988, when she was several months pregnant, death threats forced
her to flee the country and seek refuge for a brief period in the Netherlands. |
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Timeline • 1948 |
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COUNTRY INFORMATION Name: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka |
Defying threats to her
life, a UN award-winning Sri Lankan human rights activist has brought abuses in Sri
Lanka to the attention of the international community (see box)
According to a recent United Nations study,
Sri Lanka is the country with the second highest number of disappeared people in
the world.1 And yet there seems to be hardly any debate within
the country about human rights violations. Why is this?
One of the biggest tragedies of Sri Lanka today is the existence of a culture
of fear in both the majority Sinhala and the minority Tamil societies. Ethnic conflict
(see timeline) and the war against Tamil militants have heavily militarized the society.
In the last three decades, people in the north and east of the island have lived
under the Sri Lankan army, the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) and different Tamil
militant groups. Both inside and outside the conflict zones, civilians are used to
living under difficult conditions, with official and unofficial curfews, house-to-house
search operations, arrests, torture and detention as part of their everyday experience.
Some civilians who openly spoke out against the violence and terror have been killed
publicly by the army or by the militants. So there has been no way civilians could
talk about human rights violations.
In the south, the situation is not much different. Thousands of Sinhala youths died
when the government tried to suppress an insurgency launched to oppose the Indo-Lanka
peace accord of 1987. In the years between 1987 and 1990, piles of bodies burning
along the roadside became a common sight. Both the army and the insurgents were responsible
for those massacres and disappearances.
In the context of such experiences, civilians in Sri Lanka fear that if you raise
your voice against injustice, the punishment will be nothing less than death. Not
intimidation, assault or imprisonment, but a very brutal death. Even today, people
are being abducted, detained and tortured by the security forces and by para-military
and militant groups. The culture of fear has given rise to a culture of silence.
People are still afraid to talk about what happened between 1987 and 1990, or about
what is going on today. Under existing conditions we cannot expect civilians to come
forward to talk about the human rights abuses of the past and present. The challenge
facing civil society in Sri Lanka now is how to break this culture of silence.
Although there has been extensive loss of life in the conflict in Sri Lanka, the
international community has not taken a particularly
strong line on this issue. What do you feel about this?
According to our estimates more than 100,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka
in the last two decades. It is a pity that our successive governments as well as
the Tamil militant groups have not made sincere efforts to find a peaceful solution.
If the international community had shown a little more interest and put pressure
on the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels, I think there could have been
a negotiated settlement by this time.
Although Sri Lanka is in a state of war, the country continues to receive Western
development aid. This money is supposed to be used for relief, reconstruction and
rehabilitation. But how is it possible to undertake development work in the midst
of a war? Probably, Western countries consider the Sri Lankan situation as a manageable
conflict. If the situation becomes unmanageable, as in Kosovo or Rwanda, then I think
there may be some kind of initiative.
In my view, there is also an element of racism and neo-colonialism involved in the
West’s lack of interest in the Sri Lankan situation. If one white person had been
abducted or killed in Sri Lanka, then the Western countries would have reacted differently.
These are brown people killing brown people in a faraway country. Why should the
West bother?
A few years ago, the Sri Lankan government formed commissions of inquiry to look
into the disappearance of civilians and human rights violations. What have these
led to?
In the 1990s, human rights groups in Sri Lanka and abroad launched a huge public
campaign demanding an inquiry into the reported disappearance of over 42,000 people.
As a result, the government formed a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCI) in
1992 to investigate the complaints. Since then there have been several other commissions
on disappearances.
Thousands of families of the disappeared testified before the PCIs, which in turn
submitted reports to the president. But the commissions lacked powers to initiate
legal action against those found guilty. None of the reports has been made public
so far. All the reports are lying with the presidential secretariat. Only the president
has the authority to submit them to parliament.
In 1998, because of considerable pressure from the United Nations Human Rights Commission,
civil society, the media and the international community, the government said it
had initiated action against about 100 policemen who were implicated by the disappearances
commission for the Central Province of Sri Lanka. This resulted from a list of over
1,000 complaints. Only one of the accused was a senior officer. The rest were junior
officials.
Human rights groups have been calling for the commission to investigate further and
expose those higher officials and politicians who actually gave orders for these
abductions and killings. In the context of the on-going war, one has to understand
the dependence of the political structures on the security machinery. From the state’s
point of view (not from mine), you can perhaps even justify formal impunity, but
there cannot be a total denial of the reality of what has happened in Sri Lanka.
If found guilty, politicians should be barred from holding public office and from
contesting elections. This demand is not unprecedented. There are many examples,
including Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, and El Salvador, of countries where various
commissions named political bosses for human rights abuses.
Human rights groups were also successful in forcing the Sri Lankan government to
allow a visit by Amnesty International and then by the United Nations working group
on disappearances in 1991. That was the first time that the government recognized
that there had been disappearances. It was a major breakthrough for the human rights
movement in the country.
Sri Lanka has been witnessing violence for the last three decades. What impact has
this had on women and how have they responded?
Women and children are the first victims of any kind of conflict. In Sri Lanka thousands
of families have been displaced from the north and east due to the violence. Men
either join the army or the militant groups. The third option for them is to leave
the country. It has been up to the women to keep families together and to take care
of the children. There are about a million displaced people within Sri Lanka and
most of them are women and children.
Many of these displaced women live in pitiful conditions in government-run camps.
Because there is a shortage of food, clothing, medicine etc., they are forced to
take up small-time jobs elsewhere. But they are not safe in their workplaces. The
women are subjected to a lot of sexual harassment. As a result of the heavy militarization
of the society, the incidence of violence in the north and south, particularly sexual
violence against women, has increased alarmingly.
Communities are deeply divided by the conflict, and men respond by imposing more
restrictions on women. This applies to Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim women. On the one
hand, the conflict pushes women to become wage earners and to assume responsibility
for the survival of their families. On the other hand, they are expected to conform
to traditional values and safeguard the “image” and “identity” of the community.
Also, both the army and the militants recruit women for their forces. Some of them
are even used as suicide bombers. This also has an impact on attitudes towards women
in a society as traditional as ours. In a South Asian society, the fact that women
receive military training and handle arms challenges existing attitudes towards women
and images of them. This has both a negative and a positive impact.
At the same time, we also find women’s groups playing an active role in fighting
for peace and human rights. In 1986, the arrest of around 600 Tamil boys led to the
creation of the “Mothers’ Front”, which organized protests in the streets of the
northern town of Jaffna. They broke the barriers of a silence of many years, and
paved the way for a renewed activism for human rights. Since then, women of all communities
have come together in organizations seeking justice for disappearances and working
for peace and reconciliation in a very critical way.
Conservative groups argue that by claiming equal rights for women, feminist groups
are destroying ancient culture and tradition. Do you agree?
In South Asia we have this burden of an ancient past. All our political and nationalist
movements have focused on the fact that we are people with a great heritage and a
great civilization. There is no doubt that we have inherited from the past certain
noble values which need to be protected. But how can you use religion and culture
to justify discrimination against people on the basis of gender, religion and caste?
The conservatives’ hold over society rests on their ability to wield control over
women. More than ever before in history women have become the markers of the culture
and traditions of a community. The easiest way to measure this is by looking at how
a community imposes a dress code on women. We find stricter dress codes for women
now than in the past. I think we are living in a society that’s becoming increasingly
fundamentalist and puritanical.
Conservatives quote religion as an excuse to retain their control over women. I strongly
believe that religious practices in South Asia have nothing to do with the philosophical
framework offered by different religions, including Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.
They have to do with male religious leaders who interpret religious texts to suit
their convenience.
The increased participation of women in the economic and political life of society
is a challenge to existing cultural and traditional barriers. For example, the concept
of the family is slowly being eroded as a result of economic and social changes that
are beyond the control of any individual. Women are becoming independent, and men’s
role and the male hold over the family and society are being challenged by the processes
of globalization. Hence there is criticism of women’s claims for equal rights and
equal treatment.
What role have peace movements and human rights groups played in Sri Lanka?
Human rights and peace movements have been trying to create a small space within
a heavily militarized society. They work closely with the media, academics and cultural
workers to spread the ideas of peace and civil rights. We hope that as an influential
community within society they will have the courage to speak out.
In 1998 we saw the emergence of two alliances of non-governmental organizations working
for peace and a negotiated solution to the ethnic conflict. One is the National Alliance
for Peace (NAP), consisting of representatives from Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala communities,
and the other is the Interreligious Alliance, which includes Catholic and Anglican
bishops and Buddhist monks. Together they visited several areas of the north and
the central provinces in 1998 and also held talks with the Tamil militants.
A big rally was organized in Colombo in February this year by the two groups. For
the first time we had Hindu, Christian and Buddhist clergy on the same platform and
all of them spoke of the need for peace. This is a very positive development. There
is a growing realization that you have to negotiate with the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (see timeline, opposite page) in order to move towards any kind of democratic
and peaceful settlement of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. This kind of intervention
is small but critical at a moment when ordinary citizens are afraid to talk.
It can’t be easy to be a human rights activist in a heavily militarized society.
. .
You are right. When I started working on human rights two decades ago it was
not easy. One is regarded as a trouble-maker, sometimes as a traitor. Questioning
the role of the government and of the different political actors in destroying democratic
structures and creating a militaristic environment led to attacks from all sides.
In general, human rights activists in Sri Lanka are working under extreme pressure.
Human rights abuses are committed by many actors, and we must be critical of all
of them. Training people to document human rights abuses, bringing cases before the
law, providing support for victims, all this is a part of our work. Monitoring and
intervening in human rights abuses in the north and east is especially difficult.
We do not easily acquire permission to visit areas under the control of the militants.
If there are reports of human rights abuses in those areas, we go at the risk of
our lives. We are barred from having direct contacts with the Tamil militants because
of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which makes our work even more difficult.
Over the years, we have built up a good network of groups all over the country–peace
committees, religious groups, community organizations and women’s groups–who send
us information and provide support.
Some individuals living in the troubled areas pass on information to us. If necessary,
they travel to neighbouring areas on fact-finding missions, sometimes risking their
lives.
Apart from attracting international attention
to disappearances, what are your achievements in human rights work?
I consider my consistent involvement in various campaigns over the last 20 years
and acceptance by different networks of grassroots organizations and movements, both
Sinhala and Tamil, as itself a major achievement. The UN award, I feel, is a symbolic
vindication of the work I have done all these years.
Our group, INFORM, co-ordinates with many other groups and organizations in launching
human rights campaigns. In 1997, we were part of a campaign calling for action against
soldiers who raped and killed a Tamil schoolgirl, Krishanti Kumaraswamy, while she
was in custody. Her mother, brother and a neighbour who went looking for her were
also murdered. The persistent demands finally forced the government to initiate legal
proceedings against the suspects. Six of the accused were sentenced to death in 1998.
That was a landmark verdict and was the first time there had been some kind of prosecution
against army personnel. I think the credit should go to all the human rights groups.
What are the chances of reconciliation after 20 years of ethnic conflict?
That’s a difficult question. As a human rights activist I can say that it is
possible for all communities in Sri Lanka to live together with dignity and respect.
To achieve that, leaders of all communities should come forward to make a new beginning
through the processes of forgiveness and reconciliation.
There should be an acceptance that all sides have committed horrendous crimes. Then
we have to move beyond that. If people are going to dwell on the past, then there
can be no solution. We have come out of a particularly bad and horrifying period
in our history. The older generation from all the communities still remember how
they lived together happily in the past. It is the younger generation which has witnessed
war, separation and suffering. If the situation is allowed to drift, then there is
no chance for peace in Sri Lanka.
We all know that even if the war comes to an end tomorrow, peace will not return
unless the people from all communities are willing to accept the past, forgive each
other and go back to living together. For this we need a new democratic political
structure and legal safeguards for the rights of all communities.
1. The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances says that over 12,000 Sri Lankans have gone missing since 1980 after being detained by security forces. Only Iraq, with 16,384 missing persons, had more cases of disappearances. The Sri Lankan government estimates the number of disappeared persons at around 17,000, while Sri Lankan human rights groups say more than 42,000 people have disappeared in the last two decades.