ACHA PEACE BULLETIN
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ACHAPeaceBulletin
A
publication of Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA)
www.asiapeace.org & www.indiapakistanpeace.org
Editor: Pritam K.
Rohila, PhD asiapeace@comcast.net
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Volume
XIII, No. 5:
_____________________________
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
*Fighting
for the Body and the Soul of
ARTICLES
OF THE MONTH
*Moderate
Muslims in Pakistan stir silent majority against Taleban, Jeremy Page and
*Pakistani Talibans treatment of
Sikhs is illegal, The Milli Gazette,
BOOKS
*Choices and Self-esteem: Learning to Respect Yourself, Deri Joy Ronis, Ph.D
*Limits of British Colonial Control in
DOCUMENTARIES & FILMS
*Children of the Taliban
*
EVENTS
*June
26-29,
*October
2,
*
EVENT
REPORTS
*
JOBS,
INTERNSHIPS & VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS (FOR THE COMMON GOOD)
MEMBERS’ CORNER
*Dr. Lenin and Shruti
Raghuvanshi
*Shahvar Khan
PEACE
& HARMONY NEWS FROM
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM
PEACE
EDUCATION RESOURCES
*Peace, Conflict, and Violence:
Peace Psychology for the 21st Century,
D. Christie, et al.
PETITIONS
*
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
SRILANKA
*Options
When Preparing for the Next Phase, Jehan Perera npc@sltnet.lk,
EDITORIAL
*Fighting for the Body and
the Soul of
Extremist violence has engulfed
parts of
Together with the Jihadi outfits
in other parts of
Suicide bombings, and public
beheadings and floggings are on the rise. Political leaders, journalists and
even guest sportsmen are subjected to murderous attacks. Minorities and women
are harassed. Police and radio stations, girls schools, music stores, barber
shops are being destroyed. Even Sufi shrines are not spared.
Pakistan Government and Army
seem to have finally woken up to the stark reality. After dilly-dallying for months, they appear
to have decided to face the menace squarely. Prime Minister Gilani has called the recently launched
military offensive
against the extremists, “a war for the country’s survival.”
But this military campaign in
the Taliban-infested areas, although necessary, has added to the instability of
the region.
Innocent residents, already
harassed by the Taleban atrocities, are caught in the crossfire. Many people
have been forced to leave their homes. The
UN has so far registered more than 800,000 internally displaced persons.
Along with the
500,000 refugees, already present in the NWFP, this influx of more people has
strained the resources of the region. Soaring temperatures, overcrowding, and
inadequate facilities, are adding to the severity of the humanitarian crisis
President Asif Ali Zardari has
described the current situation as the "biggest challenge" of 21st
century.
But neither the military
campaign, nor any amount of foreign aid is going to be sufficient in containing
the current peril. Common citizens of
Efforts
already initiated by the Jamia Naeemia and the Sunni Ittehad Council (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6283118.ece)
are commendable.
More
efforts of this kind need to be launched to persuade citizens to
respect the rights of minorities and women, to use their words and hands to
make friends with all their neighbors, and to live with others peacefully.
Also, with proper instruction in
conflict resolution and peace-building, children will have to be ‘inoculated”
against the virus of hate and violence, and to prepare them for a role as
agents of peaceful, nonviolent change.
In this context, with the help
of such peace leaders as B. M.Kutty, Karamat Ali and Dr. A. H. Nayyar, we at ACHA
(www.asiapeace.org) are preparing curriculum
material for use with school children.
All well-wishers of
Won’t you please do your part?
Video: Crisis in
ARTICLES
OF THE MONTH
*Moderate Muslims in Pakistan stir silent
majority against Taleban, Jeremy Page and Zahid Hussain, The
Times, May 14, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6283118.ece
The new Islamic alliance is trying for
the first time to give moderates a voice
As
classes begin at the Jamia Naeemia madrassa, an Islamic college in Lahore, the
courtyard echoes to the sound of 125 students reciting the Koran. Mostly from
poor families in Punjab and North West Frontier Province, the youngsters are
prime targets for the Taleban and other militant groups preaching the
fundamentalist forms of Islam in Pakistan.
Here,
however, they are learning a different doctrine that is music to the ears of
Pakistani, US and British officials. “The Taleban is a stigma on Islam,” says
Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi, a Sunni cleric who heads the madrassa. “That is why we
will support our Government and our army and their right to destroy the
Taleban. We will save Pakistan,” he told The Times.
Until
recently it was unusual to hear a cleric denounce the Taleban in the country
that helped to create the movement and has long resisted Western pressure to
engage it militarily.
That
changed on Friday when Dr Naeemi took the unprecedented step of founding an
alliance of 22 Islamic groups and political parties with the explicit goal of
opposing the Taleban.
The
Sunni Itehad Council claims to represent about 85 million Pakistani followers
of the moderate Barelvi school of Sunni Islam, which incorporates music and
mysticism and venerates saints and their shrines.
The
Council is now joining secular Pakistani political parties in an effort to
shore up public support for the army’s campaign against the Taleban in the Swat
Valley. It has organised anti-Taleban protests and is planning to hold a
conference of 5,000 moderate clerics in Islamabad, the capital.
Some
members are even offering to take up arms. “We are ready to send volunteers to
fight with the military against Taleban,” said Maulana Sarwat Qadri, the chief
of Sunni Tehrik, an Islamic party that joined the alliance.
Such
sentiment is far from universal: Pakistan’s biggest Islamic party has opposed
the Swat campaign, as has Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician. Analysts
say, however, that the alliance still marks the first time that the silent
majority of moderate Pakistanis have found a voice.
“The
Taleban are few but because they have turned to Jihad they are seen more,” said
Dr Naeemi. “If there are 100 people in this room and one is waving a gun, then
you see the one with the gun.” There are no precise statistics but experts
believe that at least half of Pakistan’s 173 million people are Barelvi, and
about 20-25 per cent Deobandi. Another 20 per cent are Shia — and most of them
fiercely oppose the Taleban.
The
Taleban are mostly products of Deobandi madrassas set up with Saudi money in
the 1980s to train volunteers to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan, and to
counter Shia influence from Iran. They follow an extreme version of Deobandi
Islam which is heavily influenced by the Wahhabi ideology of al-Qaeda and
advocates using violence against Shias and Barelvis.
Sectarian
tensions have intensified in recent months because the Taleban have been
attacking Shias and destroying Barelvi shrines across the northwest. Barelvi
and Shia clerics were outraged when the Taleban negotiated a peace deal with
the Government in Swat in February only to advance into neighbouring regions
last month.
Western
officials have welcomed Dr Naeemi’s initiative: the cleric said that the US
consul in Lahore was due to visit him yesterday for the first time.
*Pakistani Talibans treatment of
Sikhs is illegal, The Milli Gazette,
Joint Statement of Indian Muslim leaders
We, religious, political and community leaders of the Indian
Muslims, are alarmed at the reports coming out of Pakistan’s tribal areas about
the Pakistani Taliban’s kidnapping, extortion of huge amounts of money from
their Sikh compatriots as “Jizya” and demolition of the houses and shops of
those who fail to pay the demanded sums.
We would like to say that Jizya is a tax paid in an Islamic state for exemption
from military service by healthy non-Muslim adults who are free to follow their
vocations without restriction or fear, and that there is no other tax payable
by them after paying this tax, unlike Muslims who have to pay various taxes
including Zakat and have to perform military service as well.
Jizya was payable by non-Muslims only in lands conquered by Muslims like Egypt,
Syria and Iraq but not in unconquered areas like Madina where during the time
of the Holy Prophet no Jizya was ever imposed on non-Muslim citizens who
enjoyed equal rights and duties under the Constitution of Madina. For many
centuries Jizya has not been levied by Muslim states and today even the
Prominent Islamic scholars of
the modern times like Shaikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi are of the view that Jizya
should not be imposed now as non-Muslims are equal citizens of Muslim states
and pay all taxes paid by other citizens and shoulder all the duties.
We wish to make it clear that the imposition of the so-called Jizya is nothing
more than extortion by an armed and lawless gang which does not constitute a
sovereign government or state or even an organ thereof. Moreover,
As regards the huge amounts in millions reported to be demanded, these are
arbitrary and exorbitant as the amount of annual Jizya paid by non-Muslims in
early Islam was merely one to one and a half dinar, which is 4.24 gram to 6.36
grams of gold. Moreover, this tax was payable only at the end of the year and
not in advance.
We regard this as an act of injustice incompatible with the letter and spirit
of Islam and the international covenants accepted by all Muslim states.
We demand that the Pakistani authorities must take earliest steps to retrieve
the extorted sums and pay them back to their affected non-Muslim citizens and
facilitate their peaceful return to their homes and properties in their
traditional homelands and give them all due protection.
Maulana Mufti Mukarram Ahmad, Shahi Imam, Jama Masjid Fatehpuri,
Hafiz Muhammad Yahya, President, All
Maulana Abdul Hameed Nomani, Secretary, Jamiat Ulama-e Hind
Syed Shahabuddin, Former MP & ex-President, All
Prof Tahir Mahmood, Member Law Commission of
Mujtaba Farooq, Secretary, Jamaat-e Islami Hind
Maulana Ataur Rahman Qasmi, President, Shah Waliullah Institute,
Maulana Waris Mazhari, Editor, Monthly Tarjuman,
Dr Zafar Mahmood, President, Zakat Foundation of
Dr SQR Ilyas, Member, Muslim Personal Law Board
Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, President,
All
Mirza Yawar Baig, President of Yawar Baig & Associates
Shahnawaz Ali Raihan, Secretary, Students Islamic Organisation
Issued at New Delhi on 2 May 2009
BOOKS
*Choices and Self-esteem: Learning to Respect Yourself, Deri Joy Ronis, Ph.D., $15
This workbook includes activities, which are intended to help children to express themselves in non-abusive, non-violent ways. It encourages them feel all right to have opinions and ideas which are different from others, and that it is safe to agree to disagree. It offers a practical way to teach children to think independently, feel good about themselves, and not to follow others blindly. It presents a soft and subtle approach to teach nonviolence, conflict resolution, and peace-building.
Its author, Dr. Ronis, holds a Ph. D. in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies, and is a certified mediator and licensed counselor. She has done some pioneering work in the field of conflict resolution and peace studies. She is frequently invited to speak on managing conflicts at local and national events.
More info from www.DrDeri.com, DrDeri@aol.com, or 561.644.3904
*Limits of British Colonial Control in South Asia: Spaces of Disorder in the Indian Ocean Region, Ashwini Tambe, Routledge, 216 Pages 2008, ISBN-10,
ISBN-13, ASIN: 0415452570, EAN: 9780415452571
This book assesses British colonialism in South
Asia in a transnational light, with the Indian Ocean region as its ambit, and
with a focus on subaltern groups and actors. It breaks new ground by combining
new strands of research on colonial history. Thinking about colonialism in
dynamic terms, the book focuses on the movement of people of the lower orders
that imperial ventures generated.
Challenging the assumed stability of colonial rule, the social spaces featured
are those that threatened the racial, class and moral order instituted by
British colonial states. By
elaborating on the colonial state's strategies to control perceived 'disorder'
and the modes of resistance and subversion that subaltern subjects used to
challenge state control, a picture of British Empire as an ultimately precarious, shifting
and unruly formation is presented, which is quite distinct from its
self-projected image as an orderly entity.
DOCUMENTARIES
& FILMS
*Children of the Taliban
As her country slips further
into political instability, becoming perhaps the most volatile nation in the
world, FRONTLINE/World
correspondent Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy takes a dangerous journey along Pakistan’s
fault lines, investigating the rising popularity of an insurgent new branch of
the Taliban among members of the country’s next generation.
In “Children of the Taliban,” Obaid-Chinoy
also tracks down the militants themselves, coming face-to-face with a man who
boasts of recruiting young suicide bombers for the Taliban — some as young as
five or six years old.
“Children are tools to
achieve God’s will,” the Taliban recruiter tells Obaid-Chinoy in their highly
charged meeting. “If you are fighting, then God provides you with the means.
And whatever comes your way, you sacrifice it.”
Throughout, Obaid-Chinoy
encounters young people caught between a militant insurgency and a state
struggling to preserve itself. In the city of Peshawar, she meets two young
men, Wasifullah and Abdurrahman, who were driven from their homes by a
Pakistani army campaign intended to root out Taliban elements that had settled
there. In the aftermath of the fighting, Wasifullah and Abdurrahman — friends
since boyhood — find themselves headed in very different directions, with
Wasifullah pledging to join the Taliban and Abdurrahman wanting to join the
army.
“Your friend Wasifullah wants
to join the Taliban,” Obaid-Chinoy says to Abdurrahman. “If he comes in front
of you, and you are wearing a Pakistan army uniform, are you going to kill
him?” “Yes,” Abdurrahman says. “If he fights against the army, then I will
retaliate fiercely.” Wasifullah is no less resolute when the question is put to
him. “Definitely,” Wasifullah says when asked whether he would kill Abdurrahman
on the field of battle. “If what he does is wrong, then I will fight against
him.”
In Swat, a resort town once
known as the Switzerland of the east, Obaid-Chinoy finds two nine-year-old
girls standing atop the rubble of their school, which has just been blown up by
the Taliban. The girls are now forbidden an education. “It’s completely
unfair,” one of them says. “My father has bought me a burqa,” the other girl
says of the way life is changing under the Taliban. “I [don’t] have any choice.
I have to wear it.”
In her hometown of Karachi,
Obaid-Chinoy sits down with a young man, Shaheed, who is embracing the
Taliban’s teachings, especially regarding the role of women. “Women are meant
for domestic care,” Shaheed tells her. “The government should forbid women and
girls from wandering outside. Just like the government banned plastic bags — no
one uses them anymore — we should do the same with women.” When Shaheed ends
his madrassa studies, he says he’d like to join the Taliban’s fight for control
of the country. “Do you want to carry out a suicide attack?” Obaid-Chinoy asks
him. “I would love to,” he says. His teacher later adds: “It’s in our blood. No
matter how many Muslims die, we will never run out of sacrificial lambs.
Someone who sees death as a blessing, who can defeat him?”
Near the end of her journey,
Obaid-Chinoy travels to the lawless tribal regions, where the army maintains
that its campaign against the Taliban will succeed, soundly and soon. “The
human cost is undeniably a very, very grievous kind of a thing,” says General
Tariq Khan, one of the architects of the army’s fight against the Taliban in
the tribal areas. “But it’s better to die than to live under an environment
where the Taliban are taking away your children.”
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/pakistan802/press/press_release.html
*Zero Bridge: A Film on
Kashmir
Zero Bridge, an Indian American
production about a pickpocket in Kashmir, is directed by Tariq Tapa.
Entirely shot in Kashmir the
movie depicts the lives of two adolescents that seek different and more
stimulating venues than the unsatisfying reality that surrounds them. The
protagonist is Dilawar, a young Kashmiri that likes studying and would love to
continue attending school, but due to economic difficulties, is forced to work
with his uncle’s crew as apprentice mason. Due to this and the meanness of his
uncle Muhammad Ali, the protagonist cultivates a sense of dissatisfaction that
leads him to assort with shady characters and pick passengers’ pockets in the
city markets, while secretly planning his escape.
After two attempts he realizes how confined men actually are and how hard it is
to expand one’s horizon further than the own backyard. The only one that seems
to have understood this is the young and charming Bani. She has been in the
U.S. where she studied physics and discovered a world that is different from
the one in which she is forced to live. The prescribed role of the woman does
not fit to her ideals, such as the fact that she must marry someone her mother
has chosen. But how can one break the borders that society raises, how can one
change his own life?
Zero Bridge tells the story of a different
world, far away from the colorful lights of Bollywood. It depicts reality
neglecting the romantic means and the typical ideologies of western societies.
The film starts with a picture of the “Zero Bridge”, homage to the director’s
family; prior to the 1989 war, he always used to play with his cousins on his
grandmother’s houseboat on the Jhelum River exactly under this bridge.
In this case the bridge turns into the symbol of freedom, and crossing it
represents the only possibility to reach new venues. Not by chance, the
protagonist starts his career as thief exactly there, on that bridge that
unconsciously represents the only possible way of escaping from this reality he
hates so much.
http://www.naknews.co.in/newsdet.aspx?21009
EVENTS
*June 26-29, Mumbai, India:
PEACEWARDS, a residential workshop will be
offered by Citizens for Peace, on peace and living with differences, at the Sarvodaya, St.
Pius College Compound, Aarey Road, Goregaon East, Mumbai. The workshop
will be conducted by Dr Monica Sharma, Director, Leadership and Capacity Development, at the
United Nations, OHRLLS.
More info from
Gulan Kripalani, Executive Director, Citizens for Peace, Phone
9820003572, gulan@citizensforpeace.in, , www.citizensforpeace.in and
http://www.kosmosjournal.org/kjo/articles/articlessub2/personal-planetary.shtml
*October 2, New Zealand to
Argentina: WORLD
MARCH beginning in New Zealand on October 2, 2009, the anniversary of
Gandhi’s birth, declared the “International Day of Nonviolence” by the United
Nations, will conclude in the Andes
Mountains (Punta de Vacas, Aconcagua, Argentina) on January 2, 2010. This 90-day
March will pass through many countries having all climates and seasons, from
the hot summer of the tropics and the deserts, to the winter of Siberia. A
permanent base of a hundred people of different nationalities will complete the
journey.
*December 3-9, 2009,
Melbourne, Australia: The 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, will bring together the world’s religious and spiritual communities,
their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and
sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious
understanding and cooperation.
Parliament participants will work with others and
within their own traditions to craft faithful responses to indigenous
reconciliation, global poverty and global warming, environmental care and
degradation, education of the young and the challenges of social disengagement,
voluntary and forced migration, artistic expression and spirituality, the value
of sports, ethnic and religious tensions. More
info from http://www.parliamentofreligions2009.org/home.php
EVENT
REPORTS
*May 5, 2009, Hyderabad,
India: Protest
Demonstration against the Taliban atrocities
COVA covanetwork1@gmail.com,
in collaboration with the Andhra Pradesh chapter of the Pakistan India People’s
Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD), has organized a Protest Demonstration
in Hyderabad against the Taliban atrocities in Pakistan on 5th May
2009. Speaking on this occasion Janab Sadiq Mohiuddin Mufti of Jamia Nizamia
said that the atrocities of the Taliban are utterly un-Islamic. Islam does not
endorse their extreme activities. He strongly condemned the anarchic, violent
actions of Taliban perpetrated in the name of Islam. Dr Mazher Hussain,
Executive Director, COVA, Dr Anand Raj Varma, President, PIPFPD – A.P.Chapter,
Sardar Nanak Singh Nishter, prominent Sikh scholar, Major Qadri, Director, Help
Hyderabad, Dr M.Mandal, President, Hum Sab Hindustani Trust, Ms Jasveen
Jairath, social activist, Mr Bhoopal from Saakshi Human Rights Watch, and other
concerned citizens took part in the protest demonstration.
JOBS,
INTERNSHIPS & VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS (FOR THE COMMON GOOD) *http://www.graduationpledge.org/jobs.html
MEMBERS’
CORNER
*Dr. Lenin and Shruti
Raghuvanshi from PVCHR met with Mr. Rahul Gandhi, Member of Parliament and
Natioanal General Secretary,Congress(I) at 10 Janpath,New Delhi on 18 February
2009 and gave follow letter enclosing with the Manual on testimony therapy by
PVCHR and Danish organization RCT(www.rct.dk) and the article in relation to reform in Police
System.Congress Party mentioned the agenda of police reform in its election
manifesto and it was also send to the various political parties. http://pvchr.blogspot.com/2009/05/lobbying-on-police-reform.html
*Shahvar Khan is working on his music album, which
will include a peace song especially for kids of India and Pakistan. He says, kids also
like his other peace song "Mulla na kar tang" (mp3, available for free
download on www.shahvaralikhan.com)
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM INDIA & PAKISTAN
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndiaPakistanPeaceDay/
PEACE & HARMONY NEWS FROM SOUTH ASIA
*http://groups.google.com/group/peace--harmony-news-from-south-asia
PEACE
EDUCATION RESOURCES
*Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology for the 21st
Century, Daniel Christie, Richard
Wagner, and Deborah Winter (Eds.), 2001, 483 Pages
The
authors have made the book available online for downloading at no cost to
encourage course and program development in peace psychology worldwide.
For a pdf file of the book, you can google “peace psychology book christie
wagner winter” or use the following link:
http://academic.marion.ohio-state.edu/dchristie/Peace%20Psychology%20Book.html
Please send your inquiries to reprint_service01@hotmail.com
PETITIONS
*India
Pakistan Friendship Club’s Petition against Terrorism
India Pakistan Friendship Club, a band young people, who aspire for peace &
harmony in the South Asia request people to sign their petition against
terrorism at http://www.petitiononline.com/420840/petition.html
They state, “Our intent is not to hold up to any particular political dogma, any tenets of a religion or any cultural outlook, instead we represent the spirit of an active, awake & accountable citizen focused towards attaining never ending peace & tranquility with harmonious relationships.”
They expect all concerned “to get alert and alarmed with us, join hands in their stand against terrorism and take a pledge towards strengthening this struggle till we attain serenity all over.”
More info from Chaturvedi Anurag
at chaturvedi.anurag@gmail.com and www.ipfc.info
UPDATE: KASHMIR
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KashmirSolutionsForum/
*www.drshabirchoudhry.blogspot.com
*http://kashmirforumorg.blogspot.com/2009/02/night-in-hell-and-not-gun-in-sight.html
UPDATE: NEPAL
*http://www.nepalasiacenter.com/
*http://www.nepalasiacenter.com/bulletin.html
UPDATE:
PAKISTAN
UPDATE:
SRILANKA
*Options When
Preparing for the Next Phase, Jehan Perera npc@sltnet.lk , May 10, 2009
The final phase of the protracted Sri Lankan war is nearing its inevitable end
as several Sri Lankan army brigades surround the last few square kilometers
within which the most of the remaining LTTE leadership and cadre appear to be
boxed in. The question is what will happen after the government troops
capture this last remaining LTTe controlled area and eliminate its central
command. There are two possibilities that come to mind. One is that
the government relaxes its military approach of the past two years and gives
more emphasis to political means of conflict resolution as befits an ethnic
conflict. The other possibility is that the government continues to give
its priority to the military approach to ensure that the LTTE cannot regroup
and revive again.
A governmental concern will be that some of the LTTE's hard core cadre would
have come out surreptitiously along with the approximately 200,000 displaced
civilians and be within the welfare camps. There have also been reports
that a significant number of LTTE cadre have also escaped into the jungles of
the north and east, which would suggest a continued need for vigilance on the
part of the government. On the other hand, a relaxation of the military
approach would give the Tamil people a measure of hope that their nightmare is
over and the dawn is about to break. It would also mean that the
government will give priority to resettling the displaced Tamil citizens back
in their villages rather than keep them interned in the welfare camps for
several years.
In seeking a balance between national security and humanitarian welfare in the
post war phase, an example to consider would be Colombia, which until recently
has been thought of as a dangerous country of cocaine, kidnapping and civil
war. Colombia is the third largest country in South America with a
population of about 42 million. It also has the second largest displaced
population in the world of over 2 million, second only to that of Sudan.
In the past few years Colombia has been registering a dramatic
improvement in conditions of social stability and economic growth.
Recently the Colombian government organised an international conference
on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration to which they invited
participants from several countries, including Sri Lanka. The conference
was akin to a celebration of peace, with over one thousand Colombians including
hundreds of university students participating in the event.
Parallel Processes
In the past seven years the Colombian government has been achieving military
success over the leftwing guerillas it has been battling against for over four
decades. The war is still far from being won, although the guerillas no
longer control the vast territories they once did and intimidate the people
living in both the urban and rural areas. What is noteworthy about the
Colombian experience is that even prior to defeating the guerillas, the
government is willing to talk about the issues concerning demobilisation and
reintegration and to invite the international community to be partners with it
in the process. The Sri Lankan government which is presently resisting
western intervention in its conflict could consider the Colombian model without
prejudice as it is from a fellow southern country.
At the present time the Sri Lankan government is extremely wary of
international intervention which it sees as deriving from western countries
that seek to rob it of its hard earned victory for ulterior reasons of their
own. The government has therefore been trying to limit the involvement of
international humanitarian organisations that could provide incriminating
evidence of what is happening within the country. But as a result of this
restrictive attitude, the plight of the people who have been displaced and who
are victims of war is not addressed as well as it could be. The
government has tightly restricted access to the welfare camps to only a few
local and international humanitarian organisations, and it has also restricted
media access to these areas.
In a manner similar to that of Sri Lanka, Colombia too has gone through many
peace processes, ceasefires and breakdowns. The last peace process in
that country took place during 1998-2002 when its former President Andres
Pastrana entered into a ceasefire with the main guerilla organisation, the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This gained the Colombian government a
great deal of international support and sympathy. However, by 2002 the
guerillas had so strengthened themselves that even the highways between major
cities had become unsafe for travel. President Alvaro Uribe who was
elected in 2002 adopted a focused military approach which has yielded
significant results. Like in Sri Lanka, the Colombian government has
restored law and order to most of the country by a military campaign that
obtained for it much criticism by human rights organisations, such as Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch which it expelled from the country.
There is a parallel between Colombia and Sri Lanka in the failures of their respective peace processes dueto the bad faith of the rebel guerillas and the government successes that followed very determined and ruthless military campaigns. But the similarity ends here. Now Colombia has evolved to a new level. Not only is the Colombian government prepared to invite international experts and humanitarian workers to visit the country and attend its conferences. It also organised field visits where the international participants could go to locations where demobilised ex-combatants and victims of the conflict have been provided with alternative means of livelihood and restitution. Although the war against the leftist guerillas is far from over, the Colombian government has enough confidence in what it is doing for its people to invite the world to come and see and give assistance if it can.
South-South Learning
At the international conference in Colombia, victims of human rights abuses at
the hands of the right wing and pro-government paramilitaries were given an
opportunity to come and say what happened to them. The international
participants were also taken to see a large farm that had been made available
to demobilised paramilitaries to work in cooperation together with local
farmers in that area. The farm itself had been confiscated from a former
paramilitary leader who had been convicted and imprisoned due to involvement in
the narcotics trade. But as permitted in a society governed by the rule
of law, this person having served his term in prison is now challenging the
confiscation of his property in a court of law. So a question mark hangs
over the ultimate fate of the farm and those who currently work on it.
The Colombian government's willingness to celebrate peace and reconciliation
even before it has been won, and to open itself up to greater international
scrutiny at this time, may be on account of its confidence that life in
Colombia is better today than it has been in a long while. President
Uribe's popularity ratings are in the 60-70 percent level. The President
has been very committed to the professionalisation of the armed forces which he
has fully backed in the war against the guerillas. At the same time, the
government has also recently begun taking legal action against errant military
officers who have been found guilty of human rights violations. The
government has also ensured the demobilisation of over 30,000 right wing and
pro-government paramilitaries who were terrorising the general population on
the excuse of fighting against the leftist guerillas. The plight of the Tamil
people in the east who are being killed and kidnapped for ransom points to the
need for a similar process in Sri Lanka.
Apart from professionalising the military approach, the Colombian government
has also established several powerful institutions that are vested with
authority to push through the reconciliation and reintegration processes. The
President's office has its own secretariat to overlook the peace process and
government-supported institutions, such as a reconciliation commission, have
been mandated to look after the rights of victims and displaced persons.
The Colombian government has recruited a large number of young and
committed Colombians, some who have returned from abroad, to work in these
government departments which are looking after the peace and reconciliation
process. This is in contrast to Sri Lanka where people who talk of peace
and of the rights of victims are assailed as traitors and unpatriotic.
Sri Lanka would do well to take the positive lessons from Colombia in an
example of south-south learning.