The Political Utility of the Nonpolitical Child in Sri Lanka's Armed Conflict

Abstract

During Sri Lanka's protracted civil conflict, linkages between ethnicity and homeland have been under considerable strain. Subsequently, alternative rationales for territorial claims have emerged, including each belligerent's human rights record and moral fitness to govern. To this end, child-based narratives such as the child as a zone of peace have been used strategically by each side to rearticulate conflict relations and spaces into moral terms. The case of the Days of Tranquility (DOTs), a humanitarian ceasefire implemented between 1995 and 2001 to immunize children against the polio virus in Sri Lanka's conflict-affected areas, is examined here. Based on fieldwork and an analysis of texts that represent the DOTs, the research reveals how child-centered tropes and humanitarian spaces for children can be politically useful to parties to a conflict as well as to the United Nations agencies that support them.Durante el prolongado conflicto civil de Sri Lanka, los lazos entre etnicidad y patria han estado sometidos a considerable tensión. Subsiguientemente, han surgido justificaciones alternativas sobre reclamaciones territoriales, incluyendo el historial sobre derechos humanos y la idoneidad moral para gobernar de cada beligerante. Con tal fin, cada bando ha utilizado estratégicamente narrativas de origen infantil, tales como las que adoptan al niño como motivo central de paz, con el propósito de rearticular relaciones de conflicto y espacios en términos morales. Al respecto, aquí se examina el caso del Día de la Tranquilidad (DT), un cese al fuego humanitario que se implementó entre 1995 y 2001 para permitir la vacunación de los niños contra el virus del polio enáreas de Sri Lanka afectadas por el conflicto. Con base en trabajo de campo y un análisis de textos relacionados con el DT, la investigación revela cómo los tropos centrados en niños y los espacios humanitarios asignados para niños pueden ser políticamenteútiles tanto para las partes en conflicto como para las agencias de las Naciones Unidas en que aquellos programas se apoyan. Palabras clave: conflicto armado, niños, espacio humanitario, Sri Lanka, territorio.

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