Misreading the Post-tsunami Political Landscape in Sri Lanka: The Myth of Humanitarian Space

Abstract

The 2004 tsunami is one of several recent high profile natural disasters that raise important questions about ‘disaster geopolitics’ or the relationship between humanitarian assistance for victims of natural disasters and the stabilisation of political spaces. In Sri Lanka, it was thought that a ‘silver lining’ would result from the collaborative effort on behalf of victims of the tsunami by the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, belligerents in a decades-old war. Ultimately, however, the contest over tsunami aid deepened the rift between the two sides. This paper considers this misreading of the post-tsunami political landscape in Sri Lanka by examining two key spatial assumptions contained in popular humanitarian discourses: that humanitarian space can be identified, represented and maintained separately from political space, and that humanitarian relations are confined to the places where a disaster has occurred and chiefly serve its victims. Several key events are highlighted in the paper including the curtailed visit of the UN Secretary General in January 2005 and the failure of the Post-tsunami Operational Management Structure, a mechanism designed to allow both parties to the conflict to distribute aid. The paper concludes with a discussion on the difficulties of setting politics aside even during times of humanitarian crisis.

Notes

1. The 2002 ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has collapsed, although it existed in name only as of September 2007. Military confrontations and human rights violations by both sides are on-going. There were more than 6000 casualties between the date of the tsunami (December 2004) and June 2007.

2. In 1987, Sri Lanka's Northern and Eastern provinces were temporarily joined as a potential solution to the ethnic problem and awaited a referendum. A vote never took place, however. The central Sri Lankan government has controlled the merged Northern and Eastern provinces since 1990. I refer to these areas as the North and East, and to the region in its entirety as the North-east.

3. Tamil-speakers account for approximately 25 per cent of the population and are far from being a homogeneous group. Most would argue that characterising the conflict as one between ‘the Tamils’ and the Sinhalese is a gross simplification. Tamils are geographically discontinuous and divided according to caste, class and religion. Muslim Tamils, or Moors, are a distinct cultural and political group and have a long and troubled history with the LTTE. Sinhalese-speakers account for about 74 per cent of the island's population, are mostly Buddhist and predominate in the southern and central parts of the island. Note that these figures are based on the 1981 Census, the last island-wide census conducted. The more recent 2001 Census omitted 7 out of 25 administrative districts, most of which are populated by Tamils and Moors.

4. Also known as Doctors Without Borders.

5. The ICRC is part of the Red Cross Movement, which is comprised of the ICRC, the Red Cross Federation and the National Societies. The Red Cross principle of ‘Humanity’ is based on agape, universal love of mankind and the desire to protect humanity from suffering.

6. In 1986, in Nicaragua vs United States, the ICJ had to resolve whether or not US aid to the Contra rebels qualified as humanitarian assistance. In its decision, the court recited the Red Cross Fundamental Principles and, rather than defining the term humanitarian, described what the ICRC did—namely “to prevent and alleviate human suffering” and “to protect life and health and to ensure response for the human being” (see ICJ Reports, 1986, p. 115; quoted in Kalshoven, 1989, p. 518; also discussed in Minear and Weiss, 1995a).

7. Gillian Rose (1993), for example, discusses the visual ideology intrinsic to European landscape art whereby a masculinist gazer enjoys a disembodied and inaccessible positionality, while the object of his gaze remains subordinate and powerless (see also Cosgrove, 1994; Driver, 1995; Jay, 1993; Haraway, 1991). Gearoid O'Tuathail (1996) examines a specifically ‘geopolitical gaze’ that naturalises complex and contested struggles, making such practices as imperialism or political violence appear as inevitable. The geopolitical gaze, he argues, is a powerful enforcer of the political and spatial status quo, which marginalises those who would contest it. Analysing development discourses, Timothy Mitchell (1995) describes how the utility of the Nile River valley image renders those international organisations using it invisible at the same time that it disempowers ‘beneficiaries’ by focusing on technical rather than political solutions.

8. The LTTE proposed the ISGA in November 2003, which would have given the LTTE temporary authority to govern the North and East until a final settlement with the GoSL could be reached. The GoSL suspended peace talks with the LTTE soon after receipt of the ISGA proposal.

9. P-TOMS is also sometimes referred to as the ‘Joint mechanism’ or JM.

10. The P-TOMS Memorandum of Understanding is available at http://www.peaceinsrilanka.org/peace2005/Insidepage/PressRelease/GOSLreleases/GOSLPressRel270605.asp. A PDF version of this and other key documents related to P-TOMS are available at http://www.tamilnation.org/conflictresolution/tamileelam/norway/050624jmtext.htm.

11. Part of this idea is a fear that dividing space will be akin to ‘diluting’ the Sinhala nation and spell the end of the Sinhala ‘race’. Despite the fact that the Sinhalese have often identified themselves as the island's first and only authentic primordial inhabitants, there is evidence to the contrary. Both Tamil and Sinhala nationalist projects are invested in ‘unmixing’ the island's hybrid identities using violence and other means, according to Rajasingham-Senanayake (2002).

12. Wimal Weerawansa, the JVP Propaganda Secretary, discusses the LTTE and the P-TOMS in an interview posted on the JVP website at http://www.jvpsrilanka.com/interview/interview_with_wimal_june_bt.htm.

Additional information

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Margo Kleinfeld

Margo Kleinfeld is in the Department of Geography & Geology, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, 113 Upham Hall, 800 W. Main Street, Whitewater, Wisconsin, 53190 USA. Fax: [phone]. E-mail: [email protected].