Post war counselling

Trauma counselling seems to be a hot topic in Sri Lanka right now. Multiple groups are being identified by interested parties as being in dire need of counselling. I don't doubt that. I could spend all my earnings on therapy myself, whether it will help erase the pictures in my head and the smells and screams that accompany it, I don't know. Nevertheless, this man and his colleagues are making a valiant effort to help. Or so it seems.

Dr Wanigaratne has been working on efforts to establish trauma counseling since the fateful Central Bank explosion in 1996 that brought the "war" into the heart of the capital. But it seems that the tsunami in 2004 is what has really helped get it off the ground with funding from organisations and trusts in Canada and the UK. There now exists a resource center called Samutthana. Like I said it is quite an effort that these people have put into it.

But their blatant disregard for distinctions that might exists between trauma associated with the tsunami and the war only highlights their naive approach. Dr Wanigarante and his colleague agree that "trauma is trauma". Most people sitting around the table agreed with that. But trauma arising from decades of civil war and discrimination can hardly be grouped with something like the tsunami. The blame game that goes with the war alone is enough to understand that counselling in these circumstances is not an easy task and is doomed to backfire with the current approach taken by Samutthana.

While the talk was aimed at getting academic feedback on constructing a model that might best meet the needs of the groups identified as being in need of counselling, I felt Dr Wanigaratne was their to simply promote his resource center and look for ways to raise funds. He disregarded or had answers for why all of the suggestions made by experts in the area.

I don't doubt the organisation means well, but whether they are sustainable and what will happen when funding and interest wanes and another conflict breaks out in the country is left to be seen. I say this because Dr Wanigaratne himself acknowledged that the war is over but the conflict is not!

To serve and protect

Another journalist kidnapped and another still missing. Is the country moving from oppressing people based on ethnicity to profession now?

As humans I find we are prejudiced in many ways. More often than not we live in denial of the fact, and the Sri Lankan government is either in gross denial or simply pretending to be naive about its prejudices. Its more than just that, this whole "white van" issue reeks of thuggery and intimidation. What gets me is the constant comment about the government not having anything to do with the police. Isn't the police force ultimately answerable to the government and don't they represent the government? Don't they swear to serve and protectthe citizens, perhaps in this case it is the government they swear to protect from negative publicity.

The long road back home

The war is finally over and some are happy, some aren't. I don't know what to feel. I have been in the thick of it when the war raged and friends dropped dead on the streets. It was called "civil unrest", "ethnic violence", "riots", the list goes on. War has many names, but the end result is the same - death. No one really wins a war. So I don't understand what all this "victory" celebrations are about.

I was one of those journalists, back in the day, who got the story back from the information department with numbers crossed out and facts distorted and forced to present the government's version of events. What we were essentially doing, or so we were told, was to maintain the morale of the people so we could continue fighting. It seemed to me that all we were doing was living in denial. The LTTE may have lost or been wiped out, whatever the government claims, but has anyone counted how many soldiers died in this war? How many Sinhalese families are mourning the death of their children?

I left Sri Lanka a few years back. I have been asked if I regret leaving, of course I do. It is home. We were on the move for the better part of my growing years, thanks to the war. I am sure there are many more people just like me out there. However I went back "home", determined not to leave and make a life for me there. The forces were stronger than my will.

Can I go back now? Can the Tamils dispersed all over the world go back? Can the Sinhalese who left the country because of the war go back? Can we all find employment? Can we all find a place to live? More importantly, can we all live together in peace? Can we wipe out the prejudices and overlook ethnicity, language and religion? I am not convinced.

I hear journalists are still living under fear, so I suppose there is no work for me, or for my friends scattered world over. I cannot go back, I will never belong at home or anywhere.