Another Opportunity To Overcome 30 Years Of Mistrust
Jehan Perera
This week marks the 30th anniversary of the worst manifestation of inter-ethnic conflict that set Sri Lanka on an irreversible path of civil war that pitted two armies representing the state and rebels against each other. Inter-ethnic trust and social relationships were sundered, it seemed for all time, when violent mobs went on the rampage, and the security forces of Sri Lanka stood by inactive for the most part. As the days of that fateful week past, most of the Tamil population living in Colombo fled to welfare centres or were shipped off to the north and east where the Tamil people lived in greater numbers. The city of Colombo resembled a war zone in which buildings and vehicles were in flames and lifeless bodies could be seen on the roadsides. But the considerable number of hapless Tamils who were protected by their Sinhalese friends and colleagues testified to the human bonds that transcend ethnicity and continue to lead to inter-ethnic cohabitation and give hope of a Sri Lanka that is united in heart and mind and not only in territory.
As a student studying ethnic conflict even at that time, I chanced upon a mob burning Tamil-owned shops and inquired of them why they were engaging in this destruction. One of them asked me with anger whether I did not know what the LTTE had done in Jaffna to our boys, and this was their return. The conflation, or identification, of the Tamil people and LTTE as being one and the same in the minds of that mob, and more perniciously, in the government of that day, was evident when it failed to declare an immediate curfew to put a stop to the rampaging mobs, or order the security forces to maintain law and order. Read More
