Sri Lanka: Our Failure Lives On
A 2001 peace meditation in a Muslim village in Sri Lanka.
As clashes heat up in Sri Lanka's northern districts of Mannar and Vavuniya, BBC notes:
The statement hits me like a kick to the stomach. Because, while the Norwegians brokered the deal, the team I worked on was instrumental in making the cease-fire happen. Three years of intensive grassroots work, with its setbacks and new strategies, had finally paid off. Then we dropped the ball. Once the cease-fire was signed, all of us involved trusted the combatants to do the right thing. Each of us went on to all of the pressing matters that we'd put off while peace remained the first priority. I began a series of medical treatments that put me out of comission for two years, got married, focused on my business, and saved enough money for a down payment on our current home. Meanwhile, all of us looked on, pleased, as peacetime business boomed and economic development made real progress. Surely, we thought, the benefits of peace would be obvious to everyone, making renewed fighting unthinkable. But conflict is never unthinkable. The combatants did not use the cease-fire to disarm, broaden understanding, and promote democracy. News flash: they never have, and they never will. Instead, they consolidated power, fanned the flames of ethnic nationalism, and worked tirelessly to ensure that peace did not happen. Now we see the results: in a year of fighting, 5,000 more people have died. Looking back, though many areas of my life required attention, I regret losing focus on the peace process in Sri Lanka. In fact, I consider my participation as one of the few really meaningful things I have done in my life, and my pulling back after 2001 as a great failure. To be sure, I was not alone: all of us on the team lost our focus."A Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in 2002 broke down after several years, resulting in renewed fighting that has killed more than 5,000 people."
For those who would end a war, there is much to be learned here. First and foremost, cease-fire should never be mistaken for peace. When cease-fire breaks out (or when the troops come home), our work had just begun. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, if peace is to be made, it will not be made by the combatants. If you're truly anti-war, plan on participating in the process— because no amount of pressure will cause a combatant party to do the work of making peace. They've got a vested interest in continuing the conflict.
If peace is to be made, it's up to committed individuals willing to make the commitment to see it through. I truly regret that I let our opportunity pass.
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