KARACHI, July 12: Speakers at a meeting on Saturday pledged to shed away the hatred and misconceptions that the vested interests had been forcing the peoples of Pakistan and India to believe. They also undertook to make a fresh start towards joint efforts for a peaceful coexistence.

They expressed their views at the concluding ceremony of the 12-day South Asian Peace Camp “Youth Without Borders — peace through art, film and dialogue” organized by a non-governmental organization, the Youth Initiative for Peace (YIP).

Some 25 youths — 12 from India and 13 from Pakistan — participated in the camp held at the Textile Institute of Pakistan, established in a scenic location on the outskirts of the city across the Ghaghar Phatak on the National Highway.

During their activities at the camp, they also produced a 10-minute film “Bus!” (enough) highlighting the prejudices and the misinformation with which the common men of both the countries have grown up amid the ‘one-way propaganda’ by their respective governments.

Lalita Ramdas, wife of Admiral (r) Ramdas, a former chief of the India-Pakistan Peoples’ Forum for Peace, said that people of the region shared thousands of years of history, heritage, traditions, etc., but the vested interests in both the countries forced them to forget all this and focus only on the events of the past 50 or so years.

She said that these elements did not want peace to return fearing that they might lose their grip on power if peace prevailed. She said she was happy to see that young people had decided to do something to achieve peace.

Other speakers stressed that communication links — travel, newspapers, books, magazines, etc., — between the two countries be restored so that people could have an easy access to each other’s countries. By sharing personal experiences, misconceptions and hatred that had been created by their establishments, would fade away and peoples of both the countries would be able to get a true picture if free communication is allowed.

They said that even the children had been given slanted or biased versions of history and same events had been reported in different ways, usually maligning the other side, in the textbooks.

Such misunderstandings could only be cleared with ever increasing interaction between the peoples of the two sides, they added.

The speakers were of the view that besides vested interests, certain developed countries in the West also did not want the developing countries to live peacefully. The major concern, they said, appeared to be arms industry which could flourish only when wars and conflicts continued to prevail.

They said that people should focus on numerous similarities between the two countries, rather than a few differences. This, they added, would help build up confidence, feeling of trust and other positive things that could guarantee a lasting peace.

One of the Indian participants said that when he was set to proceed to Pakistan, some of his friends had spoken of certain horrible things about the country and had even warned him that he might come back in a gunny bag. However, he said, during his 12-day stay here, he had made best friendships which he intended to keep for life.

The function which began with a beautiful Indian classical dance performance by Zohra Omar, concluded with all the participants of the camp singing song of peace We who believe in justice shall not rest until it comes in seven languages.

The film Bus! was also screened. It shows a group of Pakistani and Indian youth who are caught up in a bus that breaks down during the journey. Their dialogues depict the prejudices that they had in their minds but eventually, by the end of the journey, they make each other understand reality and become friends.

Ragni Kidwai, Skanda Gopal, Roshni Bhure, Hormus Masani, Salima Hashmi and others also spoke on the occasion.