Witnesses of Mercy for Peace and Reconciliation

71 WITNESSING MERCY FOR PEACE AND RECONCILIAT ION young as me, facing much more suffering due to the war. He should have been at high school like me, he should have been living with his parents, siblings, grandmothers and friends. But he was in a soldiers’ uniform, holding a gun, born to kill, taught to kill, living away from his parents and siblings. All of a sudden, without another thought, I ran down to the front of the house, threw away the water pot and emptied his water bottle. The fear of punishment for poisoning the water was far less than the fear of hurting another innocent human who is simply the product of the same system of injustice and deep structural violence in our nation. I became certain that, even if the soldiers who raped my friends and the girls I met at camp, and killed many innocent civilians whom I saw for decades at my mother’s hos- pital, including my ancestor, drunk my poison water, I would react the same. Because they too, were suffering the same injustice and structural violence that we were all facing as a nation, including the regime and ruling elites who created and strengthened this injustice. From that moment, I came to believe that retaliation is not the correct response, or way of winning. Mercy and com- passion to feel pain and fear in ourselves and in others, and deeply understand the interdependence of the whole system is the only true liberation because we beat the fear, anger and hatred in us with mercy and compassion. We empower and strengthen the goodness inside us with a wholesome attitude and actions. Fifteen years after this incident, I began to learn peacebuilding and to work in Buddhist approaches to conflict transformation. I could then connect with some child soldier or veteran for rehabilitation and reconnec- tion with society. I learnt to see the goodness in them, as well as more deeply understand their adversities through many conversations with them and their families. From there, I learnt that we need a higher level of mercy and compassion in order to liberate all of us, including the Other, to remove us from the circle of violence so that we can prevent multiplying the victims and perpetra- tors, and disempowering each other through hatred, fear and anger. Nang Loung Hom Nang Loung Hom is board director and secretary of the Walpola Rahula Institute and trainer in conflict trans- formation and peacebuilding. She is also a KAICIID International Fellow 2016. She grew up witnessing the atrocities of civil war, oppression and violations of human rights. The experi- ences taught her to detest violence, to strive to understand the root causes of conflicts and to work towards social healing, dialogue and conflict transformation. Hom coordinates content development for Mind- fulness for Children and Mindfulness for Family programmes, as well as supporting Myanmar Buddhist monks and nuns from Sri Lanka in a personal capacity by providing training workshops and dialogue pro- grammes on conflict and peace issues. Hom also co-facilitates Buddhist approaches on con- flict transformation programmes at Buddhist institutions in Myanmar. She conducts several peace education pro- grammes for children, family and teachers in Myanmar. She works as programme trainer for peace education at the Institute for Political and Civic Education, Yangon, Myanmar.