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Nonviolent Peaceforce Peacekeeper Jeya Murugan is Rotary Peace Scholar

Date: August 8, 2014

Jeya Murugan, Interim Director of Nonviolent Peaceforce Philippines, is the newest NP peacekeeper to become a Rotary Peace Scholar.  Jeya arrives early August in Mitaka (Tokyo) Japan where he will study Peace and Conflict Resolution in the Graduate Program in Public Policy and Social Research, leading to a Master’s Degree at International Christian University.  In his six years as a peacekeeper, Senior Program Manager, and Interim Director for Nonviolent Peaceforce Mindanao Philippines, he has helped make history. Quoting from his Rotary Peace Fellowship essay:

It has been a long journey: my transformation from being a supporter of Tamil struggle to Right to Self Determination in Sri Lanka to unarmed civilian peacekeeper in Mindanao Philippines sitting in the Presidential Palace receiving acknowledgements on my team’s role in the peace process between the Army of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. 

Despair over the injustices against the Tamil people, including being rejected for university only because he was Tamil attracted him to the Tamil cause. But he decided to work through nonviolent ways for the rights of Tamil people and for broader co-existence among Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim communities when he saw the maltreatment of own soldiers by LTTE and the forced exile of Jaffna Muslims by the LTTE including his mathematics professor.

I saw through my own eyes how uncontrollable militancy of Tamil Liberation Organizations would be a great danger to the Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka. I thought this alarming development should be taken seriously, and decided to work for inclusive peace so we could bridge the gap by promoting Co–Existence among Sri Lanka's three major communities. I knew that it would be a great task, but I started to believe in this approach as I anticipated that violent extremism among Tamils would damage the freedom struggle and destroy the spirit of external support of peace loving people around the world.

As part of this team, I was involved in dialogue with armed parties including the Army of the Philippines as well as opposition forces; dialogue with civilians to protect them as they shared information and made decisions about how to protect their families during the active fighting.  I was part of, on request of civilians, training on early warning for violence, human rights and rules of the peace process that was in place during that time.  After the peace process was abandoned, then reconstituted, Nonviolent Peaceforce was invited by both armed parties to sit on the civilian component of the International Monitoring Team headed by Malaysia. Every day, civilians we had trained reported incidents to us that had the potential to involve military forces and expand the fighting.  We reported these incidents to the Army of the Philippines, to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and to the International Monitoring Team.  Then we invited the parties to the incident to come together with a grassroots mediator, and if they agreed, we protected them while they worked out their differences.  We did this for four years, consistently reducing the incidents of violence.  This enabled civil society representatives to meet safely and make decisions and recommendations on the on-going peace proposals.Jeya founded the Team of Youth for Development, Unity and Progress, promoting co-existence among Tamils, Singhalese and Muslims in the eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. He organized several key co-existence committees in Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai. His interaction with local grassroots communities led to a partnership with Nonviolent Peaceforce, jointly supporting local civil society and key community leaders to continue their peace work in areas in Sri Lanka.

Notably during this time, he worked closely with the Trincomalee Rotary Club, as well as nongovernmental organizations to provide youth programs for internally displaced youth, to bring drinking water to five villages and to provide semi permanent housing for displaced families. In 1998, during a polio eradication program, he negotiated with LTTE commanders to declare local ceasefires from 9 am to 5 pm, to create a humanitarian corridor for internally displaced people to receive polio vaccinations. With the support of displaced families they vaccinated 100% of children under 15 years.

Again, working with the Trincomalee Rotary Club in 2005, he provided leadership for the Tsunami relief effort, resettling three thousand families in three months. 

In 2006, he was trained in unarmed civilian peacekeeping in Kenya and by 2008 was sent to Mindanao to be part of the Nonviolent Peaceforce team.   

Jeya will be hosted by the Rotary Club, District 2770, in Japan during his studies. He begins Japanese language training in August, and his coursework starts in September.

The Rotary Club of Akron, Ohio, and District 6630 endorsed his application.

Congratulations, Jeya.

You can protect civilians who are living in or fleeing violent conflict. Your contribution will transform the world's response to conflict.
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