Forgotten Experiences of Up-country Tamil Women in Transitional Justice
as health, maternity, wage issues, and labour rights. It is very
rare that these organisations focus their work on peace building,
reconciliation, and transitional justice.
The same situation occurs among women’s organisations.
The women’s organisations working in the plantation sector
focus more on economic, social, and cultural issues. The other
women’s organisations and NGOs who work on transitional
justice completely ignore the Up-country Tamils, based on the
assumption that the Up-country was not directly affected by the
war and therefore there are no conflict-related issues prevailing
there. The second limitation is that donor-driven projects restrict
geographical areas to the North and East and organisations do not
have the expertise to work in the plantation sector. Finally, the
number of Up-country people affected by the conflict is assumed
to be very small when compared to the North and East.
Mistrust among Community Members and Relatives
When a person has disappeared or has been arrested, their
family members are considered to be suspect too. Neighbours
often believe that the victims could have some connection with the
LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam], and that’s the reason
for their disappearance or arrest. So the family members are
often questioned on their supposed guilt by others. Furthermore,
neighbours and relatives do not always invite these family
members to their functions or other events, to avoid having any
connection with the families of the disappeared or arrested, and
risking becoming suspects themselves.
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