Opinion - News Analysis   

Not a good time for advocates of peace in Sri Lanka

B. Muralidhar Reddy

The peaceniks are against a military solution to the ethnic conflict in the island nation. The government believes the NGOs have done more harm than good. And the stalemate continues.

PHOTO: AP

UNDER ATTACK: National Anti-War Front activists participate in a peace rally in Colombo on August 17.

PEACENIKS, MEDIATORS, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), indigenous and foreign, in Sri Lanka are all increasingly coming under attack from several quarters.

On the face of it, the logic of those criticising the advocates of peace and resolution appears simple. The anti-war and pro-rapprochement campaign is an obstacle in the state's war against terrorism. Worse, peace chants and yagnas are supposed to be giving much-needed breathing space for the terrorists to regroup.

There are always elements in every society that view the agenda of peaceniks with suspicion. The rights and wrongs of it apart, Sri Lanka could not be expected to be the exception especially given its record of nearly two-and-a-half decades of ethnic disharmony. What is causing concern is the tacit and not-so-tacit state patronage that these forces seem to be enjoying.

And the Government appears to have given legitimacy to those engaged in discrediting forces attempting to mobilise public opinion in favour of peace. Further, the Government and institutions such as the military have their own grievances and complaints against those in the business of peace-making.

The August 17 clash in Colombo between a group of monks and activists of a peace rally best illustrates the point. Under the banner of the Jathika Sanga Sammelanaya (National Buddhist Monks Association) a group of monks stormed the stage and attempted to disrupt an anti-war rally.

Organised by the National Anti-War Front (NAWF), an amalgam of political and apolitical groups of all hues, the rally's basic objective was to voice the desire of the people for a peaceful rather than a military solution to the ethnic conflict. An estimated 5,000 people had gathered on the occasion. Politicians from national and minority parties as well as prominent civil society personalities were on the stage. A few members of the clergy were there as well.

Then the monks trooped in. They grabbed the microphone and began yelling "if you want peace, go to Vavuniya and Kilinochchi" (areas under the control of the Tamil Tigers). They disregarded the organisers' plea to leave the stage and started behaving violently. In response, a few peace protesters went up to the stage, pulled the monks down, and burned their banners.

It was very clear that the monks' intention was to disrupt the rally. Later a monk from the group told a TV station that they intended to stop all peace campaigns in the South as such activities would demoralise the fighting sprit of the Armed Forces.All-round condemnation ensued but the group which led the monks to attack the rally was far from discouraged. In interview after interview in the local media, the leader of the monks denounced the peace yatra as a "circus" enacted by a bunch of "foreign funded dollar motivated activists" out to undermine the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka. He did not even spare the Government Ministers and ruling combine representatives associated with the rally, branding them "Sinhala Tigers" as opposed to "Tamil Tigers."

Colombo did condemn the vandalism but nothing more. So far, no case has been registered against anyone. The rhetoric against the peace constituencies continues unabated.

The main grouse of the anti-rally activists is that the peace rally leaders never take on the LTTE or speak against its atrocities. However, says Kumar Rupesinghe, one of the organisers of the peace rally, this is not true: "It is our view that violence begets violence. We condemn all forms of violence. We also state that violence will not resolve the problems. Proxy wars or selective wars will eventually lead to a total war and will devastate the entire country."

The establishment seems to look the other way if not encourage the logic and thinking of the anti-peace lobby. In an article titled "opposing war to please the Sun God" in the government-owned paper, Daily News, Janaka Perera says: "These `revolutionaries' are more agitated over `southern terrorists' rather than the striped monsters in the Wanni. The fact of the matter is that the so-called southern terrorists [an obvious reference to JVP and JHU] are in Parliament while the real terrorists in the north have no guts to face an election... The whole farcical exercise in the South of opposing the `war' can be linked to a group of people calmly discussing peace and non-violence while right before our eyes armed psychopath is on the rampage killing everyone in sight."

Writing in the Sunday Standard, Eymard de Sila Wijeyeratne dwells at length on how mediatory efforts by international groups and volunteerism (NGOs) are nothing but elaborate efforts to gobble up Sri Lanka. "The peace-process was an argued assumption based on an ideology that generates violence. It was never a genuinely reciprocal response between two parties to settle grievances," he says.

The Mahinda Rajapakse Government has done its bit to contribute to the prevailing sense of cynicism on international mediation as well as the role of the NGO sector in conflict management. The Government's antipathy towards Norway, particularly its role as a facilitator of peace, is well known. Before the November Presidential election, Mr. Rajapakse vigorously advocated easing out Norway and disbanding the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) in view of his belief that both have only helped the LTTE consolidate.

The Government wants to tighten the noose around the NGO sector as well. It believes some of the NGOs have done more harm than good to society. A new diktat from the Government makes it obligatory for the NGOs, international and national, to obtain a no-objection certificate from the Department of Defence (DoD) before August 31 to continue their work in the country. A section in the Government seems convinced that such a measure is needed to weed out NGOs advocating and advancing the Tigers' goals.

There is little doubt that the Norwegian experience has not worked the way it was envisaged and intended and that a small group of NGOs is working against the interests of the Sri Lanka state. Nevertheless, the question is: does the solution lie in throwing the baby out with the bathtub? Certainly not and it is amply evident in Muttur, now reduced to a ghost town after the Government-LTTE clashes. The 50,000-odd displaced just do not want to return. The town is also out of bounds for the NGO community thanks to the tragic execution of 17 NGO workers in the town and the reluctance of the Government to let them into the town.

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