(Kenya College for Communication and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya)
Gandhiji told us in I forget which session, “There is a soul force in the universe which if we permit it will flow through us and produce miraculous results.”
David Grant, Nonviolent Peaceforce’s (NP) Strategic Relations Director, once approached Gene Sharp. Many of you know Gene as a leading nonviolent strategist and writer who has chronicled the many ways that nonviolent actions have brought about social change. David asked Gene, “When are you going to write the book about nonviolent peacekeeping?”
“You’ll have to write that book,” Gene replied.
We are writing that book right now with our experience, our wisdom, our money and, indeed, our lives. We have written eight chapters over the past two days while meeting here at our international conference in Nairobi.
Chapter 1: What we do matters!
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate from Northern Ireland, proclaimed at the beginning of the conference, “What you are doing here is helping the very survival of the human family.”
Liam Mahoney of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue has spent the last four years studying proactive presence. In looking at how unarmed civilians can change behavior on the ground he observed, “All parties have multiple sensitivities. Combatants want the world to think the other guy is the bad guy.”
Marcel Smits and Jibo Alia of NP’s Sri Lanka peacekeeping project gave us examples of how NP teams have saved lives in Trincomalee and Alipidy.
In our small groups we discussed how nonviolent peacekeeping is providing protection to civilians in Guatemala and the Mindanao region of the Philippines.
We must not let others dismiss our important work or even worse dismiss it ourselves. As Mairead reminded us, “We are the super power in the world today!”
Chapter 2: We have enough resources
I say this as someone who a month ago did not know where the money would come from to fund this conference while at the same time keeping our operations going. We have everything we need and it is here and now. Look around you. You see a wealth of experience, courage, intelligence and wisdom in this room.
There are huge needs and even bigger expectations. We have discussed some of these in the small groups on Uganda, Burma and the Niger River Delta.
NP can and will respond to some of these needs. But don’t wait for NP. Connect with each other. We have member organizations and regional structures. Use them. Build alliances.
Most importantly, we have an audacious idea that says nonviolent peacekeeping is effective and infectious. Our work goes far beyond Nonviolent Peaceforce as an organization. We need to experiment with and spread this approach to dealing with violent conflicts.
Our resources are growing. There is a stirring in civil society. Niru Vora of Swarajpeeth called it “a hunger in our hearts and minds.”
Chapter 3: Multiple Levels
We need to integrate our work simultaneously on various levels: internal, local, national and international.
NP International Governing Council Members Young Kim, Ramu Manivannan and Brother Dominic Kariuki of member organization, Chemchemi ya Ukweli demonstrated at the beginning of each day that peace truly begins within each of us. It is important that we attend to our internal practice however we may define it for ourselves.
On the local level, Niru Vora described the important Shanti Sena work carried out by Swarajpeeth where Hindus and Muslims in Uttar Pradesh have completed rigorous training and taken public vows of nonviolence. Now they work together to stop outbreaks of communal violence.
We have heard reports from NP’s peacekeeping projects in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Guatemala. International peacekeepers often working with local civilians provide protection, reduce the number of abusive actions, keep dialogue open and help local people to take action in challenging environments of escalating violence. Liam Mahoney of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue set a broader context finding that the primary impacts of civilian proactive presence include:
• Protection
• Deterrence of violence
• Encouragement and empowerment of local actors
• Influence on institutions.
On the international level Rolf Carriere, a retried UNICEF official and current senior advisor to NP, talked about the need to advocate within the UN for greater acceptance of civilian unarmed peacekeeping as a first or second resort. There are 15 units within the UN that could and should be involved in unarmed peacekeeping. The UN now has a greater receptivity to working with other groups recognizing that no organization can do it alone.
I was struck that when Marcel Smits was asked what the Sri Lanka project needed from the rest of us his first response was international visibility.
On all levels we have to maintain a consistent and coherent message.
Chapter 4: Tensions Make us Strong
I see NP as a ring held up by cables pulling on opposite sides. Our joint work takes place inside the ring. We need each of those cables to stay taut to assure that the ring stays up. If one of those cables goes slack the ring tilts or falls.
Our tensions will keep us strong as long as we deal with them openly while at the same time not losing sight of the important work that has been entrusted to us.
We have the tension between the philosophical approach to nonviolence and the strategic approach. Even reference to the word “strategic” brings protests from some of us.
Bishop Baker Ochola of Uganda models the deep forgiveness implicit in nonviolence. Mairead exudes the required passion. Rajiv Vora keeps us on track in pursuing the Gandhian approach to active nonviolence.
At the same time Liam has detailed the tactics and strategies that have been shown to provide effective civilian protection. Marcel and Aila have further shown how these strategies work in Sri Lanka.
Liam pointed out that we have a tension in NP between building a movement and, at the same time, providing a professional, quality service. Either of these tasks is no small fete. Yet, the tension between them assures that we provide relevant and effective service that is accountable to the grassroots.
Another tension rises between the expertise that we are gaining and the need to remain flexible and creative. The presentations on Proactive Presence, the case study on NP’s work in Sri Lanka plus the small groups that discussed Colombia, Mindanao, Northern Uganda, the Middle East, Guatemala, the African Great Lakes region and Burma demonstrate that we are learning to do this work effectively. We have a growing expertise. Yet, as Liam warned, we lose creativity the more we become experts. We need to remain creative and experimental as we learn how to do our work. A key to this is remaining open to critiques of our work and assuring that we build in active ways to capture lessons learned.
NP requires these tensions.
Chapter 5: Address Structural Issues
Violence is more than the outbreak of war. It starts well before the first shots are fired. Violence is built into the very structure of our societies. More people are killed by the structural economic and political systems bolstered by neo-colonialism and racism than by overt war.
George Washira challenged us to address these structural causes and promote justice.
Marcel described in Sri Lanka how it was important for NP not to arrive with set agendas. But, rather, our role is to help open the space and protect and encourage local people to be able to express the root causes.
Chapter 6: New Opportunities
We are part of a broader movement that is redefining the very concept of human security. This new definition takes us beyond the narrow scope of security based upon territory to a concept of security based on human needs, identity and aspirations.
This changing concept of human security opens the space for new actors. Senja Korhonen observed that this change could be as profound as the Reformation. In the past when security was based upon the acquisition and protection of land the military and police were the actors. With the broadening of the concept, an entire new role for civil society has emerged with peacebuilding and peacekeeping taking center stage.
The supremacy of state sovereignty is also changing. This is reflected in the changes from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the present African Union (AU) described by Brother Elias. The OAU was formed in the 1960’s to protect the sovereignty of its member states. Now the AU has a mandate to intervene in the affairs of its member states when there is a grave violation of human rights.
Rolf Carriere sited the growing global norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). This concept asserts that the international community has a responsibility to intervene when civilians are being brutalized. Sovereignty does not provide a shield for nations to abuse their citizens. Variations of the norm have been passed by both the UN General Assembly and Security Council.
Through our advocacy, peacebuilding and most importantly to this conference through our nonviolent peacekeeping interventions we are defining the role of civil society in R2P.
Rolf points out that just as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has served as the basis for Amnesty International and the Geneva Conventions provides the basis for the International Council of the Red Cross, Responsibility to Protect can serve as the basis for Nonviolent Peaceforce.
Liam warns that we have to be careful. These very concepts that we are helping to develop are and will be used to justify brutal actions.
Chapter 7: Deepening our Understanding and Ability to do the Work
Five years ago many of us gathered in Surijkund, India to begin Nonviolent Peaceforce. At that time we chose Sri Lanka as the site for our first project. In these past two days at our second international gathering here in Nairobi, we have reviewed and analysised our four years of experience in Sri Lanka. We have seen how our work there has:
• Reduced the number of abusive actions
• Eased the suffering of victims
• Kept dialogue open
• Helped people overcome fear
• Increased the number of local people taking action
• Reduced interference of armed groups in community affairs
• Returned and protected child soldiers
• Saved lives.
We also see that there are sobering ground realities as war intensifies with 5,000 people killed since November of 2005 including at least 40 aid workers.
Yet, even when war is intensifying, Liam has found that at the local level protective presence is making a difference. People feel safer and can be more active in building civil society amid escalating violence.
Let us take a moment to reaffirm our responsibility and gratitude to the wonderful past and present peacekeepers who are with us today:
• Jibo Aila
• Peters
• Shiva Adhikari
• Betsy Crites
• Oloo Otieno
• Jan Passion
• Marcel Smits
Chapter 8: Our work is based upon Relationship
A consistent theme weaving throughout the past two days is that our work is based upon building relationships in the areas we serve. These relationships take time and cannot be rushed. This is true working on the local, national and international levels. Key ingredients include: