Church leaders in Sri Lanka are making a major contribution to efforts to improve understanding between the island nation's two divided communities, the majority Sinhalese Buddhist community and the Tamil minority which is predominantly Hindu.
With the approval of the government, church leaders recently led a group of two dozen religious officials—including 18 Buddhist monks—to what are called "uncleared areas" under the control of LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, better known as Tamil Tigers). On February 18 the group then held secret talks with senior LTTE leaders at a Catholic center, the Madhu Church, in the diocese of Mannar in Northern Sri Lanka.
The minority Tamil population, comprising less than 20 percent of the total population of 19 million, is concentrated in eastern and northern parts of the island. The Sinhala-speaking Buddhist majority occupies the southern part of the island.
Since 1983 more than 65,000 people have been killed in the bloody conflict between Tamil militants and the Sri Lankan army for the control of the Tamil areas—large parts of which remain under LTTE control.
"We will do all that we can to facilitate peace. So long as our efforts would lead to peace, we will be happy," said the Anglican Church's Bishop Kenneth Fernando of Colombo.
An active member of the Inter-Religious Alliance for National Unity (IRANU) that organized the "peace pilgrimage," Bishop Fernando was speaking to ENI after some Sri Lankan media organizations dubbed the church officials as "political bishops."
"As far as I am concerned, the single-point agenda for the churches is to facilitate peace in our motherland," said the bishop, who was forced to withdraw from the peace pilgrimage at the last moment because of health problems.
The peace initiative has been criticized by many Buddhists who believe there should be no dialogue with Tamil militants whom they denounce as "terrorists."
However, IRANU said in a press release after the Madhu meeting: "From what we saw, heard and experienced during this tour, we are convinced that a meaningful praiseworthy and lasting solution to our ethnic conflict depends on open discussions and negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE organization."
The statement was released at a press conference addressed by Malcolm Ranjith, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka, along with three prominent Buddhist monks who took part in the pilgrimage.
IRANU welcomed the unilateral cease-fire announced by LTTE late last year. But IRANU said its delegates had told LTTE leaders that "we cannot accept any terrorist activities on the part of anyone."
In a plea directed to the Sri Lanka government, IRANU said: "We earnestly request all responsible people of our country to give up the path of war and enter into a peaceful process through discussion and negotiation.
"Let us get together to build a peaceful and united country that respects the identity of each group of people living in our country. Let us create the atmosphere that enables each one to participate in the national life of the country without being discriminated against due to race or religion," said the statement, in an apparent reference to the Tamil minority.
Catholic Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Mannar, who was the host at the secret meeting, told ENI: "We need peace desperately.
"We are neither for LTTE nor for the government," said Bishop Joseph. About half the 70,000 Catholics in his diocese live in government-controlled areas, and half under LTTE control.
Asked about living conditions for the 500,000 people living in "uncleared areas" under LTTE control, Bishop Joseph said conditions were inhuman. "You could imagine what would be the life for people living under constant embargo of food and medicine, under shelling, bombing and shooting. This is a very hopeless situation."
His concern was reflected in the IRANU statement which acknowledged the "many horrible consequences of the war on human beings" and "the terrible hardships" the displaced people were undergoing.
Kalupahane Piyaratana, a Buddhist monk with the National Peace Council, told ENI that the criticism of the churches' bid for peace by a small group of people was "not surprising."
He said that Sri Lanka's 30,000 Buddhist monks were divided. While most now supported moves for peace, a powerful lobby controlling the Buddhist hierarchy saw the issue as simply "a terrorist problem that is destroying the country. For them, this is not an ethnic problem, but only terrorism that needs to be crushed."
Kalupahane Piyaratana worked as a government official from 1994 to 1999 trying "to build support for the peace initiatives" of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Now a field director of the National Peace Council, the monk said that in recent years there had been a "perceptible change in the attitude" towards peace on the part of the Sinhalese majority. "Most people are now convinced that war cannot bring peace." He added that the nation was now getting closer to a conclusion to the conflict.
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But W. P. Ebenezer Joseph, general secretary of the National Christian Council (NCC) of Sri Lanka, told ENI that the peace process was swinging between "hope and despair. One day it looks full of hope. Next day, it looks all gloomy."
After the pilgrimage, there were reports that the LTTE was angry about an alleged bid by the army to ambush the LTTE team after it left the peace dialogue.
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