THE CONVERGENCE FOR PEACE

So far both peace and anti-peace activities outside the conflict areas of Sri Lanka's North and East have been small. A demonstration for peace in early March saw a few hundred gather in Colombo's main railway station. The Buddhist monks who led a delegation to the Norwegian embassy to protest against the ceasefire were even fewer. The lack of passion one way or the other actually reflected the general satisfaction with the prevailing ceasefire. On 15 March, however, the Sarvodaya Movement commenced a massive peace operation with daylong meditation in the city of Anuradhapura, to be followed by rural programmes that will go on till 31 December. In their pamphlets, the organisation has urged people to prepare themselves even prior to the meditation by refraining from eating meat or speaking ill of anything. The participants will be silent throughout the four-hour meditation. There will be no militancy or controversy, only empathy and unity.

This peace meditation programme comes at a special time. The guns have fallen silent, yet the gulf between the conflicting parties remains and has to be bridged by outside mediators. The primary objective of the peace meditation is to orient the individual and collective consciousness of people away from violence so that the political leaders will be forced to make constructive decisions. At this juncture, when the Sinhala peace constituency is under pressure, the importance of creating such an environment and of Sarvodaya's capacity to bring together people of different persuasions cannot be overemphasised.