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Confidence building essential

Building confidence between erstwhile belligerents is crucial to any peace process. Therefore the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have to be commended for releasing detainees in stages through the past few months as part of confidence building.

The tears of joy seen on the faces of families and detainees in press and television pictures flashed worldwide yesterday, is yet another heartwarming sight resulting from the ceasefire.

The six Soldiers and the single Sailor who spent eight years in captivity were serving their nation when they were captured. They served more time than some rapists and murderers do for their heinous crimes. No doubt they will feel resentful at the way they had to serve time. On the LTTE side too there must be similar emotions. But now they are with their families again and given another chance at normal life.

Joy on the faces of these families who were reunited in a blaze of publicity will produce mixed emotions in another set of homes where there are loved ones listed as missing in the war. There are several thousand parents and wives who have been awaiting news of husbands and sons for many years.

Their pain and suffering have to be alleviated if the process of reconciliation is to begin in earnest.

For the families of servicemen listed as missing the state has to bear the responsibility of telling them whether their loved ones may be still alive or have passed away.

Keeping unreasonable hopes alive is a disservice that is being done to these families. The LTTE too has to clear the air about the number of captured servicemen they are holding. Many of the parents of the missing servicemen remain hopeful that their loved ones may still be in the custody of the Tigers.

Saturday's statement by the LTTE that they are not holding any more than the seven released that day would have caused considerable heartburn among these families. There are also thousands of civilians, non-combatants who are missing, and tracing them or pronouncing them dead is also an important, if time-consuming and arduous task.

We have not reached a stable peace as yet. The country is on a thin wire, suspended between war and peace, a hazy state that has raised the hopes of the nation that the conflict will be resolved, but which cannot totally pay out a peace dividend. But from what we saw on Saturday it is possible that the process of reconciliation can begin.

Young and the old

Tomorrow, October 1 is by happy coincidence a day we set aside to think of both the old and the young. World Children's' day and the United Nations International Day for the Elderly falls on October 1.

In most of our homes it is the elderly who care for the children, as the able-bodied parents have to rush off to work. Respect for the elderly is ingrained in our culture and looking after the older folk in their twilight years is something we are expected to do as a matter of course.

Children too are our precious future and we have like all other cultures protected and given a special place to them. With falling birthrates our demographic pyramid is tapering at the bottom, so with fewer children to dote on we can surely build better citizens for the future.

But in recent years there have been some reports of abandoned elders and even of children who have usurped the life interest that elderly parents have in property. Then there are the reports of child abuse that the authorities have been constrained to admit and now take action against.

Therefore on October 1, we need to reflect on these two sections of the population, both of whom are vulnerable. It is a time to go back to our cultural roots and ensure that all are cared for and duly protected.

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