Discussing Women, War & Displacement

Supply of arms from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia with other countries, mushrooming of several armed paramilitary groups with the endorsement of Colombo and the militarisation of societies in Sri Lanka have become a major challenge for peace makers in the island nation, said Shreen Saroor, a renowned human rights activist from Sri Lanka. Expressing her views on “Women, War and Displacement in Sri Lanka", Ms Saroor went on revealing that the paddy fields (of Sri Lanka) had virtually turned into mine-fields.

Hosted by Manipuri Women Gun Survivors Network, and Control Arms Foundation of India on November 9 in New Delhi the discussion also included the speakers K.R. Ratnavale (Attorney-in-law of Sri Lanka), Bhagat Oinam (Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University) with Riju Raj (law practitioner) and Ashima Kaul (journalist). Several NGOs, lawyers, women's groups, media persons, students and other eminent individuals from different walk of life took active part in the programme.

The Sri Lankan Conflict started in July 1983 predominantly between government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE was fighting for the creation of an independent state named Tamil Eelam in North and East of Sri Lanka. The protracted armed conflict in Sri Lanka between government forces and the rebel LTTE has led to 70,000 deaths and the internal displacement of over one million people, said Binalakshmi Nepram, the secretary general of Control Arms Foundation of India.

She also added that presently almost half a million people (total population 21 million) remained internally displaced. According to UNHCR, the number of refugees is 134,948 as per the data collection work in June 2008. The possibility of a lasting peace came in December 2001 when a ceasefire was declared. The ceasefire later broke down on January 2, 2008. During the ceasefire, over 4000 people were killed and many more displaced. As a new year approaching, the situation continues to be extremely tense in Sri Lanka.

It is with this background that Ms Shreen spoke and described her personal experiences of war, displacement and humanitarian crisis. She narrated a moving account of her own family who was displaced in the year 1990 from the Mannar Region located in Northern Sri Lanka by the LTTE. She then started working with some of the 75,000 Muslim who were evicted to the eastern region of Puttalam.

It was in 1999 when she launched Mannar Women Development Foundation, a multi-ethnic, multi-religious organisation. They rescued 10 evicted Muslim women and sent to Mannar in North of Sri Lanka as they wanted to recapture their identity. The foundation now works in 101 villages and has the largest micro-credit programme in the country. Later it started working on the issue of domestic violence too.

The discussion concluded with the appeal to the vigilant South Asian civil societies to work in solidarity to bring the conflict and humanitarian to an end. Asserting that the military might can never resolve a conflict, the participants unanimously emphasised for a massive movement that could help in disarmament and finally making space for justice, human rights with livelihood, health and education of the mass.