Fisheries under fire: Impacts of war and challenges of reconstruction and development in Jaffna fisheries, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lanka's armed conflict highlights the relations between war/peace and development, both in terms of impacts of war on livelihoods and in terms of reconstruction and development as means for peace-building. It should be recognised that the grievances behind a conflict may not be identical with post-conflict needs. Such transformation of development needs is demonstrated by the case of Jaffna fisheries. Whereas the fishery sector was peripheral to pre-war Tamil nationalism, the impact of war has made it central to post-war reconstruction and development. The most obvious obstacle to fishery reconstruction is the massive destruction of fishing equipment. While post-tsunami emergency relief has replaced significant proportions of the damaged boats and fishing gear, little has been done to build local institutional capacity for development and peace. Thus, the strategic links from emergency relief to development and peace seem relatively weak. Another pressing concern is the dismantling of army-imposed security restrictions to create normal preconditions for fishing. As these security regulations are closely linked to the balance of power between the protagonists, development of Jaffna fisheries is highly contingent on progress in the peace process. Thus, the potential for conflict transformation through local fishery development seems quite limited without substantive conflict resolution.

Keywords:

• fisheries
• peace-building
• reconstruction
• Sri Lanka
• war

Acknowledgments

We wish to express our gratitude to Professor N. Shanmugaratnam for valuable inputs, to numerous actors in the Jaffna fishery sector for sharing their insights and data with us, and to the Norwegian Research Council for funding our research.

Notes

1. Our empirical analysis is based on the first author's close affiliation with and research on northern fisheries throughout the years of armed conflict. This is combined with qualitative interviews, conducted by the second author, among key actors in the peace process. Both authors have had numerous conversations with local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in relief and reconstruction in the fishery sector since the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement and after the 2004 tsunami disaster.

2. The first Eelam war broke out after the anti-Tamil riots of July 1983 and ended with the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord in July 1987. The second Eelam war started after the departure of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in 1989 and following the failed peace talks with the government of President Premadasa in 1989–1990, and lasted until the peace negotiations with the Government of President Kumaratunga in 1994–1995. The third Eelam war ensued shortly after the breakdown of the peace negotiations in April 1995 and lasted until the Ceasefire Agreement on 22 February 2002.

3. The four previous attempts at conflict resolution through negotiations include: the Thimpu Talks in 1985, the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987, the Premadasa-LTTE talks in 1989–1990, and the Kumaratunga-LTTE talks in 1994–1995 (A.S. Balasingham 2004, Shanmugaratnam & Stokke in press).