Bangalore, India (Anto Akkara), 2 December 2008:
A team of peace activists along with Buddhist, Christian and Hindu leaders say religious communities should be given a role in bringing relief aid to victims of the conflict raging for Sri Lanka's northern Vanni region that is under Tamil rebel control.
"When innocent civilian victims of war are suffering, we as religious leaders have a duty to speak up for them and help them," Roman Catholic Bishop Vianny Fernando, the president of Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka, told Ecumenical News International on 2 December.
Fernando's statement follows a meeting between the team of peace activists and religious leaders with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 26 November. This followed an international interfaith meeting near the Buddhist holy city of Anuradhapura, organized by Religions for Peace in partnership with the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka.
Senior Buddhist monks, Hindu priests and Christian leaders attended the meeting, including the Rev. Gunnar Stålsett, the retired Lutheran bishop of Oslo, who is moderator of European Council of Religious Leaders.
Multi-religious approach
"We believe that progress toward peace in the coming period will require an attitudinal shift, an evolution that religious communities are trained to bring about," said the religious leaders in a statement after their 25 November meeting. "We also believe that a multi-religious initiative to address the humanitarian crisis would open up new opportunities for change, and change of heart, which is the supreme realm of religion and spirituality."
The majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhist and speak Sinhalese, while the Tamil residents of the northern and eastern provinces are mainly Hindu. Christians and Muslims, along with Hindus, are minority religious groups.
The interfaith gathering was meeting as Sri Lankan security forces continued an all out attempt to regain control of the Vanni region from the control of the rebels known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The rebels are seeking autonomy for Tamil majority areas in the north and east of the Indian Ocean island country.
Bishop Fernando said that religious leaders "have conveyed our concern and eagerness to help the victims of war as much as we can when we met the president".
Aid workers withdrawn
The hardships faced by civilians worsened after aid workers, including United Nations staff withdrew in early September from Vanni on the orders of the Sri Lankan government.
"From a religious point of view, war is always a failure, even when it appears to be politically justified as a last resort," said William F. Vendley, secretary general of Religions for Peace, who was present at the meeting.
The Rev Vebjørn L Horsfjord, general secretary of European Council of Religious Leaders, said the religious leaders had taken a "bold initiative" in meeting across religious and ethnic lines.
