Chandigarh-Sri Lanka peace forum launched

Representatives of Chandigarh were part of an initiative to foster better understanding between India and Sri Lanka following the three-decade violence by Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

 

 

An MOU to set up a forum was signed between a city-based youth and Gandhian organization Yuvsatta and Sri Lanka United Nations Friendship Organisation (SUNFO) at Don Bosco Technical Centre at this city, 40 km from Colombo.

 

 

Yuvsatta and SUNFO signed a logo bearing flags of India and Pakistan and logos of the two civil society organizations.

 

 

Among the signatories were children orphaned by Tsunami and Tamil Eelam violence. The children, both Tamils and Sinhalese wanted to bring about peace between two warring ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

 

 

One of the speakers said, “The first link between Sri Lanka and India was created by the Adam’s bridge (Ram Setu) and the new link will be the Gandhian bridge to bring peace in the country working on rehabilitating the

 

people displaced by a war between the Sri Lankan army and LTTE. The forum has come about only few days after Indian external affairs minister SM Krishna visited the country amidst reports of China coaxing the island nation after already having displaced Japan as the top trading power of the country on Indias southern tip.

 

 

Yuvsatta coordinator Pramod Sharma said, “The international peace message is starting from Sri Lanka, where the Great Ashoka’s son Mahindra and daughter Sanghmitra first stepped out of India to spread the message of peace, non-violence and compassion of the Budha.

 

 

Chandigarh is the only second city in India to have an understanding for promoting people-to-people contact between the Indian Ocean country and India after Bangalore.

 

 

Deshapriya S Wijetunge, director general of SUNFO ‘promoting peace in 30-odd Asian countries’ said he took a group of students of Chandigarh peace festival in 2009 and 2010. This year the group will be larger. Delegations of municipal councillors and journalists will also visit Chandigarh.

 

 

Father Dixon Fernando of Don Bosco Technical Centre, Negombo, added that the relationship between two countries is more than 2,500 years old and have a legacy of intellectual, cultural, religious and linguistic exchange., Times of India reports.