Sri Lanka's 26 Year Civil War Is Over-- But For Many The Violence Continues

Anuradhapura Bodhi shrine

I've been to Sri Lanka twice. The first time was in 1970 when I drove across Asia from Europe and then took a short ferry ride from Rameswaram near the southern tip of India, across the Palk Strait to Talaimannar, about 20 miles. The ferry service was discontinued in 1984, eight years after the beginning of the Sri Lankana civil war between the (Hindu) Tamils in the north and the majority (Buddhist) Sinhalese everywhere else on the island. The Tamils wanted-- and almost won-- their independence because they claimed they were being discriminated against. When I first went I couldn't detect any tension or social dysfunction more pronounced than anywhere else between Turkey and India.

I had the fondest of memories of Ceylon-- which had changed its name to Sri Lanka-- from my 6 week stay in 1970. So I went back a couple decades later. It hadn't changed much-- literally. Almost all funds that would have gone into infrastructure maintenance and development went into the civil war. There was no chance of going to places like Jaffna in the north or Batticaloa and Trincomalee on the east coast since they were where the actual war was being fought. So we split our time between the beautiful beaches down south between Hikkaduwa and Hambantota and the highlands, mostly between Kandy and Anuradhapura. We missed a major massacre at the Bodhi shrine and Wilpattu national park in Anuradhapura-- a couple hundred Sinhalese tourists and pilgrims murdered by Tamil rebels. We could still see the blood stains all over.

From the beginning this war-- like most civil wars-- has been bitter and bloody and vicious beyond belief. The main victims, of course, have been civilians. At least 80,000 people were killed, probably many more. The Tamil Tigers were masters of suicide bombings and purposely committed atrocities against Sinhalese civilians to provoke excesses against Tamil civilians in order to bolster their own never solid claims to leadership. The Sri Lankan military was only too glad to respond in kind and civilians were, if not targeted, victims of artillery and air force bombardment. The war ended last week with the death of the Tamil Tiger leadership.

Today's NY Times estimates that 280,000 civilians' lives are in danger, most of them internal refugees, as the military hunts down and kills last remnants of the Tigers.

The government, which barred journalists from the combat zones and rejected international calls for a cease-fire, stuck to its hard-line stance on Friday, hours before Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, was scheduled to make a 24-hour visit here. Mr. Ban was to meet with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and visit a refugee camp called Manik Farm in the northern district of Vavuniya, where 250,000 of the total 280,000 refugees are being sheltered.

After circling over the combat zone in the country’s northeast section, Mr. Ban’s chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, described the area on Friday as “ravaged,” with many burned-out vehicles and clusters of battered tents.

“What was truly striking was the almost total absence of human habitation,” he said at a news conference here. “It was almost eerie.”

Asked about an investigation into possible war crimes by the Tamil Tigers and the government, Mr. Nambiar said the issue would probably be raised at a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council next week.

But the president, addressing tens of thousands of people outside Parliament on Friday afternoon, dismissed any investigation. “There are some who tried to stop our military campaign by threatening to haul us before war crimes tribunals,” Mr. Rajapaksa said. “They are still trying to do that, but I am not afraid.”

In the final weeks of the war, government troops cornered the Tamil Tigers in a tiny strip of coastline in the island nation’s northeast. Tens of thousands of civilians caught in that area, and used as human shields by the Tamil Tigers, have now been moved just south to the Vavuniya district.

UPDATE: Devastation

Sri Lanka has kept journalists away from the northeastern parts of the island where the Tamil Tigers put up their last stand and where tens of thousands of refugees are now stranded and desolate. But a group of journalists was allowed to fly over the area on a helicopter inspection tour with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today. They described the area as "a wasteland, its earth scorched and pocked by craters. Cars and trucks lie overturned near bunkers beside clusters of battered tents... Civilians who escaped the zone said they came under intense shelling from both the rebels and the government."

Ban appealed to the government to quickly improve conditions for the nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamil civilians displaced by the fighting. He also called for aid groups to get unfettered access to the camps and welcomed Rajapaksa's promise to resettle the bulk of the displaced by the end of the year.

...Ban and other world leaders have called on Rajapaksa to quickly address the grievances of the country's minorities in the wake of the war. The Tamils, 18 percent of the population, claim systematic discrimination and harassment by the Sinhalese majority.

For a quarter million Tamil refugees things are looking very, very bleak.