Let them grieve

Several individuals were arrested last week under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), for their participation in commemorations for slain LTTE cadres. 27 November was named Maaveerar Naal or Great Heroes Day in 1989 by LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. 

Remembrance of combatants who fought against the State, with some of them committing heinous crimes against civilians is not a simple matter of remembrance and memorialisation. Yet, remembering those individuals, a vast majority of whom died in conventional battles rather than while carrying out terrorist acts should be a right of their families.

Civil wars do leave many unhealed wounds. Unlike wars with external forces, a civil war can scar a country for generations. Wars with external aggressors are often sources of unity for a defending country while civil wars often perpetuate the divisions and animosities within a country and seldom offer closure even when the guns and cannons fall silent. 160 years since the end of the American Civil War there are still reverberations of that conflict even today. The fault lines that divided the Northern Union and the Southern Confederacy still echo in the debates over race, limits of authority of the federal government or even socio-religious issues.

The civil war in our own country has been framed in numerous ways. The South framed it as a contest for the territorial integrity of the land fought between the LTTE, a terrorists’ organisation and the Sri Lankan State. Yet the fundamental cause of the conflict was the alienation of the Tamil community from the governance of the State since independence. Whichever perspective the conflict is seen, what is undeniable is the enormous human cost of the conflict. At least 28,000 personnel from the security forces and police sacrificed their lives for this cause. An equal number of LTTE cadres and tens of thousands of civilians, mostly Tamils, were also killed. Many more were wounded. All these persons were citizens of Sri Lanka and deserve to be remembered. 

However difficult these discussions may be, they must be had and the country allowed to heal from the wounds that have been inflicted on its citizenry. The acknowledgement of the human cost, especially the deaths of civilians during the final phase must be in the very least acknowledged. In cases where there were deliberate killings of civilians those responsible must be held accountable. The loss of a whole generation of men and women and Sri Lanka’s lost opportunity towards economic progress and prosperity.  

The fact that the Government of Sri Lanka not only clamps down on commemoration of Maaveerar Naal that remembers LTTE combatants but also on remembrance events around 19 May which mostly remember the large number of civilians killed in the last phase of the war is evidence of the failure to grasp and address the need for memorialisation of events that took place during the civil conflict. The fact that there is no such hindrance for the commemoration of JVP combatants, many who had committed equally heinous acts of violence as the LTTE also shows the necessity to bridge the ethnic divide on memorialisation. 

Mourning a loved one is one of the defining characters of humanity. Denying that right, even for those who had taken arms against the State and committed acts of violence against civilians would be a denial of that basic humanity. Such acts of denial would not lead to healing and peace but perpetuate divisions and hatred among communities. After 14 years since the end of the conflict, it is long past the time to heal those deep wounds of divisions. Allowing families to grieve their loved ones would be a good starting point for this process.