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Sri Lanka has been ravaged by a tsunami, entrenched poverty and war. Oxfam Australia’s Tsunami Program Officer Danielle Roubin examines the challenges and complexities of doing aid work in a war zone.
A carpenter helps to build temporary shelters in the village of Kandalady, Vaharai, Sri Lanka, for people left homeless after the tsunami. Oxfam Australia’s tsunami work in Vaharai has been hampered by civil conflict. Photo: Jerry Galea/OxfamAUS.
For almost four years from 2002, peace came to Sri Lanka. After a brutal and bloody civil war lasting two decades, the Sri Lankan government and their rebel opposition signed a ceasefire. The bombing raids and gunfire stopped. Families returned to their homes and started to rebuild their lives.
Then, the horrific 2004 tsunami came, disrupting the lives and destroying the homes of many Sri Lankans yet again. Just as they were starting to recover from this devastation, old tensions resurfaced. Now, the island nation is once again a war zone. Families are again fleeing their homes in yet another seesawing of destruction.
Throughout all that time and, indeed for the past 30 years, Oxfam Australia has been working with Sri Lankan communities and local partners on long-term development projects, labour rights activities, and emergencies, with a focus on building peace, promoting sustainable livelihoods and standing up for the rights of women and marginal groups.
We currently have projects in six districts — Hambantota, Ampara, Batticaloa, Kegalle, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa — three of which are either fully or partially affected by the current conflict. One fifth of our tsunami rebuilding work is planned for conflict-affected areas. Many of the homes, livelihoods and community facilities that we helped rebuild in these areas after the tsunami, have once again been destroyed due to the current violence and mayhem.
“This is the reality of our work in Sri Lanka,” Oxfam Australia’s Sri Lanka Country Representative Gowthaman Balachandran says. “Steering our tsunami and long-term development programs around the daily complications of the conflict, while also responding to the emergency of war and assisting displaced communities.”
The conflict between the rebel group, the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the majority Sinhalese government has developed from ethnic divisions which have existed since independence. The LTTE is calling for a separate Tamil homeland or ‘Eelam’ in the north and east of Sri Lanka, while the Sri Lankan Government remains firm in maintaining a unified state. The situation has been further complicated by the emergence of a splinter Tamil group known as the Karuna faction.
It is this deadlock which is at the centre of the conflict. Since 1983, the north and east of Sri Lanka has been a war zone, devastated by aerial bombings, landmine attacks, suicide bombs, jungle clashes and the recruitment of thousands of child soldiers — some as young as 12.
By the time of the 2002 ceasefire, more than 65,000 people had been killed. Since the resurgence of violence about 18 months ago, an additional 4,000 people have died and more than 223,000 people have fled their homes1 to live in temporary camps or with family and friends.
Coincidentally, much of the violence has been concentrated in areas that were devastated by the 2004 tsunami. Fortunately for aid organisations like Oxfam, the relative peace at that time enabled access into all tsunami-affected regions. Through our partners, we built houses, classrooms and infrastructure, provided loans to people to restart their businesses and conducted health and skills training to men and women.
The ceasefire also enabled us to expand our long-term peace building work in Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim communities through cultural exchanges, joint livelihood ventures and the reintegration of child soldiers. Things were improving, Sri Lanka was rebuilding and the future was hopeful.
Sadly, this progress came to a halt when rumblings of tension in late 2005 escalated into full-scale war by November 2006.
A hostile environment like this paralyses development work and often reverses it.
A convoy of tractors carries families displaced by renewed conflict in Sri Lanka to camps in Valaichchena. Photo:REUTERS/Stringer, courtesy www.alertnet.org.au
“It often means we can’t work where the need is. The situation shifts daily and it’s a complex challenge to operate programs and plan for new ones.” Gowthaman says.
“Our livelihood work with communities is suffering. We have supported people with activities such as rice harvesting, however people have become displaced by either violence or bans on access to certain areas and they can’t harvest. By the time they return, their livestock and assets have been looted or destroyed. In such a volatile environment, there is a lot of fear and uncertainty to invest.”
Even simple things like transporting materials to build shelters, is extremely problematic and time-consuming.
“A community that needs to bring in 10 bags of cement has to write a letter which goes through the chain of local government and finally to the military checkpoint before the cement can be brought in,” Gowthaman explains.
“On the other side, they have to inform the rebels of the purpose of the cement and get their approval. It’s a hugely complicated process, and that’s just for one load of cement. The same has to then be done for the next load of cement, the next load of sand, and anything else that has to be brought in. You can imagine the construction delays as a result.”
The diversion of resources from long-term projects that reduce poverty, to emergency relief in camps for displaced people is another reality. Oxfam Australia is currently supporting about 3,500 displaced families with food, relief items, clean water and health awareness campaigns.
“The moment conflict occurs, our partners, who have a record of proven capacity, are the first people the community calls upon,” Gowthaman says.
“They have to drop what they’re doing and start responding to displacement by setting up camps, supplying food and taking care of the elderly, sick and injured people. This is a necessity, but of course it impacts upon the other work they’re doing.
“We also have examples where partner staff have had family members killed in the conflict or lost children to forced recruitment. In one partner area in Vaharai, 100% of the population is displaced, including the partner staff. The trauma and stress on staff and partners is huge.”
Because of difficulties operating in the conflict-affected areas in the north and east of Sri Lanka and the pressure to spend tsunami funds, some international agencies have shifted the focus of their tsunami work to the south where rebuilding can continue unfettered.
“Despite the difficulties of operating within this context, we have a responsibility to communities in tsunami-affected districts and we remain committed to working in conflict-affected areas where communities are most vulnerable,” Gowthaman says.
“We remain optimistic that the fighting will cease. One area, Vaharai, is slowly reopening and we hope to be able to restart our programs there soon. We are joining other organisations in Sri Lanka and internationally in the call for a peaceful solution to the war. We are planning for when we can return to these districts, engage in programs that provide a long-term benefit to communities and eradicate poverty and build lasting peace in Sri Lanka. That is our hope.”