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Sri Lanka Remembers To Forget
Sri Lanka Remembers To Forget
Sri Lanka Remembers To Forget
Forced forgetting
At the crux of the governments theory of reconciliation lies the need to move on and bring closure, all euphemisms for closing off public discussion about violations of human rights
and humanitarian law during the last stages of the armed conflict. According to this theory, forgetting is an integral aspect of bringing about reconciliation. On the contrary, acknowledgment, remembering and memorialising are important components of any reconciliation initiative, and should be viewed as forms of symbolic reparation. As the report on [16] Memory and Memorialisation in post-conflict Uganda, published by the International Centre for Transitional Justice, states, Symbolic reparations aim to show understanding of and empathy with pain and loss and acknowledge suffering and injustice. Arthur Danto, quoted in Sturken [14], points out that, We erect monuments so that we shall always remember, and build memorials so that we shall never forget. Monuments are not generally built to commemorate defeats; the defeated dead are remembered in memorials. While a monument most often signifies victory, a memorial refers to the life or lives sacrificed for a particular set of values. The statues of soldiers, guns and armoured tanks that one sees dotted all over the North are therefore monuments, built to remember the great war victory, not memorials. Scant regard is paid to the need to acknowledge and commemorate the loss of lives, property and livelihoods, and the suffering and trauma of the war affected population, particularly those caught in the last stages of the armed conflict. If anything, the use of the word celebration to describe the ceremonies on 18 May, defies the public to even feel grief, let alone express it. Even families of the Sri Lanka armed forces are expected to show only pride in and happiness about the achievements of their departed family members; they too are expected not to express their loss, loneliness and grief. Like in most post-war contexts, the question of who can be remembered is controversial. For instance, can families of slain LTTE cadres engage in private memorial activities to remember their loved ones, not in order to glorify or remember the LTTE, but to remember the individual as a family member? On 18 May, the Daily News quoted the Army Commander of the northern Vanni region, who declared that [17] Any citizen has the right to commemorate their loved ones but no one can commemorate terrorists who were disloyal to the government. Hence, families whose loved ones were members of the LTTE (whether they joined voluntarily or were forcibly conscripted) will likely not observe his or her death anniversary in a visible manner due to fear of state censure and harassment, since the act is viewed as an act supportive of the LTTE, and hence a threat to national security. Even within communities the act of remembering and forgetting can cause tension, conflict and animosity. For instance, former LTTE cadres state that during the armed conflict they were willing to sacrifice their lives for the armed struggle, yet now due to numerous reasons, including military surveillance, their sacrifices are not remembered or respected by the Tamil community, and they often receive little community support in re-integrating into society. It could be argued that the sections of the Tamil community which supported the LTTE are forgetting due to fear of state retaliation, or did the community always have a utilitarian relationship with the LTTE? Many former cadres claim that at rehabilitation centres they were instructed to forget the past. Yet, constant interrogation by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and surveillance and monitoring of ex-cadres force them to remember their past. Some cadres said they asked us to forget the past and now when we are trying to move forward, they wont let us. They continue to ask us about our time in the LTTE.
Internecine violence has also not been forgotten by the Tamil people. Even today, there are those who express anger towards the LTTE, as well as non-LTTE armed groups that were responsible for violations in the past; this is often directed towards former members of these groups who now hold positions of power within the government. In terms of reparation, internecine violence raises many complex questions. For instance, who apologises and provides restitution for the violations committed by the LTTE and other Tamil armed groups? Who apologises and provides restitution for the crimes committed against the Muslim community by the LTTE? What is the role of Tamil political parties, particularly members of these parties who were previously members of armed groups? What about the right to reparation of the families of those who disappeared during the JVP insurrection?
well-being of dependents of disappeared persons. It points out that there is no definition of terrorist provided by the state, resulting in the police providing clearance in this regard, i.e., it is not a judicial determination. The Commission also recommends that those who lost their jobs due to time away from work due to searching for disappeared family members should be re-instated if they could prove the period of absence was spent trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the disappeared person. The Commission calls for the reversal of proof in the case of custodial torture, and urges the recognition of rape/sexual assault in custody as torture. It also notes evidence of sexual violence and points out it is used as a tool to control a community. In Sri Lanka we might consider beginning our attempts to commemorate a war for which the central narrative is one of division and dissent, a war whose history is highly contested and still in the process of being made [14] not only by looking atthe past at the violence, loss, violations and grief but also to the past, at the progressive and rather bold, if unimplemented, recommendations of past Presidential Commissions. [31] This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 licence. If you have any queries about republishing please contact us [32]. Please check individual images for licensing details. Source URL: http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/ambika-satkunanathan/sri-lankaremembers-to-forget Links: [1] http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/ambika-satkunanathan [2] http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflicts/sri-lankan-civil-war [3] http://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/democracy-and-government [4] http://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/culture [5] http://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/conflict [6] http://www.opendemocracy.net/topics/civil-society [7] http://www.opendemocracy.net/countries/sri-lanka [8] http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity-regions/security-in-south-and-central-asia [9] http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity-themes/reconciliation [10] http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity-themes/peacebuilding [11] http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity-themes/transitional-justice [12] http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.opendemocracy.net/print/72827&t=Sri Lanka remembers to forget [13] http://twitter.com/share?text=Sri Lanka remembers to forget [14] https://courses.marlboro.edu/pluginfile.php/45112/mod_page/content/45/Marita%20Sturken %20The%20Wall,%20The%20Screen%20and%20The%20Image.pdf [15] http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=SandahiruSeya [16] http://ictj.org/publication/we-can%E2%80%99t-be-sure-who-killed-us-memory-andmemorialization-post-conflict-northern-uganda [17] http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/05/18/sec02.asp [18] http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/ReparationsProgrammes.pdf [19]
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