The events that surround the history of the Sri Lankan conflict, their impact and interaction with other events, are still highly contentious. As a contribution to this ‘live’ debate, the Peace and Conflict Timeline (PACT) project was developed as a participatory initiative to help those with an interest in the Sri Lankan conflict gain a deeper understanding of the conflict’s roots, manifestation and trajectory and to promote discussion around events, themes and experiences of peace and conflict related events.
We invite you to participate.
PACT team, Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA)
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Kannan Arunasalam said,
Press Release
Society for New Communications Research Announces Excellence in New Communications Award Winners
The PACT concept was recognised by the Society for New Communications Research for its innovative use of new media. Kannan Arunasalam and the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) received awards of merit at the Society’s awards gala in Boston, USA on 5 December 2007.
The Society honours the innovative work of individuals, corporations, nonprofit organisations, educational institutions and media outlets that are pioneering the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities, virtual worlds and collaborative technologies in the areas of media, marketing, public relations, advertising, entertainment, education, politics and social initiatives.
The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) is a global think tank dedicated to the advanced study of new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business, culture and society.
For more information about the Society and the awards, visit http://sncr.org.
SB said,
While I agree with principal events highlighted I feel the timeline has focused on one conflict – the conflict between Sri Lankan Tamils and the Sri Lankan state. If we assume the main problem has been our inability to build a state where many identity groups can live together, there are other crucial events missing. For example take over of assisted schools, many of which were under Christian churches in 1962, the signing of an agreement with India to repatriate Indian Tamil population, etc. Similarly JVP violence which led to killing of a large number Sinhalese youth points to a conflict between a section of the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan state. If we take these into account many other events can be added. Even in the case of the Sri Lankan Tamil population, where there are so many intra-Tamil conflicts, the situation has become extremely complicated. This also calls into question the methodology of a ‘uni-linear’ timeline and how useful it is.
PACT team said,
We are only taking the idea of ‘time’ as linear. The progression of events on the timeline do not suggest that each led to the other. The events are not really a linked series of causal factors.
The events form and add successive layers of disaffection, alienation, acceptance, empowerment and disempowerment, attempts at addressing these issues and dealing with the grievances that have resulted and things that have taken place to influence this process positively and negatively. It’s a picture of the complexity of the Sri Lankan conflict and is not linear in any way.
PACT is an attempt to unpack this complexity using an interactive website as a medium.
Lakshman Gunasekara said,
This is a most useful and innovative endeavour and I compliment you guys. However I find that there is much to be entered in. Let me make two points:
(1) State forces atrocities against Tamil civilians
I was pleased to see the entry of “the first massacre” of civilians by Tamil militants in 1985 in Anuradhapura. … However, I was surprised to find that that aspect of the State forces’ atrocities is blank on your timeline! And that is an important point! The State armed forces (in addition to Sinhala civilian mobs) were massacring Tamils as early as in the late 1970s and by the early 1980s the list of massacres, big and small, was quite long. One example is that of the massacre in Murunkan (I hope I got the name right) on 4th December (I think) 1984, when at least 80 civilians in about 3 hamlets were shot in a typical ‘rage’ rampage by the army. Then there was the Gununagar/Karainagar ferry boat massacre where Navy troops hacked to death about 45 civilians – I don’t know the date. I am sure that someone in the Diaspora will remember. In fact an ancillary exercise could be to invite remiscences of survivors – similar to the historical recordings of the Jewish ‘Holocaust’ survivors. Someone must make entries of at least a sample of these atrocities throughout the conflict to demonstrate that it was (as usual) the State/oppressor forces that indulged in such brutalities first and continued to do so for a long time before the oppressed/defending forces finally could not but resort to the same horrific tactic even if it was simply to try to deter such actions. Of course it never works as ‘deterrence’, except initially – as it did here when Sinhala government politicians began talking of a “political solution” only after the 1985 Anuradhapura massacre. In the long term, however, retaliatory atrocities only gone to make up a vicious spiral of awful violence right up to today. Can someone please start making entries of the massacres of civilians by the state forces? You will find that whether it was the northern Tamil insurgency or the southern Sinhala rural insurgency, it was the oppressive State that has been the initiating perpetrator as well as the biggest perpetrator by far.
(2) Southern conflict
I have not studied your conflict timeline in detail, but have you included the Southern conflict as well? After all the two insurgencies (as well as the original 1971 insurgency) can not be isolated from each other. Even though it greatly adds to the volume of data that would be included in the timeline, it would still be only reasonable and scrupulous historiography to include the Southern conflict also in the timeline. I would argue that it is ESSENTIAL to include the Southern conflict in order that Sri Lankans may see and understand the intersecting of the two conflicts and understand how the machinations of the Southern political actors arising out of the Southern class conflict are also attributable to the compulsions of the Northern ethnic conflict. In any case, simply a list of the even more horrendous atrocities committed in the South by the State forces and government gangs would be enough to expose the ugly nature of the State.
Keep up the good work!
ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) said,
The Peace and Conflict Timeline (PACT) website by the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) is one of the most innovative I have encountered. Its idea is original, its content very well researched and its presentation immaculate. It’s rare that you come across an idea that makes you wonder why no one thought of it before. PACT is one of them.
…
There’s really nothing comparable to PACT in the SL blogosphere or amongst Sri Lankan websites. At first blush, any serious researcher will find on PACT a wealth of incidents and processes that are vital markers of the ebb and flow of Sri Lanka’s conflict. PACT’s central feature is its timeline that stretches from the 1800s to the present day. It is exhaustively researched with 420 entries to date. But here’s where PACT really shines – the entire website is designed as a living conversation. Comments and feedback are actively elicited with details of events and processes that have been missed out, or alternative narratives and perspectives to existing events to enrich that which is already on the site.
PACT is a must for any researcher on our conflict and is one of those sites that really should be put as a shortcut on the desktops of PCs in libraries and cyber-cafes, so that people actually get to know of it and use it.
PACT is a historical narrative that comes alive through new media. Continue reading…
burning bridge said,
Sri Lanka – how conflict drives information
The idea that conflict has effects on media, and spurs entrepreneurial and technological change has been observed by others. … Sri Lanka’s civil society and media activists are technologically savvy and well connected to technologists around the world, and both work with other local and international initiatives, and create projects as innovative as anywhere else. …
So Sri Lanka is an example of how information in conflict zones will increasingly function in the 21st century. While much violent conflict occurs out of the public eye, it is becoming more common for wars to be fought in the midst of information access, and even abundance. … This is the case in Sri Lanka, starting with Tamilnet…it extends to a range of citizen journalism and participatory media projects coming out out of media development, activist, and human rights groups in Sri Lanka. …
From edit wars on Wikipedia to hate speech on blogs, attacks and incitement in newspaper editorials, to physical attacks, intimidation, and murder, Sri Lanka’s war sometimes seem to move seemlessly from information space to the real world. Sri Lanka has seen the appearance of several interesting new media projects. …The Peace and Conflict Timeline is a new participatory media project that tracks the war’s trajectory. Continue reading…
burning bridge said,
Sri Lanka’s abductions
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the most challenging instances of reporting in conflict zones, especially when looking at whether and how participatory media projects and digital media technologies could be useful in filling information gaps. …
How are participatory media projects, blogs, and other nontraditional media tied into coverage of abductions, and what do they add? How are more traditional human rights organizations using digital media to get their messages out?
Among Sri Lankan media, the online news service TamilNet has timely coverage of events as they occur, as do Lankaenews and Lankadissent. TamilNet is one of the earliest online newspapers in Asia, and while it has a controversial profile, it is also widely read both in Sri Lanka and abroad, and helps shape the Sri Lanka news frame.
Among participatory media projects in Sri Lanka, Groundviews, Jasmine News Wires, and PACT are the most prominent examples. Each takes a different approach. Groundviews focuses on quality citizen reporting and analysis; Jasime on SMS news bulletins of events and a public SMS blog, and PACT on creating an accurate timeline of events. Each has a significant participatory element, together with a transparent process that states when and how editorial controls are applied. …
Going forward, all three have good chances for survival. … For PACT, it’s both participation and ongoing relevance as a tool that records history – how and if it’s useful as a research tool, as a ‘live’ history text.” Continue reading…