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Nipping crises in the bud

The events in Pt. Pedro, Ampara and more recently in Trincomalee, have thrown up new challenges to the peace-makers. Mayhem is created with the aim of provoking grave acts of violence, such as the taking of lives. The overall aim of those behind these clashes seems to be to provoke communal violence with the intention of torpedoing the peace process.

Such developments shouldn't take the parties to the peace process, including the public, by surprise because every peace has its enemies. However, there is no ducking the need to take every precaution against a recurrence of such incidents. Every civic-conscious citizen is duty- bound to rally-round the Government in its efforts to perpetuate and consolidate the peace process.

It is easy to destroy or annihilate but more difficult to create, consolidate and preserve. Since the current peace process wouldn't be an exception to the rule of every peace having its enemies, it is incumbent on all well meaning persons and groups to extend their utmost cooperation to defend and strengthen the peace effort in the face of enemy action.

This needs to be an on-going process. A constant vigilance needs to be maintained on the part of everyone to the peace process, to ensure that the gains which have been garnered thus far are preserved. It should be borne in mind that the enemies of peace are forever active, awaiting an opportunity to destroy the foundation which has been laid for national reconciliation. The corollary to this truth is that all parties to the peace process need to be watchful continuously, lest the enemies of peace make surreptitious inroads into the peace process.

The Government has done well to take prompt, resolute action to curb the violence and mayhem in Trincomalee. Besides acting vigorously to keep the peace, the law enforcers also need to act with strict impartiality in these situations. They would be helped in these tasks by joining hands with civic action groups and community-based organisations which work towards the same aims.

In fact, it is laudable of the State to promote the formation of a multi-religious peace committee for Trincomalee. As indicated in our lead story yesterday, all major religions of the country would be represented in this body, besides incorporating representatives from civil society. Hopefully, this committee would act in collaboration with the State to keep the peace in Trincomalee. We quoted Interior Minister John Amaratunga as saying that the possibilities would be explored to have the participation of the LTTE leader for Trincomalee in the committee, at a later date, and we hope this will be so.

In fact, all major parties to the peace process need to be represented in the committee. We do not perceive any other way in which each of these parties could be made responsible for implementing any decisions the committee may take for the furtherance of peace. The possibility should be explored of having as many of these peace committees in the North-East as possible.

True, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission is responsible for ensuring that the parties to the conflict abide by the terms of the MoU. However, peace committees would be charged with building a peace culture in the North-East. Religious leaders are best placed to carry out this task. They could act as the connecting link between the communities and act promptly in concert to defuse potential crises in inter-communal relations.

The committee in Trincomalee would need to act with utmost vigilance. It would need to meet regularly and assess the ground situation in the region, launch bridge-building programs among groups and ensure that they relate on the basis of friendship and love.

The committee would also need to act promptly to iron out differences among groups and ensure that minor irritants do not escalate into major crises.

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