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Independence Day Printable Version PRINTABLE VERSION
by Harini Dias Bandaranayake, Sri Lanka Feb 6, 2008
Peace & Conflict   Opinions
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In my childhood, February of 4th, I recall it to be a wonderful holiday. But not so this year, certainly because of the present generation of children of my country. The lead up to Sri Lanka’s 60th anniversary of Independence from British colonial rule had preparations, but of an unusual kind – instead of the excitement and decorations on the streets of the capital city, this year’s Independence Day celebrations were preceded by a blood trail, left behind by the many who died of bomb blasts, suicides attacks and claymore mines blown up indiscriminately one after another, like a game of dominoes.

The numbers were telecast over the news day after day like rapid gunfire too unreal for human ears and yet too real for disbelief.

Saturday morning – a public bus full of pilgrims blown up killing 18, injuring another 51; Sunday morning – a grenade attack at the Zoo, injuring six; Sunday afternoon – a suicide bomber blows herself up at a train platform in the Central Railway station, killing 17 including an entire team of school baseball players and injuring 91; Monday morning – hidden bomb explodes a transformer damaging several homes; Monday afternoon – another public bus blown up by a claymore mine, killing 17 and injuring 27; Monday evening – a claymore attack on a tractor transporting soldiers in a high security zone kills two and injures another four…..And the numbers are adding up too fast for me to keep count at this point, as they have been over the last several decades.

My mind has given way to overwhelming anger, sadness, and a great sense of disillusionment at the unreal reality of the country that is my home, and yet so unrecognizable from what my ‘protected’ childhood memories recall. It is a sad blight that has engulfed all communities of this country, once pregnant with such potential for great things, now its people barely surviving under the shackles of war brought on by blind prejudice and misunderstanding fostered by political heavyweights through decades, and the ever engulfing waves of economic hardship and a sense of all-pervading fear and paranoia.

However, the plight of the Colombo urban community in recent years is in no way more disturbing than the literally hundreds of thousands of people – men, women and children – in directly war-affected parts of the country in the North and East over at least three decades, who continue to languish in makeshift camps for the displaced. The war has ripped families apart, torn down infrastructure including schools, hospitals, tanks and water wells, not to mention destroyed hundreds of acres of farmland, now hidden under wildly over grown jungle cover and laden with landmines in which the Army and the LTTE stage their battles in the name of… well, no one is sure anymore.

The conflict has stripped families of their livelihood, and robbed the country of economic growth in agriculture and manufacture, set back the country’s growth by a generation. As a result of the prevailing emergency situation, human rights violations have soared and extra-judicial killings and abductions have become the order of the day. The country’s revenue is being bled for the upkeep of the military and for the purchase of ammunition and to engage in military operations. Investment and high-revenue earning sectors such as tourism has taken a hard beating, unemployment is rampant in the services sector and the quality of life for which Sri Lanka could boast of being the highest in the South Asian region is now showing signs of astounding regression.

These more obvious realities apart, the country does not possess adequate indicators to measure the psychological and emotional affects of decades of war and fear among people – both directly and indirectly affected. Children especially are acutely affected as many in war-torn areas have had their schooling disrupted and the qualities of education, healthcare, nutrition and sanitation have suffered, not to mention the mental agony and trauma of losing the security of parents and caretakers.

One of the more dire circumstances of the almost 30-year long conflict (in my opinion, the worst) is the gradual isolation of communities and the stark physical separation of different ethnic groups fostered by succeeding governments and forced upon communities by the LTTE. As a result of road closures, communal cohesiveness alluded to by ethnic communities out of a sense of fear and insecurity, the suspicion of one another and the lack of respect for the other’s ethnicity and the inability to acknowledge a singular citizenship and identity as a ‘Sri Lankan’ has further strengthened communal prejudice and complicated the issues that led to the conflict. Therefore, even if hostilities were to end and both warring factions were to lay down arms tomorrow, the road to ethnic healing and trust-building will perhaps take another two generations if not longer. This prejudice further encouraged by meddling parties in the guise of ‘concerned international community’ and various organizations, including INGOs and so-called human rights organizations, has only festered the wound still more with no space for healing.





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Harini Dias Bandaranayake


Harini Dias Bandaranayake is a social/relief worker and coordinates capacity building for the youth in South Asia to work towards regional peace building and conflict resolution and to advocate and address the various social, political, economic and environmental issues homogenous to South Asia.
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