The Voice of peace from Jaffna

By Dr.Jehan Perera

The attention of the country in the past week was riveted upon the crucial budget vote in Parliament. A defeat of the budget would have led to a period of uncertainty, and even to the downfall of the government. The government’s victory in the vote will undoubtedly shape the course of events in the short term. The role played by the JVP, which reversed its previous stance of voting against the budget and abstained on this occasion was decisive. It will add impetus to the inevitability of escalated warfare, seen by both the ruling party and the JVP as key to the solution to the LTTE’s challenge to the state.
One of the significant features in the budget was the substantial increase in the defence allocation. The likely aftermath of the budget victory is an increased effort by the government to push into the LTTE’s heartland of the Wanni in the north possibly early in the new year. It is significant that so far the LTTE has not been able to launch any militarily significant operation against the government forces arrayed in the north. Usually the monsoon rains at the end of the year have afforded the LTTE the opportunity to launch crippling attacks against the less mobile government forces.
At the present time, however, and unlike in the past, it has been the government that has been keeping the pressure on the LTTE with relatively small scale probes and attacks on a multiplicity of fronts. This seems to have had the effect of forcing the LTTE to spread out its forces to defend territory from government advances. There has been a regular death toll inflicted on the combatants on both sides. But the LTTE, with its smaller numbers, and difficulties in recruitment, is likely to be under greater pressure.
The anticipation of more intense and bloodier fighting to come may not perturb most of the LTTE’s overseas backers for whom life goes on as usual. But within Sri Lanka itself there is a sense of utter despondency among the Tamil population. A recent public opinion poll conducted by the Social Indicator unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives has shown a dramatic contrast between the Sinhalese and Tamil perceptions of the government’s current strategy of military confrontation against the LTTE. Upwards of 85 percent of Sinhalese agree with the government while the reverse is true of the Tamils.
The Social Indicator survey shows that the polarization between the ethnic communities is greater than it has ever been in recent times. It is a truism that violence begets violence and hatred does not cease by hatred. It is therefore only to be expected, by those who think rationally, that the pursuit of a military solution will increase the intensity of the very ethnic conflict that gave birth to Tamil militancy, including the LTTE. The justification for a renewed search for a non-violent solution to the ongoing conflict stems from a recognition of this basic reality, that there cannot be final victory through a military solution and that war cannot bring lasting peace.
JAFFNA CONFERENCE
At the same time as the budget debate was taking place in Colombo, an international conference on peace in Sri Lanka was taking place in Jaffna. This was the first such event to take place in Jaffna for many years. It was all the more remarkable that the event could take place at the present time when the clouds of war hang heavy over the north and travel to Jaffna is especially restricted with the closure of the highway to Jaffna. All foreigners, whether being tourists or humanitarian workers, require special government clearance to travel to Jaffna by available sea or air routes.
Unfortunately, at the present time, the conflict in Sri Lanka is leading to destruction and suffering on a large scale that is taking its toll most heavily on the Tamil people of the north. The decision to make Jaffna the location of the International Summit of Religious Leaders on Peace was to express solidarity with all those who continue to live in situations of violence and despair due to the ongoing conflict. The venue of the meeting was the Jaffna Public Library, which was burned down in 1981 in the course of the conflict and rebuilt nearly two decades later to be a testament to a new era of peace and national reconciliation, which is still to dawn.
The meeting was organized by the World Conference of Religions for Peace together with its local counterpart and the National Peace Council, which was how I was able to be present. There was resistance from sections of the government to this conference who may wish to keep civil society organizations on a tight leash. But there was approval for the conference at other high levels that included the Defence Ministry. The ability of the organizers to conduct the event without any interference from the government or LTTE helped to keep it an independent civil society initiative.
The participation of Japan’s special envoy Yasushi Akashi who has dedicated himself to reviving the peace process also helped to elevate the significance of the conference. Mr Akashi was warmly welcomed by the religious leaders, media and leading citizens of Jaffna who attended the conference. He met with the participants in groups and individually. His presence in Jaffna was an antidote, even if only for a short while, to the sense of political isolation that Jaffna suffers from, and may contribute to restoring the faith of the Tamil people in general about Japanese mediation.
In his public pronouncements, Mr Akashi said that as Sri Lanka’s largest donor, Japan could ask the Sri Lankan government for an adequate response to the grievances of the Tamil people. He said that a ceasefire was a first step in evolving a durable framework for a just and lasting solution, and that gains for one must be gains for all communities. He also affirmed the need to respect diversity in the modern world, pointing out that even the most powerful nations today could not impose their will upon others.
Mr Akashi was not the only member of the international community of high standing at the conference. Others included Most Venerable Tep Vong, the Supreme Patriarch (Mahanayake) of Cambodia and Ms Ela Gandhi, grand daughter of Mahatma Gandhi and a former MP in the government of the great peace maker Nelson Mandela. The fact that leaders of this stature were prepared to take the risk of traveling to Jaffna reflects the goodwill that sections of the international community have in helping Sri Lanka to resolve its conflict through peaceful means. The moment that the fighting ends, this goodwill can be converted into moral and material resources that can heal and reconstruct Sri Lankan society.
WAY FORWARD
As an outcome of their experiences in Jaffna and deliberations at the conference with Sri Lankan religious leaders, the participants identified peace building efforts in several important areas. They urged positive action on the part of the international community by the reactivation of the donor co-chairs, and the enhancement of Japan and Norway’s facilitative roles, to re-open the path for fresh negotiations between the government and LTTE, and by the provision of increased development assistance to reconstruct the war-torn areas, empower local community groups, rebuild the livelihoods of war-affected people and strengthen the national economy
The religious leaders also expressed their support for all initiatives aimed at bringing the ongoing war to an end through an immediate cessation of hostilities, preparing of political proposals by the government in consultation with all parties, including the Tamil political parties, propagating the need for a power-sharing constitutional framework in which people enjoy the political right to develop their communities, opening of all roads, including the A9 highway to Jaffna, and resettling of all displaced persons, including the Muslim community of the north, with their consent, and improving internal trade and marketing between the north east and south, which will build goodwill between communities and reduce economic pressures.
In addition, they called for an immediate end to the use of claymore mines, artillery firing and bombings that have targeted civilians, forced conscription of children an adults into armed groups, abductions, disappearances, extortions and extra-judicial killings of civilians, harassment of Tamil people through draconian provisions of the law that permit arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention and forced resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons in locations not of their choice.
Tragically the current focus on war suggests that few if any of these recommendations will be immediately subscribed to by the conflicting parties to which they were addressed. However, one of the main purposes of religion is to give hope and strength that comes from faith, to work for peace. A play staged by the youth of Jaffna belonging to the Centre for Performing Arts showed the banners of war being pulled down to be replaced by the banners of peace. The young people seemed so happy on the stage, but the reality of their lives is fear, with two to six people, most of them youth, being subjected to extra judicial killing nearly every day. If even one of the two conflicting parties chooses to take a different path, their future could be entirely different.
End