After almost 27 years of civil war that set government forces against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Government of Sri Lanka declared victory over the separatist forces in May of this year. But victory came at a very high price: a series of final battles killed thousands of civilians and displaced nearly 300,000 people.
Although Sri Lanka's small Christian community, with the help of international Christian organizations, is providing life-saving humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons packed into hastily established refugee camps, their good intentions aren't always well-received.
Former MP David Kilgour, who visited Sri Lanka in June as part of a World Evangelical Alliance fact-finding and goodwill mission, fears current Christian relief efforts in Sri Lanka may generate a backlash against Christians.
Conversion aid?
After a tsunami devastated Sri Lanka on Christmas Day in 2004, a number of Christian aid organizations were accused of offering aid to poor Sri Lankans on the condition that they would convert to Christianity. Although the allegations were never substantiated—an investigation by the UN special rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief failed to turn up any evidence of unethical practices by Christians—the rumours stoked the flames of religious intolerance.
Earlier this year, a nationalist Buddhist party proposed legislation that would, if enacted by Sri Lanka's parliament, restrict religious conversions. The Prohibition of Forcible Conversion of Religion Bill proposes stiff prison terms for "the use of force or allurement or by any fraudulent means" to convert a person from one faith to another, reports the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
According to the commission, "opponents of the bill are concerned that its broad language would encompass all conversions, not just unethical conversions, and would criminalize the charitable activities of religious groups."
And the special rapporteur has declared that anti-conversion legislation is not "an appropriate response to the religious tensions and is not compatible with international human rights law." The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes freedom of religion and the freedom to changes one's religion as basic human rights.
The proposed legislation, which is currently tied up in a government committee, worries Canadian Christian activists like Geoff Tunnicliffe, CEO of the World Evangelical Alliance, which represents 420 million evangelical Christians around the world.
"If there is another attempt to pass the legislation, we will use legal challenges, both within Sri Lanka and internationally, to challenge the proposed law," says Tunnicliffe, who headed the WEA delegation to Sri Lanka.
Cramped, hungry, at risk of disease
The UN estimates there are close to 300,000 internally displaced people living in refugee camps that don't meet UN standards. "Internment camps," is how UN emergency relief coordinator John Homes describes them.
"Much food, clean water and medicine appear to be still needed in the camps," Kilgour told ChristianWeek.
Cramped, unsanitary living conditions breed disease. An OCHA situation report from the Vavuniya camps reported 12,195 cases of chicken pox and 2,139 cases of Hepatitis A as of June 12, 2009.
In May, Canada pledged $3 million in humanitarian assistance for Sri Lanka's internally displaced population, boosting Canadian aid to Sri Lankan civilians to 7.5 million dollars so far this year.
Caritas Internationalis, the second largest non-governmental organization in the world, continues to provide vital aid to Sri Lanka. For example, the Catholic charity is providing food, water and educational services to the displacement camps.
cbm, a nondenominational Christian organization that focuses on assisting people with disabilities in 100 developing countries, is partnering with LEADS, a local Christian organization, to supply emergency assistance to internally displaced persons as part of a three-pronged strategy.
The two organizations feed 53,000 internally displaced people three times daily and are building 200 shelters and 40 sanitation toilets suited to people with disabilities. cbm plans to bring a Canadian orthopaedic surgeon to Sri Lanka to teach doctors there how to treat orthopaedic injuries and care for people with disabilities.
Religious persecution
Religious persecution is an ugly fact of life for religious minorities—Christians in particular—in Sri Lanka, a Buddhist-majority country. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has reported violent attacks on churches, ministers and other Christians, "reportedly carried out by members of, or persons affiliated with, extremist groups espousing Buddhist nationalism."
The special rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief has concluded that attacks against religious minorities in Sri Lanka tend to be ignored by the authorities, thereby creating a "culture of impunity."
Ed Epp of cbm Canada doesn't know whether current relief efforts will heighten anti-Christian sentiment in Sri Lanka, but he stresses that his organization is "not evangelistic."
"Our mission, our calling is to help people in need," he replies when asked if the Gospel is offered to those Sri Lankans who receive assistance from his organization.
"I think offering food is offering the gospel."
Geoffrey P. Johnston is an independent journalist based in eastern Ontario.
