Forgotten Experiences of Up-country Tamil Women in Transitional Justice
The objective of this chapter is to bring to light the needs and
experiences of Up-country Tamil women in the ongoing discourse
of transitional justice and reconciliation. This chapter examines
and analyses three issues: the experiences of women who relocated
from the Up-country to the East and North of Sri Lanka in 1978
and 1983; how Up-country Tamil women coped when their close
relatives went missing during the ethnic conflict (1983-2009); and
how these women view the Prevention of Terrorism Act through
which their relatives have been, and in some cases are still, under
detention.
Methodology
The study on which this chapter is based was conducted
using both primary and secondary data. I conducted 10 life
history interviews with Up-country Tamil women. Among them,
four women had close relatives (husband, son, father, siblings)
arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act; three women had
close relatives who were disappeared during the ethnic conflict,
two women relocated to the North and East because of the conflict
during the 1970’s and 1980’s; and one woman temporarily
migrated to Colombo, seeking employment. The participants for
life history interviews were selected based on a snowball sampling
method, where a known person introduces another person who
faced similar issues. However, there are limitations in this method
if the informant does not know another informant to introduce
to the researcher. The secondary data was collected from the
Consultation Task Force Report (2016); Department of Census
and Statistics (2012); International Committee of the Red Cross
(2016); and reports from the Nuwara Eliya District Secretariat
(unpublished and on file with the author).
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