National Peace Council
of Sri Lanka
01.04.03
Media Release
The ongoing war in Iraq, and the bombardment
of that country, painfully recalls to our mind the agony that
Sri Lanka went through for two decades fighting a futile war
for peace prior to the present ceasefire. The National Peace
Council of Sri Lanka regrets that the voice of the people worldwide
for peace and political negotiations has been ignored. This is
a war that appears to be waged without regard for the rest of
the world and the economic and political fallout. The entire
world stands to lose by this act of international unilateralism.
The National Peace Council urges the parties to the conflict
to stop the war and to negotiate an honorable settlement with
diplomacy and in support of democratic values as upheld in the
United Nations Charter. In particular, we appeal to the coalition
forces of the United States and United Kingdom to immediately
halt their military campaign that has no UN sanction and which
intends to forcibly oust the Iraqi government. We also appeal
to the Iraqi government to abide by the UN resolutions pertaining
to their alleged accumulation of weapons of mass destruction.
The experience of Sri Lanka and other war-affected
countries has been one in which armies that bomb villages and
cities cannot win the hearts and minds of the population. Coupled
with the accidental killing of civilians, cruel treatment of
prisoners of war and suicide bombings, we see in Iraq a tragic
replay of Sri Lanka's past on a much more massive scale. Those
sections of the Sri Lankan polity, who oppose the present ceasefire
agreement in Sri Lanka as a sell-out, need to open their eyes
to the horror and futility of war in achieving a just solution.
We commend the present Sri Lankan peace process as providing
a model to negotiate a just solution through political negotiations.
Media Director
Internet: www.peace-srilanka.org
e-mail: peace2@sri.lanka.net
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