Clowes Center Past Events
Veterans of Inter-communal Violence series
2009: Gendering Conflict — Disarming Nationalisms
Nirmala
Rajasingam’s courageous life story spans university education in the United
States, radicalization in Sri Lanka, incarceration for her connections with the
militant organization the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), subsequent
disillusionment with and separation from the organization over their disregard
for democracy and human rights, and relocation to London. Ms. Rajasingam
continues her life of activism through work as a legal defender for refugees in
Britain as well as acting as a leading member of several London-based human
rights and democracy organizations including the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum and
the South Asia Solidarity Group.
The seminar will be the anchor for the States of Violence: Representations of Conflict in Film, Fiction, and Media of South Asia conference featuring Nirmala Rajasingam, a former associate of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Ms. Rajasingam will narrate her personal experience with violent social change, touching on why she chose to leave the movement, and how she envisions future ethnic and cultural cohabitation in Sri Lanka given the past 25 years of war. The Veterans of Intercommunal Violence Seminar Series is designed to encourage dialogue on the relationships between combatants, conflict, peace and dialogue. Using the Sri Lanka conflict as a case study, the lecture will traverse the myriad issues that arise when war, gender, terrorism, national and ethnic identities all come crashing together.
Sponsors: The Comparative History of Ideas program at UW; The Center for Global Studies at the University of Washington; The Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington; The UW South Asia Center, UW Department of Law, Society and Justice; UW Department of Sociology; UW Department of English; UW Department of Women Studies; and the South Asian Bar Association of Washington.
2007: The Dream of Peace in Guatemala
Marco (aka Maco) Antonio Garavito, formerly active in the
Guatemalan resistance and currently Director of the Guatemalan Mental Health
League will give a public talk on November 7. This will be the second
installment of the Clowes Center’s Veterans of Intercommunal Violence speaker
series, in which former combatants discuss the factors that led them to choose
violence as a means for change, and the challenges of working for peace once
they have laid down their arms.
Maco is the Director of La Liga Guatemalteca de Higiene Mental (the Guatemalan Mental Health League). La Liga helps reunite families torn apart by Guatemala’s 36-year civil war by working to locate children, mostly from indigenous Mayan families, who disappeared during the conflict. They collaborate with affected communities, incorporating indigenous practices and values to provide mental comfort in the familial reintegration process. Via their “Todos por el Reencunetro” program, la Liga has helped over 100 families reconnect and redevelop bonds in their communities that may have been broken because of the conflict.
Mr. Garavito is a licensed psychologist and university professor with a degree in Social Psychology and Political Violence. As Director of the Guatemalan Mental Health League, he has coordinated their search and unification program since 1999. He will speak of his history in the Guatemalan resistance and his current peace building work with la Liga. In keeping with the title of la Liga’s reunification program, Mr. Garavito will stress that societal mental health is a concern for government, media, academic institutions and community members.
2006: Guerilla Peacemakers
Note: QuickTime and a high-speed connection are required to view this video.
Yazir Henri
Co-founder and Director, Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory in Cape Town,
South Africa
May 31, 2006
University of Washington
Anti-apartheid combatant turned peace activist and scholar, Yazir Henri will address the questions: how does one make the decision to take up arms in a political struggle? And, once the armed struggle has ended, how does one build peace in post war contexts?
Yazir Henri is the co-founder and director of the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory in Cape Town, South Africa. Since 1997, the centre has worked with former combatants, torture survivors and political prisoners. Henri joined Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Conference at age 16, when the apartheid government still held power over South Africa. He received military training in Angola and the Soviet Union, and returned to South Africa as an MK officer, only to be imprisoned under Section 29 of the then Internal Security Act. Henri emerged from the hands of the police, and from an ambivalent testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to re-define himself as a poet, writer and peace activist.
Henri will share his personal experience of the liberation war, detention, survival and recovery and explain how these have shaped his current beliefs. He will also describe his Centre’s response to the manifold challenges facing young combatants previously involved in the South African war for freedom, and the larger context of challenges that hamper the building of long term peace and human security in post conflict South Africa.
Series Information:
The Clowes Center was formed in 2004 in order to provide a forum within which students, faculty and members of our communities (both local and international) can develop projects, programs, events and research that explore specific efforts to create and sustain dialogue across social and political, and national boundaries.