The Crisis of Muslim Minority in Sri Lanka
Clashes between minority Tamil and Muslim residents in the past week in Sri Lanka’s war-torn eastern region are threatening to sour a peace process that has so far been anything but smooth. While thankfully no shots have been fired since a ceasefire arrangement between the government and Tamil rebels (LTTE) last December, there have been many complaints by either side of truce violations.
The government says the rebels are recruiting teenagers to their army and harassing the population while the LTTE says the military has failed to vacate government buildings in the north and the east by the period prescribed under the ceasefire agreement. But perhaps the worst crisis to emerge — even before peace talks open probably in August in Thailand — are the clashes between Tamil and Muslim residents.
For long the two communities, who account for the bulk of the population in the country’s eastern parts while the island’s majority Sinhalese community is a minority there, have lived side by side peacefully until the mid-1980s when the rebels stepped up their campaign for a separate homeland for the Tamil community in both the north and the east.
With parts of the east dominated by Muslims — though not with the same influence as the Tamils have in the entire northeast region — conflicts emerged particularly in the eastern Ampara and Batticaloa districts. Frequent clashes occurred during the mid to late 1980s with Muslim militancy also emerging as a key factor.
Armed groups taking exotic names like the “Gaddafi” faction — and to some extent surreptitiously backed by the state — emerged to protect the rights of the Muslims in Muslim-dominated areas. With Muslim militancy at its peak, frequent clashes were reported between residents of both communities particularly in areas where Muslim villages are sandwiched between Tamil settlements.
Muslim militancy gradually faded away in the early 1990s with the emergence of Mohamed Ashraff — who died some two years back in a helicopter crash — as founder leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and his subsequent entry into parliament along with members of his party.
This was also due to the LTTE’s dominance in the northern and eastern region over other Tamil groups. In 1989-90, Muslims in the north were ordered out of the region by Tamil rebels and forced into refugee camps in the northwestern region or southern Sri Lanka. This was possible only in the north because of a small Muslim population in Mannar on the northwest coast and Jaffna, heart of the rebel demand for a separate homeland.
Although occasional clashes have erupted, the two communities have been living side by side without any serious disturbances. With governments now and in the past conceding to Tamil demands for more autonomy in the north and the east, Muslims — concerned they would be marginalised under a Tamil-dominated autonomous regional administrative council — have been demanding a separate council that would rule in areas that they dominate.
This proposal has also been seriously considered in recent years, particularly with the powerful influence of the SLMC as a power broker in Sri Lankan politics. The party has been able to make or break ruling administrations like what happened late last year.
Then the SLMC, led by Rauf Hakeem, a young and dynamic lawyer who was mentored as a politician by the late Mohamed Ashraff, broke away from the People’s Alliance government due to differences with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and the ruling alliance. This triggered a crisis in the government and when a group of ministers also broke away to join opposition ranks, it was not possible for the ruling party to secure a parliamentary majority resulting in early parliamentary polls being called.
Last week’s crisis was precipitated by an attack on a Tamil rebel political office in the eastern town of Mutur by Muslim residents. There are different versions of that incident and the crisis that followed. Muslims have complained of extortion by the rebels in recent months during the peace process prompting even US Ambassador Ashley Wills to raise concerns over the extortion issue.
The clashes between the communities left six people dead, scores of others injured while at least 100 shops were set on fire in the east. A night curfew has been enforced in some areas while ministers, government officials and senior military chiefs have visited the area in a bid to calm frayed tempers.
Some ministers have spoken to rebel leaders and both sides are trying to bring the situation under control. While the Norwegian-led Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) is primarily responsible for monitoring the ceasefire between the two sides and investigating any violations, the ethnic clashes and tensions between the two communities is a new situation and needs some government intervention to back the SLMM role.