Ceylon Today Editorial

CBK’s Observation on War Widows

20 February 2017

The first woman executive President of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who is also the Chairperson of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation, became the first high profile politician to highlight the plight of war widows in the North and the East.

Being the daughter of two Prime Ministers, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at a very young age saw her mother, the late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike becoming a widow following the assassination of her father, the late Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

Later on Chandrika became a widow too, with two children following the brutal assassination of her husband Vijaya Kumaratunga in the early eighties.

As the former President as a child was brought up by her widowed mother and later on as a widow and a single mother bringing up her two children, will certainly understand the agony and challenges faced by widows.

It has been estimated that more than eighty thousand war widows live in the North and the East and the majority of them were still struggling to get proper livelihood support.

Kumaratunga speaking to foreign correspondents in Colombo a few days ago, said Tamil women who survived Sri Lanka's separatist war now face widespread sexual exploitation by officials in their own community as well as from the Army.

Kumaratunga who is the prime architect of the present Government with the motto of good governance has courageously pointed out an issue which others were reluctant to speak out.
The former President is absolutely correct regarding malpractices including sexual abuse taking place at grass-roots level in the war-torn areas in the North and the East.

There were several incidents of officials demanding sexual favours from women affected by the war in the North and the East.

"Even to sign a document, women were abused and of course some people in the armed forces continue to commit sexual abuse", she said.

The former President went on to say that when women have livelihoods, they will be empowered and feel safe from exploitation.

Following her comments, the Army has denied any involvement in sexual misconduct in the war-torn areas.

The Army in a statement while categorically denying the comments made by the former President on Army personnel over sexual misconduct has stated that because the Army has not been involved in civil administration concerning civilians, accusing Army on sexual abuse was baseless.

However, there were reports of several isolated incidents of Security Forces personnel involved in malpractices and there were instances of some of them being caught red handed.

The Army in response has also stated that stern action was taken in the past against soldiers for misconduct and expressed dismay over her comments.

The former President, being the present Chairperson of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation would definitely not have spoken off hand, without proper evidence.

In an overall effort of strengthening peace and reconciliation priority should be given to those who have been directly affected due to the 37 years of war.

So as a responsible elite citizen, the former President has spoken on the issues which remain the stumbling block towards building peace.

Apart from mentioning the safety of the war widows in the North and the East, the former President has also emphasized the need of bringing them out of the traumatic conditions through proper counselling.

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has mentioned that the foreigners cannot be expected to carry out the counselling and it should be carried out with the resources available locally.

Therefore, the comments made by the former President at the foreign correspondents' association were timely as far as building peace and reconciliation from the grass-roots level is concerned.