Sri Lanka

Visaka Dharmadasa is founder and chair of the Association of War-Affected Women and Parents of Servicemen Missing in Action and secretary of the Kandy Association for War-Affected Families. Struggling to end the bloody civil war that has gripped Sri Lanka for the last 20 years, she educates soldiers, youth, and community leaders about international standards of conduct in war and promotes the economic development of women across conflict lines. She proposed guidelines to the army for identifying soldiers’ bodies, such as keeping dental records and wearing and respecting ID tags, and is suing the government to force DNA testing of soldiers’ remains. Ms. Dharmadasa published a booklet in English, Sinhala, and Tamil to raise awareness about the importance of combatants’ identification tags and adherence to international laws addressing the proper treatment of prisoners of war, such as international humanitarian law and Articles 16 and 17 of the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field.

Ms. Dharmadasa’s peace-building activities include:

• facilitating communication between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) when negotiations were floundering, including bringing messages from the LTTE to the government explaining their temporary withdrawal from the talks, and leading a delegation of prominent individuals from both sides to meet LTTE representatives following the breakdown;
• bringing together civil society leaders across the conflict line to discuss core issues in a process parallel to the official peace talks;
• lobbying the government to reciprocate releasing soldiers and civilians, resulting in the release of 10 alleged LTTE members;
• mobilizing cross-community dialogue in which women from each side of the conflict come together to express grievances and share strategies to stop the war;
• signing a July 2002 resolution created by a coalition of Sri Lankan women’s groups calling for women’s inclusion in all aspects of the country’s peace process;
• coordinating a program on war-affected women and designing workshops on rehabilitation, re-integration, and reconciliation for the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka;
• coordinating a reconciliation process between mothers of missing soldiers from the South and mothers of disappeared youth of the North;
• organizing the “Mothers of Sri Lanka” petition project for the Association of War-Affected Women, which resulted in nearly 100,000 signatures on a petition calling upon both the government and the LTTE to end the prolonged war; and
• planning the launch of the “Healing Minds Dialogue Process,” which brings together grassroots groups facilitating peace and stability.

return to top