Sri Lanka and Genocidal Violence

Genocide, as a “grave crime” threatening the peace and security of a country or region, and a “serious concern to the international community as a whole,” ¹ is not often used to describe the conflict-ridden history of Sri Lanka – or so many commentators would argue. And indeed, this chapter is not concerned with labeling the many forms of collective and armed violence in this island nation. The benefits of such labeling extend only so far, and genocide scholars continue to deliberate ad infinitum the definitional dilemmas and dangers of the concept of genocide. Luke Glanville even wonders: “Is ‘genocide’ still a powerful word?” ² Helen Fein’s characterization of a “fuzzy concept,” with unclear borders and overlapping phenomena, best encapsulates the problem. ³ The aim of this chapter is not to assess the usefulness and limitations of a conceptually debatable phenomenon, but to understand better the link(s) between research and praxis, and to explore the possibilities of making the “genocide” concept actively useful through research.