Introduction
Societies affected by conflict is invariably faced with the cumbersome challenge of developing strategies to recover from the loss and disappearance of the loved ones, infrastructure and livelihood destruction, moral and psychological trauma, pervasion of hatred and suspicion, and aggravation of difficulties in mechanisms for building confidence, trust, goodwill, and commitment to coexistence. The problem lies mainly in the compulsion for getting the conflicting groups to rearticulate their philosophy of existence and live together in a novel spirit of cooperation and coexistence. They are compelled to make unimaginable compromises for the sake of peace, reconciliation and development for the welfare of their dependents and future generations.
Unlike some decades ago the conflicting parties today have their own justifications of their respective causes formulated in their own domains, and every party or group tend to see the problems from their respective angle and find it difficult to work with the others regarding a common solution that ensures the wellbeing of everybody. Therefore it has become imperative to formulate an alternative form of dialogue focused on peace, reconciliation and development that is vital in the sustenance of diverse communities, nation states, territories, cultures, values, and environments and this conference organized by the University of Ruhuna Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences is meant to create a forum for such a dialogue with contributions from academics representative of a variety of disciplines that all address the issues of peace, reconciliation and development from their respective angles.