Life In An Experiment In Nonviolence 

Sri Lanka
On a balmy, post monsoon day I find myself in the home of a middle-aged Tamil
woman.  She stays in her home, afraid to go out.  If she went out in a car,
THEY could kill her more easily.  An accident with a truck could be staged, a
gunman on a motorbike...  She talks about leaving the country.  It would be
easy for her.  She is an excellent doctor, well known, her son a prominent TV
personality and correspondent for the Italian based Interpress News Agency. 
Or, he was, before he was abducted from her home a few months ago, by a group
of armed men, some of whom were in police uniform.  Like so many young men in
this country in recent times, his body was found on a nearby beach the next
morning with a bullet wound to the head.

She hasn't left yet.  She tells me "I can't leave.  I must see justice done. 
Not just for my son, but for the sons of all the mothers who can't do what I
can do.  I have the education, the standing in the community, no other family
for them to threaten."

Her name is Dr. Saravanamuttu, and with a single attorney, B. Weerakoon, she
is challenging a state killing apparatus.  She is the primary witness, who has
identified a Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) as one of the people who
led the team who took her son, Richard de Zoysa, in February.  The police have
refused to follow the legal proceedings in processing this murder.  The SSP,
and other officers identified as being involved are still 'on the job'.

After Dr. Saravanamuttu released the names of the police involved to the
public, she and her attorney began to receive threats on their lives, should
they pursue the case.  One letter she got read, in part, as follows: "mourn
the death of your son.  As a mother you must do so.  Any other steps will
result in your death at the most unexpected time.  Security guards,
bodyguards, police and services cannot protect you.  Only silence will protect
you.  Heed this advice.  Your son failed to heed advices and had to be killed.
There will be no warnings.  signed - Justice Honour and Glory to the
Motherland"

Amnesty International has taken an interest in her welfare, as have other
human rights organisations.  The President, in response to this international
concern, offered her a police bodyguard.  She turned it down.

She and her attorney have chosen not to be silent.  They have publicised the
delays, lies and failures by the police to follow the legal process.  They
KNOW that police, or any form of violence cannot protect them, as police are
the threat.  They are seeking their protection through an informed public and
international opinion.

As a member of the Peace Brigades International team in Sri Lanka, I serve as
a visible focus of international concern for Dr. Saravanamuttu and Mr.
Weerakoon's welfare.  I stay directly with them, in their homes, offices,
accompanying them to appointments, going to market, meetings and social
events.  It is our hope that the presence of a foreign visitor will deter
attack upon these individuals by increasing the 'social cost' to bring harm to
them, ie. an international would be a witness to any untoward acts, and could
also be hurt or killed.

PBI supports human rights in Sri Lanka (as well as other countries into which
it sends peace teams) by offering to put unarmed international observers near
people or organisations working for social justice, who feel threatened for
carrying their work forward.  PBI maintains its presence in a non-partisan
fashion, and will work only with groups who have not used or endorsed the use
of violence.

We back up the safety of our volunteers with support from the diplomatic
community here, and PBI's Emergency Response Network (ERN).  The ERN is a
network of individuals in Europe and North America who are committed to
respond within twenty-four hours of an event in which a PBI volunteer, or one
of our clients is threatened or abducted.

Risky?  This is a calculated use of nonviolence, international law and rules
of behaviour.  None of the situations PBI enters are done so quickly.  We must
feel we have a fair chance of protecting people with focussed international
opinion, or we would not try this manner of support.

Our volunteers must go through a special training for this type of work as
well.  The merit of this concept has been proven in six years of work by PBI
in Central America.  When the lawyer's wife spoke to me about an armed guard
for her husband she said, "guns can't protect him from being killed, but your
presence is a power that must be reckoned with", or as a senior diplomat in
one of the foreign embassies stated, "Your presence around people has done
more to directly uphold human rights in Sri Lanka, than the efforts of all of
the western governments combined."

Yeshua Moser

Yeshua Moser was team coordinator of PBI's Sri Lanka project, and a US based
nonviolence trainer.  He will be coming to Australia in March and April 1991
to speak about Peace Brigades work.  Anyone interested in having Yeshua speak
in your community, please contact: Peter Jones, 97 Novar St, Yarralumla ACT
2600.  Phone (06) 281 1590 (home) or (06) 277 3790 (work).