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“The war will come back if you don’t heal the wounds of memories”

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10 March 2017 02:01 am - 0     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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South African anti-apartheid activist who worked with President Nelson Mandela and renowned social rights activist Desmond Tutu who played a pioneering role in South Africa’s truth and reconciliation mission was here in the country spreading the message of the importance of healing memories.  Fr. Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest who stressed the need to heal the ‘wounds’ Sri Lanka suffered due to the decades-long ethnic strife was speaking to Buddhist monks, priests and general public including Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people. He emphasised the need to speak out on the tragedies of war. Fr. Lapsley stressed that in order avoid future war, everyone who was directly and indirectly part of the prolonged war needs to speak out and heal himself or herself.

 

"When I returned to South Africa after 16 years, I realized that millions of South Africans and their stories were not acknowledged or recognised. Nobody had told them that what had happened to them was wrong"

 

Invited to Sri Lanka by the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), Fr. Lapsley who suffered due to a bomblast which was initiated by supporters of the then ruling government, turned his personal tragedy into a clarion call for peace and forgiveness. In 1990 the ruling South African government sent Fr. Lapsley a parcel containing two religious magazines. Inside one was a highly-sophisticated bomb and when he opened the magazine, the explosive blew off both his hands, destroyed one of his eyes and burned him severely.
Coming out of the tragic experience, Fr. Lapsley started the Institute of Healing of Memories with the aim of bringing about peace and unity instead of hatred and war. Subsequently in 1993, he became Chaplain of the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town, which assisted the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This led to the establishment of the Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM) in 1998 and it enabled more than 23,000 South Africans to tell their stories at workshops where they work through their traumas.
 Following is an interview with Fr. Lapsely who went around the country speaking to different audiences about the need to promote the mission of healing of memories.  
We may provide water, housing, electricity and other facilities, but if there is  hatred and bitterness, we will not create a better society. We cannot turn the pages of history without reading. If we want to live in peace, we have to accept the damage done to one another.


How did your mission of healing of memories contribute towards finding solutions to issues of post-apartheid South Africa?

Regarding apartheid issues, after 1994 there were two giant questions we were facing. One was how we could meet the basic needs of the nation like water, electricity, health and education. The other trying question facing the nation was how to deal with the past. We realized that we could not turn the pages of history without looking at them and reading them. We had to face the truth of what we have done to each other. We had to do that if we wanted to live in peace and we had to accept the damages we had done to each other. So we had formed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission under Archbishop Desmond Tutu was so popular that people thought what was in South Africa was the first such commission. In fact it was the 13th such commission in the world. Interestingly the inspiration for our commission came from Latin America and particularly from Chili and Argentina. For each of these commissions in various parts of the world there were different cultural, political and social backgrounds. But there was a common issue, that is how do we deal with the past.


Didn’t you think, specially in a backdrop of terrible violence, human rights violations and murders it would have been better to encourage people to bury the past move forward?

Before these commissions were merged in the 1980s and 90s, many preferred the historical option. Let us bury and forget the past. Many countries still prefer that option. The problem is that it never worked anywhere. Because the reality is that the past keeps coming back and biting the next generation, specially because there are deep psychological, emotional and spiritual wounds in all those affected. In a war situation all parties are affected. For example today at the institution in the United States where we work with war veterans and soldiers who participated in just or unjust wars, they are damaged as a result of having served as soldiers.


How was the mission of Healing of Memories started?

 First the democratic government of South Africa set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is worth noting that establishing Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the most debated piece of legislation of the Mandela government and the first democratic parliament. That provided the platform for 23,000 people to come forward. It focused on what we called in the legislation the worst and most serious human rights violation. It focused on murder, attempted murder, torture and severe military acts. That commission came to the conclusion that there could be no moral equivalent or if I put it in different words we cannot say that fighting for apartheid is as bad as fighting against it. Apartheid is a crime against humanity. But we also say that torture is torture and it is always bad. It doesn’t matter whether torture is carried out by the apartheid regime or those fighting against it. So this was an important distinction. As I said, 23,000 came forward, but we are a country with a population of 55 million people and every single person in the country are affected the by regime under apartheid.  Everyone has a story to tell. What we did, what was done to us and what we failed to do. And the people carried a lot inside them as individual people because of the national story.

"It is interesting often after the war we see lot of movies and people write books, use new forms of arts and all contributions to healing of a nation. But I think perhaps the particular need to bring into the table is important of being able for people touch their pain"

 


How did you get this idea?

Some of us said we must create opportunities for South Africans from all sides of the conflict to deal with what happened to them. We realized we could provide water, electricity and health but if we were filled with hatred and bitterness we would  never create a nice society.  So some of us developed a process called ‘healing of the memories’, that is denying the memories or not forgetting the memories but trying to find ways to getting out of the toxicity, the poison that lies within the memories. Our work focused  on the psychological, emotional and spiritual areas. But this is not an alternative to the political, social and economic situation. Because if people’s political, economic and social grievances are not attended to the problems will continue to be there. We had to find out what the root causes were that led us to apartheid.


Do you think it is worth digging into the root causes of a war when it is over?

Since the war ended, whatever the manner in which it ended, it is important find the answers to the question as to how that war came about. If we don’t attend to that question, we could be calling for another war tomorrow. It can take one generation, two generations or three generations but the war would come back if one does not address the root cause.

 

 

"If people’s political, economic and social grievances are not attended to the problems will continue to be there"

 


You started this mission specially after you were bombed by the regime you were going to work with?

We started our institute in 1998. That was after working for nearly five years. I had been in the apartheid struggle for years. I received the letter bomb three months after Mandela was freed from the prison. It was the regime that had decided to talk, to negotiate but not to stop the killing. So I reflected on what helped me to heal. During the years of trouble I was not living in South Africa but in countries of the Southern African region and  in small countries like Zimbabwe. But as a part of the struggle I travelled around the world. Then my role was particularly to mobilse the faith community internationally against the apartheid. Because the terrible reality was that the apartheid was carried out in the name of Christianity. So it was important to unmask them.


What happened after you received the parcel bomb?

When I received that bomb people from all over the world sent me messages of prayer and love. So I received good medical treatment from Zimbabwe and then in Australia. But what helped me to cure myself were the prayers, love and support from across the world. So my story was given acknowledgment and people said what happened to me was wrong. But when I returned to South Africa after 16 years, I realized that millions of South Africans and their stories were not acknowledged or recognised. Nobody had told them that what had happened to them was wrong. So often old people had the mentality of victims. In the first year the institute was started outside Africa. One was Rwanda four years after genocide, the other was New York city because New York city had been part of the civil rights movement. They were political activists. They said that was the first time they were allowed to talk about their pain.


How was the mission of Healing of Memories extended to Sri Lanka?

I was invited for the first time to come to Sri Lanka in the year 2000. It was from the Presidential Task Force of Disaster Management and at that point there were very high hopes  that the Sri Lankan conflict was going to end in a negotiated settlement.  But tragically that was not what happened. But then in recent years the institute was invited by the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) ceased with the question  of what contribution the faith communities could do towards healing and reconciliation. So we introduced our methodology because by that time we had tested it across the globe that is in American, Africa, the Pacific and many other countries.


Can the healing of memories be applied to any country and society specially where there are tragic and complex background of war and hatred?

Each context is particular and unique but at the deepest level there is a commonality and of course deepest commonality has to be we are human capable of doing the most terrible things to each other. All capable of hatred, bitterness and all capable of kindness, generosity and compassion. All faced with what we do about the past. No one is in the journey of healing. There is no perfect methodology and different human being healed in different ways.
It is interesting often after the war we see lot of movies and people write books, use new forms of arts and all contributions to healing of a nation. But I think perhaps the particular need to bring into the table is important of being able for people touch their pain. To have a safe place where people can speak not just what they think about the past but what they feel about the past. This is fundamentally important. Because the poison lies not on what we think about what happened but we feel about it. For every country with post-conflict it is important to think how do we avoid another war tomorrow.


What about political and economical solutions?

As I said earlier political, social economical things should have to happen. But we have to deal with what happen inside the people.
What is your experience in applying healing of memories in Sri Lanka?
Last week we had a workshop and majority of the people in the workshop were Tamil speaking and minority was Sinhalese. They were Buddhists, Hindus and Christians, of course one faith group was not there but should have been a part Muslim community. And a quite a number of participants were suffering from disability and consequent of war.  Many of them had more than one disappeared from the family. Some of them were former LTTE members, some senior persons in Sri Lankan military and inevitably at the beginning the people were quiet suspicious about each other. Our task as the facilitators was to create a safe place. People had permission to share what they wanted to share on the condition that the people who were there had permission to share their story outside the workshop. They couldn’t tell other people’s story without permission. After terrible things happen the society wants to move on which is good. But for those who have lost in some ways they will never move on because the loss is permanent. But they can be assisted to be healed. If they feel that society is listening to their pain. We know sometimes as media persons we give attention for about five minutes and then move on to the next story but those with wounds are left with the wounds which have not being addressed. So media has a key role in coming back to stories that were not being addressed and to tell the society that we have to do something to these wounds.


How long this mission of healing could go on?

Foundation against apartheid took a long time and we have about 20 years of democracy. People say to us have you finished dealing with the past.  My response is dream on and we know that conflict can happen in a very short time but the journey of national healing is a intergenerational journey. The question is not whether we can we deal with the past 100 percent but the question is can we make our contribution.


What do you think the role of media specially in a country where there was a terrible and prolonged war?

As media persons we have opportunity and responsibility. You know that the media has a major role in creating the Rwanda genocide. They perpetuated and encouraged hatred in the nation. They didn’t kill anybody they didn’t torture anybody they didn’t shoot anybody. But they helped create the climate in which the genocide happened. So media today whether in South Africa or Sri Lanka can help promote national healing. Of course to be fair to the national realities but you also lift up stories of generosity and courage stories of compassion stories where people had been acknowledged.  
What is your experience about transitional justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka
Past visits in Colombo, and Jaffna, Batticalo and Galle we have worked with different communities. It is encouraging when the nation is talking about transitional justice, healing and reconciliation. That is good the danger is they become slogans. It is important that society is talking about
We cannot turn the page of history without reading it. If we wanted to live in peace we have to accept the damages done to each other. We had a truth and reconciliation Commission.


Even though the war is over there are religious and ethnic clashes take place over ideologies in the social media and other fora? What is your response?

What is important all play our parts to narrate the story of peace. For example in South Africa we conduct a project where young people were allowed to talk. We did a programme called ‘God has many names’. We took  media, government and education system has a role to give antidotes.

Fr. Lapsley with Ven. Galkanda Dammananda, a lecturer attached to Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences of University of Kelaniya and Rev. W.P. Ebenezer Joseph, General Secretary of National Christian Council of Sri Lanka


What is the role of different religious leaders  to ‘heal a nation’?

I think religious leaders have a big say in what they say in public and also what they say in private. In South Africa we like say budget is a sacred document. So if church is saying we are committed for healing and reconciliation and it is one of the three priorities. We tell them to show your budget. And we tell them to show their budget and show their words have power and they had to be translated in to programmes. There is no use in saying we are committed to interfaith work but if we can’t see them with a leader of another faith. And of course where there is interfaith conflict, religious site is attacks all the religious leaders need to be seen there. It is not in our names but in a positive way as those who opposing it. Extremists in all our faith communities can be promoters of violence. So faith leaders need to distant themselves by creating understanding and respect.


Don’t you think that healing can happen in a different way and somebody else might strongly think that let the time become a healer?

If you want have a war for generation yes. Evidence of history is that past will never go away. There is different between healing the past and burring the past.   There are many examples around the world. Dominant societies say we have forgotten the past and everything fine and we can move forward but victim community pass their pain from generation to generation. If they don’t have an opportunity to heal this poison pass on from generation to generation.
One of my friend’s granddaughter in Yugoslavia wrote a book titled “Good people in Terrible time” and the book of full of people who acted with kindness and generosity towards the others in a time of war. And I know those stories exist in Sri Lanka. Those are the possibility of a common society. In South African context it was important that white join the struggle. Otherwise all the black people would have thought that all the white people are bad and all the black people are good. But by white joining the struggle a war between the races was avoided.

"As media persons we have opportunity and responsibility. You know that the media has a major role in creating the Rwanda genocide. They perpetuated and encouraged hatred in the nation. They didn’t kill anybody they didn’t torture anybody they didn’t shoot anybody. But they helped create the climate in which the genocide happened"


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