Impact of war on Sri Lanka. Image courtesy Nonviolent Peaceforce, © Donna Howard

“Of course we will win. All they have is guns.”
– Aung San Suu Kyi

War gets the headlines and militarism gets the budget. It is a tragic knee-jerk reaction to conflict that will continue until we demonstrate an alternative so strong and effective that it gets both headlines and the resources it deserves. That has not happened yet, though third party nonviolent intervention (TPNI) has a long and demonstrated history of success in Gandhi’s implementation of and vision for a shanti sena (Peace Army), and in the work of nonviolent intervention teams from Peace Brigades International, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Fellowship of Reconciliation, the International Solidarity Movement, and so on. These groups do not answer to any political authority and share the common vision of getting enough people involved so peacekeeping “armies” can be deployed at a moments notice to anywhere in the world. It is this combined growth and viability that will eventually become the alternative to war that can no longer be ignored.

Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) is a trained, international civilian nonviolent peace force. We send teams into areas of conflict to prevent death and destruction and protect human rights, thus creating the space for local groups to struggle nonviolently, enter into dialogue, and seek peaceful resolution.

NP currently has a team of 30 in Sri Lanka providing accompaniment as unarmed bodyguards for civil society activists, offering a protective presence in villages and at public events, monitoring volatile situations, consulting with local people on options for what to do in crisis situations, providing safe places to meet, and much more. Our team there has seen the beginnings of a re-emergence of civil society in communities where fear of violence had driven it underground. Local and regional dialogues between different groups caught up in the conflict have begun to replace communal violence in particular places. Mothers have been able to reclaim children who were abducted as child soldiers. Yet Sri Lanka remains on the brink of return to war. It is far from possible that only 30 people can prevent war even when they are dedicated, highly trained, and competitively selected from around the world.

One way to expand and increase the visibility of TPNI is to align with global entities such as the United Nations. The Global Action Agenda presented by the Secretary General advocates a high priority for civilian unarmed peacekeeping and highlights NP along with 10 other organizations. NP and UNICEF partnered in Sri Lanka for protection of children from abduction as child-soldiers.

NP is creating a global model of third party nonviolent intervention. Our staff, field team members, and Governing Council members come from all the world’s regions and religions, are balanced in gender and diverse in age. We therefore come into the conflict as interveners without a shared bias except toward nonviolence. We come as partners of local peacemakers who alone know how to resolve the discord and create a lasting peace. And we come hoping to keep them alive long enough to do their work.

Our field team members are paid in order to increase the legitimacy and professionalism of nonviolent conflict intervention and to assure that the role is equally accessible to peacekeepers from richer and poorer countries (though the cash they have available to them on-site is calibrated to local prices so as to reduce their disruptive effect on local economies and to help focus attention on their peacemaking role).

We consciously rooted ourselves in the Gandhian idea of Shanti Sena. During our convening event in Delhi we gathered in the garden where Gandhi was shot, praying and singing in many languages and spiritualities. The Mahatma’s granddaughter, Ela Gandhi, spoke gently then, assuring us, “My grandfather would be very happy today.”

All combatants are trained to do is fight. We must be there to protect those who have the creativity and strength to choose a future not filled with retaliation and death. I work with the Nonviolent Peaceforce to stand with the civilians caught in the crossfire, with elders who remember a time when neighbors weren’t enemies, with parents who want to create a peaceful life for their children, with young people who want to create a peaceful world, and with nonviolent activists worldwide.

Each year since September 11, 2001, NP has encouraged people to work that day annually for peace and donate their wages (or some other amount) for our conflict intervention work. This year the centennial celebration of satyagraha is very empowering for us. “Peaceforce” is our translation of Gandhi’s satyagraha, and we hope our work manifests his vision. We are asking everyone to sign a statement resolving to break the cycle of violence: “I choose to break the cycle of violence. I will seek to resolve my own conflicts without violence; and I will encourage nonviolent responses to conflict by my neighbors, governments, and civilians worldwide.” For a kit designed to help you hold a September 11th “break the cycle” gathering, please see www.nvpf.org/np/english/workadayforpeace/toolkit.asp.html [7].