SRI LANKA: War Harms Children’s Mental, Emotional Health

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Sep 26 2001 (IPS) - This northern Sri Lankan city, the seat of a Tamil revolt for an independent state, once produced the best students seeking entry into universities. Now it produces probably the most aggressive students in this island nation.

Hemmed between Tamil guerrillas and government soldiers, trauma is taking its toll on close to 500,000 residents of this war-torn town.

“The war affects civilians more than combatants. The impact on civilians are both physical and psychological,” says Professor Daya Somasunderam, head of the department of psychiatry at Jaffna University.

“Even if the war ends today, it would take at least 30 years to heal a traumatised population,” he said in an interview here.

In 1999, three out of four advanced level students came from Jaffna. This year saw a sharp fall, with the figure dropping to just one student from Jaffna, said Kokila Mahendran, a trained counsellor.

“Education is the only hope for children in Jaffna. Children and parents alike cling to it as the only hope for the future,” she said.

Mahendran has a first-hand view of the problems faced by children. As assistant director of education at the Education Department, she also makes inspection visits to schools where she has found disturbing signs of aggressive behaviour.

On average, every school in Jaffna has five to 10 neurotic children, she said.

During one school visit, Mahendran was told that two children wanted to commit suicide. One of them was just nine years old and had attempted suicide on two previous occasions. “His father had tried to commit suicide on an earlier occasion and this boy is fond of the father,” Mahendran said.

Another 14-year old boy cut himself 36 times to ‘punish’ himself. Displaced by the war, he had fallen into bad company with his friends dabbling in drugs.

“We have identified a lot of children, particularly boys, with aggressive behavioural patterns. They are depressed, they steal, tell lies and bully girls and older women on the roads,” Mahendran explained, adding that a lot of this was displaced anger and emotions taken out on others.

Phobia, anxiety and neurotic problems were growing among children. “Some adolescent children wake up in the morning and want to do something aggressive during the day. Most of them want to fight,” she said.

More than 60,000 people have died since 1983 when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) stepped up its campaign for a separate homeland in the north and east of the island for their minority Tamil community.

The rebel movement grew in Jaffna but since the army took control of the town from the rebels in 1995, LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his cadres have shifted base to the Wanni jungles, adjoining this city.

Still, it is Jaffna’s residents who have suffered some of the worst nightmares of the 18-year old rebellion — carpet bombing and shelling by government fighter jets of rebel positions.

Jaffna, though under the control of government forces, is a city under siege.

The rebels tried to break through the military cordon last year and almost succeeded. As in past fighting, thousands of residents fled their homes to safer ground and had to stay in refugee camps. Those displaced included the region’s main Tamil-language newspaper, which virtually published while on the run to safety.

Signs of the war are evident everywhere. Buildings destroyed by bombing stand out and military checkpoints staffed by heavily armed soldiers dot the city. The armed forces are not the only ones with guns. Cadres from militant groups, opposed to Tamil rebels, drive across the city or man sandbagged bunkers outside their offices, often harassing civilians.

“Jaffna is like an open prison,” laments Kandiah Kularatnam, president of the Jaffna Chamber of Commerce.

“We saw most of the effects of recent trauma cases from last year’s bombing and shelling at Thenmarachchi in the district,” said Somasunderam, the region’s main psychiatrist and one of Sri Lanka’s most respected ones.

He said children are badly affected by displacement. “Having to leave their homes and belongings is too much to bear. Small things like leaving behind a pet, schools, a plant or a tree — all affect them,” Somasunderam explained.

“They are forced into a new environment, new surroundings and new schools. Some have seen their parents die,” he pointed out.

He said traumatised children lose interest in studies, refuse to go to school, become listless, lose their drive or interest and have problems with relationships.

“There is a great difference between adults and children. Children do not speak out. A lot of our therapy is based on drawings and play. It is easier to get to a child’s mind like this,” Somasunderam said.

The trauma crisis in the city has prompted the formation in Jaffna of the country’s first-ever multidisciplinary team to handle trauma victims.

The Canadian government has provided financial assistance to set up this team, which now has trained child therapists, family therapists and therapists which use yoga for relaxation.

“There are funds to support 20 people. We find that drugs are not effective to treat victims. On the other hand therapy is slowly working,” said Somasunderam, a physician who rides a bicycle to work.

Somasunderam, who also helps run Jaffna’s Association for Health and Counselling that was formed in 1987, said 20 university graduates were also being trained in psychosocial work under a project funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The Sri Lankan psychiatrist, who worked in a trauma-related project in war-torn Cambodia in the late 1990s, says Cambodia began its recovery after hitting the bottom.

“I see it happening here. We are heading for the bottom. Our main worry now is the issue of collective trauma, which is a long-term problem to solve,” he explained.