Fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the largest set of separatists, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has continued for about 20 years, with human rights abuses and violence committed on both sides. Repeated attempts at peace treaties have failed. In January 2002, however, with the help of Norwegian mediators, the parties consented to one of the most promising cease-fire agreements thus far, though the situation remains fragile.
It is under these circumstances that the Nonviolent Peaceforce will deploy its first unarmed soldiers for a pilot project in a few weeks. Partnering with local nongovernmental organizations, Peaceforce staffers will live in "volatile areas in order to decrease the conflict potential by their visibility and solidarity," according to a progress report produced this month. Specifically, they expect to offer accompaniment and monitoring services to local organizations that request them.
Paolo Vescia
Joan Bernstein heads the Peaceforce Bay Area Affinity
group.
Paolo Vescia
David Hartsough, pictured with his grandchild,
co-founded the Nonviolent Peaceforce.
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The first of the staff will set up an office and build relationships with local communities. By early 2004, the Peaceforce plans to send 50 more staffers to 16 sites in all regions of Sri Lanka, including Jaffna, Colombo, Moneragala, and Badulla.
In Colombo, the Peaceforce will work with groups like the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections. "We are an organization working to protect human rights and democratic rights," explains PAFFREL coordinator Kingsley Rodrigo via phone from Sri Lanka. "We are concerned with what is happening to the north and east now, things [that] have been happening to civilians. We have been monitoring the cease-fire.
"The Nonviolent Peaceforce would like to help, so why not? We work with them. They are concerned about observing, and the most important thing, we think, is to get international exposure and international support. Peace Brigade International was here 10 years ago. They did a good job, the same thing we are expecting from the Nonviolent Peaceforce."
Baddegama Samitha, a Buddhist monk and a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament, says he also believes the work of organizations like the Peaceforce can reduce violence and help save lives in his country. In the 1990s, when his life was threatened because he hid young Tamil men pursued by the government, he asked PBI to accompany him whenever he visited the capital city of Colombo.
"PBI was very helpful," Samitha says via phone from the Sri Lankan Parliament building. "They really safeguarded my life during that dark period of our history. They saved my life, I would say. In my experience, they were helpful and contributed to bring a democratic system to my country. I warmly welcome the Nonviolent Peaceforce because we need international peace activists to help defuse our situation."
The Nonviolent Peaceforce made its first large public appearance at a peace rally in San Francisco's Civic Center in early January. Ensconced among the dozens of nonprofit organizations clustered along the path of trees at the plaza, members of the Peaceforce Bay Area Affinity group -- which will offer logistical, financial, and publicity support to team members abroad -- set up a table and slung a banner behind them. The group is led by Berkeley's Joan Bernstein, a ruddy-faced woman who smiled widely as she handed out brochures and solicited passers-by to sign a petition that asked local lawmakers to support the Peaceforce. It wasn't a hard sell to this crowd, and the table saw rapid business.
But because Bernstein and her troop of volunteers hadn't arrived until late morning, they'd had to set up their booth a few hundred feet from the stage, where loudspeakers boomed with ardent anti-war commentary.
Competing with the blaring sound system, they bellowed, "Support the Nonviolent Peaceforce!" As people approached the table, the volunteers attempted to explain the complex workings of the Peaceforce amid the din, pointing, finally, to the banner, which contained an excerpt of the organization's mission statement: "We have just witnessed the most violent century in the history of humanity. People living and working in areas of armed conflict around the world are looking for nonviolent alternatives. Out of this desire, and the experience of pioneering groups, the Nonviolent Peaceforce was born."
A young woman stopped at the Peaceforce table just as Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) took to the stage and beseeched the crowd to "say no to war."
"Do you know about the Nonviolent Peaceforce?" a volunteer inquired, extending a brochure to the woman. She shook her head, but Lee's address was so loud that it temporarily interrupted the rest of the marketing pitch. Finally, during a pause in the speech, the Peaceforce activist leaned toward the visitor across the table. "Everyone's telling you to say no to war," he said. "Well, what do you say yes to, then? The Nonviolent Peaceforce is something you can say yes to."
