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Remembering and honoring the victims obligates us to do more to provide for a safer, better tomorrow.

The 21^st of August is The International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism.  It is the day to remember the suffering of its victims, their families, and their communities. Even as we remember past victims, we must surely strive to ensure that there will not be more victims in the future too.

Terrorism is the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in society and bring about a particular political objective. Terrorism has inflicted horrors on people in Sri Lanka and across the world. Terrorism is driven by right-wing and left-wing ideologies, colonialists and nationalists and religious groups, revolutionaries, and even state institutions such as armies, intelligence services, and the police.  This is a description of reality, a statement of fact. Irrespective of the perpetrator’s ideology or place in society – their use of fear tactics and violence strikes terror in the heart of the victims and leads to deaths, injuries, and destruction of property. The victims of terrorism are the softest targets – ordinary, unarmed, and unprepared civilians.

The “Wars on Terror” have galvanized whole societies, paradoxically turning them into combatants and into targets. The specter of terrorism has also provided governments with political capital and the space to operate with impunity to fight terror. Consequently, the numbers of victims of terrorism continue to rise with increased numbers of purveyors of violence.

We in Sri Lanka too, have experienced many bouts and forms of violence. We have given these acts of violence different names at different times. Riots, pogroms, mob violence, street justice, uprisings, and insurrections, expressions of justifiable anger, the heinous crimes of extremists   – radicalized by political ideology or religion, civil war –are some of the words and phrases used to describe events and actions that struck terror into the hearts of victims and led to civilian deaths, injuries and destruction of property. Sri Lanka has seen bouts of violence since 1956 but the violence was not labelled as terrorism. However, from 1979 the word “terrorism” was embedded in our political discourse. But even as we intensified our fight against terrorism, the numbers affected increased.

The use of grenades, land mines, automatic firearms, and willing delivery agents of death – the suicide bombers – have intensified the violence and made acts of terrorism more difficult to contain, anticipate and repel and even comprehend. The common thread is that these acts of violence have targeted innocent civilians for maximum effect.

Remembering victims and honoring the victims, obligates us to do more to provide for a safer, better tomorrow. It obligates us to support survivors of terrorism who are physically and emotionally scarred – perhaps for life.  It obligates us to support the families of terror victims as they too suffer collateral damage.  It also obligates us to seek better ways of protecting civilians while preparing against future attacks. This in turn obligates us to identify the root causes of terrorism and makes efforts to address them. We must also be mindful of the need to protect people within the framework of the rule of law.

Remembrance must go beyond ceremonials. It must be accompanied by concerted actions to provide for a safer, better tomorrow.   

Dr. Sakuntala Kadirgamar

Executive Director

Law and Society Trust