SAIS Goes to Sri Lanka
[May 2011 Issue]
By the International Law & Organizations and South Asia Studies Programs
Through a generous grant from the Starr Foundation, the International Law and Organizations Program sponsored an academic field trip to Sri Lanka over spring break, led by the Director of the ILAW program, Professor Ruth Wedgwood, and Associate Director, Tiffany Basciano, with support from South Asia Studies Program Manager, Rahul Madhavan. Fourteen ILAW students explored issues surrounding the nearly three decade ethnic civil conflict, the country’s impressive economic development, and Sri Lankan culture. While there, we met with a variety of officials and institutions, including senior government officials, such as the Secretary of Defense, the Governor of the Central Bank, and a member of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), leading members of UN agencies and the U.S. Embassy, as well as a variety of non-profits, including Sri Lanka Unites, the Asia Foundation, Emerge Global, and the Humpty Dumpty Institute. In exploring the country’s textile industry, we met with MAS Holdings, South Asia’s largest intimate apparel manufacturer.
Our cultural explorations included a lecture from a famous archeologist and preservationist, regarding Sri Lankan archeological sites, and a visit to the Sacred City of Kandy, including the Temple of the Tooth—a UNESCO World Heritage site. The students also had a roundtable discussion with their Sri Lankan counterparts at the Public International Law Department at the University of Colombo.
As we met with more organizations and individuals, there seemed to be a consensus and a sense of relief that the bloody conflict is finally over. The war came to a decisive and violent end in May of 2009. Thus, it is apparent that peace was not forged through efforts at national reconciliation, but more perhaps due to a national exhaustion: a breathlessness from the constant security checks (still abundant in the city, though perhaps with a more symbolic rather than pragmatic role), the constant fear of bomb threats, family members killed, or having disappeared, and certainly a numbness from the constant bombardment of information and reports of an epic national struggle to suppress the Tamil Tigers.
However, with the end of the conflict has come a window of opportunity for national reconciliation and peace building. Sri Lanka Unites, a nonprofit led by a dynamic and energetic Sri Lankan native, has taken the initiative to not exactly force reconciliation, but to define it. Bringing together groups of young people from the Tamil majority North and from the Sinhalese majority in the South for several week-long recreational and educational retreats is a small but necessary first step. The hope and future of Sri Lanka’s peaceful existence depends on these vibrant youth, who learn to see beyond an artificial hate, and to recognize a common purpose in his or her fellow Sri Lankan.
Our trip was but a small glimpse into the lives of these fascinating people and will forever be ingrained in the minds of those who spent a short spring break in Sri Lanka.
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