Ritual and Recovery in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka by Jane Derges

Author:Jane Derges [Derges, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780415690652
Google: wcbtJgJiwCkC
Goodreads: 13716090
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

‘Thick masks’ and silence

In the north, exchanges concerning sensitive issues such as political allegiances had a tendency to be muted. There was a degree of self-censorship regarding certain topics, as well as a sense of watchfulness. If someone spoke out, as occasionally happened, either by stating a view or by asking questions deemed out of bounds, this incurred discomfort at one level and ostracism at another.9 Any reference to critical or political arguments in conversation are brief and usually hidden among everyday mundanities; vigilance is required if clues are not to be missed. The pervasive atmosphere of suspicion that dominated northern Sri Lanka gave rise to a variety of responses that avoided the expression of open dissent or spontaneous protest. Suarez-Orozco (1990) contends that recounting acts of atrocity is a form of ritual that promotes healing and at the same time publicly reviles the injustice. This is without doubt the case in settings where immediate threat has been removed – either through the successful end of war or through a change in the political/military system – but, as he himself concludes, there is still silence for those whose relatives have disappeared, or where war is unresolved. In Sri Lanka, to speak of collecting ‘testimonies’ (Green 2004: 190) [1998] as a method of healing seemed premature, given the prevailing atmosphere of insecurity and threat. Silence or self-censorship with regard to contentious subjects was the only recourse for those who could not safely express their opinions about what was happening in their midst. Many had to reconcile themselves to silence for the sake of family, friends or colleagues, having learnt it was necessary through often bitter personal experience.

In southern Sri Lanka, perpetrators and survivors of the JVP uprising in the late 1980s continue to live in close proximity as neighbours (Perera, S. 1995, 2001) – an ongoing source of distress that remains largely neglected by the political and judicial system. The concept of ‘neighbour’ – a once comforting construct – has become unstable following the conflict and many feel alienated from those around them. Perera highlights the increase in reports from the local press of ghosts seen in many southern villages and towns of people lost or killed in the struggle, and suggests that these stories may have become a way for people to understand their suffering, loss and guilt. These ‘post terror’ (1995: 46) discourses appear to help in adjusting to the realities of intense violence without the necessity of directly confronting those experiences. Argenti-Pillen (2003) has described how, in southern Sri Lanka following the JVP uprising, violence was contained through ‘cautious discourses’ (p. 122) and the performance of cleansing rituals to negotiate complex relations between former adversaries. This maintained a perimeter of safety that allowed victims to live alongside perpetrators of violence. These studies show the importance of acknowledging how the effective articulation of extreme violence in complex settings often occurs through culturally specific means.

There is the suggestion that the victims of disappearances and torture only become ‘particular’ when violence

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