Failure of Reconciliation in Sri Lanka and risk of reproduction of war?

Abstract

Sri Lankan civil war was ended in 2009, keeping a great role to be played the actors in terms of peace building. Among them reconciliation has become the foremost approach in peace building discourse. According to the current discourse, the civil war has ended with a unilateral war victory the ethnic conflict is still going on with no war conditions and with absence of holistic approach to solve it. Therefore, there will be a great contingency for the reproduction of civil war in future. Thus, it is very important to identify the major issues which direct to the reproduction of war in future. Civil war is also a kind of disaster which can be categorized as a manmade disaster. Hence, this paper seeks to explore the following research problem. Why that is the reconciliation become a difficult and complex in Sri Lanka? This study employed a multiple methods to gather data including a survey and in-depth interviews. The survey was conducted in the districts of Mannar, Vauvniya, Mullativu and Thrincomalee with a total sample of 200. Similarly 30 in-depth interviews were carried out with policy makers, politicians, academics, journalists, activists of civil society and researchers. When it comes to the initial findings, following reasons can be identifies as the potential facts for the reproduction of civil war in future. 1) Lack of unanimity amongst the actors within the government regarding the post war reconciliation, 2) Confrontational agenda between the government, civil society organizations and international community, 3) Ambiguity maintained with regard to policies on reconciliation and peace building, 4) Contradiction among the key policy makers in the reconciliation process and 6) Greater deal of the ignorance among the general public. Therefore, national security and restoration of normalcy are being regarded as the salient issues in the post-war landscape in Sri Lanka. Hence, end of the civil war, it has opened up a new opportunity and time to focus more on sustainable peace and space to deal with the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka. In this no war condition, still Sri Lanka has filed to overcome the risk of war in future.