A. General Introduction of Sri Lanka Development
The period under report was characterised by the political crisis in Colombo over the creation of a ‘Joint Mechanism’ for tsunami aid distribution between the government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Such a mechanism, which is intended to guarantee fair and equal distribution of aid to all territories, was rejected quite strongly by some Sinhalese parties and lobby groups, including the JVP and the JHU, the Buddhist clerical party, on the grounds that the agreement gave legitimacy to the LTTE, which is widely regarded as a ‘terrorist’ organisation. In April, the JVP left the coalition because of this issue, depriving the government of its majority in parliament. However, the government of the SLFP under Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse has so far managed to continue, without – as some speculated – entering a coalition with the main opposition party UNP. On 22nd June the Joint Mechanism agreement was signed between GOSL and LTTE, after considerable facilitation efforts by Norway. In view of the claims of considerable public opposition before the signing, open discontent with the agreement, since the signing, has been minimal. On July 15 the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka court ruled that the implementation of certain clauses of the agreement be suspended until a final court determination. Under the deal, the GOSL, the LTTE and Muslim representatives will jointly handle billions of euros in aid for the tsunami-affected areas of North and East Sri Lanka. Although the Muslims have representation in the distribution mechanisms established by the Agreement, their political representatives were not included as parties to the deal and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress has protested the deal since.
In the East of Sri Lanka, in the meanwhile, the situation has continued to deteriorate. Political violence from all sides has continued, mainly in the form of assassinations of (alleged) cadre of LTTE and the Karuna faction, and disappearances of people, including members of civil society. The exact number of these assassinations and disappearances, which might run into the hundreds, is not known; reporting cannot be expected to be accurate in a community living in fear of retribution from a variety of armed groups. Other causes for tension have been protests against newly created army checkpoints and against what many tsunami victims in Tamil areas consider unequal distribution of aid to their area. Reports that the GOSL security forces have been hampering the flow of aid items into LTTE tsunami-affected areas have increased community tension. The construction of a Buddhist statue on a major road in the Tamil majority Trincomalee town in May resulted in tit-for-tat violence between Sinhala and Tamil communities for the first time since the cease fire. Strikes (hartals) have several times closed down all public life in certain parts of one or the other district; people not heeding the calls for a strike and keeping their shops open risk violent repercussions. Because of a combination of fear and a sense that the war may soon resume, the reporting of cases of child recruitment has decreased during this period with fewer new cases coming to the attention of our teams and others, although external evidence indicates such practices are still widespread.
The influx of international NGOs into Sri Lanka has changed the environment for NP. There is now a large number of INGOs operating in the East. In spite of commitments made by many of these INGOs to the ‘Do-no-harm’-principles, the reality observed by our teams shows many of the same problems as in other places: Sri Lankans hired for (considering Sri Lankan standard) extremely high salaries, rents for houses increasing (with some cases of Sri Lankans being evicted from their homes by their landlords who received better offers by INGOs), and some international staff coming to the area lacking a background on conflict-relevant issues.
Generally the atmosphere in Sri Lanka regarding the ceasefire has been changing for the worse over the last months. Where before everybody seemed to assume that the peace process somehow would continue, now many people in Sri Lanka fear a relapse into war, at least on a limited scale in the East.

B. Mandate of the Teams
The review process / workshop conducted by the Programme Committee in May has reviewed the list of objectives for our work in Sri Lanka, and found that they could be simplified to three basic points.
Mandate: Reduce violence to increase the safety of civilians in Sri Lanka so they can contribute to a lasting peace with justice.
Objectives:
1. Reduce the level of and potential for violence.
2. To support and improve the safety, confidence and ability of Sri Lankan peacemakers and other civilians to address conflict in nonviolent ways.
3. Work with Sri Lankans to deter resumption of violent conflict

C. Activities of NPSL
In the period reported here work has been focused primarily on the East of Sri Lanka. The office in Jaffna has remained empty with the two FTMs assigned to work there (Susan and Kathy) both sick and out of the country. The office in Matara was kept open part of the time by changing FTMs but in May the Colombo Management decided to close down that site. The reason is that there never was much protection-related work in the South, projects begun before the tsunami were interrupted by it, and the practical need for more FTMs in Valaichchenai and Mutur.
One other piece of important news from the period reported is that NP has finally – mainly thanks to the untiring efforts of Assistant Team Manager Ayomi Miriyagalla as well as of course William and Jan’s work– achieved its registration in Sri Lanka.
Batticaloa (Valaichchenai)
By the end of this reporting period Angela Pinchero (Canada), Karen Ayasse (Germany), Charles Otieno (Kenya), Frank Anim-Appiah (Ghana), Rita Webb (USA), Karen Green (Britain) and Andy Mason (Britain) were based here on the East Coast of the island, where more than 90% of the population is Tamil. The field site is in Valaichchenai, an hour north of Batticaloa town. This area has, since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding that brought about the current ceasefire, suffered, after Mutur, the most casualties arising from violence and tension arising from Muslim - Tamil clashes. The surrounding area, which includes Karuna’s birthplace, has been severely affected by the continuing tit-for-tat killings between the LTTE and Karuna group and has also been a principal centre for recruitment of adults and children by the LTTE.
The teams have been working with different Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) and individual personalities from civil society on different issues, among them intra-community violence, arrests of people for interrogation (by LTTE or GOSL police), abductions, dealing with consequences of heightened GOSL army presence in the area, support for CBOs in raising issues of do-no-harm with other international NGOs, linking individual citizens who came with requests for help to NP with appropriate authorities or NGOs/ INGOs, accompaniment of civil society leaders to political meetings with one or the other side, and preparation in coordination with other INGOs and IOs for presence at some of the temple festivals in coming months.
One example of the work from May:
Sittandy Protest. Protest against new army check point turned violent when army confronted demonstrators, many of whom were armed with sticks and stones. An activist with whom NP works was stopped on south end of blocked road; FTMs met him there and brought him back. SLMM was there, along with some MPs. We did not see any evidence of the elderly man killed and more than 10 injuries, as reported in media later. SLMM was still interviewing people when we left about 45 minutes after the confrontation when army opened fire of many rounds of ammunition into the air to disperse the crowd. [The FTMs and the activist had to throw themselves to the ground when this firing happened.]
The Valaichchenai team has also continued to support the development of Sarvodaya’s Rapid Deployment Peace Brigade (RDPB). Sarvodaya has hired a Project Director to put the project into practice.
Trincomalee (Mutur)
Thomas Brinson (USA) was joined in May by Atif Hameed (Pakistan) and Peters Nywanda (Kenya). The team is based in this Eastern coastal district whose ethnic mix is divided almost equally between Muslims, Sinhalese and Tamils. The field site is in the small Mutur town on the southern edge of Trincomalee Bay.
The Mutur area has experienced the highest number of deaths through violence since the start of the ceasefire in December 2001. The tensions have arisen from disputes between Muslim and Tamil communities in the area. The team provides protection to communities under threat and works with community leaders seeking to reduce tension. They have also been exploring ways to reduce tension between different factions within the Muslim community, and are concretely supporting the interethnic Peace Committee in Mutur. The team developed links with the Tamil and Sinhala communities living in vulnerable areas, and also met with Muslim communities living close to the tension areas and listened to their concerns about hartals and violence in Trincomalee. During the above mentioned period, this NP team regularly stayed in touch with all the communities, civil society, I/NGOs, the SLMM, police, army and the LTTE.
Recently, the team played mediating/facilitating roles in two conflicts. One was between a professional organisation and the LTTE over the exercise of certain rights of members of that profession in the area. Here the team managed to help the leaders of the professional organisation to meet LTTE leaders from the district in order to resolve the issue. The other case was a prolonged incident in Trincomalee proper where Buddhists erected a Buddha statue in the middle of a road, which was considered a provocation by the majority Hindu population. The team approached a senior Buddhist peacemaker and facilitated a meeting between him and LTTE representatives which took place in the team’s office in Mutur. They also provided conscious presence in Trincomalee town over several nights, seeking through this presence to prevent violence.
Recently, the team played mediating/facilitating roles in two conflicts.
A week or so before Wesak, the annual celebration of the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha, a medium-sized Buddha statue appeared on one of the main thoroughfares, erected by the Sinhala Auto Drivers Association. Tamil Hindus were outraged and tensions rose. Tamils demanded the removal of the statue. Tamil People’s Forum (a representative Tamil body) called for several days of Hartal (a shut down of activity) that led to communal clashes which resulted in 1 death, several injuries and destruction of private and public property. Many Tamil families living surrounded by Sinhala people went to stay in areas dominated by Tamils. Sri Lankan security forces from outside Trincomalee were brought in, a move that generated some fear among the Tamil community.
During the Hartal, there were explosions in both Tamil and Sinhala areas. Nonviolent Peaceforce field team members moved into Trincomalee and did peace patrolling, providing conscious presence, and rapid response to incidents. The NP members also developed connections with the communities, security forces and key elements of the civil society. Nonviolent Peaceforce worked in close collaboration with the Norwegian ceasefire monitoring mission and other international and local groups to try to defuse the situation. These efforts included outreach to Tamil People’s forum and Buddhist peace advocates, including a well-known peace monk who sought NP’s support to meet the leaders of the Tamil community to initiate the dialogue process to reduce the community tension.
NP’s interventions were effective prevention--our team engaged the appropriate authorities and community leaders who brought the crisis to a peaceful resolution. While doing so, the team also worked with others (the Norwegian monitoring mission, for example) to provide a protective presence which reduced the level of violence and may well have prevented further violence.
The other one:
NP Mutur opened the channels of communications and facilitated a dialogue between the Muslim Fishing Society in a Government-controlled area and the Tamil Fishing Society/LTTE in a LTTE-controlled area. A Muslim Fishing Society very close to an LTTE-controlled area had been doing business with Tamil fishermen in a LTTE-controlled area for the last 20 years. The Muslims bought boats and fishing equipments for Tamil fishermen, and in return, Tamil Fishermen were bringing fish for them. The problem started a few weeks ago, when the LTTE decided to establish a separate Tamil Fishing Society. The Tamil Fishing Society asked all the fishermen to bring fish to them rather than giving their catch to outsiders. On the instructions of the Tamil Fishing Society, Tamil fishermen stopped giving fish to the Muslim fishermen who bought boats and fishing equipments for them and then tension started building up between the two communities.
The Muslim fishing society contacted NP Mutur and asked if NP can facilitate a dialogue because for the last 18 months Muslims had not been going to the LTTE-controlled area due to security reasons. NP Mutur did shuttle diplomacy, contacting the LTTE political head of Trincomalee and informing him about the problem. LTTE called a meeting of the Tamil Fishermen and Tamil Fishing Society. Later on, LTTE invited the Muslim Fishing Society to discuss the matter and find a solution acceptable to both parties. The Muslim Fishing Society requested NP to accompany them and also to sit in on the meeting. NP accompanied a group of Muslim Fishing Society members into the LTTE controlled area. With the consent of both parties, NP sat at the meeting but only as an observer. The meeting went on successfully and both parties decided not only to maintain and strengthen brotherly relations but LTTE also announced to pay 75% of the money spent by them back to Muslims. Both parties thanked NP for bringing them to the negotiating table and highly appreciated NP’s role in maintaining peace in the area.
The report of one incident from the team might further illustrate the situation in Trincomalee and the approach of our teams:
“NP Vehicle was stopped forcefully by more than 20 highly charged-up Sinhala youth near the statue. They banged NP vehicle and accused NP for facilitating a meeting between Buddhist monk and LTTE political head. They criticized INGOs of being biased. The field team members present on the spot preferred to talk to them rather than running away. Carefully listened to the grievances of the angry mob and clarified the misunderstandings. After one hour discussions, the mob said sorry to NP field team members for misbehaving and banging the vehicle. They asked NP to visit anytime in their areas.”

News from Field Team Members
In April, the assessment and basic training for the new FTMs took place in Sri Lanka. Participants were 16 newly recruited FTMs plus the three who had joined NP in the meantime as ‘fast-trackers’. The trainers, coming from the US, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, worked on the basis of the curriculum developed by Training for Change for the first group, but adapted the contents to match better the specific characteristics of the work in Sri Lanka. An internal evaluation showed that participants as well as trainers considered the training to have been successful overall.
As for the present FTMs, Thomas Brinson left Mutur in mid-June to return home to New York. Soraia Makhamra, who had left the country in January in order to get medical treatment, has come back briefly to Mutur to say good-bye. Karen Ayasse, who had been taking a two-month sabbatical, rejoined the team in Valaichchenai in June. Susan Grenada had to prolong her holidays for medical reasons after the training, but is expected back soon. Frank Anim-Appiah returned from sick leave he had to take after the tsunami. Kathy Orovwigho, who had been injured in the tsunami, returned for the basic training but then went back to Nigeria for further healing.
The Colombo Management
One new staff person has joined the Colombo team: Priyaneel Wijekularatne, a very experienced book-keeper and accountant who succeeds Juliet Wijesiri who - like former administrator Darshini Croos - left NP at the end of April in order to work for another INGO in Colombo.
As one outcome of the review process in May, it was decided to strengthen the staff in Colombo by creating two new positions: a Deputy Director and a Programme Manager. The main reason for this is the amount of work and demands which the Colombo staff has been facing since the initiation of the project. Fund-raising for NP within Sri Lanka (the post-tsunami situation has increased the funding available from agencies operating on the island) and reporting of NP’s work were two areas where the Colombo management needed further support because of the many other field work related demands.
In June Project Director William Knox decided to our regret to leave NP as well, so that we have now advertised for three positions: Project Director, Team Manager and Programme Manager. Jan Passion will continue with NPSL in the new function as Deputy Director.

D. Assessment
In May 2005, the Programme Committee undertook a review of the work of NPSL. Informed by earlier reports from visitors from NP, the review itself consisted of two parts: First, a field visit conducted by Project Director William Knox, Programme Director Christine Schweitzer and – as external consultant – Mr. Sornalingam from Batticaloa. As the second step, a 5-day review workshop followed in which most members of the Programme Committee, four Field Team Members, Executive Director Mel Duncan and Fundraising Director Rachel Julian participated. The workshop formulated recommendations to the Programme Committee, the Executive Committee, and the NPSL management, and many of them have already been taken up and worked on.

Overall assessment:
The teams are working consistently towards the implementation of the objectives set.
Given the complex nature of the situation, there is little concrete proof for impact yet, but the indicators that there are (mainly feed-back from the people the teams work with) seem to show that NP is going in the right direction.

Appendix: Links to Internet that have information of current situation

1. Official Sri Lankan and LTTE Sources
Sri Lankan government: http://www.priu.gov.lk/ and
Official webpage of the Sri Lankan Government’s Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) http://www.peaceinsrilanka.org/
Tamil Eelam Homepage: http://www.eelam.com/

2. Sri Lankan NGO and Media Sources
Centre for Policy Alternatives: www.cpalanka.org
Digest of News Links at Lanka Academic Network: http://www.lacnet.org/slnews/index.html
Google news: http://www.google.com/alerts?q=&hl=en.
http://www.info.lk/slnews/
http://www.lankapage.com/
LAcNet News (also to be found going to the Digest of News Links of Lacnet listed above): http://www.lacnet.org/slnet/.
National Peace Council of Sri Lanka : www.peace-srilanka.org , Mailing List order at peace2@sri.lanka.net
People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL): www.lankaworld.com/paffrel
Sarvodaya : www.sarvodaya.org. They also offer a mailing list.
Social Issues : http://www.infolanka.com/org/srilanka/issues.html
Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights in Sri Lanka : http://www.spur.asn.au/
Sri Lanka Page : http://www.lankapage.com/ (internet paper, Sinhalese-oriented)
Tamilnet: http://www.tamilnet.com/
The Island: http://www.island.lk/ (newspaper)
University Teachers for Human rights (Jaffna): http://www.uthr.org/

3. Articles and pages of international NGOs on Sri Lanka
Amnesty International: http://web.amnesty.org/
Bastian, Sunil, The Failure of State Formation, Identity Conflict and Civil Society Responses – The Case of Sri Lanka, University of Bradford, Centre for Conflict Resolution Working Paper 2, Bradford August 2002, Order at Bradford University, Department of Peace Studies, http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/peace/pubs/pubs.htm
Coy, Patrick G., "What's A Third Party To do? Nonviolent Protective Accompaniment in Sri Lanka with Peace Brigades International". Paper presented at the 35th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association Washington D.C., March 28-April 1, 1999
European Centre for Conflict Prevention , The Peace Process in Sri Lanka. The need to involve civil society actors, A seminar organised by the European Centre for Conflict Prevention, November 13,2002, http://www.conflict-prevention.net/
Harris, Simon, Lewer, Nick, Operationalising Peacebuilding and Conflic Redcution. Case Study: Oxfam in Sri lanka, University of Bradford, Centre for Conflict Resolution Working Paper 11, Bradford August 2002, Order at Bradford University, Department of Peace Studies, http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/peace/pubs/pubs.htm
Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/reports/world/srilanka-pubs.php
Peace Brigades International: http://www.peacebrigades.org/lanka.html.
Refugee Council United Kingdom: www.gn.apc.org/brcslproject
Witharana, Dileepa, Community Peace Work in Sri Lanka: A Critical Appraisal, University of Bradford, Centre for Conflict Resolution Working Paper 12, Bradford August 2002 Order at Bradford University, Department of Peace Studies, http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/peace/pubs/pubs.htm

Glossary of Abbreviations and Names
CBO = Community-based Organisation
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (SLFP, president since since 1994)
CSO = Civil Society Organisation
EPDP = Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (Tamil party opposing the LTTE)
Erik Solheim: Norwegian Special Envoy
FTM = Field Team Members
GOSL = “Government of Sri Lanka”.
ICRC = International Committee of the Red Cross
ISGA = Interim Self Governing Authority (of the Tamil Tigers)
JHU = National Heritage Party (party of Buddhist monks)
JVP = Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (Maoist party, in coalition with SLFP) People's Liberation Front
LTTE = Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (led militarily by Velupillai Prabakaran)
Mahinda Rajapakse, Prime Minister
NACPR = National Advisory Council on Peace and Reconciliation
NGO = Nongovernmental Organisation
SLFP = Sri Lanka Freedom Party (has formed new government as UPLF with JVP after elections 2004. Prime Minister is Mahinda Rajapakse)
SLMC = Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (Muslim Party)
SLMM = Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission. (Set up under the cease-fire agreement to monitor breaches of the agreement. Staffed mainly by Scandinavian military personnel in civilian clothes. Ca 50 personnel)
TNA = Tamil National Alliance (LTTE presenting party in parliament)
Uncleared Areas = GOSL term for areas under LTTE control
UNICEF = United Nation Children’s Fund
United People's Liberation Front (UPLF) governing party coalitiion
UNP = United National Party (concluded cease fire agreement with LTTE in 2001/2002, had majority until elections in 2004- Prime Minister was Ranil Wickremesinghe

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