PBI Observe Protest Action in Sri Lanka's Free Trade Zone During my training to volunteer for Peace Brigades International in Sri Lanka, I was told that there would be times in which I would be involved in difficult, dangerous and stressful situations. I never quite imagined that I would spend a Saturday evening amidst a crowd of demonstrators, with bullets and tear gas being fired above my head. On the evening of Saturday, 7th November 1992, a coalition of some 500 representatives of various opposition political parties, trade unions and human rights movements gathered outside the gates of Katunayake Free Trade Zone, north of Colombo. They were gathered to engage in peaceful protest for, and raise awareness of, the conditions of the 80,000 workers who are employed by foreign companies and multinational corporations in the Free Trade Zone. Leaflets distributed by the demonstrators and signed by forty-two organizations listed demands which included the reinstatement of employees fired for trade union activities; an investigation into employees missing or killed; a minimum monthly salary of Rs 2500 (US $55) and a demand that employers should cease making unrealistic production targets. The workers in the Free Trade Zone are mostly young women aged between eighteen and twenty-four years. Denial of union representation, subjection to long hours for poor pay and inadequate working conditions are part of the very factors that make the strictly controlled Free Trade Zone so attractive to foreign investors. The government of Sri Lanka, in hoping that it's country will emerge as one of the new economic tigers of southern Asia is desperate to maintain this overseas investment. With so many Third World nations vying for a limited share of markets and investors, multinational corporations are largely able to dictate their own terms and the governments of these countries are more than willing to concede to them. Behind the gates of the Katunayake Free Trade Zone another country exists. Management of this zone is in the hands of the Greater Colombo Economic Commission. This Commission has almost complete and arbitrary control over employees. There is a private paramilitary security force operating within the Free Trade Zone. Reports abound of workers being locked in the factories until quotas are completed. Peace Brigades International were invited to attend the demonstration as observers by the Victimised Workers Collective and by a labour rights movement whose name translates as "Drops of Sweat." The mood in the bus travelling to the Free Trade Zone with some of the demonstrators was light and jovial but behind the smiles and laughter was just a hint of apprehension. Many of the group were life-long activists in the struggle for human rights. One woman I met had seen her husband taken away and murdered three years ago for his involvement in the Communist Party. A man on the bus told me how he had fled Sri Lanka in 1989 and had ended up in the Philippines where he joined the peoples liberation movement in overthrowing Marcos. Most of the afternoon I had been in a house with them near the Free Trade Zone, where some fifteen thousand leaflets were being folded in preparation for distribution. There was excitement about the prospect of handing out leaflets which is restricted under the terms of the Emergency Regulations. An additional aim of the demonstration was to test the police and security forces resolve in upholding and implementing these regulations. We arrived at the gates of the Free Trade Zone in time to meet the first of a seemingly endless stream of thousands of women finishing their shift for the day. The demonstrators created a human corridor in front of the gates and handed out leaflets as the workers filed past. Two jeeps of grey uniformed Free Trade Zone security guards arrived at the barricade that separates the road leading to the factories from Averiwatte Junction. One large paramilitary guard with an oversized steel grey helmet pulled down over his forehead approached the barrier. He held a weapon that looked like a WW2 Thompson sub-machine gun with a huge cylindrical magazine. The gun was actually a multi-purpose weapon that can be loaded with a range of ammunition including armour-piercing bullets, shot gun cartridges, rubber bullets and gas canisters. It was probably loaded with the latter two for riot control. I pointed my camera at him and the weapon went back into the vehicle and wasn't seen again. I don't know if the gun would have been used or not if I hadn't been there. I am confident to believe that just the awareness of its existence by an international observer could have been enough to deter the guard from carrying such a gun. After about ten thousand women had passed by the security forces closed the Averiwatte Junction exit and re-routed the remaining workers to other gates. Demonstrators lined the road sides, displayed placards of protest and chanted slogans as the buses and trucks moved workers and goods from the area. The police presence increased. Uniformed men with riot sticks, tear gas launchers and semi-automatic rifles (AK 47's) shadowed the growing crowd. The five volunteers from Peace Brigades International observed, maintaining noticeable positions around the police, between them and the demonstrators. And then the crowd marched. The numbers of police were insignificant compared to the size of the crowd around them. They seemed nervous. Young policemen with machine guns, faces set, faces both hard and frightened. Triggers were edgily, dangerously fingered. Others shifted from foot to foot and tapped their yard long riot sticks on the ground. The crowd moved on and suddenly the rapid, stuttering rattle of a Kalashnikov was heard. Two, three, four canisters of tear gas exploded overhead. People ran in all directions and suddenly the junction was cleared, empty save for the police and five spread out and extremely conspicuous white international observers from Peace Brigades International. (I mention "white" because it was a significant factor being the only clearly non-Sri Lankan people on the scene. It's a factor that PBI are very aware of and try to use positively). I stood alone. Police and demonstrators frightened on both sides. I stood in the middle of the road, camera in hand. Beside me two women were dragged into a jeep. I took a photograph. A step away a machine-gun was fired over my head. I could smell the acrid sulphurous odour of spent shells and felt the faintly burning hint of tear gas in my eyes as it blew away from me towards the crowd. Riot sticks were raised and wielded. I took a photograph. Strange sensation. The world almost stood still and around me people seemed to be moving in slow motion. I felt as though I was seeing myself from afar and yet I was there amidst this bizarre and dangerous scene, curiously detached from all sense of reality and awareness. Yet I felt in control, that I had purpose and even that I was safe. In retrospect I'm sure that I should have been afraid. The surge of adrenalin under such circumstances must put all our functions into overdrive, the mind cannot cope with the speed at which events are happening and so this sensation of seeing things in a suspended animation of sorts is experienced. In all the action probably lasted only about fifteen minutes. The tension remained for a lot longer. Standing between the police and the crowd I often noticed or felt the hostility burning from the eyes of the young, tense policemen with their hands too tight on the grips of their guns. I would attempt a nod or a smile and sometimes the spell would be broken. You could detect a slackening of shoulders and that alteration of perception in the mind's eye of the young policemen. The crowd opposite became human, real, and not merely the depersonalised image of trouble-makers that had been conveniently and dangerously imagined. It is impossible to say what effect the presence of international observers had on the outcome of the demonstration. Did we prevent hundreds from being arrested? Did we prevent a machine-gun from being levied at and fired into the crowd? I don't know, perhaps we did. Judging by the actions of the police at other demonstrations and from the messages of thanks we received, I would count the involvement of PBI a successful one. Much of the time I spent shadowing the police officer in charge. Giving orders over his radio he would have looked to see me standing there and perhaps thought twice about the implications of his directions and the actions of his men. I hope so. Of the people arrested, all were later released. PBI volunteers appealed for information from the Chief Superintendent, were allowed to speak with the detainees and stayed at the police station until all releases were secured. I can state with more certainty the personal effect of this experience. It was the first time that I have been involved in and confronted with such potential danger. I was aware of functioning within a new level of stress. By knowing how I react in such circumstances should help me to cope with future demands. I don't wish to glamourise events, it was not an enjoyable experience, but in a way I'm glad that I was there. Looking into the faces of fear I hope that I have learned a little more about people. I have learned more about myself and perhaps aged more in those time tempered fifteen minutes than in any other quarter hour I can recall. I showed these pages to a Sri Lankan friend of mine. Her comment was that these are the thoughts of a white man from a western country. The implication being that I just don't understand. I am white, I am male and I am from a western country. Fate of race, gender and place of birth will of course affect my perception and comprehension of events. However, when I witness fundamental human rights abuses; denial of the right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression and peaceful protest; when I see people marching and demonstrating for the right to union representation, for fair wages and tolerable working conditions; when I hear of people being deprived of livelihood, liberty and even life for taking issue with these causes; I ask myself, what is it that I just don't understand ? There are regional, cultural and ethnic variations in the interpretation of human rights. There are also variations of perception within the differing strata of a country's class system. In Sri Lankan terms my friend is rich and privileged. The conditions and demands of those less fortunate may present an uncomfortable challenge to the lifestyle and conscience of the wealthy minority in a state where the poverty gap is so polarised. My ability as a white western man to grasp the complex social, political and philosophical dimensions of events in an essentially alien country and culture; where the norms and values that have shaped my attitudes and outlook may not be shared; is perhaps not so different from that of my friend, leading a life far removed from many of the experiences and realities shared by the average Sri Lankan, to fully comprehend the dynamics of what is happening in her own land. Simon J Harris Part of this article appeared in the December 1992 issue of Peace Brigades International Project Bulletin.