Camilla Orjuela

Building Peace in Sri Lanka: a Role for Civil Society?

This article deals with civil society in the ethnically polarized violent conflict of Sri Lanka. It spells out the possible role of civil society in peacebuilding, while at the same time problematizing the civil-society concept and pointing to the problems faced by civil society in Sri Lanka in taking on this role. Civil-society actors in Sri Lanka strive to contribute to peace processes (1) addressing ethnic divides and public opinion with education and awareness-raising programmes, as well as cross-ethnic dialogue, (2) addressing politics with popular mobilization, advocacy work, and informal diplomacy, and (3) addressing economic issues through reconstruction and development. However, civil society in Sri Lanka has been weakened by political patronage and the protracted war. Like Sri Lankan society, it is to a large extent ethnically divided, and popular mobilization has through history been nationalist and violent rather than pro-peace. Although civic peace organizations work hard to take on a peacebuilding role, their activities are often project-oriented and top-down, rather than mass-based and bottom-up. Moreover, critical assessments of the impact of small-scale activities and analysis of the linkage between them and the larger conflict context (in which the work of similar organizations as well as external forces have to be taken into account) need to be further developed, by civil-society actors as well as researchers.

Winning the peace: conflict prevention after a victor's peace in Sri Lanka

How can a relapse into violent conflict be prevented in Sri Lanka? This article examines how the case of Sri Lanka effectively exposes the limitations of the international discourse and practice of conflict prevention. Conflict prevention in Sri Lanka has to take place within a global and domestic context which is largely unaccounted for in the conflict-prevention literature and policy discourse. Changes in the international power balance over the last decade have decreased the room of manoeuvre for actors such as the United States and European Union while giving Asian powers such as China—with a different approach to conflict prevention—more influence over domestic policies in countries like Sri Lanka. Moreover, the conflict prevention discourse and ‘tools’ tend to assume a negotiated peace agreement where the conflict parties have an interest in preventing conflicts rather than merely suppressing them. The significant power asymmetry between the winning and the losing sides in the Sri Lankan conflict, coupled with the lack of power or interest of international actors to influence Sri Lankas domestic affairs—have rendered ‘conflict prevention’ a tool for continued domination and containment of conflicts. The article further highlights the risks that conflict-prevention measures may exacerbate conflict or undermine other conflict-prevention measures. A number of challenges for conflict prevention—in the areas of (1) demilitarisation/militarisation, (2) political power sharing, (3) justice and reconciliation, and (4) post-war reconstruction and economic development—are addressed.

Corruption and conflict: connections and consequences in war-torn Sri Lanka

In the transition from war to peace, one key challenge is to ensure that those who gained something from the war can be convinced to support the peace. At the same time, however, it is crucial to avoid reproducing corrupt practices and inequalities that fuelled the conflict. The problem of corruption during post-war peace-building has gained considerable attention recently, academically as well as in policy-making circles. This exploratory case study of Sri Lanka traces and problematises the complex linkages between corruption and conflict at the shift from war to peace, building on field research in Sri Lanka before and after the end of the war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009. The article illustrates how global resource flows and politics have enabled conflict-fuelling corruption in Sri Lanka, and how local experiences of corruption feed into the popular grievances which have both caused and kept the conflict going. The end of the war has not presented a break with the corruption-conflict links of the wartime—and these connections will have implications for reconstruction and reconciliation in the country.

Friction and the pursuit of justice in post-war Sri Lanka

This article engages with friction between international and local actors in an era of globalised transitional justice processes with cases from post-war Sri Lanka. We find that in the context of a victors peace, the prevailing actor can mobilise ordinary people against international transitional justice initiatives, and can stage localised processes which do not involve the grass-roots level to any real extent. An actor-oriented perspective sharpens friction as an analytical concept by moving beyond the broad categories of conflicts between the local and the global. Our analysis highlights four significant actors in post-war justice: the internationalised state, domestic constituencies, the international community and diasporas, whose encounters, roles and internal complexity determine the outcomes of transitional justice processes.

Civil Society in Civil War: The Case of Sri Lanka

This article argues, using the case of Sri Lanka, that what is theoretically lumped together as ‘civil society’ is not uniform, neutral or necessarily pro-peace. In Sri Lanka, the civil society sphere is shaped by colonial heritage, post-colonial structures of political patronage and the growth of an NGO sector dependent on foreign funding. Civil society is geographically and ethnically divided and comprises struggles both in favour of and against a negotiated settlement to the violent conflict. While popular mobilisation in the war zone is largely controlled by the guerrilla organisation, limited spaces for dissent also exist. Civil society in Sri Lanka, as in other war-torn societies, should not be simplistically understood but be recognised as a sphere with conflicting struggles which can influence peace processes in various directions.

Corruption and identity politics in divided societies

Corruption is a major problem for populations in various parts of the world. This article argues that to understand the problems and dynamics of corruption, we need to understand how discourses and practices of corruption (and anti-corruption efforts) are intertwined with the construction and contestations of identity. Identity politics is a salient feature in peaceful political struggles, as well as in contemporary armed conflicts, which are often characterised by the politicisation of collective identity (ethnic, national, religious) for the violent pursuit of power. The article outlines and discusses four ways in which identity politics and corruption intersect. First, it points to the often blurred lines between private and collective benefit from corruption, revealing the implications of group identity for how corruption is conceptualised. Second, it shows how corruption may exacerbate grievances along identity lines. Third, it highlights how corruption can be used strategically in identity-based conflicts. Finally, it explores how corruption may encourage cross-ethnic solidarity and mobilisation that defy conflict divides.

Hybrid Peace Governance and Illiberal Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka

This article analyzes hybrid peace governance and illiberal peacebuilding in postwar Sri Lanka. While discussing the kind of hybridity that has emerged, it focuses specifically on the international ...

Violence at the Margins: Street Gangs, Globalized Conflict and Sri Lankan Tamil Battlefields in London, Toronto and Paris

This article explores the global dimensions of violent conflict and the parallels and links between violence in the diaspora and the homeland. It does so by discussing Tamil street gangs in London, Toronto and Paris. The Tamil diaspora played a key role in the war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which raged between 1983 and 2009. In spite of being a marginal phenomenon in the Tamil diaspora, Tamil street gangs became part of a wider culture of fear within the Tamil community and possibly reinforced the LTTE’s dominance over and fundraising in the diaspora. Although some of the rivalling gangs have been cast as pro- and anti-LTTE, gang violence cannot be interpreted as a direct continuation of conflict from Sri Lanka but has to be understood in relation to marginalization and identification in the city of residence. In everyday life in the diaspora, ‘the gang’ has been a way for some young Tamil men to strive for respect, riches and heroism, employing a mixture of references to gang culture and the LTTE and building on both ethnic and geographical identifications. The larger Tamil community, on its part, has been eager to dissociate itself from the street gangs as they threaten the image of the Tamils as law-abiding and well-adjusted migrants.