Fasting for Sri Lankan Peace

Tasha Manoranjan (SFS ’08), who graduated last year, is currently working on Capitol Hill for People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka. She has volunteered in her family’s home country of Sri Lanka since the summer after her freshman year of college and has become an advocate for peace in the island nation’s civil war. She is currently fasting along with seven other Tamil-Americans for the Sri Lankan Tamil population’s rights as a member of PEARL, an organization that works to inform Americans about the suffering in Sri Lanka and the crimes preformed by the Sri Lankan government against Tamil civilians. Manoranjan currently serves as PEARL’s Advocacy Director.

How did you first get involved with the situation in Sri Lanka?

Well, my family is originally from Sri Lanka. I was born in Columbus, Ohio, but growing up [my] parents would tell me what they experienced in Sri Lanka, and how they were forced to flee the country, and the discrimination they experienced, being a part of the Tamil minority there. It was more difficult for them to access education opportunities, based on the fact they were Tamil. It was something I knew, but hadn’t really absorbed, because I was just so far away in my daily life. It never really meant much to me, until I actually went and did volunteer work there. I felt a part of me really needed to go to this country and see where I came from, and so I went the following summer, the summer before I started college, and spent a few weeks in a girl’s orphanage, teaching them English and getting their conversational abilities a little bit stronger, and that struck me. Hearing that and knowing the differences between their experiences and my experiences just really struck me, because it could have just as easily been me living there. It’s just because my parents were lucky enough to leave the country, that I have this amazing life here, and it could’ve just as easily been my life there — in that orphanage, having lost family members, and without any support system, experiencing the devastation that they’re experiencing now. That first experience made me want to go back again and again. Every summer, I go and stay at that girls’ orphanage or another school in the area, just teaching English — and even learning some of their language, myself. I learn from them what their lives are like, and then conveying that to others to educate people about the suffering there.

I took a year off from Georgetown, and spent it going through different schools in [Sri Lanka], doing English workshops for them, so they can improve their English abilities, and that gave me such greater insight into the conflict there, and what’s been happening there since Sri Lanka got its independence. The stories the girls have told me, and hearing how embedded the conflict was in their lives really affected me, and made me want to do something, so that they could live a peaceful, happy life, too.

What affected you most about these experiences?

One of the things that has affected me most is that one of the schools I’d taught at was bombed, while I was in Sri Lanka. I was just like any other morning, we’d huddle into the bunkers, but people were concerned because the bombing sounded so close. The next day, we heard women crying and shouting, and I still get chills when I think about that sound — mothers who, almost, weren’t surprised that they had lost their children, because they were so used to the government’s bombing campaigns. I could’ve been killed.

Will they let you back in this summer?

They’ve forbidden anyone from entering, but I’ll try.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do here in the United States, as one of the leaders of PEARL?

PEARL is an organization in which we try to educate Americans about the suffering in Sri Lanka and about the crimes the Sri Lankan government has perpetrated against the Tamil civilians, and try to elevate the dialogue, which is currently going on, regarding the conflict. The basic status quo approach to the situation is that it’s a conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, [the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group in Sri Lanka]. Tamil civilians are completely absent from that conversation, and for so long Tamil civilians have been silenced and ignored. The international community has supported the Sri Lankan government’s approach, that this is a war against terrorism, and according to the Bush doctrine, during wars of terrorism, you can attack innocent civilians, and mark them off as collateral damage. I think the Sri Lankan government has successfully rode on the coattail of that and has been able to portray this crisis and all the civilians, who have been killed over the past few years, as Tiger supporters or as LTTE supporters. The other stories aren’t being heard, so I…see this organization as a tool to utilize our own experiences…to convey that to policy makers and other Americans here, and foster a more educated dialogue, that includes Tamil civilians and respects the rights of Tamil civilians.

That’s our objective, and how we go about doing it is we have a membership of about 2,600 Americans, and we e-mail them every week, asking them to forward the letter to their congressional representatives. The letter updates the congressional representatives about what Tamil civilians are currently experiencing.

We supplement the letter writing campaign with advocacy days on Capital Hill. We’ll go and speak with congressional offices that are handling foreign affairs, and educate them.

Why are you fasting?

On Monday, the government began bombing safe zones, after having told Tamil refugees they’d be safe there. Then, they began shelling those safe zones, including the refugee camps. When we found out about that, we were beyond outraged — these were people we know. We have friends there, we have family there, and we were so overwhelmed by a sense of urgency. As citizens of the most powerful nation in the world, we felt we should act as a voice for these people, and stop this suffering. We thought the typical protests and rallies were insufficient. I know how long its been since I’ve eaten, but I have no idea how long its been since these refugees have eaten, slept, been nourished or had access to proper medical supplies — things we take for granted. We felt a fast shows how eager we are to bring an end to this genocide.

— Interviewed by Special to The Hoya Jessica Schieder