Asia / Backgrounder
Sri Lanka: relapse into conflict. Limits of donor interventions
22/05/2007 By Charan Rainford
For over two decades, Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a protracted and seemingly intractable conflict. While its most visible impact has been the death of 65,000 people and the displacement of millions more, the cumulative effect on the country’s social fabric has been profound.
This paper aims to analyse the effect of donor interventions on empowerment and, particularly, how Western action/inaction has impacted on the livelihoods of those affected. It should be noted at the outset that Sri Lanka has gone through several tenuous ‘post-conflict’ stages.
Most recently, following the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) and six rounds of talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), there was genuine optimism surrounding the end of conflict.
However, the relapse into conflict in the second half of 2006 and extending into 2007 throws into doubt the idea that Sri Lanka is in a postconflict scenario, illustrated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) re-designation of the country’s situation as ‘scenario III – high intensity conflict’.
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Keywords
Conflict Humanitarian aid South Asia Sri LankaBio author: Charan Rainford
