New Orleans Jesuit In The Remnents Of A 25 Year Civil War

Hope that polls will replace law of gun
March 11, 2008

By Simon Gardner
Former Tamil Tigers are favoured in local elections in heavily-guarded Batticaloa. Photo / Reuters
Watch Video: Rebel bomb explodes on day of first poll
Standing by the bullet-strafed ruin of her home in east Sri Lanka, housewife Jegan Devika prays the first poll in over a decade in an area recaptured from the Tamil Tigers will mark the end of the civil war. Devika and thousands like her yearn for a long-elusive, and lasting peace after 25 years of war.

She was forced to flee her home in this former rebel-held town in the eastern district of Batticaloa yet again in 2007 as artillery-backed troops regained the rebels' eastern strongholds. The vote is seen as a test run for eventual provincial elections in the north and east, which the Government regards as the basis for devolution it hopes will go hand in hand with its push to win the war militarily.

But there's a problem. While the result of yesterday's vote was not expected until today, it looked set to won by former Tigers who split from the mainstream group, formed a political party and are regarded as allied to the Government. They are accused of abuses such as child-soldier recruitment, abductions and extrajudicial killings, and have yet to lay down their weapons.

"Contesting elections is good. If peace prevails, life will be better for us," Devika said. "We were unable to live peacefully with all the fighting. If they come again with a gun culture, that will be a problem for us." Like thousands who fled to camps because of the fighting, she and her family are rebuilding their lives from scratch.

Inside, a few clothes hang on a string. Two sleeping mats are spread out on the bare concrete floor. They have few belongings. The legacy of years of war is visible all around, the town peppered with the burned-out, pock-marked ruins of buildings shelled during the 1990s and others flattened last year. The breakaway Tiger faction, the TMVP, is running on a Government ticket for the municipal council of Batticaloa. Pradeep Master, a former AK47 toting Tiger fighter and education-unit head, is the party's candidate for Batticaloa mayor. He says the group's weapons have all been stored in the jungle and will be given up after the poll, and denies accusations of abuses. "When our political right is confirmed, we will hand them over." President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Government has long refused to disarm the TMVP, arguing it could not find anyone carrying guns to disarm - despite the fact residents and aid workers could see them until a few months ago. The group's armed fighters are now conspicuously absent from the streets. Accused of rights abuses and fostering a culture of impunity, the Government is now taking the fight to the Tigers, with near daily land clashes and air raids. Having recaptured the east, it aims to crush them in their northern stronghold this year or next. Some are worried a TMVP win could mean former Tiger-held areas of Batticaloa will remain ruled by the bullet, even after the ballot.

"You can't have an election with people who carry guns," said Father Harry Miller, a Jesuit missionary from New Orleans. "The TMVP in particular have been carrying guns until now. It says the Government has no interest in the Tamil people here or anywhere else for that matter."

Link (here)

Tamil people and Catholicism (here) , (here) and (here)

Tamil people and the Jesuits (here) , (here) and Fr. Constanzo Beschi, S.J. (here)