July 30, 2005
A week or so before Wesak, the annual celebration of the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha, a medium-sized Buddha statue appeared on one of the main thoroughfares, erected by the Sinhala Auto Drivers Association. Tamil Hindus were outraged and tensions rose. Tamils demanded the removal of the statue. Tamil People's Forum (a representative Tamil body) called for several days of Hartal (a shut down of activity) that led to communal clashes which resulted in 1 death, several injuries and destruction of private and public property. Many Tamil families living surrounded by Sinhala people went to stay in areas dominated by Tamils. Sri Lankan security forces from outside Trincomalee were brought in, a move that generated some fear among the Tamil community.
During the Hartal, there were explosions in both Tamil and Sinhala areas. Nonviolent Peaceforce field team members moved into Trincomalee and did peace patrolling, providing conscious presence, and rapid response to incidents. The NP members also developed connections with the communities, security forces and key elements of the civil society. Nonviolent Peaceforce worked in close collaboration with the Norwegian ceasefire monitoring mission and other international and local groups to try to defuse the situation. These efforts included outreach to Tamil People's forum and Buddhist peace advocates, including a well-known peace monk who sought NP's support to meet the leaders of the Tamil community to initiate the dialogue process to reduce the community tension.
NP's interventions were effective prevention--our team engaged the appropriate authorities and community leaders who brought the crisis to a peaceful resolution. While doing so, the team also worked with others (the Norwegian monitoring mission, for example) to provide a protective presence which reduced the level of violence and may well have prevented further violence.
The report of one incident from the team might further illustrate the situation in Trincomalee and the approach of our teams: NP Vehicle was stopped forcefully by more than 20 highly charged up Sinhala youth near the statue. They banged NP vehicle and accused NP for facilitating a meeting between Buddhist monk and LTTE political head. They criticized INGOs of being biased. The field team members present on the spot preferred to talk to them rather than running away. Carefully listened to the grievances of the angry mob and clarified the misunderstandings. After one hour discussions, the mob said sorry to NP filed team members for misbehaving and banging the vehicle. They asked NP to visit anytime in their areas.
Nonviolent Peaceforce Programme Director
Christine Schweitzer