Peace Day: Sri Lanka

I only heard about World Peace Day from the BBC. Normally, it would probably be just another day - taking a trishaw into Colombo and hoping nothing blows up.

MEET THE BLOGGERS Name: Indi Samarajiva Lives: Colombo

Peace is almost a dirty word here now, and I don't think there's much political capital in it.

"International" or "NGO" are dirty words too, so a World Peace Day reads like a string of profanities to some people.

Most Sri Lankans enjoyed huge benefits during the ceasefire, but the tit-for-tat violence is bringing extremists out of the woodwork.

It is as if the assassination of Foreign Minister Kadirgamar, or the bombings in Muttur in the east, triggered this national 'fight or flight' mechanism.

Suddenly the only options are war or appeasement, and you are either with us or against us. It is strange that so many Buddhists cannot grasp the idea of a middle path, but the prospect of a day for reflection seems dim.

People feel threatened right now and they're reacting. If we did take a day to breathe we'd probably make better decisions tomorrow, but I don't see that happening.

Children conscripted

There are checkpoints everywhere. I see at least ten men with guns every day.

Gloved police stop traffic to let ministers through, and everybody gets twitchy in case they get blown up.

PEACE BLOGGERS Mona in Gaza Alirio in Colombia Indi in Sri Lanka Samira in Chechnya Anon in Balochistan Haron in Darfur Ali in Iran Amila in Iraq

But that's nothing compared to life in the north and east.

There people have been bombed out of their homes, denied water, had their children conscripted to fight, denied access to humanitarian aid.

In Colombo stuff blows up, the phone lines get clogged, and someone cleans up the smoking mess. Life moves on.

You're honestly more likely to get killed in a mundane traffic accident than a terrorist attack.

But war fever tramples on civil liberties and civility in general.

I've had my car towed by the bomb squad and received vague death threats for what I thought were moderate blog posts.

And those are just mild symptoms.

Dissenters

People in the north and east are truly suffering and sometimes I can't look at the news. What's worst is that there's no middle ground anymore.

You can't even talk about the ethnic conflict without being branded a LTTE sympathiser.

I guess it's the same on the other side, except they actually do kill dissenters.

hope is starting to congeal into heartbreak

World Peace Day, in that sense, just treats the symptoms. If we stop fighting for a day that's not going to make the riots of 1983 or the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi go away.

However, I think that day would have value. Personally, I didn't talk about the ethnic conflict on my blog until things started blowing up.

Colombo is a fun town and there are other things I'm interested in. Peace makes you complacent in a way, but it does lay the economic and social groundwork for a lasting solution.

However, even a day of peace seems far away right now. As far as I can tell violence breeds more violence.

Under the ceasefire I could imagine Sri Lanka in 20 years and it was a great place. So great, in fact, that I came back from studies abroad with a lot of hope.

That hope is starting to congeal into heartbreak, but I still believe in this country.

World peace? I don't know about that, but I think Sri Lanka can make it.

There's so much creativity and life here; you can almost feel a humid pulse when you get off the plane.

I do believe that force is stronger than whatever is tearing us apart.

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