The role of media in war and peace The role of media in war and peace

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Volume 8 Number 2 2003 Published by the Life & Peace Institute

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About the authorsAlice Petrénworks as newsreporter at the Swedish BroadcastingCorporation. She is the chairperson of ReportersWithout Borders - Sweden.Orla Clintonis a freelance journalist reporting mainly for Irish media.She has worked for Church of Sweden, LWF and ENIin Zimbabwe. At the Masters Programme in Humani-tarian Aid at Uppsala university she specialised in Conflict,Disaster and Peace-Building.Basil Nyamais a reverend and holds a master’s degree in communication.He is the Editor of the Horn of Africa Bulletin.Marda DunskyMarda Dunsky is assistant professor at the Medill Schoolof Journalism, Northwestern University, USA.Orly Halpernis a freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.Hans Romkemais the Life & Peace Institute Representative in DR Congo,heading the peacebuilding programme for the Kivu regions.Anders Ruuthholds a PhD in theology. He has worked as a missionaryfor Church of Sweden Mission in Argentina and has anextensive knowledge of the Latin American context.Björn Rymanholds a PhD in history and works with the Research Depart-ment of Church of Sweden and with Uppsala university.Hélène Morvanis a research assistant / travaille comme assistante derecherche à l’Institut Vie et Paix/Bukavu depuis débutoctobre 2002.Thania Paffenholzholds a PhD in international relations. She works as anindependent researcher and peacebuilding advisor andteaches at the Institute of Political Science, University ofBerne, Switzerland.

Contents

New Routes is a quarterly publication of the Life & PeaceInstitute. Material may be reproduced freely if New Routesis mentioned as the source. Opinions expressed in NewRoutes do not necessarily reflect LPI policy positions.

Life & Peace InstitutePO Box 1520

SE-751 45 Uppsala, SwedenVisiting address: Sysslomansgatan 7

Tel: (+46) 18 - 16 97 86Fax: (+46) 18 - 69 30 59

E-mail: [email protected] site: www.life-peace.org

Editors: Tore Samuelsson and Kristina LundqvistCover photo: Elizabeth Malby/The Baltimore Sun/

Pressens Bild

Printer: Temdahls Tryckeri AB, ÖstervålaISSN 0248-0200

Complexity -the first victim in warAlice Petrén

Access to media -a privilege or a right?Orla Clinton

Media as agents forpeacebuildingBasil Nyama

Israeli-Palestinian conflict:Roadmap to a balancedmedia pictureMarda Dunsky

Israel-Palestine:’Our’ victims are tragedy- ’theirs’ are statisticsOrly Halpern

Pax Americana or World Peace?Hans Romkema

Argentina:The painful march towardsreconciliationAnders Ruuth

From Life and Workto Life and PeaceBjörn Ryman

Pour une paix durable en RDC:Le point de vue du lapopulationHélène Morvan

Ten years and manylessons learnedThania Paffenholz

News, resources and reviews

Meet Elsi Takala, LPI Board

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EDITORIAL

The concept ‘media’ gives rise to manyassociations in different directions: to mediate, tobe a medium or a mediator ... Or are they reallydifferent? They all imply the meaning of somethingthat transfers something bigger than itself. Amessenger carrying bad news or good news,helping people to communicate.

the Constructive Resolution ofDisputes, in Conflict Prevention Newsletter,May 2003. As eager as media are to givea minute-to-minute reporting from thebattle scene (like the one in Afghanistanor in Iraq), as silent are they, once thedrama is over and the long and windingroad to peace is to begin. The situationin the aftermath of a war is very fragile.A peace agreement is no guarantee forsustainable peace.

Several of the articles in this issueof New Routes reflect on thepossibilities and challenges of media.

Alice Petrén writes about the risk foran oversimplified reality, when weaponsspeak louder than freedom. OrlaClinton lifts up alternative voices to themedia industry, and Basil Nyama seesmedia as a potential agent for peace.What kind of peace are we facing inthe future? asks Hans Romkema in anarticle.Two articles with examples fromIsrael-Palestine consider the delicatequestion of balance in the mediapicture.

In this journal you will find analysesand reflections of the peace andreconciliation processes in Argentinaand Somalia, and of the people’s hopefor peace in the DRC. Read also aboutthe conference twenty years ago thatled to the creation of the Life and PeaceInstitute.

Media without readers, watchers,listeners are dead. Welcome to shareyour reactions, views and impressions!

Kristina Lundqvist

Media – a tool for peaceor a weapon of war?

Like many “tools” used by human beings,media can serve good or evil purposes.Free, independent, objective media makepeople think, reflect and meet in anatmosphere of openness. At its best, mediamay promote peace and understanding.All too often, though, media are used tomanipulate the truth, to exaggerate orto diminish facts. With the help of militaryor political power, and, not least, with the(mis)use of money, media can be aweapon of war, a threat to freedom.

Not too long ago, during World WarII, we could see the horrifying effects ofthe fact that media could not or wouldnot reveal the truth. “We did not know”,as people claimed in and around Germany,when the concentration camps wereopened. How was it possible? we may askourselves today, when it is almostimpossible to “escape” the flow of media.

With modern informationtechnology, it is very difficult to concealthe deeds and misdeeds of a regime.But the same technology also gives anenormous potential for manipulationof facts. What is, in essence, facts, andwhat is a mixture of assumptions,rumours and opinions? How to findthe shelf with reliable information inthe huge department store of news,sensations, comments and analyses?

“The media can make or break apeace process”, says Senzo Ngubane, aresearcher with the African Centre for

Radio and Internet are said to be the most important sources of news and infor-mation in modern society. In wartorn communities, like for example Liberia, mediacan either help to make former enemies co-operate, or, at worst, shatter a fragilepeace process. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer

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MEDIA IN WAR AND PEACE

Complexitythe first victim in war

Free and independent journalism in conflict-riddencountries is a delicate issue. A stereotypic divisionof people into “us and them” is a threat to nuancesand impartiality.

In a number of examples from different countries,the author gives a personal reflection on thechallenges that meet reporters of today. Is the worldfacing a “new journalistic order” after the Iraq war?

- Of course, we would publish a photoof a policeman stopping two men inthe street, even if we learn that thesuspects are in fact innocent, said thegroup of Congolese reporters in onevoice.

- What will that mean for thesuspects? I asked. For their families?And for what purpose would you doit?

- It’s an event. It’s something thathas happened. And also, we got aphoto! they answered, reflectingneither on the message they mayconvey, nor on the responsibilities ofmedia and individual reporters.

This debate was one amongmany others in the workshop “Jour-nal ism in Peace and Confl ict”arranged by the Life & Peace Insti-tu te in Congo-Brazzav i l l e in

November, 2002. Impar t ia l i ty,objectives, ethics and reliability insources are complicated issues forall reporters, and even more so, ofcour se, in a confl ict zone l ikeCongo-Brazzaville. To question the

re levance o f por t ray ing twoinnocent men as criminals was outof their scope – they had a photo!

Journalists in Congo-Brazzaville,like their colleagues in too manycountr ies, are used to war andviolence, to propaganda and the viewsof the elite, to corruption and bribes,to impunity and injustice, and havelittle experience of peace, truth andhuman r ights. Or of a free andprofessional journalism. So they aremegaphones to their master’s voice,whoever that may be.

The main part of the Congolesereporters is connected to one of themany political camps in the countryand reluctant to bite the hand thatfeeds them. Although they all agreedthat information, facts and truth aremain objectives for journalism, their

daily practice proved differently.Impartiality was desirable, but howto do when you don’t even havemoney for transport to an interviewor a site?

This workshop was, however, the

proof of a preparedness to improve.Although in opposition to each other,they had managed to elect anOmbudsman for media, BernardMakiza, a senior full of integrity andwithout i l lusions. Too old tochallenge anyone for a position, heencourages a strengthened positionthrough individual , as well ascollective, actions.

Open discussions could bring outnuances and hinder the pattern of “usand them”. But marked by last year’sbloody fights close to Brazzaville in thePool-region, they could not resistbecoming aggressive, irritated and usinga very harsh tone when talking of thewar, the military and the Ninja-mili-tiamen, who just entered the capital tosurrender.

Despite statements by the informa-tion minister in favour of a free press,the obstacles are big. And the effortsfor change may meet new counter-productive forces.

New order for journalistsThe war in Iraq may have formed anew road map, not only for the politi-cal order, but also for journalists. Eventsand statements create uneasiness. Manyreporters around the world are worriedthat the Iraq war will lead to a regres-sion in freedom of press in theircountries. If the USA, the countrywhich refers to itself as the primedemocracy in the world, is arguingalong lines used in Banana Republics,“if you are not with us – you are againstus”, then why would our leaders listento arguments about democracy, theywonder.

One critical event was when Ame-rican forces opened fire at HotelPalestine in Baghdad and killed twomedia per sons. Independent

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witnesses testif ied that the USsoldiers had been present for twohours and that the shooting was notan impulsive act.

Afterwards, the spokesperson forthe Pentagon, the Amer icanheadquarters for defence, VictoriaClarke, indicated that the journaliststhemselves were to blame. Pentagonhad warned that Baghdad wouldbecome a dangerous area, and as longas they were not embedded, being ajournalist there would be extremelyr isky. But the steps between thewarning and the attack ought to leadto more than just a shrugging ofshoulders. Could anyone ever imaginea similar attack against Americanreporters being treated that way?

The same day in Baghdad, theArabic TV-station Al Jazeera lost acolleague in an air strike by the USforces. As in Kabul in Afghanistan, theTV-station suspected that Americansconsciously tried to silence what theysaw as pro-Iraqi-propaganda. There hasbeen an intensive debate about theprofile of Al Jazeera’s reporting, andopinions differ whether it is indepen-dent journalism or not. But the samegoes for the American Fox Televisionand CNN.

Drawing a line between informa-tion and propaganda is a subtle art.This is most obvious in the middleof a confl ict . The laws andconventions for war cr imes areformulated in general terms andsubject to interpretations. A TV-sta-tion can be a legitimate target forattack, if it is used for militarypurposes. This is, thus, a subject forinterpretation. The question arises ofwho does the interpreting in themiddle of a war?

No prisoners – onlyassassinated journalistsColombia is one of the mostdangerous countries in the world formedia. There, reporters are not putinto dark, humid dripping cells, whenthey do their job and actindependently. Instead, they are

assassinated in cold blood. ManyColombian reporters live in exile. Lastyear, five journalists were killed, 60kidnapped or had their l ivesthreatened and 20 went into exile,according to accounts by the NGOReporters Without Borders. This or-ganisation fights for press freedom byprotests to governments againstinfringements.

The fighting parties, the military,the para-military, the FARC-guerillaand the drug-mafia, have all madejournalists a direct target in theconflict in the country. Once again afree press that could contribute todialogue and give voice to all actorsis stopped in an “us and them”-ar-gument.

With support from the Swedish In-ternational Development Agency, theSwedish section of Reporters WithoutBorders is about to assist severalColombian media-organisations tostrengthen the position of the reporters.This includes a range of issues, fromawareness-raising on the reporter’s rolein the conflict, to practical measures likealert systems.

Ukraine and Belarus are two othercountries, where reporters run highrisks of being murdered. In Septem-ber 2000, the young UkrainianGeorgy Gongadze was killed afterdisclosure of corruption at the veryhighest level in the country andchallenging president Leonid Kuchmain a TV-debate. Tape recordings by oneof the president’s bodyguards revea-led that he was involved in the attackon the reporter, but the prosecutor hasdismissed the evidence and the case isstill open.

Impunity is an enormous problemin connection with attacks onjournalists. The listing of predatorsthat are free is long. In this context,the comments from the Pentagonbecome worrying. The Iraq war hasmarked new attempts to dehumanise“them” and describe “them” as evil-makers, and reporters among theAllied forces bought that language.Sources tend to stay anonymous and

are often isolated. The basic principle– verify with other sources – is notapplied as widely as before.

The big losers in this new orderare probably people like the averageCongolese. What chances are theygiven to orient themselves to makedecis ions in their l ives? Theresponsibility lies on all levels, on theinternational community, on govern-mental levels, and with the individual.

The Congolese Media ombuds-man, Bernard Makiza, believes thatevery person is an important pillarand has a task to fulfil to achieve acorrect, multifaceted and impartialview.

Alice Petrén

Ninjas, ex-militia in Brazzaville, and their futureis part of the story to be reported in Congo.Photo: Alice Petrén

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Access to media -a privilege or a right?

”Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion andexpression; this right includes freedom to holdopinions without interference and to seek, receiveand impart information and ideas through anymedia and regardless of frontiers.” (Article 19,Universal Declaration of Human Rights)The recent media coverage of the war in Iraq andearlier Afghanistan has left many disenchantedwith the mechanisms of the media.

Few would argue with the vision in-herent in Article 19. Today, with thedramatic development of technologicaladvances, immediate images fromconflict, and to a lesser extent postconflict zones, are beamed directly intoour living rooms. And yet, at no othertime do we seem less informed. Eitheryou possess a relentless interest topursue alternative sources of informa-tion, to challenge what is conveyed andfind some truth at some level. Or likemost of us, you continue to be robbedof your most basic right not only to beinformed but also to be crediblyinformed.

Whose rights and needs we aretalking about in Article 19 in the Uni-versal Declaration of Human Rights?The recent media coverage of the warin Iraq and earlier in Afghanistan hasleft many disenchanted with the

mechanisms of the media and thepolitical machine that often drives it.Of course the Internet provides a

minority of us with other alternativesto discern particular types of informa-tion.

Yet, for the majority a worryingtrend is that their information needshave been met through such massivemedia bombardment campaigns, as wasthe case with Iraq. On closer exami-nation though, some media, forexample, the American cable channels,served as little more than camouflagesfor their own side. Whose rights andneeds were answered in Iraq? Was theAmerican public, who watches thesenetworks, informed in a credible way?

At the other end of the scale, mediain the south continue to be excluded,as the business of reporting high profilewars costs excessive amounts of money.Few media outlets in Africa possess theresources to compete with internatio-nal media. They are left to rely on and

are ever more dependent on Ameri-can, British and Arabic news. And eventhen, access to these sources is open to

but a few. How did countries in Africareport the Iraq war and what are therepercussions?

Perhaps the most glaring result,particularly for Africa, is the shift infocus. As Iraq or Afghanistan becomesfront-page news, other conflicts withequally, if not more ser ioushumanitarian consequences, continueunabated but yet simply ignored orrelegated to a few pitiless lines or words.

Media – a tool for changeThe role of the media and informa-tion has never been more recognisedas a valuable tool for change. Atremendous amount of work toeliminate some of the imbalances notedabove goes quietly unnoticed. Oftenthese projects are initiatives from withinthe media itself and have long termdevelopment and change as their mainpriority.

Concerned at the disintegratingstandards within their profession, manydedicated media professionals are goingsome way towards closing the hugegaps between north and south. Theyhave established organisations com-mitted to correcting some of theseinherent injustices.

Internews Network (www.internews.org)is a non-profit organisation supportingopen media worldwide. It fosters in-dependent media in emerg ingdemocracies, produces innovative tele-vision and programming and Internetcontent, and uses the media to mediateconflicts within and between countries.Currently, they have programmesspanning the former Soviet Union, Eastand West Europe, the Middle East,Africa, Southeast Asia, and the UnitedStates.

Their latest initiative is a conferenceto design the legal framework for a

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democratic media in Iraq held June 1-3in Athens, Greece. Leading Iraqi, Arab andWestern media experts will convene todevelop a set of policy recommendationsfor legal and regulatory reforms in Iraq.These reforms are meant to foster free,pluralistic media in Iraq.

“The Iraqi people suffered underone of the world’s most repressiveregimes, which used the media tomaintain control over almost everyaspect of Iraqi life. Now they facenew dangers posed by the lack ofany media law or authority,” saidMarkos Kounalakis, Chair of theInternews Network board in a pressstatement. “This conference is de-signed to help create a frameworkfor a new media architecture in Iraq,as part of the process of buildingdemocracy.”

Similarly, the Institute for War &Peace Reporting, IWPR(www.iwpr.net), strengthens local jour-nalism in areas of conflict. By trainingreporters, facilitating dialogue andproviding reliable information, itsupports peace, democracy anddevelopment in societies undergoingcrisis and change. IWPR says its workis distinguished by intensive on-the-job training, practical collaborationbetween international and regionaljournalists to transfer skills andexperience for the long term.

IWPR base their work on anintegrated programme that aims toimprove the capacity of local journaliststo produce balanced and accuratereporting in the public interest. Theactivities are designed to contribute topublic understanding of political issueswithin the region as well asinternationally, with an emphasis ondemocratisation, human rights, conflictresolution and development.

Both Internews and IWPR havebeen highly commended for theirinvolvement in the war crimes tribunalsfor Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.Supporting people’s right to know andto bring the process of justice closer,daily print news coverage includingbroadcasting has enabled affected

populations to be part of a process thatwould otherwise be denied to them.

Media in crisis situationsMedia Action International, MAI(www.mai.org), is another organisationbridging some of the imbalances inreporting from conflict and postconflict zones. Their aim is to promotea more effective use of the media tohelp local populations in crises and tostrengthen the role of information inhumanitar ian and developmentinitiatives. “We believe that informa-tion is the foundation of all humanrights - and that it is especially vital intimes of crisis”, part of their missionstatement reads.

They promote the effective use of

credible, independent media for thebenefit of vulnerable populations incrisis and post-crisis situations. Drawing

upon a global network of pr int,broadcast and Internet professionalswith extensive humanitar ian anddevelopment experience, MAI aims toprovide reliable information topopulations affected by conflicts anddisasters. They also advocate theimportance of credible, independentinformation in all humanitar ian,peacekeeping, recovery and develop-ment initiatives.

Ed Girardet, founding member andpresident of MAI, concedes, however, thatthe media coverage in Iraq makes it nowmore of a struggle to convince people ofthe need for credible information.

“How can we go to Iraq and teachthem, when we have this record?” heasks, referring to what he regarded as

the dismal reporting from some of theAmerican networks. “Where lies ourcredibility?”

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Information is the foundation of all human rights – especially vital in times of crisis.Photo: Pressens Bild

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Independence is another issuewhich the war has put central stage.Girardet says that more than everbefore, the need to be cautious isimperative. He stresses that pro-grammes, particularly those relatingto information, must be multi-donor

funded. “How can you argueindependence if you are one hund-red percent funded from the US?” heasks.

Whereas Internews and IWRP tendto increase the capacity of experiencedjournalists, MAI aims to educate them atthe early stage. In Afghanistan, MAI hasbeen training young journalists from thethree main universities. All ethnic groupsare represented with a 60/40 male/female ratio. An important result of thisprogramme has been the production ofa youth magazine, which is distributedto high schools. MAI is also responsiblefor the Afghan Monitor, a multi mediainteractive forum providing up to dateinformation on Afghanistan.

MAI has been involved in andsupporting practical endeavours. InRwanda the successful use of freeplaywind up and solar powered radiosprovide a supplemental role andsustainable access to information andeducation for child led families. In a

country with only seven percentschool enrolment, these radios are theonly sources of information andeducation for a majority of children.The success of the Talking Drum Stu-dio initiated by Search for CommonGround in Sierra Leone and Liberiais producing radio programmes bychildren for children.

While encouraged by the progressmade, Ed Girardet feels incredulous thatyou still have to keep stressing thatinformation has an impact. “We still spendso much time having to advocate infor-mation. All human beings have a right toinformation that is credible, allowing themto be informed, so that they can makechoices relevant to their surroundings.”

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New report from LPIentire peacebuilding community.Lessons for future practise of peace-building can be drawn, as well astheoretical reflections that serve todevelop the theoretical concept ofpeacebuilding.

This book makes the importantexperiences of LPI in Somalia availablefor the interested community ofresearchers and practitioners of conflicttransformation and peacebuilding.

The book will be released in July.Order your copy by e-mail [email protected] already now.

Ecumenical news serviceWithin the ecumenical family, aninitiative was taken after the Septem-ber 11 events to set up an electronicnewsletter with particular focus onchurch voices and other alternativeperspectives to the Northern media.The service is called Behind the News:Visions of Peace and Voices of Faith(website: http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews). Behind it standthe World Council of Churches, Actionby Churches Together and theEcumenical Advocacy Alliance.

The purpose of Behind the Newsis to provide useful, unique, and di-verse information on the current si-tuation of global conflict. Given thedominance of the Northern media inreporting developments, Behind theNews strives to circulate statementsand action plans by churches,ecumenical bodies, and church-relatedorganizations in other reg ions,particularly Asia and the Middle East.Analyses and reflections both fromwithin the church constituencies andfrom other faith communities are alsopresented.

Orla Clinton

Dr. Thania Paffenholz, peacebuildingresearcher and practitioner, has studiedLPI’s work in Somalia from the early1990s. She found out that LPI hasdeveloped its own specific peace-building approach. In this study,”Community-based Bottom-upPeacebuilding”, she draws many lessonsthat can be used in other contexts andby other organisations working in thisfield, for example, the empowermentof civil society, even in the absence oforganised civil society groups.

To study LPI’s experiences is notonly valuable for LPI itself but for the Coming in July.

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AGENTS FOR PEACE

There is a need to explore the value and the roleof media in its entirety – electronic, print, andnarrow casting – including their outlets for thepromotion of civil society processes, such aschange of behaviour, peacebuilding andreconciliation. This is both crucial and vital,particularly in the Horn of Africa region, whichcontinues to be devastated by violent andprotracted conflicts.

Media as agentsfor peacebuilding

If peacebuilding means strengtheningthe prospects for peace1 in conflict-countries and enhancing the capacitiesof the civil society for non-violentconflict transformation, then mediaought to be perceived, andstrengthened as a component and apowerful tool of the wider civil societythat has a stake in social changes, as wellas in peacebuilding.

We live in a time in history whenmany social norms and behaviours arebecoming increasingly mediated andglobalized. This exchange of informa-tion in the twenty-first centuryincludes the sharing of value systemsand meanings. As the process of humaninteraction is becoming increasinglymediated, social relations are more andmore characterised by the sharing ofuniversally accepted and defined setsof information, and the access andclaim to universally accepted basicrights, even in regard to behaviour andsocial institutions.

This means that no single individualor social structure can take upon itselfthe monopoly of determining orimposing on people (or society) asocially acceptable set of moral values,virtues or meanings. Thus, it is necessaryand useful for society to utilise mediato bring changes to life, especially in a

region of protracted conflicts, such asthe greater Horn of Africa.

Although there are known cases inAfrica and in the Horn of Africa regionwhere media have been used to stir upconflict and exacerbate war, the powerof media to transform violent conflictsinto non-violent ones is too crucial tobe underestimated. Given the fact thatmedia are a power that must bereckoned with, and are civil societyagents and tools that can providepositive change and peacebuilding, itis imperative to invest in media, as wellas to tap their potential.

Strengthened media can and shouldbring about positive change, even inthe greater Horn of Afr ica. Forexample, free and strengthened mediacan promote a popular culture ofparticipatory democracy, basic human

rights, coexistence, tolerance, and peace.As bearers of early warning indi-

cators, media have helped to removedictatorial regimes, highlighted grossviolations of human rights and fosteredjustice and reconciliation. Media caninform, educate, and enlighten citizens.They have promoted environmentalprotection and have backed the struggleagainst the hiv/aids pandemic. Theseexamples are indicative of the fact that,if strengthened as agents and/or toolsfor peacebuilding and other positivesocial changes, media have numerousvalues.

Robin Hay has stated that mediahave obvious values2 in several con-texts. As outlets for divergent opinions,media can assure people that society ismoving towards a healthy openness indealing with its affairs or conflicts. Aswatchdogs on politicians and civilservants, free media can hold membersof society and government accountablefor their actions.

Media can monitor and report onhuman r ights violations and canprovide warnings concerning potentialrenewals of violent conflicts earlyenough for these situations to beaddressed or, at the very least, preparedfor.

Advisory mediaFor example, it was excellent for theLife & Peace Institute to continue to

advocate a participatory and popularpeace, such as in Somalia, via Horn of

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AGENTS FOR PEACE

Africa Bulletin. We believe that articlessuch as Johan Svensson’s “Popular peacefor Somalia this time?”3 can solicit favourable responses and actions. Insome instances, it is possible for mediarecommendations or highlightings toinfluence the making ofdecisions by regional or internationalinstitutions on matters of concern.

It is sad to note that media have, insome African instances, contributedconsiderably to some of the many socialand political upheavals. Perhaps due toreasons of ownership and purpose, aswell as misinformation due to false orflawed information databases, mediahave contributed toward waywardbehaviours that promote vices thatdestroy society.

Indeed, if recklessly used, media associal agents have the potential to

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promote all kinds of vices and violence,all detrimental to society. They canencourage what I may call the gun-and-blood culture, e.g. propaganda thatpromotes ethnic cleansing, ethnicity,selfish hegemony, reprisal, repression,racism, genocide, such as the one inRwanda, etc). At other times they canbe motivated by incorrect interpreta-tions and practice of limited spheres oflife, such as religious, ideological ortheological hermeneutics. To see howmedia is a persuasive tool of com-munication, one needs only to flash-back to the recent war in Iraq.

The realities of an almostcontagious form of social behaviourand modus operandi of communicationin a globalized world imply that

nothing any longer exists in isolation.An indication that there is very little

room for attitudes of indifferenceinstead of togetherness for a just world!Increased global forms of interactionsare constantly bombarding societies.Though we live in a world without afence, we cannot run away from itsrealities.

For these and many others reasons,media’s pervasive and positive influenceon life can be harnessed and made tostrengthen peacebuilding processes.And this shall be done, to the benefitof mankind in this region, as well as tothe stability and peaceful coexistenceof the wider humanity.

Governments, politicians and thecivil society should move away fromthe socially held imagery that likensmedia to “vultures” to a perception thatsupports and develops them as integralaspects or agents of the wider civilsociety that are vital for peacebuilding.

Basil BS Nyama

1 Robin Hay, Media and peacebuilding, GlobalAffairs Research Partners for the Institutefor Media, Policy and Civil Society2 Ibid.3 Horn of Africa Bulletin, Vol. 14, No. 5. Sept-Oct 2002

A Swedish-Tanzanian film team producing a documentary about HIV/aids inTanzania. Photo: Tore Samuelsson

Regular news fromthe Horn of Africa

Get updated through theHorn of Africa BulletinLPI’s Horn of Afr ica Bulletin,produced in Nairobi, provides adigest of news and views fromDjibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia,Somaliland and Sudan. Coveringissues of domestic politics, relief, eco-nomics, health and others, the Bulle-tin monitors the development.Editor: Basil BS Nyama.Subscription fee for organizationsone years, six issues: SEK 400/EURO 40/USD 50/GBP 30.Individuals: donation.Subscribe by contactingHAB, P.O. Box 21186, Nairobi, Kenya.E-mail: [email protected]

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AGENTS FOR PEACE

Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

Roadmap to a balancedmedia picture

With a one-sided view on a complicated conflictlike the Israeli-Palestinian one, both Americanpapers and English-language Israeli press tend togive the readers a biased picture of the situation.Whether important details are left out, or specificevents are described in generalizing terms, neither“ditch” offers a fair, balanced coverage of all sidesof the case, according to the author who is a super-visor for students in journalism.

I follow news of the Israeli-Palestinianconflict closely. Like many Americans,I consume the usual ‘name-brand’ U.S.mainstream media sources of informa-tion. But I do not consider my dailybriefing complete until I have read theEnglish-language Israeli press online.It is here one finds the very smalldetails that generate the dramaticevents we are witnessing now – thesuicide bombings and militaryincursions and diplomatic initiatives.But many of these details are rarelyreported by mainstream Americanmedia.

In July 2001 the Israeli newspapersHa’aretz and the Jerusalem Postpublished English-language onlinereports of an incident that was alsoreported by the Associated Press.Despite the exposure, then, thatAmerican foreign correspondents andeditors had to the story, it was notpicked up widely by U.S. media. Theincident is symbolic, emblematic, acorroborative piece in a larger patternthat has gone all but unreported bymost U.S. mainstream media in anysignificant detail.

The 300-word AP report, dated July30 and written by reporter Laurie

Copans, can be found in the Lexus-Nexus database. It reads:

“The Israeli army said Monday thata group of soldiers beat a Palestiniantraveling in a taxi, forced the passen-gers to beat each other, and slashedthe tires of a vehicle.

Responding to a complaint byan Israeli human rights group, thearmy acknowledged the soldiers‘acted with brutality toward passen-gers’ and said it was investigatingthe July 23 incident outside theWest Bank city of Hebron.

According to witness accountscompiled by the human rightsgroup B’Tselem, three jeeps withsoldiers detained 12 Palestinianpassengers in two taxis. After letting

an elderly man, a woman and achild go, the soldiers told the taxisto drive through an olive orchardto a hidden spot where two soldiers

beat one man until he was barelyconscious, the B’Tselem report said.

- Move, let me show you howto beat, one soldier said to anotherwhen he wanted a turn at hittingthe Palestinian, according to thereport.

Pointing guns at thePalestinians, the soldiers forced theeight remaining men in the twotaxis to beat one another.

- With tears falling from his eyes,the young [Palestinian] man startedto beat us with his fist on our facesand heads, passenger KhaledRawashdeh, 36, said in the report.Rawashdeh said soldiers pointed agun to the man and told him tobeat harder.

Four of the Palestinians neededhospital treatment afterward, thereport added. An army statementacknowledged that a soldier madepassengers hit one another, andanother soldier slashed the tires ofa taxi.

The army statement referred toonly one taxi, not two. Neither thearmy statement nor the B’Tselemreport gave any motive for thesoldiers’ actions.

The army chief of staff, Lt. Gen.Shaul Mofaz, condemned the

soldiers’ actions, saying such casescause the army great damage, theHa’aretz newspaper reportedMonday.”

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What is missingIf we are to analyse U.S. mainstreammedia reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, then we shouldexamine what is not there as well aswhat is. Let us consider three missingelements in this coverage.

The first of these elements is detailsof Palestinian daily life underoccupation as it has existed in one formor another, in periods of low crisis andhigh crisis, for the last 35 years. I wouldargue that these details have been givenvery scant attention in the reportingof the conflict, because until now theyhave not been deemed an importantenough obstacle to the pursuit of U.S.interests in the Middle East. This hasleft the American public without acomplete picture of why what ishappening now is happening. We areseeing the effect to the near exclusionof the cause.

The pictures we see of the explodedbuses and the shattered Passover sedertables and the ambulances collectingthe Israeli dead and wounded on thestreets of Jerusalem, Hadera and Haifa

are gut-wrenching and horrific. Theyare an important part of the story. Butthey do not constitute the full picture.

Where were the cameras when thePalestinian taxi passengers were madeto beat each other by Israeli soldiers?What does a picture of landconfiscation look like? What does apicture of the additional 90,000 Israelisettlers who moved to the West Bank,nearly doubling the settlement popu-lation during the seven years of theOslo peace process, look like? Howabout the 7,000 Palestinian housesreported by Israeli and internationalhuman-rights groups to have beendestroyed since 1967 – not includingthose houses destroyed by the Israelimilitary since the second Intifada brokeout?

In the early part of 2002 we saw aspate of mainstream media reportsunder the collective headline ‘Themaking of a suicide bomber.’ Thesereports have appeared in The New YorkTimes, The Washington Post, The LosAngeles Times, the Chicago Tribune andNewsweek, and on ‘Nightline’ and ‘The

NewsHour’, among others.But if the media are just finding out

what goes into the making of a suicidebomber because suicide bombing hasbecome a recurring phenomenon, thenit stands to reason that something –many things – have been left out ofthe reporting of this conflict all alongthe way.

The other day I was discussing thisissue with a friend of mine who is aneditor on the Chicago Tribune foreigndesk. He said: ‘We don’t report on thebuilding until it catches on fire; wedon’t wr ite about the lake untilsomeone drowns in it.’ True enough.But over time, the media should bereporting on the small details of theconflict that lead up to the large ones– before the fire becomes aconflagration and before the victims arebeing dragged dead from the water.

International aspectsThe second element often missing inreportage of the conflict is explicit ack-nowledgement that a body of interna-tional law and consensus exists that isrelevant to competing Israeli andPalestinian demands and claims – butthe U.S. foreign policy tilt toward Israelhas consistently marginalized theseimportant international aspects. Let meillustrate with a swatch of analysis oncoverage of Israeli settlements in theWest Bank.

The Israeli settlements in the WestBank and Gaza – where some 200,000Israeli colonists live among 3.2 millionPalestinians – are a key issue in theresolution of the conflict. Yet there hasbeen a virtual absence of cr iticalreporting in the mainstream media onthe question of how, directly orindirectly, U.S. aid contributes to Israel’sability to absorb the cost of building,enlarg ing and defending thesettlements.

In November 2000, the Israeliorganization Peace Now reportedthat the government of then-IsraeliPrime Minister Ehud Barak had ear-marked $300 mil l ion for thesettlements in 2001, a figure that

Jerusalem, a symbol of division and conflicts. Photo: Bernt Jonsson

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AGENTS FOR PEACE

represented a mere ten percent ofIsrael’s overall foreign-aid packagefrom the United States for fiscal year2001. Similarly, reporting on theClinton administration’s long-termefforts to advance the peace processrarely if ever analysed the inherentcontradiction between that intensiveU.S. mediation and these facts aboutthe settlements:• that they are illegal under the Fourth

Geneva Convention, to which theUnited States is a signatory;

• that they contravene UN Resolu-tion 242, a pillar of the U.S.-brokered Oslo accords;

• and that successive Israeli govern-ments have continually enlargedthe settlements since the accordswere signed, nearly doubling theirpopulation from approximately110,000 in 1993 to 200,000 by thetime of the Camp Davidnegotiations in July 2000.

From June to December 2000, sixmajor newspapers published sevenstories on West Bank settlements. TheBaltimore Sun, Boston Globe, ChicagoTribune, New York Times and WashingtonPost all ran long stories datelined fromdifferent West Bank settlements duringthat period; the Los Angeles Times rantwo such stories. In general, the piecesgot considerable play: they averaged1,300 words in length, two ran on thefront page and five were illustrated withmultiple photos.

All of the stories revolved aroundthe settlers’ various points of view,religious and secular. The reportingfocused on how the violence haddisrupted the settlers’ quality of life andtheir anxieties over what negotiationscould bring. Of the six papers, only theLos Angeles Times, in one of its twostor ies, mentioned – in a passingreference – that the settlements areillegal under international law. Onlytwo of the seven stories (the same Timespiece and the Post story) quotedPalestinians, also in passing, on theirview of how the settlements affect theirlives and the peace process.

Most of the stories mentioned thehousing subsidies that the Israeligovernment extends to settlers. Butnone of the stories reported how muchIsrael has invested in order to build anddefend the 140 settlements and theirsupporting infrastructure in the WestBank and Gaza since 1967. None ofthe stor ies explored how thisinvestment is likely to affect the deter-mination of final borders in anegotiated settlement. Most of thestories gave a figure for the settlerpopulation, but none of the stories putthat figure into the context of thePalestinian-settler population ratio,which is 15:1.

Unequal partners in the conflictThe third missing element inmainstream media coverage of theconflict is anything approaching con-sistent acknowledgment or recognitionthat the two parties to the conflict arenot equal – and that this is so largelyby virtue of the fact of the historic U.S.political, military and diplomaticrelationship with the State of Israel.Further, reporting of the conflictminimizes or omits altogether the factthat this relationship has continuedunchanged even as the U.S. has claimedfor itself the role of ‘honest broker’ inthe last decade of the peace process.

Diplomatic and political coverage ofthe conflict rarely challenges the toneor content of official Washingtonparlance, which routinely characterizesthe Israelis and the Palestinians as if theywere equals in the war they are makingon each other. From the standpoint ofeach side’s right to live in peace,security and dignity, yes, they are equal.But from the standpoint of the politi-cal, diplomatic, economic and military

weapons each side brings to this war,they are not.

It is one thing for the Israeli govern-ment to claim that Yasser Arafat andthe Palestinian Authority are ‘not doingenough to prevent terror’ and for theAmerican president and secretary ofstate to repeat this mantra incessantly.Such statements are newsworthy andshould be reported as such. But whereare the American analysts from beyondthe Beltway – not to mentionPalestinian and Arab representatives –to remind us, when this mantra isinvoked, that Israel under the Sharongovernment has consistently andsystematically destroyed the physicalinfrastructure of the PalestinianAuthority? Israel and the U.S. expectArafat and the Palestinian leadershipto act as statesmen and security agents,but many of the physical tools to do sohave been denied or taken away.

Lesson No. 1, Day 1, Reporting 101:For every argument, especially in aconflict situation, there is an equal andopposite argument. Get both sides.

Implications, qualifications,prescriptionsWhat are the implications of thesethree holes in U.S. mainstreamreporting of the Israeli-Palestinianconflict, which are, to recap:• The lack of the details of Palestinian

daily life under occupation• The lack of acknowledgement that

international law and consensusrelevant to the conflict have beenmarginalized by U.S. foreign policy

• The lack of recognition that theparties to the conflict are in manyimportant ways not equal

The absence of these details from ourcontext-deficient daily diet of theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict-cum-war

pose several dangers. First, it leads manyin this country to the mistaken

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postulate that what we are nowwitnessing can be distilled into anIsraeli war against Palestinian terrorism,much the same argument that has beenmade for the U.S. military campaignagainst the Taliban and al-Qaida inAfghanistan – even though the twophenomena are but superficially similar.This line of argument leads to theinevitable conclusion that militaryforce should be the prime instrumentin finding solutions to these conflicts.

The second danger is that theabsence of these details exposes thosewho would reveal them – be theyindividuals, news organizations or evenwhole societies (in Europe and theArab world) to charges of anti-Semitism and other epithets.

But the third danger is perhaps thegreatest. It is that the absence of thethree elements in U.S. mainstreammedia reporting of the conflict ana-lysed here has retarded to near paralysisthe ability of American citizens, asindividuals or in groups, to demand and

receive accountability from theirgovernment for a failed U.S. MiddleEast policy. It is a policy that is beingconducted by our government in allof our names but without the consentof many. This puts at risk not onlychances for a sustainable Middle Eastpeace, but it also jeopardizes the safetyof Americans at home as well as ournational interests and credibility abroad.

Now for some qualifications. Assomeone who has worked as an editorand a reporter in the mainstream media,and as one who now helps preparestudents for journalism careers, I wouldlike to offer two qualifiers to the fore-going critique. The first is that whilemedia cr iticism is legitimate andimportant, we should neverthelessneither blame the messenger nor viewthe media as being responsible forsolving the conflict.

The second qualifier is that it isimpossible to expect each individualnews report to deliver full historicalcontext and exact symmetrical balance.

In response to Koffi Annan…

The constraints of space and time willnot allow for a recreation of the wheelor full-blown reiteration of partisanpositions every time. But we shouldexpect context and balance in the bodyof reporting over time.

Finally, what are the prescriptiveguidelines for full and fair media coverageof Israeli-Palestinian issues? I believe thatthey are the basics of reporting any storywell: Consider both sides of the story asequally valid and give them balanced re-presentation and voice, not only in directquotations but also in characterizationand analysis. Do not rely on officialsources alone – and challenge them whenappropriate. Do not perpetuate falsecomparisons and equivalencies byreporting them unchallenged again andagain. And always be aware of relevantcontext – be it historical or recent – andinclude it even briefly via a parentheticalphrase or a few paragraphs.

Marda Dunsky

The European Centre for Conflict Pre-vention (ECCP) has developed a plan tostart at three-year integrated programmeof research, consultation and discussionaround the role of civil society and NGOsin conflict prevention. Following a seriesof preparatory meetings and regionalconferences in 2004, the programme willculminate in an international conferenceat the UN in 2005.

The official launch of the programmetook place in the Netherlands beginningof June. Selected participants from regio-nal and international NGOs togetherwith observers from governments andthe UN agencies discussed the structure,process and content of programme. Some150 key NGOs world-wide have beeninformed and consulted by ECCPduring the pre-phase. Potential initiatorsin the respective regions i.e. North Africa,West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa,Central Asia, South Asia, Asia & Pacific,

North America, Central America &Caribbean, South America, Arab World/Middle East, Western/Northern Europe,Balkans and the Caucasus have beenidentified. After the launch and planningin June, the initiators are expected to playleading roles in the organisation of theregional conferences.

The initiative has been developed byECCP in collaboration with memberorganisations in response to an appealfrom the Secretary General of UN, Mr.Koffi Annan, speaking on the preventionof armed conflicts. Annan urged NGOs“with an interest in conflict preventionto organise an international conferenceof local, national and international NGOson their role in conflict prevention andfuture interaction with the UnitedNations in this field”.

Life and Peace Institute has beeninvolved in the planning and wasrepresented at the meeting in the

Netherlands early June. There is scope forcollaboration and mutual interest also inrelation to the international consultationand conference “Tools for Peace – the roleof religion in conflicts” to be arranged inSweden in June 2004. The ChristianCouncil of Sweden, Life and Peace Insti-tute, the Central Board of JewishCommunities and the Muslim Councilof Sweden are jointly arranging thisconference, which is expected to gathersome 300 participants from all over theworld, representing all world religions.

Read more about the programme on ECCPswebsite: http://www.euconflict.org

For more information regarding theSwedish initiative Tools for Peace, contactKristina Herngren at the Christian Coun-cil of Sweden ([email protected])or Tore Samuelsson ([email protected] or Ulla Vinterhav([email protected]) at LPI.

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AGENTS FOR PEACE

Is there a difference when journalists in Israel andPalestine write about news from the ‘own’ andthe ‘other’ side, respectively? A recent media studyshows how journalistic mechanisms are used byboth sides to further the own interests anddehumanise the other part. Thus, media oftenencourage hostility toward the ‘other’ part in theconflict, instead of giving an objective descriptionand analysis.

Israel-Palestine:

’Our’ victims are tragedy- ’theirs’ are statistics

Neither the Israeli nor the Palestinianmedia show photos of civilians fromthe ‘other side’ who have been killed.Journalistic mechanisms are used byboth sides to exaggerate, misrepresent,dehumanize, and encourage hostilitytoward the ‘other.’ These findings weremade by Professor Mohammed Dajaniof the Sartawi Center of Al-QudsUniversity and Professor Gadi Wolfsfeldof the Truman Institute of the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem during a fourmonths’ research how the Israeli andPalestinian media perceived the ‘other’.

The findings included commentaryby Dr. Hanna Siniora, publisher of TheJerusalem Times, a daily English-language Palestinian paper, and ShmuelRosner, news director at Ha’aretz, adaily Hebrew-language Israeli paper.

“The use of journalistic mechanismsmakes the readers believe that ‘our’victims are a tragedy and ‘theirs’ arestatistics, ‘our’ actions are legitimate and‘theirs’ are evil, our aspirations are nobleand theirs are despicable”, said ProfessorWolfsfeld.

The depiction of only one side’stragedy is accomplished by the locationand space allotment of the news itemsand by personal and dramatic

descriptions versus impersonal andanalytical descr iptions, whichdehumanize the ‘other.’ For example,the killing of a civilian in the conflictwould be put on a front page if he werefrom the ‘side’ of that media, and on amuch later page with less coverage ifhe were from the ‘other’ side.

Moreover, newspapers give a sensethat “we’re all in this together, so that wecan identify with the tragedies,” saidWolfsfeld. Ethnic and nationalisticsolidarity are stimulated by the use of flagsin photographs as well as cultural andreligious symbols. The names ‘PassoverMassacre’ and ‘Al-Aqsa Intifada’ helpreaders identify with those involved.

‘The other side’ dehumanisedAccording to Wolfsfeld and Dajani,both Israeli and Palestinian media

dehumanize the ‘other’ side. This isparticularly obvious in the impersonaldescriptions of the ‘other’s’ victims.Israeli media avoids giving names,printing photographs, and giving per-sonal details of Palestinian civiliancasualties, said Wolfsfeld, but will givethe background of assassinatedPalestinians involved in attacks againstIsrael.

“A targeted strike is put in the con-text of the person who carried outterrorism, without arguing the point,”described Wolfsfeld. “The question iswhat the media emphasizes or doesn’temphasize. Instead of mentioning thecivilians killed, it indicates the act [theterrorist] did.”

Similarly, Dajani described how, afterPalestinian militants operations againstIsrael, there are “no photos of the family[of Israeli casualties] or of mourning;just the operation.”

Each side tries to legitimize its ownactions by telling patriotic stories ofthose involved and by using militarydescriptions. Moreover, the use of maps,military operation names (such as“Operation Defensive Shield”), andweapon names, sterilizes the events,according to Wolfsfeld, rather thandescribing the actual action and itsconsequences.

Another mechanism to

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disenfranchise the other side is throughthe use of language. The ‘other’ side‘claimed,’ while the respective media’sside ‘declared’ or ‘stated’. Dajani said theuse of vague language also contributesto hostility, as in an example from onePalestinian paper that stated ‘a largenumber of women and children werekilled.’

Although Rosner and Dr. Sinioraacknowledged the exaggerations andmisrepresentations, they explained whyit happens.

“Regarding Jenin there certainlywas Palestinian exaggeration,” admittedSiniora, “But Israel prevented coverage,

which is the advantage it has, becauseany Israeli officer can show a paper andsay this is a closed military zone. Howcan the press tell the facts if it can’t goand see them? So we fell into the trapof being inaccurate.”

“The role of any newspaper is notonly as a journalistic tool but also as atool in creating a sense of communityamong its readers,” said Rosner. “It hassome obligation toward the com-munity it serves and, if the communityfeels grief, anger and frustration towardsthe Palestinians, there is no chance thenewspaper will not mirror or reinforcethese feelings towards the other side.”

Still room for peace vision in Israel-Palestine? Can media mobilize public opinion toward peace, or only conflict andwar? Illustration: Lika Tov

Rosner also expressed the fear oflosing readers: “We have to considerhow far we must go from our readersthat they are able to read and still staywith us, and not abandon thenewspaper.”

Both professors say there were fewexamples of news items that showedunderstanding of the tragedies of theother side, although there were somenotable exceptions. In general, bothpeople’s media contr ibute tomobilizing public opinion towardconflict and war, they said.

Orly Halpern

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PAX AMERICANA

Pax Americana orWorld Peace?

The members of the Project for the New Ameri-can Century might aim at American hegemonyof the world. In a personal reflection, HansRomkema points to the risk that the world leavestoo many complicated issues to the United States.If this trend is allowed to continue, the authorfears that we might be facing even more seriouswars than the recent ones.

In 1997 a group of American politiciansand analysts created an ‘NGO’ calledThe Project for the New American Century(PNAC). These people were not happywith the policies of the Clinton admi-nistration. In PNAC’s foundingdocument it was stated: “We seem to haveforgotten the essential elements of theReagan Administration’s success: a militarythat is strong and ready to meet both pre-sent and future challenges; a foreign policythat boldly and purposefully promotesAmerican principles abroad; and nationalleadership that accepts the United States’global responsibilities”.

The name of the project and state-ments such as the above indicate clearlythat the members and sympathisers ofthis organisation are aiming for anAmerican hegemony of the world fora prolonged period. From variousdocuments produced and published byPNAC (see PNAC’s website: http://www.newamericancentury.org), it isquite obvious that the PNAC membersbelieve that the American century orthe “Pax Americana” must be achieved,at least partly, through the use andfurther development of a superior USarmy.

According to a report published byPNAC in September 2000 (Rebuild-ing America’s Defences; Strategy, Forcesand Resources For a New Century),

one of the four aims of the US militaryis to “fight and decisively win multiple,simultaneous major theatre wars”. As thereare no criteria presented as to whocould be the enemies, or examples ofscenar ios that could lead to thenecessity of fighting ‘simultaneous majortheatre wars’, one tends to conclude thatfor PNAC, wars are an objective andnot a means to achieve political goals.

Why should one take PNACser iously? Every country has itsextremists and radicals, but this case isparticular. Some of the most influentialpeople in the Bush administration,Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretaryof Defence Donald Rumsfeld, DeputySecretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitzand Cheney’s Chief of Staff LewisLibby, are founding members ofPNAC.

One can fear the worst, whenpeople in key positions in the US

Government have fighting wars anddominating the world amongst theirprinciple objectives. The Iraqi case hasalready provided proof that they have

so much power that they can go againstworld opinion, as well as public opinionin their own country and start a war.

Exaggerations?Before continuing on this track, Ipropose to sit back for a while andreflect on whether the above is notexaggerated. Saddam Hussein wasindisputably a tyrant, and the attack onthe Twin Towers was just as real as itwas cruel. The Taliban rule was indeeda curse for Afghanistan. On the otherhand, despite some flaws, the US peoplehave freedom of expression; there is afunctioning justice system (althoughthis does not include GuantanamoBay), and every four years the Americanpeople have the chance to elect apresident.

The US army did, in the case of Iraq,indeed help the people to get rid ofone of the worst dictators in modernhistory. When I was employed in Iraqi-Kurdistan from 1993 till 1995, I workedin an area as big as the Netherlands,where the regime flattened all villagesand gassed thousands of people intowns like Halabja on the Iranianborder and Goptapa in the GedoRegion. My Kurdish colleagues toldme that they were initially happy whenthe Americans intervened in 1992,when Saddam occupied Kuwait.However, this did not last. When the

US Army was advancing towardsBaghdad, the Kurdish peshmerga, aguerilla group, took advantage andoccupied the entire North East of the

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country, including the oil-rich city ofKirkuk. Shiite groups did the same inthe South. Then the US army

surprisingly stopped advancing andallowed the Republican Guard to moveaway from Baghdad and suppress theKurdish and Shiite revolts. This wasalready difficult to digest for manyIraqis, but what made it worse was thatthe Americans observed grave humanrights abuses during the counter-attackfrom the Republican Guard withoutintervening.

One Kurd told me that an Iraqiarmy helicopter fired on a large groupof Kurdish refugees that fled the attackon Kirkuk. He was one of the survivorsand was still astonished by the fact thatthe much larger US helicopter that wasobserving the scene did not intervene.The entire world thought that the USand Iraq were still at war, but the USallowed the Republican Guard to fireat innocent civilians, where it wouldhave been easy to stop the senselesskilling …

The above episode shows that oneshould not count on the humanitari-anism of US army operations, despitethe claim of freeing the Iraqi peoplefrom a ruthless dictator. The US armywas sent in 1992 to defend the interestsof the United States of America, andthere is no reason to believe that this isdifferent in 2003. The Kurds and otherIraqi opposition groups are of coursehappy that they have received USassistance to finally achieve a regimechange in their country. But the Iraqipeople, and I bet this includes theKurdish politicians, are aware that theassistance did not come for free andthat at the end of the day only the USinterests would count.

This was once again underlined,when, in the first week of May this year,the BBC world-service broadcast a

report about grave negligence from theUS military concerning the protectionof nuclear sites in Iraq. Moreover, on

the BBC internet site, a report wasprinted about the looting of one of themost important Iraqi nuclear facilitiesat Al Tuwaitha. The lack of protectionof these sites may already have led tothe theft of nuclear materials. Thisshows that even the proliferation ofweapons of mass-destruction does notseem a major preoccupation of theUnited States, despite all its claims tothe contrary.

A personal experience in 1994further supports this thesis. In my officein Sulaymanya, I was approached by asmuggler who came from Governmentterritory and who offered to sell a pieceof metal in a tight plastic cover. On thecover was a written message that themetal contained a few percent ofuranium and that the supplier was aGerman firm. I reported this to a USGovernment official based inSulaymanya and assured him that if hereacted quickly, I would be able to tracethe smuggler through some Kurdishcontacts. There was, however, nofollow-up of the matter.

Future perspectiveThe future does not seem too bright,unless there will be a change in USpolicies. But one can question, withsuch large interests at stake, whetherthis will happen any time soon. TheUS people will continue to be able toelect their presidents and, as such,influence the foreign and internalpolicies of their country, but even thosepresidents have to deal with strongpowers behind the scenes. Theunfortunate situation the world isfacing today is that those who usuallyoperated in the shadows, or were dis-persed over several services, the PNAC

members, are now operating in broaddaylight. This forces us to pose severalvery disturbing questions. Will theyleave voluntarily? Will they be able tosecure certain elements of their policyto an extent that makes it impossiblefor future presidents to take a radicallydifferent direction? Do they havesufficient grip on American politics andthe army to “fight and decisively winmultiple, simultaneous major theatre wars”?

Other strong players in the inter-national community, like some of theEuropean countries, Russia and China,also have a responsibility. In the case ofIraq, the US was indeed given anopportunity to start a war, as most othercountr ies allowed the IraqiGovernment to continue frustratingthe disarmament process. It was left tothe US, and to a lesser extent GreatBritain, to remind the Government, aswell as the United Nations, about thedisarmament requirements to whichIraq was subject since the first Gulf War.

The world very often seems quitehappy to leave complicated dossiers tothe Americans. This was, to a largeextent at least, the case in formerYugoslavia, Afghanistan, in the Israel-Palestine conflict and now again inNorth Korea. This attitude, in particularfrom the Europeans, should change.Otherwise the US will be able tocontinue its current strategy of relyingon its military superiority. Here we donot suggest that the Europeancountries, Russia or China should startsimilar operations as the United States.On the contrary, they should developa more proactive approach todeveloping crisis situations that focuseson political, rather than military,solutions.

If no major effort is made tocounterbalance the current Americanapproach to complicated politicalproblems, the situation may, at somepoint in a not too distant future,completely get out of hand and causea war of a much greater magnitude thanthe wars in Iraq, Kosovo or Afghanistan.

Hans Romkema

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ARGENTINEAN RECONCILIATION

Argentina:

The painful marchtowards reconciliation

In a project called Reconciliation and theChurches in the Transition to Democracy, the Life& Peace Institute has published a series of studiesexamining the role of churches in countries wheredictatorial rule is giving way to democraticgovernance. One of these studies is Andiñach,Pablo R & Bruno, Daniel A: Iglesias evangélicas yderechos humanos en la Argentina (Evangelicalchurches and human rights in Argentina). In thisarticle, Anders Ruuth gives a personal reflectionand analysis of the dif ficult but necessaryreconciliation process.

Can a book of 160 pages, with a pictureof a little red lamp on its black cover,have a chance to be spread in a widercircle? I hope so, because it treats awound, which is still felt with pain bymany people after the many acts ofviolence during the “dirty” war inArgentina. Is reconciliation possible?The book gives rise to many reflections,some of which are presented here.

Since “la conquista”, Latin Americahas a trag ic history of cr imescommitted against fundamental humanrights, above all against the most criticalone: the right to live. Guatemala withits secret courts, civilian troops anddeath squadrons during the latter partof the 20th century. Or El Salvador withits corrupt military rule, which, amongother things, proved “brave” enough tokill six Catholic priests and their house-keeper in the dark night hours of the16 November 1985, and to shootBishop Oscar Romero in his back,while he was celebrating mass on the24 March 1980. As if it were needed,Argentina’s military in 1973 had a

lesson from General Pinochet in Chileon how to silence the opposition, whenSalvador Allende was overthrown.

It is, however, a very important book,which should be studied and reflectedon by both individuals and parishes.During the reading I have asked myselfmany times: How would I havereacted? How much would I havedared to protest against obviousinjustices? How would my church, myvicar, my bishop react to kidnappingsand disappearances?

The book is well written anddocumented with many illustrativequotations and a valuable bibliography.Of course, it also leaves many questionsunanswered. What I really wish hadbeen described more, are the reactionsof individuals and parishes to thedisappearances. Were there attempts tokeep the names of the disappeared, forexample, with photographs orcommemorative plaques in parishhouses? Argentineans are usually quickwith “pergaminos” to notice people. Itwould have been valuable, but maybe

also frightening, if interviews had beenconducted with torturers, to get someinsight into their world of thoughts andfeelings …

The book treats its subject in threeparts: I. Dictatorship 1976-1983, II.Democracy 1983-1989, and III. Fiftenyears later, a new world panorama 1990-1999. It is unavoidable that the periodof dictatorship is the most dramatic partof the description, not least because ofthe cruelty with which the military andthe so-called security forces attackedsuspected individuals and organisations.The extent of the crimes against humanrights during the first epoch is shownin the following numbers: 9 000 peoplereported disappeared to The NationalCommission on the Disappeared(Comisión Nacional sobre Desaparición dePersonas, CONADEP), which was set upafter the fall of the military regime. Atotal of 30 000 people are estimated tobe victims of the military dictatorship(p 21).

Before the dictatorshipEven if the coup d’état in 1976 cameas a surprise, it was still expected andpartly longed for. To restore order afterthe deeply corrupt and unskilfully leadgovernment under Isabel Perón was bymost people seen as necessary. Many,in addition to the military, however, feltcalled to do this from differentperspectives, which gave the militaryfurther reason to intervene. There were,for example, the guerilla groups Losmontoneros and Ejército RevolucianarioPopular. Another event which stirredviolent feelings was the kidnapping andmurder of the country’s ex-president,general Aramburu.

This event was enormously publi-

20 New Routes 2/03


cized and attracted a great deal ofattention, not least because a memberof the then much discussed movementin Argentine, Priests of the Third World1 ,was said to be involved in revolutionaryactivity. After a thorough investigationhe was, however, released. In the timebefore the dictatorship otherphenomena were also evident, whichglorified the revolution and createdmartyrs: the death of the ColombianCatholic priest Camilo Torres in aguerilla battle in 1966, and, above all,the death of Che Guevara on 9October 1967. The papal documentabout the development of the peoples,Populorum progressio, supported the poorbut was also conceived as a certainlegitimising of the use of violence in adeep crisis for a country.2

During this period some wordswere specially loaded. “Words likerevolución, cambio, violencia, liberación wereextremely topical, and for many youngpeople the creation of a revolution thatwas necessary for greater justiceprobably appeared to be the only trulyChristian way.”3 Another documentwas the journal Cristianismo y

Revolución, which was published in 30“ample issues between September 1966and September 1971”4 . Yet anotherdocument, which gave the militarylegal support for measures of a morestrategic nature, was the discussionabout Seguridad nacional, a conceptwhich could be used to justify manymeasures. The concept was developedin Brazil in the 1950’s, in Doutrina serviçode segurança nacional, and was one of thefoundation-stones for the militaryregime there up to 1985.5

During the dictatorshipWhen the revolution broke out on 24March 1973 in the name of Proceso deReorganización Nacional it was to someextent expected. The military juntaimprisoned the President and theGovernment, dissolved the Congress,as well as provincial authorities and thecourts of law, and took control over themass media. At the same time, thearresting of individuals started, with aspecial focus on intellectuals and oftenyoung people, who were suspectedmembers of, or sympathizers with, theguerrilla movement. Soon, the attitude

of the churches towards the militarybegan to show in different statements.

Even if the investigation first andforemost concerns Evangelical chur-ches, many examples are given from theRoman-Catholic church, too. Officially,it took, with several shining exceptions,side with the military. Its attitude tohuman rights issues was characterizedas tibia, pale and lukewarm. Thefollowing statement by the militarybishop Victorio Bonamin is in itscompliancy and servility to the generalsan almost tragic example:

When blood is shed, there isreconciliation. God reconciles theArgentinean nation through thearmy (…) It is said that the militaryare a group of honest people, pure,ready for battle. Yes, to the extentthat they have come to Jordan toclean themselves from the blood andtake the lead of the country. (p. 23)6

It is said about the Evangelicalchurches that the majority of them,joined in the organisation FederaciónArgentina de Iglesias Evangélicas, withfew exceptions had a passive attitudeat the start. The reason for this is,according to the authors, not withinthe scope of their investigation. It isdeplorable, because if there is anythingone wants to know, it is how churchesand their boards reasoned, face to facewith perilous and obtrusive violence.Circumstances, however, forced themto increased consciousness of theirresponsibility. Among other things theyformed an advisory body, ConsejoConsultivo de Iglesias. It was made up ofthe presidents of the followingchurches: Iglesia Anglicana, IglesiaReformada, Iglesia Discípulos deCristo, Iglesia Luterana Unida, Iglesia[Evangélica] del Río de la Plata, IglesiaMetodista, Iglesia Valdense del Río dela Plata y la Iglesia de Dios. The groupappeared to be efficient and could beassembled in a few hours, often inlocalities belonging to the Evangelicaltheological faculty, Instituto SuperiorEvangélico de Estudios Teológicos(ISEDET).

Violent protests in the capital of Buenos Aires. Photo: Pressens Bild

New Routes 2/03 21


A former organisation, ComisiónArgentina para los Refugiados, which wascreated to receive refugees from Chileafter the coup there, contributed to acertain preparedness and experience tohelp refugees. Other organisations thatwere formed were, in 1974, Servicio dePaz y Justicia with Adolfo PérezEsquivel, who later received the Nobelpeace pr ize, in 1975, AsambleaPermanente de Derechos Humanos, and in1976, Movimiento Ecuménico por losDerechos Humanos. During this period,the group of the “Insane mothers”, lasAbuelas, g rew, from a loose andtemporary community, to a movementwhich gives opportunity and courageto protest against the disappearances ofdaughters and sons. Generals and policehad hardly calculated on such a persis-tent and untiring protest. But motherswho lose their children at last lose thefear of protesting.

Repression grew, not only inBuenos Aires, but also in the interiorof the country. The book quotes anumber of examples, one of them that40 persons belonging to Evangelicalchurches disappeared and were killed,among them the principal of theuniversity in San Luis, Dr MauricioLópez. Two Catholic bishops werekilled in strange car accidents, twoFrench nuns disappeared, as didthirteen Catholic pr iests. Bombsexploded in front of churches thatdispleased the regime. With the “Flightof Death”, victims were made todisappear by being thrown out into theRío de la Plata River, “a practicethought out to eliminate all traces ofthe fate of thousands of people” (p. 39).But this was, of course, not only toeliminate the traces of these people, butas much to eliminate the traces of thecrimes the security forces committed.There is a thorough-paced evil in thispractice to conceal the truth. In a reportfrom CONADEP, it is said about theprinciples for the implementation ofthe repression, among other things:

Every sign of hesitation within thearmy and the security forces concer-

ning the methods used for arrestsand disappearances was brutally

punished. To supply any datawhatsoever about ar rested ordisappeared persons - place, state orfate - was tantamount to death. Itwas even forbidden within the unitto comment on implemented ope-rations. Every sign of humanityshown to a prisoner was punishedwith utmost austerity (p. 63).7

The coup, thus, caused immeasur-able suffering, first and foremost for thevictims and their families, but also formany others, in the form of anxietyand suspiciousness. Many peoplecommented on the disappearanceswith “Por algo será”, which meanssomething like: “There must be somereason”. Or as an insensitive pastor ina char ismatic church answered aworried mother: “The devil to pay isdeath.” The insensitivity of some peoplecaused much suffering, as did the fee-ling of loneliness among people whohad nobody to talk to. For many people,a most offensive phenomenon was thatthe military made use of Christiansymbols, like crucifixes and pictures ofthe Madonna, in the torture-chambers,which could make the torturersimagine that they were committing adeed which pleased God. A highly-ranked military man, Emilio Massera,stated: “Even when we act as a politi-cal force, we are still Catholics ...However, as we all work out of love,which is the source of our religion, wehave no problems ...” (p. 39).

The political leadership of themilitary became more and morehollow. To divert the attention frominternal problems, the militaryinitiated the unsuccessful war overthe islands in the South Atlantic, LasMalvinas or the Falkland Islands. “Evenif ”, in the words of ISEDET, “we

support the claim that these islandsbelong the Argentina - and so do all

Argentineans - we do not think thisis the right time to go to war aboutthem.” The defeat also meant aninglorious end for the social engage-ment of the military. The fall after sixyear s of dictator ship and thebeginning of a period of democracywas crowned by a mass demonstra-tion with 300 000 participants at theend of 1982. It had the parole Marchapor la vida (March for life) and wasorganised by the groups for humanrights. At the head of the enormousprocession were, among others, the“Insane mothers”, Adolfo PérezEsquivel, the Methodist bishopFederico Pagura, and the Catholicbishop Jorge Novak. The demonstra-tion also showed that people werebeginning to lose their fear of policeand military.

After the dictatorshipOf course, most people felt great joywhen the dictatorship had fallen and ademocratic constitution had beenreintroduced. But now other difficultiesfollowed. For the churches, this meant,among other things, a long and difficultcure of souls to follow up and supportfamilies and relatives in their grief,which could now be done moreopenly and to a greater extent. To thiswas added the infected discussion aboutreconciliation. When the newgovernment, bravely enough, hadarranged tr ials against the highestmilitary leaders with many convictions,the military, with very concrete threats,forced through laws of amnesty, atwhich point the question of imperativeobedience was decisive.

The reconciliation which themilitary wanted to reach was, however,more or less to wipe out what hadpassed and forget it all. Many churches

/0�000��

22 New Routes 2/03


protested against this understanding.Reconciliation is possible only whencrime has been confessed and clarified.The truth must first be put forward.The same thing concerned the indulto,remitting of guilt, or grace, which thegovernment and the military strivedfor, but the answer of the churches was:Grace is possible only when there isconfession. From the replies that theauthors of the book present fromdifferent church communities,Catholic as well as Protestant, it isshown that there was unanimity aboutthis issue.

Others had a sharper view on theissue of remission of sentence. After anumber of executed persons had beenidentified by a group of legalanthropologists, two prosecutors said:“The awfulness [of the crimes] itselfmakes only the thought of remissionof sentence monstrous.” (Su propiaatrocidad torna monstruosa la mer hipótesisde la impunidad. p. 57)

The book also includes interviewswith twelve persons about theirexperiences and memories from theyears of dictatorship. Their testimoniesare restrained and objective but alsoupsetting. It is moving to hear a littlegirl who said that she did not dare toswim in Río de la Plata for fear ofcoming across some dead person whohad been thrown down from the“Flight of Death”. It is interesting toobserve that the chapel of aPentecostal community, among thepoor, sometimes was a meeting-place,not only for church services but alsofor birthdays, vigil wakes etc. That gavepeople a greater sense of communitythan the loneliness in a private houseor the lack of understanding in theirown parish.

Among those who wereinterviewed, I know personallyRodolfo Reinich, chairman in theLutheran-Reformed Church, whichunder his leadership also later stoodup to defend human rights. The pas-tor and Th.D. Arturo Blatezky worked,and still works, together with him onthis issue. They both had their exam

from the then Lutheran Theologicalfaculty in José C. Paz outside BuenosAires.

When the authors present thecollected experiences, a first impres-sion is that, in crises like this, shatteringtensions easily arise, creating conflictsand a feeling of depression. Anotherexperience is that peaceful, we wouldsay ‘normal’, protests were met by themilitary as if they were attacks fromguerilla groups. A third experience isthe necessity to organize relief actions,to support each other and not standalone. The book ends by stating thatthere are still people who do notunderstand that Christian faith andhuman feelings sometimes lead toconfrontations.

One of the reports from theEcumenical movement for humanrights was called Nunc mas, Never again.The cardinal of São Paulo, Brazil, DomPaulo Evaristo Arns, lead a fact-findingcommission of victims of torture andtorturers during the military dictator-ship in Brazil in the 1960’s and 1970’s,based on secret protocols from militarycourts In a publication from thisinvestigation, he writes: “I remember aconclusion by a general, himself anopponent to all torture: He who hasonce actively exercised torture, will bedestroyed by its demoralizing effect. Hewho exercises torture four or moretimes, will become so brutalized thathe experiences physical and mentalenjoyment, to such an extent that hewill be able to torture persons evenfrom his own family!”8

What happened with theArgentinean reconciliation? It mightstill be an open question. The little redlamp on the book cover indicates thatfor some, reconciliation has beenpossible, whereas for others, the woundsare still painful. Maybe for some, thewords of St. John’s gospel have becomereal: “See the Lamb of God, who takesaway all sin.” Nunca mas, never again! Itis a pious hope, which can be realizedonly through vigilance. The ecumenicalwork plays a very important role here– to investigate cr imes to make

reconciliation possible. The book is atestimony about the efforts of manybrave people, worth much respect andhumility.

Anders Ruuth

Translation: Kristina Lundqvist

1 In the bibliography I miss Sacerdotes parael Tercer mundo – crónica, documentos,reflexión. Buenos Aires 1970. See alsoRuuth, A: The church in Argentine. Verbum1976.2 “Everyone knows, however, thatrevolutionary uprisings – except wherethere is manifest, longstanding tyranny,which would do great damage to funda-mental personal rights and dangerous harmto the common good of the country –engender new injustices, introduce newinequities and bring new disasters. The evilsituation that exists, and it surely is evil, maynot be dealt with in such a way that aneven worse situation results.” Populorumprogressio 1967.3 Ruuth, p. 32.4 Peralta, Amanda: Theory and practice in theuniverse of the poor, an investigation on the his-tory of ideas in Latin American liberationtheology. Daidalos, Göteborg 1995, pp. 56f.5 See, for example, Equipo SELADOC:Iglesia y seguridad nacional, SíguemeSalmanca, 1980.6 “Cuando hay derramamiento de sangre,hay redención. Dios está redimiendo a travésdel Ejército a la Nación Argentina (…) Sesuele decir que los militares son una fal-ange de gente honesta, pura. Hasta hanllegado a purificarse en el Jordán de la sangrepara ponerse al frente del país.”7 “Todo signo de discrepancia dentro delas FFAA y de Seguridad con los métodosutilizados para la detención y eliminaciónde personas fue sancionado de modo bru-tal. Br indar alguna información a losfamiliares de detenidos-desaparecidos sobresu localización, estado físico o destino eraequivalente a la muerte. Estaban prohibidos,incluso, los comentarios entre las propiasfilas sobre los operativos realizados,sancionándose con el mayor rigor cualquiersigno de humanidad que pudiera tenersecon el prisionero.” (p. 63)8 “Lembrei-me então da advertência de umgeneral, alias contrário a toda tortura: quemuma vez practica a ação, se trastorna diantedo efeito de desmoralização infligida.Quem repete a tortura quatro ou maiz vezesse bestializa, sente prazer físico e psíquicotamanho que é capaz de torturar até aspessoas mais delicadas da própria família!”In “Brasil – nunca mais”, p. 13.

New Routes 2/03 23

20 YEARS AGO

From Life and Workto Life and Peace

Twenty years ago a Christian world conferenceon Life and Peace took place in Uppsala, Sweden.The present Life and Peace Institute can be seenas a direct follow up of this conference. From thefirst thought to the magnificent inaugural servicein the mighty Cathedral of Uppsala lay more thantwo years of preparatory work. In this article BjörnRyman outlines some sketches from a broaderstudy of the inception of the Institute.

Without Archbishop Olof Sundby ofUppsala, the Life and Peace Conferencein April 1983 would never have takenplace. True, many conferences for peacewere held when the escalation of nuclearweapons reached its height, but none likethe one which happened in Uppsala. In abrief sketch of its historical roots, I will tryto paint a picture of the ideas which werebehind the conference. Why was it held atthis particular time? Who were the actors?Why did not the Pope and other churchleaders come? Was the emphasis on thepolitical agenda for peace or on the Biblicalagenda for shalom?

Archbishop Olof Sundby took thelead in quite radical issues for peaceand justice. After the 1968 WCCassembly in Uppsala the issues of socialjustice were high on the agenda. Theupheaval of the 1968 revolution turnedmany familiar church traditions upsidedown. “The world sets the agenda”, wasa phrase adopted by Olof Sundby. Hetuned his traditional ears to the newlanguage he heard. He listenedparticularly to the church leaders fromthe South and their plea for justice. Hetook into his heart the cries of thestarving people of Africa, appallinglyportrayed in the Sahel emergency in1973 and the political upheaval inEthiopia in its wake.

The second cold war started around1980. Cruising missiles were to beinstalled in western Europe. The SovietUnion enlarged its big armaments ofboth conventional and nuclearweapons. The arms race was to reachproportions never before experienced.The leader of the Soviet Union, LeonidBrezhnev, was visibly ailing and as suchin the hands of the generals. In theUnited States Jimmy Carter wasreplaced by Ronald Reagan as Presi-dent. Jimmy Carter had tried to makepeace in several places and succeededin the peace agreement of 1978between Israel and Egypt. His policywas to try and stop the arms racethrough the SALT agreements.

President Reagan received publicendor sement for a policy ofconfrontation with the Soviet Unionincluding heavy rearmament andlaunching of star wars. This policy wassupported by Margaret Thatcher,Prime Minister of the United King-dom. The platform on which she waselected was the same as that of presi-dent Reagan on economic anddefense issues. A new aggressive policyhad taken a fast hold. Compared tothe détente of the 1970’s the worldhad moved into a new paradigm. Boththe nuclear arms proliferation and

conventional arms made the world anunsafe place.

Conference for church leadersIn this scenario many conferences werearranged on the issues of war and peace.The idea of a conference for churchleaders dealing exclusively with thethreat of a nuclear war came up beforethe start of 1981. In June 1982 a SpecialSession for Disarmament was to beconvened by the United Nations. Fromthe beginning, the thought was toinfluence this session through assem-bling a real Pan-Christian meeting inSweden. For this purpose the Pope andthe Patriarchs of Constantinople andMoscow, as well as the Archbishop ofCanterbury, should not only atttend,but also issue the invitations to theconference. None of this materialized.None of them came, but they allsupported the conference and sentadequate delegations.

Olof Sundby wanted the conferenceto follow in the footsteps of NathanSöderblom, who was Archbishop ofUppsala 1914-1931. In 1925 he calledthe churches together to a historicalecumenical meeting. In one sense it wasthe start of the modern ecumenicalmovement. To Nathan Söderblom, atrue European, the outbreak of the FirstWorld War, was a setback. He served asa visiting professor to Leipzig inGermany in 1914, just as the war dogsstarted barking. He had also served asa pastor in Paris in the 1890’s and takenhis doctorate of theology in Paris. TheAnglican Church with its stress onApostolic succession of bishops andclergy and its rich liturgy had appealedto him.

The fact that these three Europeancountr ies with strong Chr istiantraditions went to war with each other

24 New Routes 2/03

20 YEARS AGO

was a severe blow to Nathan Söder-blom. As early as at the beginning ofthe war, he pursued the idea of callingchurch leaders from Europe togetherto a peace conference. This failed. Notuntil after the war did Söderblom tryagain to engage the churches for apeace conference. He succeeded in1925, and most of the deliberationswere held in Stockholm. The finalservice was held in the Cathedral ofUppsala, but the see of the Archbishopdid not have enough facilities at thetime to hold such an internationalconference. The continuation of themeeting was called Life and Work.

Both Olof Sundby and the Swedishpoliticians involved saw the conferencethey planned in the light of NathanSöderblom. His prayer for peace wasused by Olof Sundby. Still this shouldnot be an ordinary ecumenicalconference for professionals within theecumenical movement. It should beextraordinary in the sense that churchleaders on the highest hierarchical levelshould invite around 150 other churchleaders. Although Olof Sundby himselfvisited Pope John Paul II in Rome, thePope could not make it to Sweden. Nopope in office had ever visited Sweden.The Vatican, however, gave a positiveresponse to the conference andpromised to support it. Two monthslater the Pope was almost killed by agunman. The original idea for the

conference of top church leaders hadfailed, but the idea had been welcomedby many, including the Pope.

Ecumenical experienceAround him Archbishop Olof Sundbyhad gathered a few Swedes as anadvisory committee. They included hiscolleague and friend, Bishop MartinLönnebo, the original initiator of theconference, MP Evert Svensson, theMinister for Education, Jan-Er ikWikström, and former ambassador andMP, Olle Dahlén. They all had longexperience with the ecumenical move-ment both nationally and internationally.Olof Sundby was Vice-President of theWCC and had participated in thehighest body of the LWF. Olle Dahlénwas chairperson of the Churches Com-mission on International Affairs. He hadalso served as an ambassador of theGovernment to have special contactswith NGOs both in Sweden and abroad,including most of the ecumenicalorganizations. His network was vast andhe had been professionally involved atmany crises, for instance in Sudan. OlleDahlén was to work full time for thepreparation of the conference andafterwards to establish the Life and PeaceInstitute. He traveled extensively aroundthe world to invite people and seeksupport.

Olof Sundby proposed that aninvitation should be signed by the

Archbishops of Sweden and Finlandand the primates of Oslo and Copen-hagen. Four ecumenical representativesfrom Scandinavia, representing differentdenominations should also be amongthe invitors.

Olof Sundby acted as chief of staffto get things organized for theconference. He called up two youngtheologians from the University ofUppsala to participate with their specialskills. They made two drafts of papersto state the purpose of the Conference.One of the drafts had as its headlineLife and Peace. The paper starts: “Themind of the spirit is life and peace(Romans 8:6). Jesus Christ came thatwe may have life and peace (John 10:10and 14:27).” The organizing committeedecided that the Conference and allthat it entailed would be called Lifeand Peace. This was approximately oneyear before it was to happen.

The six-page memorandum closeswith a prayer of peace by NathanSöderblom, probably used 58 yearsearlier at the 1925 Ecumenical meeting.That meeting had ended in a decisionto start Life and Work. To Olof Sundby,it had been clear from the beginningthat the intention of the 1983conference was the same as the 1925conference. This is inscribed in the firstand last words of the document: Lifeand Peace – Prayer of Peace by NathanSöderblom.

The Life and Peace Christian WorldConference started in the Cathedral ofUppsala, where Cardinal Paolo EvaristoArns of Sao Paolo preached. Much ofthe conference was spent in the Cathedraland in Bible studies. Archbishop Sundbysaid that it was a calling, triggered by theconviction of conscience to arrange thisconference, guided by the Holy Spirit.The conference succeeded in manythings, among them in gathering manyleaders of different churches anddenominations, maybe one of the richestin diversity. One of their proposals forpeace education was to initiate the Lifeand Peace Institute.

Björn Ryman

Ambassador Olle Dahlén welcomes the first Director of the Life and PeaceInstitute, Roger Williamson. Photo: Jim Elfström/LPI

New Routes 2/03 25

PAIX EN RDC

Pour une paix durable en RDC:

Le point de vue dela population

A l’heure des Accords de paix et de la mise enplace du gouvernement d’union nationale, nousavons voulu savoir comment les populationss’inscrivent dans le processus de paix en cours.Cet article va s’intéresser à traduire, à la lumièredes réalités locales, trois grands thèmes que lespopulations enquêtées ont identifiés commeindispensables pour l’instauration d’une paixdurable: le rapatriement des militaires et desréfugiés Hutu rwandais, la formation de l’arméenationale et l’unification du pays.

Le contenu de cet article est basé surles résultats de trois mois d’enquêtessur le territoire de Bunyakiri.1 Cesenquêtes menées conjointement parl’Institut Vie et Paix et la PADEBU(Plate-forme d’Associations de Déve-loppement de Bunyakiri) ont touchéune quarantaine de localités où nousavons conduit des entretiens collectifsavec des femmes, des jeunes, deshommes, des organisations locales, deséglises et des autorités coutumières, etde façon informelle avec les militaires.

Le territoire de Bunyakiri, peupléen majorité par l’ethnie Tembo, est situéà 80 km de Bukavu. Il est considérécomme un haut-lieu de la résistanceMayi-Mayi (mouvement nationalistede résistance). Depuis le retrait del’Armée Patriotique Rwandaise (APR,aujourd’hui RDF) en octobre 2002, ilétait entièrement contrôlé par legroupe Mayi-Mayi placé sous lecommandement du Général Padiri.

Depuis le 5 mai dernier, le territoire deBunyakiri connaît de nouveauxaffrontements opposant les forces duRassemblement Congolais pour la

Démocratie (RCD) aux Mayi-Mayi. Cettenouvelle évolution a d’ores déjà entraînéd’importants déplacements de populationset nous craignons la recrudescence desexactions à leur encontre.

Priorité rapatriementPour les populations de Bunyakiri,depuis le retrait de l’APR et l’arrêt desaffrontements, le rapatriement desréfugiés et des milices Hutu rwandaisest cité comme la priorité pour unepaix durable au niveau local. Lespopulations dénoncent l’insécurité liéeà l’utilisation par les groupes armés dela prédation (pillage, viol, torture,meurtre) comme moyen de subsistance.

Pour les populations autochtones,civils et militaires doivent indifférem-ment rentrer au Rwanda. « Nous nesavons pas distinguer les militaires descivils: un jour ils sont civils et lelendemain ils portent l’arme. »2

Avec le retrait de l’APR, le GénéralPadiri s’est exprimé pour le rapatrie-ment volontaire des militaires Huturwandais sous son commandement,l’alliance des Mayi-Mayi avec les forces

démocratiques pour la libération duRwanda (FDLR, ex-ALIR) ayant étémotivée par la lutte contre l’ennemicommun, l’APR. Notre enquête amontré que cette volonté de romprel’alliance avec les forces FDLR estlargement partagée par les Mayi-Mayi.

Les organisations locales, commeSynergie Vie3 , ont elles aussi entreprisdes actions de sensibilisation pourencourager le rapatriement volontairedes civils et des militaires Hutu rwandais.

Les civils et les militaires Huturwandais sont présents sur le territoirede Bunyakiri depuis 1997, ce séjourprolongé ayant eu pour conséquencele développement de log iquesd’installation à long-terme.

Dans la plupart des cas, les réfugiés et lesmilitaires Hutu rwandais se sont installésdans les forêts, en marge de la populationlocale. Près de la localité de Nyamirwa, lesréfugiés Hutu ont installé leur village avecleurs propres infrastructures (école, centrede santé) et leur pouvoir coutumier. Ilsentretiennent des relations occasionnellesavec les populations locales: les réfugiés sontutilisés comme main d’œuvre par les locaux,fréquentent le marché et les offices religieux.

L’alliance entre les Mayi-Mayi et lesgroupes FDLR a dans certains casfavorisé l’intégration de ces populationsau sein des communautés locales. Lalocalité de Cinéné était le quartiergénéral du groupe Mayi-Mayi de Padiride 1997 à 2001. L’alliance militaire quiexistait entre les Mayi-Mayi et les forcesFDLR a permis l’installation desmilitaires et avec eux des réfugiés Huturwandais. Dans cette localité, lespopulations autochtones et les réfugiésvivent ensemble. Trois des quatreenseignants que compte l’école deCinéné sont des réfugiés Hutu. Les

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PAIX EN RDC

enfants congolais et rwandais étudientensemble et des mariages ont été conclusentre des congolais et des rwandais.

Du côté des Mayi-Mayi, malgré lavolonté du Général Padir i de sedésolidariser des FDLR, des obstaclessubsistent. La collaboration avec lesFDLR permet aux Mayi-Mayid’assurer un certain contrôle sur cesgroupes. Dans la chefferie de Kalonge,les autorités militaires Mayi-Mayi et lescoutumiers ont mis en place unsystème de prélèvement de rationsalimentaires destinées aux FDLR afind’éviter le pillage des populations.

Un deuxième argument doit êtrepris en compte. Les militaires Hutu ontpour beaucoup reçu une formationmilitaire professionnelle. Cettecompétence militaire ainsi que leurdétermination au front représentent unatout non-négligeable pour les Mayi-Mayi. Un enfant-soldat nous a confiéque « lors des affrontements, ce sontles Hutu qui sont en première ligne etmanipulent les armes lourdes.»

La reprise des hostilités risque derenforcer chez les Mayi-Mayi l’idéequ’ils ne devraient pas se séparer desmilitaires FDLR.

Formation de l’armée nationaleLe processus de formation de l’arméenationale devra tout d’abord s’atteler àidentifier les futures recrues de l’arméenationale et à démobiliser et désarmerles autres. Dans ce processus, la priseen charge des enfants-soldats s’imposecomme une priorité.

Le mouvement Mayi-Mayi estcaractérisé par un nombre importantd’enfants-soldats, certains n’atteignentpas l’âge de 7 ans. Beaucoup de cesenfants ont rejoint les Mayi-Mayi pouréchapper à la pauvreté et audésœuvrement, certains autres ont étérecrutés de force ou encore appelés parun membre de leur famille. La présencede ces enfants dans l’armée estlargement condamnée par lespopulations qui souhaitent leurdémobilisation et leur prise en charge.« Il faut démobiliser ces enfants car ilssont impolis et insolents. Ils n’ont pas

de formation morale et manque dematurité intellectuelle. » 4 « Pour cesenfants, tuer c’est un jeu. Ils ne saventpas distinguer le bien du mal. »5

Des organisations locales et interna-tionales ont déjà mené des actions pourdémobiliser et réintégrer ces enfantsmais ce processus se heurte à l’hostilitédes Mayi-Mayi. Une organisationlocale, Initiative Pour la Paix (IPP)déplore le fait que nombre des enfantsqui avaient été démobilisés ont étésanctionnés comme déserteurs et forcésde réintégrer le mouvement. Il estdifficile d’imaginer que tant qu’il y aurades affrontements, les autorités Mayi-Mayi acceptent la démobilisation.

Concernant les adultes, les populationsappuient l’idée que chacun, individuelle-ment, devra prendre la décision de quitterou de rejoindre l’armée, mais relèvent lefait que beaucoup ont déjà acquis unesprit militaire. Un jeune militaire nousdisait que lui ne pouvait plus rejoindre lavie civile car il n’avait plus que la guerreen tête. L’intégration dans l’armée nation-ale, c’est aussi la perspective d’être enfinreconnu par le gouvernement.« Beaucoup de militaires sont trèscontents à l’idée de rejoindre l’arméenationale. Ils se sont beaucoup battus pourêtre reconnus par le gouvernement. »6

Au-delà du processus dedémobilisation et de formation del’armée nationale, il est nécessaire deréfléchir à un processus de« désarmement » de la société. Huitannées de guerre ont contribué àl’imposition d’une logique de violence(« c’est l’arme qui fait la loi ») audétriment des structures d’autoritétraditionnelles (les coutumiers, lesadministratifs, les enseignants, la famille).

Cette nouvelle logique s’est parti-culièrement imposée chez les jeunes etles enfants. L’arme est entrée dans la culturedes enfants. Certains enfants peuvent aubruit d’un tir reconnaître l’arme.

Les déplacements de population etla pauvreté liés au conflit ont obligéchacun à s’assumer seul. Les parents, nepouvant plus répondre aux besoins deleurs enfants, ont perdu leur autorité.Contre l’avis de leurs parents, de

nombreux jeunes ont choisi derejoindre l’armée, ou encore pour lesfilles, d’aller vivre avec un militaire.

Unité nationale etréconciliationLa constitution de la transition,promulguée le 4 avril 2003 par lePrésident de la République définit lesprincipes de la mise en place d’ungouvernement d’unité nationalerétablissant l’autorité de l’Etat surl’ensemble du territoire national.

Les revendications nationales, notam-ment la réunification du pays, s’affirmenttrès fortement dans le discours despopulations. Ces revendicationsrépondent en écho au discours véhiculépar les Mayi-Mayi, soit la lutte contrel’occupation étrangère. « Tous lesCongolais qui sauvegardent le territoirecongolais sont Mayi-Mayi. »7

Comme le discours des Mayi-Mayi,le nationalisme défendu par lespopulations offre peu de perspectivespolitiques et s’enferme dans une logiquede résistance et d’opposition. Lespopulations réclament l’unité du paysmais le processus politique conduisantà la formation du gouvernement detransition nationale semble leuréchapper. Les populations attendent dessignes tangibles d’unité, et l’unité du payscela veut d’abord dire l’arrêt desaffrontements et la liberté de circulation.

Derrière cette visée nationaliste, lemouvement Mayi-Mayi conserve unedimension locale. La populationreconnaît le mouvement comme uneémanation locale (« Ce sont nosenfants ») qui s’est affirmé pourdéfendre la population (« sans eux, lesTutsi nous auraient tous exterminés »).Leur demande de reconnaissance descombattants Mayi-Mayi, c’est aussi unedemande de reconnaissance de l’effortde la communauté. En l’absence d’unsoutien extér ieur, ce sont lespopulations qui ont cotisé pour assurerla ration alimentaire des Mayi-Mayi.

Plus largement, les populationsaffirment que le mouvement Mayi-Mayi a contr ibué à renforcer lareconnaissance des Batembo par les

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LPI IN SOMALIA

autres communautés (bien que lacréation d’un ter r itoire Temboautonome ait été officialisé par lesautorités du RCD le 09/09/1999) .« Avant les Batembos étaient toujoursderrière une autre ethnie: à Bunyakiriils étaient derrière les Havu, à Masisiderr ière les Hunde et à Walikalederrière les Nyanga. Aujourd’hui, lesTembo ont une identité propre.»8

L’unification du pays ne pourra passer

outre ces réalités locales. La guerre aparticulièrement affecté les milieuxenclavés, comme le territoire de Bunyakiri,où un grand nombre de mouvementsarmés a trouvé refuge. Aujourd’hui, ce queces populations demandent avant tout,c’est la prise en considération de la voixet de la souffrance de leur communautéet l’appui aux actions de développementdans leur milieu.

Hélène Morvan

1 L’ensemble des résultats de cette enquêteparaîtront dans un article en septembre 2003.2 Entretien avec les populations de Lailai,le 12/04/2003.3 Rapport disponible sur le site de l’InstitutVie et Paix.4 Entretien avec les représentants de la chef-ferie de Hombo-Sud, le 04/04/2003.5 Entretien avec le prêtre catholique deKalonge, le 26/03/2003.6 Entretien avec le Comité de sécurité civilede Bunyakiri, le 30/04/2003.7 Séminaire de sensibilisation organisé parles Mayi-Mayi pour les populations deBunyakiri, le 19/04/2003.8 Entretien avec un originaire de Wola-Luanda à Goma, le 15/03/2003.

Summary in EnglishThis article is based on the results of threemonths of fieldwork done in theBunyakir i terr itory (South Kivu,Democratic Republic of Congo) byHélène Morvan, who works as a researchassistant at the Life & Peace Institute’soffice in Bukavu. This paper deals withthree major themes that the local popu-lation identified as being key issues for afuture sustainable peace in Congo:• Repatriation of the refugees and of

the Rwandan Hutu militaries.Rwandan Hutu civilians as well asmilitaries have been present in this areasince 1997. Even though the forcedalliance between the Democratic Forcesfor the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR,ex ALIR) and the Mayi-Mayi in somecases might have favoured the integra-tion of these groups within localcommunities, both the population andthe Mayi-Mayi leadership have expressed

their wish to see them repatriated. Someobstacles, however, still persist, especiallyas the Mayi-Mayi largely benefit fromthe competences of the Hutu militaries.• Demobilisation and training of the

national army.Two key issues have to be addressedhere. The first one concerns thedemobilisation and the reintegrationinto civilian life of child soldiers whohave been massively enlisted in theMayi-Mayi troops. Some internationaland local organisations have alreadyembarked on this process, facing somehostility from the Mayi-Mayi whohardly want to be deprived of theirnumerous young soldiers, especially ina time of renewed violence. The secondissue deals with the necessary disarma-ment of the Congolese society, wherecarrying a weapon is synonymous withmaking the law to the detriment of thetraditional structures of authority.

• National unity and reconciliationThe reunification of the country is thefondest wish of the population.However, in spite of the Mayi-Mayirhetoric, this nationalism is lockingitself into resistance and opposition.Moreover, the people call for thereunification of Congo, but the politi-cal process for the creation of atransitional government of nationalunity is totally beyond their control.

The future reunification of thecountry will have to take into accountthese local realities. The protractedarmed conflict has particularly affectedlandlocked reg ions, such as theBunyakiri territory, where many armedgroups have found refuge. What thepopulation is asking now is some con-sideration of its suffering and supportto development effor ts in theircommunities.

Somalia:Ten years and many lessons learned

A new book published by the Life & PeaceInstitute, called Communitybased Bottom-up Peacebuilding, by Thania Paffenholz hasas its aim the analysis of the peacebuildingapproach of LPI within the Somali contextduring the period 1990-2000. From theseexperiences, a number of lessons were learnedfor the practise and theory of peacebuildingthat contribute to the further development ofcivil society and grassroots implementation.

The book is included in LPI’s Horn ofAfrica Series, which documents diverseaspects of the work of the Horn of Africa

Programme. The focus is on action research,covering a range of activities in the region,in particular support for community-basedpeacebuilding programmes.

The author, Thania Paffenholz, gives someglimpses from the research behind the book.The background to the research projectis that when I was working togetherwith LPI in Somalia, we often haddiscussions about the role of LPI. Irealised that the constant challenge ofworking under difficult circumstancesin Somalia put so much pressure on

Thania Paffenholz, researcherbehind the Somalia report.

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LPI IN SOMALIA

handling the operational side of theprogramme that there was notsufficient time to reflect deeply aboutthe work. On the one hand LPI heldimportant reflection meetings fromtime to time, that always broughtimportant changes and adaptations tothe programme. On the other hand, Ihad the feeling that the importantexperiences of LPI in Somalia neededto be more researched and madeavailable for the interested communityof researchers and practitioners.

To undertake this was a tremendouslearning experience! First of all it was afascinating research project. From thebeginning in the early 1990s, LPI’s work inSomalia had many elements that are nowacknowledged by most peacebuildingresearchers and practitioners to be of stra-tegic importance for supporting sustainablepeacebuilding, such as long-termengagement, the focus on empoweringinternal actors from within the conflictcountry and the strong focus on advocacyfor people-based peacebuilding.

This was at a time when thediscussion about peacebuilding andconflict transformation had not evenfully started. Therefore, it was so inte-resting to study the experiences of LPIin Somalia systematically. As we can seenow, LPI has developed its ownapproach, which may be seen as a

specific approach among the peace-building and conflict transformationapproaches. Moreover, the many lessonsthat came out of LPI’s work in Somaliacan now be used for peacebuilding inother countries by organisations thatare working for the empowerment ofpeople in conflict countries.

Secondly, it was an important per-sonal experience, as it gave me theopportunity to reflect on a part of myown experiences of my work inSomalia, which was an importantlearning experience as well.

In summary, the experiences of theLPI involvement in Somalia are thefollowing: LPI stayed on in the countrywhen almost every other organisationhad left in the mid 1990’s. The long-term engagement in Somalia gave LPIthe possibility of testing a variety ofdifferent strategies to support buildingpeace in Somalia. The main generallessons can be summarized as follows:

• The strong vision and belief inpeople-based peacebuilding was thedriving force behind all activitiesthat enabled LPI to overcomedifficult stages in the peace process.

• A clear understanding of roles isessential for peacebuilders: LPIalways sees itself as a facilitator toserve the interests of people.

• There is a need for ongoing goodanalysis and concrete implementa-tion strategies in combination withflexibility and openness.

• Finding the r ight par tners,including donors, is important.

• Building structures for peacebuildingand thinking in processes rather thanin a series of single events are importantingredients for peacebuilding.

• The need for long-term commit-ment is crucial!

• Built-in learning processes areneeded, as well as making the pro-cess sustainable from the beginning.

One of the most important findingsfrom LPI’s Somalia experience is thefollowing: LPI demonstrated thatempowerment of civil society ispossible, even in the absence of organi-sed civil society groups. This finding isof particular importance, both forresearch and the practice of peace-building, as the whole concept ofempowerment builds on groups thatcan be empowered. Thus, LPI’s conceptof how to do empowerment withoutthese groups can now be furtherdeveloped and used for other processes.

Thania Paffenholz

Excerpt fromCommunity-based Bottom-up Peacebuilding by Thania Paffenholz

provoked a debate in research, comingto the conclusion that the concept ishelpful, as it makes actors more sensitiveto these indicators.

However, the practical use of theconcept is limited, as ripeness canusually only be analysed ex post, or isempirically very difficult to distinguishfrom the success of outcomes. Itbecomes thereby tautological: If theconflict is not ripe, there is no chancefor successful peace interventions – ifpeace interventions succeed, theconflict was ripe.

Moreover, in focussing too much onthe concept of ripeness, there is even a

danger that external actors remain inactive,as they do not see a ripe moment.

With the evolution of transforma-tion and process-oriented approachesto peacebuilding, the concept ofripeness is not seen to be of suchimportance any more. The focus is nowmore on long-term engagement inorder to establish relationships andstructures for peacebuilding over time.In consequence, it is necessary on alllevels of interventions to think inlonger time frames, as only manydifferent interventions at various timesof the entire process will lead tosuccessful conflict transformation.

Timing: The need for long-term engagement and“windows of opportunities”The right timing of interventions is asubject that takes up a great deal ofdiscussion in the literature on conflicttransformation and peacebuilding. Formany years there has been a debateabout the ripeness of conflicts forresolution and the need to time peaceinterventions according to this ripeness.Zartman and others analysed that apeace intervention can contribute tosolving a conflict, only if a conflict isripe for resolution.

The concept of r ipeness has

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LPI NEWS AND REVIEWS

LPI NewsEritrea:Peacebuildingfor religious leaders- There is a real hunger for this. Peoplehave been at war for so many years.They have had enough of bloodshedand want to see development and apeaceful society.

Florence Odeour, Trainingcoordinator at the LPI Horn of AfricaProgramme, is enthusiastic about thetwo workshops held in recent months forreligious leaders from all over Eritrea.

The first workshop in November2002 gathered 40 participants from theOrthodox, Roman Catholic and theEvangelical Church of Eritrea. Thegroup included men and women,pastors as well as lay leaders. In addi-tion, a special one-day workshop foryouth was arranged. The original planwas to hold a joint workshop withleaders from the Muslim community,but due to the Ramadan the Muslimscould not attend. That group of 25representatives therefore met in Marchthis year for a parallel workshop.

- It was the first time Muslimleaders met for this kind of a basicpeacebuilding workshop, says JohanSvensson, LPI Horn of Afr icaProgramme Representative. In thefollow-up three weeks long Trainingof Trainers in May, the participantswere from both the Christian and theMuslim communities.

The training was carried out incollaboration with Norwegian ChurchAid’s Eritrea Programme, and theproject is part of the LPI Horn of AfricaFramework Programme. Other similarinitiatives are planned for Sudan andEthiopia.

- It is a remarkable contrast to thesimultaneous developments aroundIraq and elsewhere in the Middle East,says Johan Svensson. While tensionsbetween Christians and Muslims arebuilding up there, we find ways ofjoint peacebuilding in Eritrea. No

doubt religious leaders will play amajor role also in the future peaceprocess of Ethiopia-Eritrea.

At this point, however, the aim isto strengthen local leadership andenable leaders and potential trainersto bring the message back to theirrespective local communities. It is amatter of both conflict transformationand prevention.

- It is important to build on therelative harmony between Christiansand Muslims, says Florence Odeur. Inthe training, we are looking at the manydifferent traditional ways of solvingconflicts in different parts of Eritrea,and we br ing in new, additionalknowledge and exper iences. Theattitude from the participants is not “weknow it all”; rather there is genuineinterest in learning. I am astonished bythe hunger to learn and exchangeexperiences.

One of the tasks in the peacebuildingworkshops is to identify causes ofconflict, and to suggest specific solutions.

Training Coordinator Florence Odeur at thepeacebuilding workshop in Asmara.Photo: Johan Svensson

Participants came from all over Eritrea. Photo: Johan Svensson

30 New Routes 2/03


In the discussions, a “bridge” of peacewith a need for pillars is created. Amongthe pillars mentioned in the workshopsare fair distribution of jobs, security forall people, freedom of religion,communication infrastructure,democratic practice, a good constitution,good neighbours, education, equality,justice and harmony between Christi-ans and Muslims.

Among the internationalcollaborators and financial contributorsto the project are currently Sida,Church of Sweden and NorwegianChurch Aid.

Seminar 20 years afterIn April 2003, exactly 20 years afterthe or ig inal Life and PeaceConference, LPI Uppsala arranged aspecial seminar with participantsfrom Uppsala University, SwedishMission Council and SwedishMissions Research Institute, staff andboard members of the Institute itself.Speaker was Dr. Andrew Kirk fromBirmingham and the theme wasReligion, conflicts and globalisation.

- Apart from the date, I see very

little parallel between the worldtoday and the situation 20 years ago,when Archbishop Olof Sundby andAmbassador Olle Dahlén invitedchurch leaders from all over theworld to discuss the nuclear threatand the cold war, suggested AndrewKirk, and continued to explore howrelig ion is used in positive andnegative senses.

Religion may be a main cause, anindirect cause and a contr ibutingfactor to violence, conflicts and war.On the other hand, religion may be ameans of resolving conflicts throughtheoretical analysis of the causes, bybringing in a vision or by insisting onjustice. Andrew Kirk also proposedthat the pastoral capacity of religionscould be used to promote diversity,pluralism and tolerance, but there isneed to learn how to practiceconcepts like forg iveness andreconciliation.

The topic of religion in relationto conflicts is very central in thecurrent work of LPI, and the themeof the upcoming consultation inUppsala 8-12 October is Tools for

Peace? – the Role of Religion inConflicts. In June 2004, a major in-ter national , inter-f aith peaceconference on the same theme willbe arranged in Sweden. For more in-formation regarding this, contact LPI,Ulla Vinterhav ([email protected]), or Christian Council ofSweden, Kristina Herngren([email protected]). If you wantto get in touch with Andrew Kirkregarding his seminar, drop an e-mailto him on [email protected]

Flashback on 2002In the annual report of work in 2002,it can be noted that LPI initiated apeacebuilding programme togetherwith churches and other local partnersin the Kivu provinces of CongoKinshasa. The programme is supportedfinancially by governmentaldevelopment agencies in UK, TheNetherlands and Sweden. Similar workin Congo Brazzaville continued, withsupport from Sida, Sweden, andUNESCO.

In the Horn of Africa Programme,a restructur ing towards a moreregional framework took place. Thelongstanding commitment totraining and capacity building inSomalia turned into a partnershiprelation with the Somali NGO,Forum for Peace and Governance,which receives support from Sidathrough LPI.

A couple of specific researchprojects, one about the role of churchesin countries in transition to democracy,and another on militarization andeconomic penetration in the Pacifics,were completed. LPI staff also partici-pated in a number of consultations,workshops and seminars. Preparationsfor a joint Masters course in “Religionand Violence” with Uppsala Univer-sity was initiated.

The total financial turn over at theInstitute, including the field program-mes, was 20 million SEK.

The LPI Horn of Africa Programme has carried out a three week long Training ofTrainers for selected leaders from Southern Sudan. The training, held atEmbagathi, outside Nairobi, Kenya, gathered some 30 participants. Among theorganizers and teachers were Florence Odeur, Johan Svensson and Basil BSNyama from LPI. Photo: HAP

New Routes 2/03 31


Minority rights in a future IraqFor decades, the people of Iraq have lived withthe very opposite to democracy. Gross violationsof human rights have been targeted at specificethnic and religious groups. The combinedeffects of economic sanctions and wars left thepopulation impoverished and highly dependenton the state for their basic needs.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’stotalitarian regime in April this year, atransition period is taking place in Iraq, theoutcome of which is still uncertain to allparties involved. Before these eventsoccurred, a report named Building Democracyin Iraq was published by the MinorityRights Group International. The authorsbehind the report are Yash Ghai, Mark Lat-timer and Yahia Said. The report is partlybased on interviews with Max van derStoel, Gudmundur Alfredsson, AsmaJahangir and Donald Horowitz.

The report presents a detailed analysis of theoptions for a constitutional process and theestablishment of inclusive democracy in a post-totalitarian Iraq. It considers the need to entrenchthe features that are essential to a genuinelydemocratic society. In particular it analyses therisk posed by inter-ethnic and inter-confessionalconflict and the action necessary to try and avoidit. On the one hand, Iraq has a recent history ofsystematic discrimination and violent repressiontargeted at particular ethnic and religious groups.On the other, it has traditionally been a relativelywell-integrated society. If not properly informed,major political change and international inter-vention pursued in Iraq, may together riskexacerbating the potential for division.

The report considers, in turn, thespecific challenges for establishing a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional democracy inIraq, the social and political aspects ofmanaging post-totalitarian transition, andoptions for a constitution-building process,drawing on the experience of other statesin transition.

At the end of the report, the Minority RightsGroup gives seven recommendations, the socalled Ground rules for building democracy inIraq. Relevant international instruments are alsopresented, from the United Nations Interna-tional Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,the United Nations Declaration on the Rightsof Minorities, and the Universal IslamicDeclaration of Human Rights.

The report also includes a number ofwell-arranged boxes with useful facts andbackground material.

To order the report, or for further infor-mation, contact the Minority Rights GroupInternational ([email protected]),or visit the website: www.minorityrights.org

Kristina Lundqvist

Making targetedsanctions effectiveTargeted sanctions have been the subject ofan international diplomatic and academicprocess, which was initiated by Switzerland,

focusing on financial sanctions, the InterlakenProcess. This was followed by the initiativeof Germany, the Bonn-Berlin Process,dealing with arms embargoes, aviationsanctions and travel bans. These processesbrought together experts, academic research-ers, diplomats, practitioners and non-governmental organisations.

After the two volumes presented to theUN late 2001, a third process, the Stock-holm Process, was initiated. The aim was toconcentrate on the implementation oftargeted sanctions; there must be effectiveactions between words and wars.

The final report, Making Targeted SanctionsEffective: Guidelines for the Implementation ofUN Policy Options, was presented to theSecurity Council in March 2003. The resultis summarized under ten headings:1. Design sanctions resolutions with

implementation in mind2. Maintain international support for the

sanctions regime3. Monitor, follow-up and improve the

measures throughout the sanctions regime4. Strengthen the sanctions work of the

UN Secretariat5. Although different, much can be lear-

ned from the UN Counter-TerrorismCommittee

6. Effective sanctions require capacity-building and training programs

7. Implementation can be enhancedthrough a model law

8. Implementation will vary dependingon the type of sanctions

9. Maintaining accuracy in sanctionstargeting is crucial

10. Reporting on sanctions implementa-tion

The final report from the Stockholm Processsuggests that to make sanctions effective, theyhave to be implemented through a chain ofactions involving all levels of decision-ma-king: the Security Council, SanctionCommittees, Member States. Internationalorganisations, the private sector and NGOsalso have roles to play. In the process, led byProfessor Peter Wallensteen at Uppsala Uni-versity, three working groups developed anumber of recommendations. In addition,specific proposals are made for different typesof targeted sanctions.

The report is available onwww.smartsanctions.se and at Department ofPeace and Conflict Studies in Uppsala, phone:+46 18 471 16 96, fax +46 18 10 63 97.

Tore Samuelsson

Advising EUon conflict prevention…The report Ensuring progress in the preventionof violent conflict is the result of a joint initiativeby International Alert and Saferworld. Thepurpose is to enhance the EU’s ability toprevent violent conflict through providingquality research and expertise, based on

experience in conflict-affected regions. Thereport outlines five key issues for EUmember states and the Commission toaddress in order to enhance the EU’s capa-city to prevent violent conflict:- Mainstreaming conflict prevention po-

licy and practice within EU policy- Strengthening EU-Africa engagement

in conflict prevention- Integrating crisis management with

conflict prevention- Tackling terrorism, organised crime

and illicit trafficking- Enhancing co-ordination across EU

institutions

Each chapter is illustrated by one or severalconcrete case studies, and there are clearrecommendations (to EU) under each heading,which makes it a very practical and usefuldocument. The report has been produced incollaboration with the European Peace-build-ing liaison office (EPLO). Contact Alice Hut-chinson ([email protected]) orLindsay Alexander ([email protected]) for copies of the report or to discussthe content.

… and on futuredevelopment cooperationA discussion paper, European DevelopmentCooperation to 2010, from UK-basedOverseas Development Institute (ODI) andthe European Centre of Development Po-licy Management in the Netherlands islaying out the agenda facing Europe incoming years. The six themes are:

The development landscape to 2010Europe in the worldTradeDevelopment and humanitarian aidPolitics and partnershipsThe architecture of developmentcooperation

The authors, Simon Maxwell and Paul Engel,assisted by a group of collaborators, Ralf J.Leiteritz, James Mackie, David Sunderland andBettina Woll, report about the significantchange in European development cooperationsince the 1990’s. And there is more to comewith a new wave of changes at the horizon.The scenario planning exercise in the paperidentifies two key drivers of Europeandevelopment cooperation. The first is the depthof commitment to coherence, as opposed toindependent policy-making by Member States.The second is the degree of commitment tothe Millennium Development Goals, especiallythe goal of halving global poverty by 2015.The four scenarios suggested are: Integration,Compartmentalization, Segmentation andIndividualization. Get hold of the paper andread more about the need for a “road map” forthe EU. Contact the respective institutes forthe paper and more information:[email protected] [email protected]

Tore Samuelsson

32 New Routes 2/03

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Meet LPI Board Member Elsi TakalaYou have long experience in international work.What are the most important experiences youhave had and where did you have them? Whatuse can you make of them today?

One basic experience, which has helpedme throughout my work, comes from theten years I worked in agricultural researchand extension in Finnish Lapland, thenorthernmost part of my country, beforejoining the Ministry. There I learnt torecognize the centre to-periphery natureof society and the usual experiences ofperipheral groups (often very true both atthe local and global level!): ‘Those in thecentre do not understand our point ofview’. Keeping this in mind makes it easierto see people behind figures and papers andto avoid excessive bureaucracy.

The time in Lapland was also otherwiseuseful. The indigenous Same people are avery non-aggressive people. There is noword for ‘war’ in the Same language. Maybethe extreme climatic conditions have forcedpeople to concentrate on essential issues.

Belonging to a minority church in asmall country (5 million people), with a

Elsi Takala from Helsinki, Finland, has beena member of the LPI Board for one year.She is an agronomist by profession and hasworked for twenty years at the FinnishMinistry for Foregin Affairs. Elsi Takala isone of the 58 000 members of theOrthodox Church of Finland. New Routesasked her a few questions, which sheanswered just before she went to work as avolunteer for a couple of weeks in thegarden of the Valamo Monastery in the lakeregion of Finland.

What is the driving force behind your work, bothin your commitment as an LPI board member,and in your daily work at the Ministry forForeign Affairs?

I believe that God has meant us to be hisco-workers in order to make true love growand be fulfilled already in this world. Thejoy of Easter, the resurrection of Christ,should give us the strength. It is true that inthe daily work, in the middle of news aboutwars and violence in the world or pettyquarrels in the Ministry or in parish coun-cil, it is not always easy to remember this.

language not related to the languages ofour neighbours, has also been helpful inunderstanding the situations and survivalmechanisms of different minorities. Theimportance of trying to learn and under-stand other cultures I learnt very early frommy mother. She was a professor ofeducation and already in 1960’s-70’s did ahuge job in Finland to promote peaceeducation and international understanding.

Elsi Takala enjoying her work in themonastery of Valamo.

The role of media in war and peace The role of media in war and peace

Documents

Transcript of The role of media in war and peace The role of media in war and peace