Unforgetting the Forgotten Conflict

There's a humanitarian crisis of devestating proportion currently unfloding in Sri Lanka.

After nearly three decades of conflict, the Sri Lankan Army have the upperhand in the military conflict. The LTTE, the seperatist (by all accounts a ruthless terrorist) group (supposedly) fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the Northeast of Sri Lanka is now reduced to a mere 35 square kilmoters, down from controlling almost 1/3 of the country several months ago.

As the fighting became heavier, stories of heavy civillian casualties are seeping through the iron gate Sri Lankan government has put down in information. According to best estimates more than 2,000 people have died in the last couple of months alone, many more thousands wounded. The number loss of combatants, including Sri Lankan soldiers are unknown.

There seems to be a deliberate desire by the government to keep the costs of this conflict unknown to the Sri Lankan public.

There is deep censorship in the media, through a campaign of fear and intimidation. Journalists are abducted, killed, publicly proclaimed as terrorists, which has resulted in number of senior journalists fleeing the country. The ones who stay practice self-censorship, a sign that that the campaign of fear has worked.

Only pro-government journalists (from the state media) are allowed in the conflict zones, and there's an open and a systematic clamp-down on journalists who dissents the government line, which according to government officials amounts to treason.

Ironically, in Sri Lanka only foreign journalists and media networks has the luxury of a degree of openness. Foreign journalists too are not permitted to enter the conflict zones, except for guided tours by the government, which presents a rosy picture of the situation. The only two independent actors with access to the ground -- United Nations and ICRC -- are not allowed to speak on record because of the politics involved.

With no independent journalists on the ground, one can rely only on government comminques as well as reporting from pro-LTTE websites and pro-LTTE organizations such as the TRO for information, none of which can be relied upon for accuracy. The internet is perhaps the only place where some local voices find a space to disseminate information, even then in a climate of fear.

What follows are links to reports and websites that provides for a better understanding of the conflict unfolding in Sri Lanka.

Two recent feature reports, one by Australia's SBS and Al-Jazera's Dining with Terrorists program provided a good synopsis of the situation in the country. For much more detailed accounts see the two reports by the International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch.

For updating content, Groundviews and Transcurrents are two good sites for following elite opinion on the conflict. Sri Lankan blogoshere at Kottu.org is somehwat activist in nature, and occasionally feature analysis of politics related to the conflict. Our own site, InMutiny is dedicated to bringing perspectives of the conflict generally not seen by Sri Lankan audiences.

-- The Mutiny Crew

Any Tamils? He asked in Sinhalese..

David Blacker, a Sri Lankan writer and blogger, relates an encounter he had with the Sri Lankan security personnel recently. From his blog,

I’d just finished a 19-hour film shoot and was pretty exhausted by the time we wrapped. It was past 3am as we piled into the van that was taking us back to the agency — one of my writers, this client servicing bugger, and myself. It hadn’t been the most stressfree shoot, and tired as I was, my body was tense and I was turning over the next day’s takes in my head — takes that were scheduled to begin at 9am.

The van’s abrupt deceleration snapped me out of my thoughts, and I groaned inwardly as I saw the armed soldier waving us down. Army VCP. I was sitting by the rear door and slid it open before the van had stopped. A soldier peers into the dark interior of the vehicle.

“Any Tamils?” he asks in Sinhalese.

This is the first time I’ve heard this asked at a checkpoint, and the client servicing bugger — Tamil — hands over his ID. The troop looks it over, asks him where he’s from — Ratnapura — and hands the ID back. They’re more interested in my ID, which looks like it’s been through the digestive tract of an elephant thanks to my having gone swimming with it in my pocket, years ago. With a stern instruction to get a new ID, we’re waved off.

A couple of minutes later, the van slows down again — police VCP. Out we get again.

“Any Tamils here?” we’re asked again, in a much more nasty tone. Something tells me trouble’s on the way.

Read the rest of the story here.