UPDATE: 2008-05-29
Nonviolent Peaceforce teams in Batticaloa District have taken up significant facilitation, coordination and rumour control activities in the wake of spreading communal tensions and post-election violence the last week of May.
The community relationships built up over time are now helping NP to assist with important cross-ethnic cooperation and peace work. Two key NP links have been the Community Information Network (CIN)i in Valaichchenai (initiated by NP), and the Interfaith Leaders group in Batticaloa (Batti) Town and Kattankudy with whom NP has been in close association.ii
It appears that fall-out from the May 10 Eastern Provincial Council elections, including rivalry for Chief Minister of the Eastern Province between the TMVP leader and a Muslim Politician from Kattankudy from the same coalition, has been contributing to the current upsurge in instability and violence.
Beginning on 22 May in Kattankudy - the largest of Battcaloa District’s three Muslim towns - two TMVP cadres were killed. This was quickly followed by reprisal killings of 3 Muslim civilians, which sparked the abduction of Muslim civilians in other areas, the current violence, and now widespread fear and civilian displacements in some of the Muslim/Tamil border areas.
NPSL immediately started activating its networks and also contacted authorities and others involved in recent election monitoring given the likely link between political rivalries and the communal violence. While the was a high-level Muslim party (SLMC) and TMVP leadership dialogue started, there was little communication existing at the grassroots level. Such communication sis critical to prevent further violence and control the rumours fueling more tension. NPSL is now focussing on this work.
On the first day of the violence, a Muslim religious leader invited NP to join an inter-faith meeting at the Catholic Bishop’s house. At that meeting police officials and representatives of the newly appointed Chief Minister Chandrakanthan (also known as Pilliyan from the TMVP) attended. After what was described as a positive discussion, a joint statement calling for no violence was broadcast the following day within communities. The message was also shared at the mosques before Friday prayer on the 23rd.
The Batti team has been meeting with other local organizations and peace advocates, including a member of the Batti Peace Committee and a representative of Foundation for Co-Existence to discuss the prevailing tense situation in district. The NP team remains in daily contact with civil leadership and government authorities.
In Valaichchenai, north of Batticaloa town, Tamil and Muslim shop keepers from the Valaichchenai Union Traders Association approached the NP team there, requesting that we host a meeting so they could discuss how to protect each other and prevent the violence from erupting in the main market which links the two communities.
From the 24th to the 26th, NPSL again received information of violence between communities centered around Eravur, another Muslim town located between Batticaloa and Valaichchenai (and thus our two district filed offices). This was due to the abduction of two Muslim young men that morning, who were later released. By 26th evening there had been some confirmed property damage; one Sri Lanka INGO staff member traveling through the area was injured; other civilians were also injured, including knife wounds to a Tamil woman, and another Muslim women was killed during crowd control efforts. Reports were also received that stranded civilians were staying in religious places following the sudden suspension of bus transport. Other unconfirmed rumours were also circulating, creating escalating tension and fear on both sides.
On Tuesday 27th of May, the police informed our Batti team that a curfew was imposed in Eravur town, meaning NP could not pass through. In response, the NP Batti Team surveyed the situation from the south; and NP Valaichchenai team from the north. Batti Team was able to travel with a Christian priest with good ties with the Muslim community to assess the status of the displaced Tamil civilians. They spoke with local government servants who were registering the displaced people and the local TMVP leadership.
NP learned that the driving fears of their displacement were rumours of a planned attack by Muslims and the Special Task Force (of the police) on Tamil civilians. NP was able to collect information about the approximately 500 civilians displaced, including many children, to report back to the humanitarian community for their emergency assistance. Teams also shared information with local civil and religious leaders from the Batticaloa town.
The same day in Valaichchenai, Muslim and Tamil members of the Community Information Network had an emergency meeting - with the support of NP - with 18 different organizations in the area. Afterwards one of the members expressed how deeply grateful and happy they were to be talking and working together in this situation, given what was happening further south in the District. The Network asked NP’s help to make an appeal to the government to have 24 hour patrols in the areas where Muslims and Tamils lived in proximity to each other. They also asked for accompaniment to deliver the letter and engage with local security force and police authorities, which NP did.
On Wednesday May 28th Batti team members traveled with two community peace actors to Eravur Town to meet with 15 civil Muslim leaders. They were able to learn more about Muslim concerns, and shared what they had seen and heard from the displaced Tamils the previous day. The previous rumour that there was a planned attack on Tamil civilians by the Muslim community and the STF (Special Task Force) upset the Muslim community members who said there was no conflict among civilians of the two communities. They reviewed the options for addressing this rumour and fear, including possible meetings with local area TMVP members, members of the Tamil civil leadership, and/or Tamil civilians who had displaced. Also of concern was that Tamil houses in border areas that had been left unattended may be looted by opportunists and then be blamed on the Muslim community, fuelling more hostility between neighboring communities. Their hope was that the Tamils would quickly return to their homes.
Dialogue is continuing between the higher level leadership within TMVP and SLMC. NPSL will now use their community contacts and relationships to approach local offices of the TMVP and/or civil leaders to identify what steps are possible to improve the situation with those directly in the communities. NP Batti plans to organise and facilitate a round table meeting with both Tamils and Muslims, and including security forces (Police, STF and Sri Lanka Army) if both conflicting parties agree.
In Trincomalee District, the district to the north of Batticaloa, the NP Trinco team responded to the potential for escalation there by approaching our partners in the Peace Committees through telephone conversations and a visit with main (the “Mother”) Committee in Mutur to offer support. The committee members NP met with reported that Mutur town was without tension, though some of the smaller village areas in the patch-work (Muslim/Tamil/Sinhala) district reportedly had ‘some tension’ as a result of the conflicts within Batticaloa District, but no violence has erupted.
This Brief has been prepared with information from written and verbal reports from the NPSL Field Teams in the East—29 May 2008
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1. The CIN is a network of community based organizations in the Kalkudha electorate area surrounding Valaichchenai in the northern part of Batticaloa district. NPSL has played a central role in supporting the formation and continued operation of the network. The Network, consisting of both Tamil and Muslim community-based organizations, share information and serve as an early warning and early response mechanism. On the request of the membership, NP is still the central ‘convener’ because we are seen as a nonpartisan organization whom all sides can trust.
2. The Batticaloa Interfaith Committee is a citizens committee established by religious leadership in Batticaloa Town since 2002.