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SRI LANKA: No End to Ethnic Tension
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO (IPS) - Sri Lanka's unending ethnic war is the biggest block to social development goals pledged by nations five years ago and under review now at a global conference in Geneva, say experts.
A sharp escalation in violence since April by Tamil Tiger rebels is not only draining funds and government energy away from efforts to reduce poverty and joblessness, it is also negating a key goal set by the landmark March 1995 World Summit on Social Development.
The heavily armed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are battling for a separate home for minority Tamils in the Indian Ocean island nation, alleging discrimination by the majority Sinhala community.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in ethnic violence that broke out in 1983 and in its early days saw vicious race riots in which scores of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs.
''Every time a bomb explodes in Colombo, Tamils in the city shudder and worry whether they would be attacked,'' says Maheswary Velautham, a Tamil human rights lawyer.
''The Tamils had a lot of faith in President Chandrika Kumaratunga solving this problem peacefully when she took office in November. But all their hopes have been dashed,'' he adds.
Declining public faith in the government's ability to find its way out of the crisis shows that Sri Lanka has a long way to go in keeping its promise to ''promote social integration'' made with 185 other nations at the Social Summit held in Copenhagen in 1995.
President Kumaratunga was among the 117 prime ministers and presidents who met in the Danish capital for the largest gathering of heads of state and government that pledged to put an end to poverty, unemployment and social disintegration.
Five years later the Sri Lankan government is presenting its progress report card to a special U.N. General Assembly Session in Geneva that is taking stock of efforts made by nations towards the 10 Social Summit goals.
Leading social development experts here wonder what Social Services Minister Sumedha Jayasena would have to tell the Geneva conference.
''If you look at all the issues that were raised at the 1995 summit and pledges made, Sri Lanka has failed in most or all of them,'' says Tudor Ariyaratne, leader of Sri Lanka's biggest community-based NGO, Sarvodaya, who won Asia's version of the Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay award for community development.
''Social progress...what nonsense. We are on reserve gear...we have hit the bottom,'' he adds.
Others disagree. According to Ranjit Wanigaratne, a social development consultant with a United Nations agency, 'there has been substantial progress on social development in the past decade though this is not the popular perception.''
The nation has gains to show in the fields of literacy and women's empowerment, but these have not been matched by economic growth.
Experts attribute various reasons for this, but agree that the ethnic conflict has been a major factor in hobbling economic growth. There are little signs yet of a beginning to the end of one of the world's worst and longest running internal conflicts.
''Kumaratunga is committed to end the war but she is a loner. Both the main political parties - who are responsible for this state of affairs - are bickering over politics while people are dying,'' says Ariyaratne.
The ruling People's Alliance (PA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) are working hard to prepare a political peace package to bring the Tamil Tigers to the negotiating table.
But most political analysts are sceptical and believe that the peace initiative will have no effect on the Tigers. Peace groups, supporting minority Tamil rights, have increased in recent years, but at the same time Sinhala hardliners are firmly resisting any peace deal.
Ariyaratne, a Sinhala, says moderate Tamils are having a tough time, caught between the government and the rebels.
''There is little change in the past five years. The war has escalated, the Tamils living in the capital are constantly under threat and the two parties fight over politics. The whole issue has stagnated,'' says Sivanesa Chelvam, a Tamil newspaper editor.
The war has forced the government to find extra money to buy more arms for its troops battling the Tamil Tigers. This has meant that fewer funds are available for crucial social development initiatives.
According to Ariyaratne, Sri Lankan hospitals are still crowded due to fewer doctors and drugs are in short supply. ''There have been various changes in the education structure over the years but I don't see any improvement in the system,'' he adds.
Sri Lanka has, however, progressed in the field of women's rights. ''While women's groups are becoming more vocal, men also realise that they cannot take women for granted,'' says Ariyaratne.
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Has the world lived up to its 1996 commitments..?
Solidarity 2000 starting 17th of June!
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The 1996 Copenhagen Social Summit final report in English, French and Spanish.