Victor's memory: Sri Lanka's post-war memoryscape in comparative perspective. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McCargo, Duncan; Senaratne, Dishani
• Is Part Of: Conflict, security & development. Volume 20:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 97
• Page End: 113
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Sri Lanka -- Thailand -- memorialisation -- conflict -- memory -- illiberal peace; Security, International -- Periodicals; Pacific settlement of international disputes -- Periodicals; Economic development -- Periodicals; World politics -- 1989- -- Periodicals; 322.5
• DOI: 10.1080/14678802.2019.1705070
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1467-8802

Abstract

ABSTRACT: How are victims of civil wars and conflicts remembered in the context of an illiberal peace? When a violent conflict is ended by the use of overwhelming state force, without benefit of a political process, the victors may seek to control the ways in which the violence is memorialised; while in a war where the insurgents remain in the shadows, public recognition of their losses may be impossible. Using Thailand as a comparison, this study compares the configuration of conflict memorialisation in Sri Lanka, focusing on two Tamil communities where Catholic priests played important roles: Vankalei and Mullivaikkal. In both cases, the Sri Lankan military saw memorialisation as a threat to national narratives about the rights and wrongs of the conflict. Yet in neither case have local people addressed the human rights abuses committed by the LTTE: their narratives emphasise victimhood and evade discussion of agency. Memorials dedicated to those who perished during civil conflicts are likely to be one-sided. Accordingly, the paper argues that an illiberal peace poses particular challenges for historical memory and memorialisation.