Youths must rally for peace

While the world welcomes the positive steps the Sudanese
government and the main rebel group have taken in signing a peace
agreement, the international community must also turn its attention
to the devastating developments of a much lower-profile peace
process ““ that of Sri Lanka.

After making some progress in Geneva in February, continued
peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the rebel group,
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, hang in uncertainty as the
country spirals toward another civil war. The month of April has
seen over 200 killings, an escalation of ethnic-based civilian
violence, a suicide bomb attack in the capital city of Colombo,
increased military strikes in the north and eastern regions, and a
country gone from the possibility of peace to the inevitability of
war in a very short period of time.

Various news sources have reported that the government and the
LTTE have agreed to resume peace talks in the coming weeks, but the
daily occurrences of violence indicate otherwise. The political
maneuvering and disregard for human rights by both the
country’s government and the LTTE have led a volatile
situation on the ground to deteriorate to the brink of war.
Tensions between the majority Sinhalese and Tamil minority erupted
into a more than 20-year war that has claimed over 64,000 lives and
left hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes. A
cease-fire agreement was signed in 2002, but cycles of violence
have continuously obstructed its implementation.

Working for a grassroots peace organization and living in the
country has given me an opportunity to see the highs and lows of
the peace movement firsthand. While the politics at the top level
are frustrating, what is more alarming is the lack of civil
society’s participation in the peace movement ““
especially by the younger generation.

Young peace activists are hard to come by in Sri Lankan
universities, which are typically hotbeds for extremism. Similar to
U.S. colleges, radical factions of political parties infiltrate
campus grounds to recruit and mobilize the youngest and most
passionate portion of the population. The primary difference
between the two societies is that in Sri Lanka, this infiltration
is also associated with a call to violence. Unfortunately, the
current peace movement has failed to provide an alternative cause
around which these idealistic young people can rally.

In contrast, it has been the universities in the United States
that have continued to be in the front lines of peace and justice
movements. Whether it was the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s or
more recently, when the University of California leadership heeded
student calls to divest from Sudan, it has been the younger
generations of this country that have given a voice to marginalized
sectors of society.

At this time, the Sri Lankan youth desperately need the support
of the youth of the international community if they are to stop the
cycle of violence and become the future leaders of the peace
movement. There’s a whole generation of young people out
there waiting for the voices of peace to reach them.

Fernando is the former Daily Bruin news editor and served as
an intern at the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka from November
2005 to April 2006.