Sri Lanka: One year after the war

Silvaraja and his family will receive a new house from Caritas following the conflict in Sri Lanka [Lucy Morris]

One year after the conflict ended in Sri Lanka, our partners are helping people return to a normal life

In May 2009 Sri Lanka's government declared victory in its 26-year war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who were fighting for a separate homeland in the north and east.

Silvaraja, 31, now lives in a small house made of mud bricks in a small village in eastern Sri Lanka. But in 1995 he was abducted by militants on his way home from school. He was 16 years old.

“My parents were told if they didn’t give me up they would be executed,” he says, sitting on a chair outside his home. “Each family was required to give up one boy to fight with the LTTE. They had no choice.”

Thousands lost their homes

How your money helped

More than 6,000 people provided with food

More than 5,500 people received kitchen utensils

More than 1,000 people received medical care

Thousands of boys like Silvaraja were abducted and recruited to fight in one of the world’s bloodiest and longest-running civil wars. Many parts of the island have been devastated and hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes because of fighting. Many, on their return, have found their homes burned to the ground.

Silvaraja was badly injured and left the LTTE in 2000. Since then he has earned money working as a day labourer and has built a small house that he shares with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

“In the hot season it’s hard to live in this house, because the tin roof makes it very hot,” he says. “There is also a threat from poisonous snakes.”

We have been working with our Catholic partner, Caritas Sri Lanka, whose staff and volunteers around the island have been helping people who lost their homes as a result of the conflict.

With our help, Caritas is building new homes for 45 families in Batticaloa in the east, and a further 34 in the north and centre of the country for people displaced at different stages of the war. Silvaraja and his family will have a house made of concrete with a tile roof, which will be more secure.

“We were saving money to build a new house,” he says. “But now our savings can go towards educating our children and installing electricity.”

Committed to peace

As the war reached its climax in 2009, hundreds of thousands of people were driven into camps in the Vanni in the north of the country. We supported our partner Caritas to provide food, water, firewood and kitchen utensils to people living in the camps. We also helped them to run a mobile health service.

Mary Lucas, who works on CAFOD’s Sri Lanka programme said:

“Priests, sisters and staff from the local Caritas offices remained with people throughout this conflict sharing the people’s suffering.

"Caritas Sri Lanka was well-placed to distribute emergency supplies to people in camps because they had good access. Priests and local staff were even confined in the camps and so could coordinate and get help to those that needed it most.

“Now the fighting is over, the most important thing is to get people resettled with a sound roof over their head. Then we need to help them start earning a living, get children back to school and encourage active participation in the community.

“A just and sustainable peace in Sri Lanka will only be achieved if the root causes of the conflict are tackled. We have partners who are committed to peace building and the transformation of the very systems, structures and relationships which gave rise to injustice and violence in Sri Lanka in the first place.

“Some of their work involves the promotion and protection of human rights, the resolution of conflict at personal, family and community levels and the study and discussion of alternative ways to share power. It can be very dangerous work. Their commitment to the values of dignity of the human person, participation, inclusion, tolerance and respect is a lesson for us all"

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