Sarath Fernando - A Small But Loud Global Voice

So sad to hear this morning of the death of Sarath Fernando, a friend and untiring advocate for the poor, not only in Sri Lanka but throughout the world. My first thoughts are for his wife and close family. Then my thoughts turn to the importance of celebrating his huge contribution to sustainable development, human rights and justice built on equality.

I first encountered Sarath in the last years the 1980s. He had assisted Asia Partnership for Human Development (APHD) in the research for a report on Free Trade Zones (FTZ). The study found a comparable situation, namely the terrible conditions workers, faced in export processing zones throughout the world. The development of 'investment friendly' free tax EPZs was an economic development strategy Sarath and many others blamed on the Bretton Woods promulgated structural adjustment programmes. Like many of us he was frustrated by the fact that this global study was left to gather dust on the shelf and not used to spearhead an international campaign to bring improve employment rights in FTZs. The study hit at the heart of the huge injustice Sarath believed was core to neo-liberal economic policies.

By the later half of 1980s Sarath, and others engaged in struggles for land reform and pro agricultural policies, had become targets of para-military groups in Sri Lanka. They were considered enemies of both insurgent groups as well as Sri Lankan government associated paramilitaries. Devasarana, a centre for peasant farmers and closely associated with the Church of Ceylon, and where Sarath was then 'moderator', was amongst those groups having to arm themselves in self defence.  Hundreds of families took refuge there in fear of murderous raids by various armed groups.

One memorable moment in 1991 or 1992. Sarath took me to meet families of the disappeared in a community hall near Kuneragala, where he lived. It was a very poignant and emotionally challenging afternoon as I, and an other European visitor, listened to many painful testimonies from women telling of the abduction and disappearance of husbands, sons, fathers and sometimes daughters. Some accused the JVP insurgents, others paramilitary groups associated with parliamentarians. I was merely a young employee of CAFOD, an international development agency, but somehow these women believed I had some access to advocate on their behalf. It was a cry of despair when all local forms of advocacy had been closed to them.

That was one of the single most important experiences which moulded my life and career. I told Sarath how powerless I felt at hearing all these testimonies and he simply replied 'Never under-estimate the power of solidarity'. A really important message for me.

As we drove together up to Kandy we past the grim site of a burnt patch on the side of the road. Sarath explained that this was a common way the JVP and paramilitaries publically disposed of bodies of those executed; their bodies thrown onto heaps of burning car tyres. Later on that visit to Sri Lanka I met Richard De Soysa, a Sri Lankan TV broadcaster and journalist, just hours before he was abducted and killed.

A year later I was involved in helping to organise an international conference in Thailand (1991?). It brought together a wide variety of civil society groups, leaders from Sri Lanka with international advocates. Sarath was there reminding us throughout our deliberations of the terrible conditions faced by tea plantation workers, FTZ workers as well as the on going struggle for self-determination of the Tamils of the North and East. The JVP uprising, he insisted, could never be considered in isolation to the widespread discontent with the unresponsive governing class. We forged a common advocacy approach in the context of a abandonment of the rule of law in Sri Lanka. Many of our common friends and colleagues were under death threats or actually abducted and frantic attempts were being made to identify their places of detention and then to advocate for their release.

This conference started a long long association with Sarath and his wide network of activists. I always considered Sarath ageless, as those surrounding him, both at work and at home, were always as young and exuberant as he. Sarath never tired of travelling and struggling for justice going anywhere he thought he could help in the global struggle. In Via Campesina http://viacampesina.org/en/ he was well renowned for raising issues of landless peasant, food security and the threats to small famrers of agri-business. These were issues which he was address just days ago before his untimely death.

I visited him at home just 12 months ago knowing he was finding walking more difficult and was now often at home, reading, writing and meeting friends. Not a bit of it; Sadun his son told me Sarath was attending a consultation amongst farmers in the south, at least 7 hours travel away. A MONLAR training for new members, an organisation Sarath's enthusiasm gave birth too and will long survive him. 'He doesn't walk too well'  I recall Sadun saying, 'but if we can get him in a minivan he'll still go'.

Sarath was a communicator but we can't really say 'par excellence'. He had so much to say and was so passionate he frequently didn't know where or when to stop. He once met me on arrival at Katunyake airport and told me I was chairing the opening session of a meeting of the integrated programme called People's Platform For Development Alternatives. The name itself encapsulated Sarath's vision. He took a major role in bringing peasant farmers, plantation workers, Fisherfolk into this common platform. I complained that I had just flown in from Manila (or somewhere) and desperately need 2 hours in bed. 'You only have to make a few opening remarks and start the introductions', he assured me.

Suitably press-ganged I went to the hotel where the conference was gathering and went to the platform table and started the opening session. Struggling to keep my eyes open, fighting against the whirring ceiling fans and cacophony of crows outside, I asked the delegates to introduce themselves and say something of their expectations. At the tea break I turned to a colleague and said 'Phew! thank God I got through that OK - I must now go sleep for a few hours'. He then told me that when Sarath started on his 'expectations' my head had suddenly fallen forward with a loud snore and hit the microphone with a thud. This had stopped Sarath in his tracks. I'd woken immediately, totally unaware, and asked the next delegate to continue.

He mesmerised. I am not entirely certain I totally bought into his analysis of the global economy, especially when he once firmly told me that the Global Development Goals were just another way of dressing up theft from of the Developed from the Underdevelopment world. However he was always captivating and once when staying with me in London he launched into a critique of Development Aid Agencies. We left London Bridge on the train home chatting but suddenly we were in East Croydon, way beyond my home stop. We crossed platforms and got the train back this time focusing on finding my home station. Sarath started another lecture on the non-transparency of aid agencies and before I knew where I was we were back where we started in London Bridge.

Sarath's impish smile, his quiet spirituality, his thirst for justice, and his deep deep knowledge and his hunger for more; these are amongst the qualities for which I will remember him. Brevity was not one of his skills but I can't help feel that we would all be the poorer had he spoken less. A remarkable and courageous man I will never forget.

Muthumari Nagar seeks help

This is one of two villages I am trying to raise funds for whilst I am in Sri Lanka.

The Final Days of Nonviolent Peaceforce Presence in Sri Lanka

The Closing of the Batticaloa Office

Chika Onah is NP's Head of Field Office in BAtticaloa. Here he talks about what will happen after NP leaves the District.

What is going to happen here is NP’s former staff in Batticaloa (the National staff) have came together to start a new organization. The new organization has been registered and they want to continue most of NP’s work. They want to equally add additional responsibility to that, like “livelihood and education”, so that is what is going to happen here as from Monday. (24th October) 

There are still needs for protection though you cannot compare the need now to two years ago or three years ago. But there’s still a need for protection and am very very happy that a local organization, like the one being formed by the old staff, is going to take up that.


Equally other networks are being rekindled. I heard from Murthi (a local partner) that they are forming a Provincial Peace Committee now. This will take care of the Eastern Province rather than before when they have a peace committee only within Batticaloa; maybe they have within Trincomalee and Ampara but now they are coming together to form one on a Provincial level.


There are equally other organizations that are really into human rights and protection issues too so they are really coming together to continue the work but I must confess protection needs here is not the same as two years ago it has really really improved. I think our best legacy is seeing that any civilian is protected, whether this is direct protection like the accompaniment we give or the assistance with the process. 

I know it will be very very difficult for anybody to do such a thing but I believe our old staff can. They already know what the meaning of ‘accompaniment’ is, the meaning of presence. I believe they can carry on with this and this is something we saw in our MSC (Most Significant Change) impact study.


During the MSC workshop in Vavuniya one person has said how ‘accompaniment’ achieve a lot of things. They had brought stakeholders together and locally important people agreed to start accompanying civilians who needed particular things, such as Character References, from a Grama.Nildari. (GN - local Government Official) The GN had said he would give but rarely did. But since they had organised ‘accompaniments’, the applicants had started getting their G.N’s certificates. I think that is a very very big legacy.


Another legacy we are living is the capacity building training. Really! anytime we have given the training most participants said, they’ve attended a lot of training but this is one is very very different, in terms of the curriculum, in terms of what they are hearing. You know, they are used to the 'normal training', may be livelihood training, or some business training but they’d never really think that they can protect themselves. All they were thinking is that ‘protection’ is only the responsibility of governments, police.


So these are some of the legacies that NP left behind and you could see even as we are closing we have a lot of training requests for this particular training, 'Basic Negotiations Skills and Threat Mitigation'.


The new organization, 'Yours and Mine - Vision for Community', will continue, together with Human Rights Centre for Social Justice and Community Development and with two other local partners. Now they will really have a lot of trainers who will know the work, together with the ex-NP staff. They will  continue delivering these trainings specially to the Mediation Boards; they really saw the importance of the training.

Equally that was why even the Mediation Board, in Kaththankudi has liaised with the police to see how they can extend the training to the civil protection committee which is a committee between the civilians and the police force

Earl Barthelot was NPO's Programme Coordinator in Batticaloa and has now established a new agency, with former NP staff, to continue to deliver the trainings in protection and negotiations skills they've been doing. so successfully, with NP.


"So for us, and the community, the most important thing was as far as protection is concerned; protecting persons and their accompaniments in Sri Lanka.


I would say there is no-one doing this type of work and without international staff being here no one would have done this type of work.


The way the internationals were trained and the way they behaved with the community was very good because people, the community, felt very friendly with NP’s Internationals. Especially they thought usually in Sri lanka that if you’re international you’re unbiased or you won’t take any sides.


You are a neutral person so they tend to believe you and they will come asking for help. If it is a national or local person they wouldn’t trust you because of the different dynamics, different groups involved in the conflict. So that is what was special with NP.


To all our stakeholders overseas I say ‘Help us as much as you can and we will do our best’."

Human Rights Centre for Social Justice - in Batticaloa

One of Nonviolent Peaceforce's close partners in Batticaloa talks about their work and the assistance they have had from NP. Human Rights Centre for Social Justice is predominantly a network of youth working for the promotion and protection of human rights. It is proof that despite the difficulties many civil society groups face they are still active and working for peace and reconciliation.

Batticaloa Basic Skills Negotiations Workshop July 2011

The Human Rights Centre for Social Justice is a small agency based in Batticaloa and one of Nonviolent Peaceforce's close partners. In a picture below you'll see one of our trainers, Jeya,  leading a discussion group on protection issues in Batticaloa Town in July 2011.  This was a Basic Negotiations Skills and Threat Mitigation training, followed by a Training Of Trainers (TOT) which forms the core of our current capacity building programme. This workshop was attended by 13 men and 6 women all from from the Batticaloa District. The average age of the trainees was 24 yrs with staff and volunteers working together,

‘This area has constant unrest and a new scare of 'Grease Yakkas', only rumoured, is having a fear impact in the Eastern District." says Chika Onah our local Head of Office, "NP wants to increase knowledge and capacity of local change agents/people to deal with protection issues such as these, in the future when NP has left’.  'Most communities are dissatisfied with how police are dealing with these issues’, said Chika, 'There are still protection needs here. The Internationals are leaving but the local people remain feeling more exposed'.


'This is the first time to attend this kind of training' one participants said – 'quite different – this gave us a sense of responsibility for our own protection'.


Human Rights Centre for Social Justice works within the District on Human Rights issues; the rights of displaced people, gender based violence, and they organise 'youth for human rights'. They also have a child rights awareness programme. The founders of the group came from both legal as well as social work backgrounds who come together to help rebuild civil society following the 3 decades long civil war. 

"One issue now spreading fear in the community in Batticaloa District is the suspicion of 'grease yakkas'. A Yakka is a traditional evil spirit and many believe that this mythological 'creature' is being used by political forces to creat instability. The police put this down to rumour but this has instilled real fear amongst the people and they feel their concerns, from the minority community, are not being treated seriously. The workshop discussed how the community can better protect itself and mobilise the different parts of the community to work together to reduce fear and increase security." 


After breaking into small working groups a representative from each group reports back. In this picture the rapporteur compares a protection strategy to the body - different parts of the body have to work together. "These youth in this training are the future for protection in this community. International agencies are rapidly withdrawing but the local situation still remains volatile. These youth can be change agents in building local trust and ensuring longer term security for the community" Chika NP Batti Head of Field Office.

Group work is a vital tool in helping participants really participants get to grips with the concepts. The metaphor of the human body is used. Each group goes away to think of the specific purpose of each part of the body. They then compare that with the specific parts of the community, schools, church, leaderships, courts, police etc. Each plays a part, when working together, to ensure the security of the whole community.


'NPSL sees groups such as HRCSJ an important vehicle in delivering awareness in the community on strategies to improve civilian protection. They play a vital role now in NP's exit strategy. We are trying to build their capacity to respond to protection needs in the future in a community which remains very volatile', said Chika Onah, the local Head of Field Office in Batticaloa.

Our Children's Centres Appeal

Never a dull moment here in Sri Lanka. As some of you who follow my blog will know my organisation, Nonviolent Peaceforce, now focuses its work in the North and East of the country. We deliver training in basic negotiation skills and conflict mitigation. Yes might be a mouth full but we are over subscribed with local civic leaders, Mediation Panel members and even Grama Sevekas (local government civil servants) all wanting to do the short course. 

We also have focused on child protection for several years, initially this was helping in the protection and rehabilitation of former child soldiers and now takes the form of child rights training at a village level. We work with the National Child Protection Authority in selecting and training Child Rights Defenders. An earlier blog post describe a meeting with one.

As part of this child protection programme we have become engaged with two small communities. Karaveddy  in Batticalao District and Muthumarinagar in North Vavuniya District. They both each desperately need a community hall which would have multiple uses, one being as a pre-school and post school youth centre. Can you help us assist the Women's Rural Development Societies of each village to build their simple centres?

The centres will be owned, managed and developed by the WRDSs of both communities and overseen by the local District Secretariat. Our role is simply help then get their voice onto the national and international level to appeal for fund to help them rebuild their communities. Both villages have been brutally affected by war but then more recently by devastating floods.

Details of how you can contribute are here. You can also join our facebook group (Karaveddy and Muthumarinagar Village Support Group)


Thanks

Why do you do the work you do? someone recently asked me!

From my earliest days I have tried to understand what makes people turn to violence. Working closely with communities in conflict, in the Philippines and then in East Timor, I learnt to understand a little about how the long term oppression and denial of justice leads people to take to arms. However although understanding their motives I never found myself in agreement. I believed there were better ways of securing justice, equality and peace and none of these values ever seemed to result from violence.

Sadly as a Country Programme Manager I don’t have many opportunities to work with ‘the people we serve’ but on my visits to the District where we have active programmes I am always humbled by the generosity and huge appreciation shown for us by local the communities with whom we work. On a recent visit to Batticalao a local tea shop owner talked fondly of NP workers who left here 4 years ago. They had clearly had an immense impact on his life that he should recall them in such detail now, ‘Their Tamil was perfect’ he remarked, putting my language skills to shame. Meeting people like that tea shop owner gives me a clear sense of NP’s impact.

We try to use Stories of Change as one method of assessing the impact of our work. Working on issues of conflict and protection such stories are frequently emotionally painful but in a recent workshop one women said of the day, ‘Now I know that my experience, painful though it is, is not unique and I can share now with others and find strength’. I do believe that bringing together networks of people who have all suffered from decades of conflict, is a valuable and needed service here but needs to be done with some sensitivity so as not to re-surface trauma.

It is a popular saying here ‘NP, No Problem’! I like to think that that’s how we work. We try to make what seem intractable problems less awesome and insurmountable. Training people in simple negotiation skills, and to assess then mitigate the risks they face around them, can give them the tools to survive. The war and open battles here have now passed but the many problems which gave way to decades of violent conflict still bubble away. Playing a small part in helping people tackle those problems and reduce the scope for violent confrontation is valuable, life changing and needed.

We all hope at NP in Sri Lanka that the impact we have had during our time here will outlive the phase-out of our presence by the end of 2011. Through our current training programmes we endeavour to pass on the skills we have been using to defuse situations of conflict. We very much hope that the staff of our many local partners, empowered by these skills, will continue to work on the ground in helping civilians protect their space and advocate for their rights long after we are gone. I may not have time to learn Sinhala or Tamil but I believe that the tea shop owner will remember us as people who really did make a difference.