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Searching for
the Missing in Sri Lanka
By Aaron Goodman
Published in The Toronto Star
Dec. 12, 2004
In the war-ravaged northeast of Sri Lanka, an aging Tamil father
sits on the floor of a Hindu temple, waiting to meet an exuberant,
seemingly tireless oracle. Holding a wand up to a woman’s
chest, the oracle – a hefty, middle-aged man dressed in a
red and gold sari – rocks his head back and forth as if in
a violent spell. Finally, the oracle draws three lines of ash, yellow
and red across the father’s forehead.
“You
want me to tell you about your son,” says the oracle. ”He’s
alive. Someone is keeping him in the south of the country. When
he turns 29, he’ll be all right. Don’t worry, I’ll
give you back your son.”
With the oracle’s news
of his son, the father, Kumaran, covers his face with his hands
and begins to weep. Fourteen years ago, his 18 year-old son was
arrested along with 157 other Tamil youths by the Sri Lankan army
at the nearby Eastern
University. None of those who were arrested have ever been seen
or heard or from again.
For most of the last 20 years, Sri Lanka has been gripped by civil war. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for a separate homeland in the northeast of the country. More than 65,000 people have died in the conflict, and some 200,000 Sri Lankans have moved to Canada as a result of the war.
Aaron Goodman has a passion for making documentaries
about international humanitarian issues. He has done this kind of work
across Asia and North America and considers it a big part of his yoga
practice.
He recently made a documentary about forcible disappearances in Sri Lanka
for The Current, CBC Radio One, entitled "Searching for the Missing:
A story of hope." You can listen to the documentary
But
there is an insidious part of the conflict that we rarely hear about.
Over the last 30 years, security forces and the LTTE have disappeared
an estimated 60,0000 people. Only one other country in modern history,
Peru, has had more people go missing.
Security forces first disappeared 30,000 people in the late 1980s
as they crushed a radical Marxist rebellion in the south of the
country. Throughout the civil war in the northeast, the police and
army have also disappeared thousands of Tamils.
Yet only a handful of low and junior-ranking officials have been
held accountable for these crimes. Many in the chain of command
responsible for disappearances, both in government and the military,
still hold positions of power.
In February 2002, the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE signed a ceasefire agreement. But a year and a half ago, the Tigers walked away from negotiations, claiming their demands for self-government were not being addressed.
Since then, Norwegian mediators have tried, and failed, to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. Meanwhile, the country hovers on the edge of renewed fighting. Last week, LTTE leader Vilupillai Prabhakaran stated that the rebels are running out of patience and are prepared to go back to war.
But even if peace talks resume, it is unlikely that disappearances
will be addressed any time soon. According to Dr. Jehan Perera,
director of the National Peace Council in Colombo, a well-respected
NGO that supports the peace process, the issue of the missing will
only be dealt with once there is a legitimate end to the war.
“There must be a beginning of disarmament within the military and the LTTE,” said Perera. “It is only at that stage that we will be able to address more seriously the issue of disappearances, only when there is a lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict. Prior to that it’s going to be very difficult.”
Aaron Goodman
