Post-war Sri Lanka: We can’t let frustration set in, warn bishops
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War-affected people tell their stories to Bishops Raymond Wickremasinghe of Galle and Vianney Fernando of Kandy.
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Fr Bernardo Regno, Bishop Norbert Andradi and Theiva from Caritas Sri Lanka talk to families living in makeshift shacks.
The entire Sri Lanka Catholic Bishops’ Conference, supported by CAFOD, has visited war-affected areas in northern Sri Lanka, to meet with communities and individuals rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of the civil war, and discuss their needs.
The bishops acknowledged that the government is working hard to restore the country’s infrastructure, but said “the day to day needs of the people need to receive equal or priority attention.”
The war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ended in 2009. After the war, the Sri Lankan government set up the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). It made a number of important recommendations, but most haven’t yet been implemented.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, around 470,000 people were made homeless and forced from their land by the conflict, and there are still around 115,000 people who can’t return home or move on with their lives, many living in camps or with local families.
For most people, such basic needs as clean water, sanitation and food are hard to come by. Families are still living surrounded by the scars and reminders of the war, with soldiers still present in many areas.
Although in many areas soldiers are helping to rebuild houses and wells in communities, the bishops said they “felt that the frequent presence of the troops among the war affected people does not create an atmosphere conducive to the restoration of normalcy as there is still a sense of sub - conscious fear of the uniform".
They added: “The whole atmosphere of devastated buildings and bullet-ridden walls certainly do not provide an atmosphere for children to put the trauma of the terrible war behind them”.
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People must have a voice
But it’s not just the practical needs that have to be addressed in Sri Lanka. The bishops urged that everything possible should be done to help survivors to heal. Many people whose loved ones went missing during the conflict still don’t know if their relatives are alive or dead, and a lot of the families who have been resettled have not been able to return to where they originally came from. As a result some of them have lost good farm land or fishing grounds which were their source of income.
As they listened to the survivors’ stories, the bishops felt people are still getting frustrated because they need answers, and need to be included in the plans for Sri Lanka’s future.
“The recommendations of the LLRC with regard to reconciliation need to be taken more seriously,” they said, “which could also lead to the strengthening of democratic processes in the North and the East and eventually to an acceptable and honourable political solution ensuring true unity in diversity.”
It’s vital that the government includes people in discussions about their future, with local government and community groups being set up as soon as possible. The bishops warned:
“There seems to be a serious lack of opportunities for people to participate in the processes of their own governance. This vacuum has to be filled at the earliest to prevent frustration from growing. Structures have to be put in place for people to participate responsibly in the democratic processes.”
CAFOD has been working closely with Sri Lankan partners, particularly Caritas Sri Lanka which is the social arm of the Bishops’ Conference, to ensure that people are practically and emotionally supported as they recover from the conflict.
