Witnesses of Mercy for Peace and Reconciliation

73 WITNESSING MERCY FOR PEACE AND RECONCILIAT ION team and make the journey to the north. All logistical support was provided by CPBR. On 25th August, they arrived in Nawanthurai. Sev- eral Christian and Catholic Fathers joined the team of Buddhist monks. Although some Hindu Kurukkals and Muslim Moulavis were keen to join, they were scared to do so. The team met with villagers of Nawanthurai and listened to their stories. It was a palpably agonising moment of making direct contact with the pain of those people. The villagers were taken by surprise as Buddhist monks had never been seen in the village. It was as if the flood gates had opened as they unloaded their sufferings to the interfaith team. Although armed forces arrived in the village as they heard about the presence of the inter- faith team, the Buddhist monks intervened to make free and safe space for people to share their stories without constraint. As the soldiers were Buddhists themselves, they made no attempt to obstruct proceedings. The team then visited the Nawanthurai hospital. They spoke to each of the 16 people warded there and listened to their stories. The religious leaders blessed them for a speedy recovery. The people who were hospitalised told the religious leaders that they retained no feelings of hatred or vengeance against those who harmed them. A team of Buddhist monks arriving in Jaffna was a historical event. Once the interfaith team left the hospital, soldiers worshipped them and shared their perspective of the incidents in Jaffna. The team listened to them patiently. The soldiers claimed that the villages had retaliated against them. The Buddhist monks shared with them Buddhist teachings to highlight that engage- ment in a cycle of violence and hatred would be fruitless. The monks pondered on the philosophy of causality. They said that each effect had a cause and that people needed to understand the interconnection between these. They said that the Buddhist tradition was about finding ways to douse fire and not to pour oil on it. They said that the soldiers might have felt and empathised with the pain and sufferings of the villagers. The interfaith team said that they visited Jaffna to share their compassion with all and not to be judgemental and take sides. This was just one of the incidents that took place in post-war Sri Lanka but many similar instances have occurred since 2009. So much should have been done within the realm of transitional justice at the end of war. So little was done and there is so much to do, yet we need to move with resolve to heal the past and build the future. Prof. Jayantha Seneviratne Prof. Jayantha Seneviratne, PhD, is a civil society activist and peacebuilder. He is co-founder and chairperson of the Centre for Peacebuilding and Reconciliation (CPBR). Prof. Seneviratne has been an associate professor at the Department of Philosophy at University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, for which he designed the Peace and Conflict Resolution Degree Programme in 2004, the first such degree in Sri Lanka. He contributed to develop modules and approaches to bring the religious perspective to rec- onciliation, peacebuilding and justice. He co-designed, led and facilitated interfaith initiatives implemented by the CPBR from 2008 to the present day. He has been professionally engaged in many national and international organizations and is a designer of study materials and modules on peacebuilding, conflict transfor- mation, national integration, reconciliation and interfaith dialogue. He serves many governmental reconciliation efforts in the capacity of advisor and resource person. The CPBR was given the Niwano Peace Award in 2016. Picture © Nadeeshan Gayan