By Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, Ph.D., Point Pedro, Northern Province, Sri Lanka
I am an independent academic researcher from the northern–most town of Sri Lanka, namely Point Pedro (PPD) in the Northern Province.I attended the Pakistan United States Alumni Network (PUAN) 2015 Conference on the theme of International Peace and Conflict Resolution from the 27th to 29th November 2015 held in Islamabad. This is the fifth conference of PUAN since its inception in 2008 and the first one on peace and conflict resolution, which is the most important need in all the countries of South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).
Most of the time I attend international conferences that are very academic with the participation of small groups of intellectuals. PUAN conference was positively different with over one hundred and fifty activists, artists, community leaders,and musicians from all over Pakistan and two each from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka and three from Bangladesh. Regrettably, our colleagues from India and Nepal could not attend. All the participants have been to the United States of America on at least one of many exchange programmes sponsored by the United States Department of State (aka State Department) such as the Fulbright, Global U-Grad,Humphrey, and IVL (International Visitor Leadership) programmes. The entire delegates were bonded by the commitment to a world free of conflict and a world of enduring freedom.
Probably the PUAN 2015 Conference was the largest gathering of South Asians for peace and conflict resolution for the first time since the Second World War and decolonisation. PUAN 2015 was a practitioner-oriented conference showcasing peace-building efforts predominantly in Pakistan (in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, too) through arts, child/human/women’s rights, culture, economic integration, education, inter-faith dialogue, media (conventional as well as new social media), and sports in order to learn the best practices in peace-building and conflict resolution.
Conferences like the PUAN 2015 are confidence-building efforts through people-to-people meetings. Confidence-building efforts are the cornerstone of the art and science of peace. It is the people who will determine the destiny of South Asia and elsewhere. It is a fundamental duty of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to undertake such confidence-building efforts regularly in a region torn apart by distrust and suspicion among the citizenry of each country as well as between countries. Probably the PUAN has opened the door for SAARC to keep it open for ever.
Although the weather in Islamabad was mildly inhospitable for people from the eastern and southern parts of the subcontinent, we were immersed in the warmth and hospitality of the freedom-loving people from all over Pakistan including Kashmir. This is the first time in my life I have met and interacted with such a diverse group of Pakistanis from ever single province of Pakistan.
Congratulations to Shahid Waseem (Alumni Coordinator) and Erin Molnar Mains (Assistant Cultural Attaché) and their team at the Public Diplomacy Division of the Embassy of the United States of America in Islamabad and numerous volunteer alumnae for a meticulously organised event with high value and impact.
PUAN 2015 conference was truly a show of humanity for peace! Insha Allah we shall meet again, at peace of course!!
