A Presentation to a Peace Conference at McMaster University, Hamilton, November 9-11, 2002 by Shirley Farlinger, Rotary Club of Toronto Eglinton.

  Rotary International initiated a program in September 2002 for 70 students to become “Peace Scholars.” They will study at five of seven Rotary Centers for International Studies in peace and conflict resolution. Each scholar will sundertake a two-year master’s degree or certificate in international relations, peace studies and conflict resolution. The cost is US$50,000 for one scholar for the two years.

Scholars are chosen through a worldwide competition from names submitted by Rotary districts.

The universities are: Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of California-Berkeley, US, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan, Sciences Po, Paris, France, Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina, the University of Bradford, UK, and the University of Queensland, Australia. (None in Canada but that’s one reason we’re here!) For more information contact The Rotary Foundation’s Educational Programs at 847-866-3332 or www.rotary.org

Nearly 1400 Rotarians and guests from 27 countries attended the first Presidential Conference on Peace and Development in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August. Rotary International President, a former deputy prime minister of Thailand, said, that peacemaking is no longer the domain of academicians, politicians or diplomats but with each one of us. The conference was told of the successful conflict resolution between Malaysia and Thailand when they agreed to a memorandum of understanding to end a dispute over offshore oil.

Because I too believe that peace education is needed at the grassroots level as well as at the academic level I support the annual event at the UN with non-governmental organizations.

The United Nations’ Department of Public Information session September 9-11 is for NGOs.

The annual conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York had as its theme this year “Rebuilding Societies Emerging from Conflict: A Shared Responsibility”.

Rotary was one of the 650 organizations from 85 countries represented by the 2700 participants. There are two million NGOs in the United States and they have an annual budget of one trillion dollars, much larger than the United Nations.

The three-day conference featured two plenary sessions with about 10 speakers and one workshop each day.

We began with Canadian Louise Frechette, deputy UN Secretary-General, who said the UN has improved its efficiency with the internet and new partners in the private sector. Post-conflict areas such as Afghanistan and East Timor showed the need for NGO assistance. She admitted the impact of globalization needs attention

Hans Seung-soo, president of the 56^th UN General Assembly, noted that prevention is less costly than conflict and promised a General Assembly resolution this year on prevention and peace-building.

A standing ovation greeted Mary Robinson, soon to leave her job of five years as High Commissioner for Human Rights. She struck a chord with us when she stated “women need to be written back into history finding a voice where they found a vision.” She urged a culture of prevention instead of a culture of reaction. She noted the vital role of women in Somalia and Rwanda to restart the economy and social services, to care for wounded and to find income-generating projects. There is a national public education campaign in Sierra Leone and East Timor for a Commission on Truth and Reconciliation to confront the injustices of the past by both the state and NGOs. The hunger for justice, she said, can sometimes bring a repetition of revenge and can lead to a brain drain of nationals. On a visit to Jakarta in Indonesia she was very moved as people sought the truth. For every person admitting guilt and remorse, every speaker urged forgiveness. She intends to address the need for an ethical, fairer globalization in her coming years.

The next keynote address was by Lakhdar Brahimi, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan. The UN goal there, he said, is to work itself out of a job as nationals take over education, health, agriculture, trade and legal institutions. The transitional government until elections in two years faces both poverty and precarious security concerns.

The three workshops I attended were

1)Peace-building in the Aftermath of Terrorism: The Role of Media and Mental Health Professionals

2)Making Peace Last: Disarmament as an Essential

3)Rotary International Projects: Children of the Dump and Rotary Hunger Projecy.

A few reflections:

The media workshop gave me an opportunity to describe Michael Moore’s new film “Bowling for Columbine”. I had just attended the premiere at the Toronto Film Festival with Michael there to introduce it. You remember his “Roger and Me” expose of Roger Smith and General Motors policies in Flint, Michigan. This time he exposes the American predilection for guns. The title comes from the fact that the teens who murdered their fellow students at Columbine High went bowling that morning. But the film covers much more: an interview with Charleton Heston, head of the National Rifle Association; a look at the Timothy McVeigh bomber; a list of American interventions around the world and the resulting number of deaths; an analysis of the life of the mother of the six-year old boy who killed a six-year old girl and the ease with which one can buy a gun in the US. He concludes that Americans, sated in media violence, are afraid of each other. The film is humorous and quite pro-Canadian. No company in the US would produce it so he came to Salter Films, Halifax. It ends with the public promise by Wal-Mart to stop selling hand guns and ammunition in their stores! Moore hoped the film would ensure a Democratic Congress in the November elections.

The next workshop featured Jayantha Dhanapala, Under-Secretary-General, Department of Disarmament Affairs. He noted that disarmament is essential as global military expenditure was at US$839 billion in 2001 and rising fast. When soldiers are demobilized with no jobs they turn to crime and trafficking in small arms. Re-integration needs local help and healing. A program of weapon swaps for development aid collected 6,000 arms in Albania and crime decreased. The money is needed for roads, wells, schools and hospitals. But there are over 639 million small arms globally and 40 percent are illegal. The UN has set up a small arms group for this work.

David Robinson of Pax Christi told of the 9/11 victims’ families meeting with the victims of the bombing of Afghanistan. The Halo Trust, he said, recently celebrated the one millionth landmine destroyed. For $150 per month with a helmet, a chest protector, and a 30” stick the land is reclaimed by de-miners. But the problem is even worse with cluster bombs which look like pop cans and were yellow, the same colour and size as the food packets dropped by the US in Afghanistan. Ten percent failed to explode and they detonate on touch. Of course children picked them up by mistake. The Pentagon probably dropped 96,000. They are made by Honeywell and “begged to be banned”. In Afghanistan only 14 percent of land is arable, there is one doctor for 50,000, each warlord has his own army, and the life expectancy is 48.

Colleen Driscoll of the Common Heritage Institute and the Kurtz Institute for Peace noted the many missed opportunities for control of nuclear weapons at the start of the UN. Now we are dealing with each new weapon as a new issue. We must plan ahead and educate for peace, she said. “War is unnatural.” Her forthcoming book is “Cooperation and Control: The Coming Battle for Outer Space.” I reminded the group of Helen Caldicott’s “The New Nuclear Danger” and Rosalie Bertell’s “Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War”.

3) The Rotary workshop was disappointing as children from Nicaragua put on a show and Rotary’s project for children of the dump was described. I was not in the mood for singing, “the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air”.

The second plenary on “Re-establishing the Rule of Law and Encouraging Good Governance” was chaired by Hans Corell, Under Secretary-General, The Legal Counsel.

Francoise Boucher-Saulnier, Law and Research Director, Medecins Sans Frontieres, said that sometimes the suffering of the victims is emphasized in order to promote the idea that the change in regime was good. The most important condition for a peace agreement in countries such as Angola was impunity. This is an obstacle to the rule of law. In the Congo 1,000 women were raped but no judge interpreted the law to help them. The rapes continued after the war even by civilians. Since all powers have committed crimes in war there is an agreement to be silent. The ICC will help in the future.

Rwanda was next with Gerald Gahima describing the situation in 1994 – no court, no police, no resources. Of the 102,000 on trial, 6,000 have been tried at a cost of $100 million per year. Some have been in prison eight years. So a new local system involving community service has been tried and will reduce the time to finish to two or three years.

Priscilla Hayner is the Program Director of the International Center for Transitional Justice and has written a book on 25 Truth Commissions. These are ongoing in Peru, East Timor, Sierra Leone and Ghana. These are not an alternative to legal action but with public consultation can lead to better outcomes.

The last Monday speaker was Danilo Turk, Assistant Undersecretary-General, Department of Political Affairs. He stressed negotiations on peace agreements, a peace-building mandate as in Guatemala, and electoral assistance. He recommended political dialogue clubs (a good idea even for Canada). Part of the UN Development Fund’s concern now is to assist in establishing the rule of law.

Tuesday’s theme was “Restoring Social Services: Identifying Priorities.”

Kul Gautam, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, said that restoring social services is a shared national and international responsibility and displaced persons can help. Health, education and disarmament are the priorities.

Gerald Martone noted that the most violent moments in history are occurring as unconventional armies breach the human rights of civilians. The WHO estimates that 1.8 billion live in conflict zones and the effects of war linger for decades. Peacekeeping is tenuous when incompatible views persist. Death, disability, crime, trade loss and brain drain all follow war. When seeds were delivered too late for planting in Afghanistan, workers were only postponing death. Connections made by mutual food supplying, soccer games, cooperatives, clubs, libraries, he said, accelerate recovery. War benefits organized crime, resource control, war lords, etc. Instead of looking at how people are dying we need to see how people are living. Give food to the teachers first in order to foster education. See UNICEF’s “Classroom in a Box.”

The most hostile questions were directed at Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UN Population Fund. As usual the UNFPA was accused of advocating abortion. She countered this with the facts. “We do not promote or take part in abortion; it is a Western practice. But we will supply condoms to decrease AIDS and give family planning advice.” In Afghanistan where one in four children dies before age 5 the UN supplies mobile hospitals and Clean Delivery Kits consisting of a plastic sheet, soap, string and scissors. When U.S. funding to UNFPA was reduced this year a group in the U.S. made up for the loss with a $34 million Friendship Campaign.

Janina Ochojska is president of an amazing Polish Humanitarian Organization. Poland has turned from an aid recipient to a giver with projects in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Albania. She noted refugees sometimes get used to being taken care of. Her group will not pay people to do something that is for their own good.

Dr. Sima Sumar will be a familiar name to many women in Canada. She was chosen for the cabinet under the new Karzai government and then dismissed. She is chair of the Independent Afghan Human Rights Commission. After 23 years of war, poverty and lack of women’s rights she made a plea for international aid as quickly as possible. Medical staff and more security outside Kabul are needed. Donors seem unwilling to fund this government. She claimed the West supported religious schools in its fight against the Russians

Then we were taken to Guatemala with Leticia Toj Umul of a health and development association. Of the 13 million population 60 percent live in rural areas, 50 percent are indigenous peoples, 42 percent are illiterate and 75 percent live in poverty. She organizes micro-credit for widows, and says the best response to violence is to offer health programs. “Happy are those who seek peace because they will be children of God”. Amen.

The question period, always too short, brought out the information that one volunteer at Greenpeace wrote a letter asking if there were genetically modified ingredients in their baby food. This shut down the company while they coped with the question!

The afternoon plenary was called “From Less than Zero: The Challenge of Rebuilding Economies” and was moderated by Julia Taft, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (UNDP). Mr. Kazuhide Kuroda, of the Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction Unit of the World Bank Group, failed to impress. He noted that while each country is different, they need local ownership and should partner with others. The World Bank and the IMF will meet soon in Washington and need to address the problem of enormous debt. President Karzai is a former World Bank employee! The World Bank has 11,000 staff.

The other three speakers were Vincent Lelei, Oxfam regional director, the Horn, East and Central Africa, Viloyat Mrzoeva Director Gender and Development Organization, and Evgnii Vassilev, Coordinator Trails of Peace Project, Friendship Ambassadors Foundation of Bulgaria

Wednesday morning a Memorial Service was held on the north garden of the UN. Kofi Annan spoke and several members of the UN staff offered poems and messages. The UN had been evacuated on September 11, 2001 in expectation of a terrorist attack.

The morning plenary was entitled “Against the Odds: The Process of Reconciliation”. Carol Rittner of Stockton College said peace is tough and reconciliation takes time. She introduced the speakers: Ghassan Abdullah Co-director, Middle East Childrens’ Association (Meca) which works on human rights, the environment, conflict resolution and history lessons.

Adina Shapiro and Bertam Selim are a Jew and a Palestinian who are training teachers to help children recognize the complexity of life and to question everything. They recommend that every formal peace negotiation be obliged to set up an education task force. They also suggested that the Ministry of Education provide teacher training on tolerance, on the human face of the enemy and revise the textbooks regularly. Both governments should see that all children can go safely to a good school with no school punishment. There should be debates, trust games, trauma counselors, and sharing of experiences. The new generation has had enough of conflict, Selim said, and the media could be used to foster reconciliation.

Prosper Bani is the program specialist with the UN Volunteer Program. The 5,000 UN volunteers are part of UNDP and enable the UN to work beyond its strict mandate. With small amounts of money the program works with NGOs and partners in post-conflict areas.

Daniel Ntoni-Nzinga is the Quaker International Affairs Rep of the Angolan Reflection Group for Peace. Four months ago, he said, the Memorandum of Understanding in Angola was signed and 85,000 UNITA fighters were disarmed. He reminded us that there were three years preparation before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa began. First a common understanding of the problem is needed; then a coalition to do reflection on what unites the factions and then reconciliation can proceed. The problem of land in Angola has not been resolved, so we mustn’t rush elections. Reconciliation needs resources and time. He likened it to de-mining society of the blocks to peace.

The final plenary was on “Demobilizing the War Machine: Making Peace Last”.

Ali Jalali, of Pashto Service, Voice of America, emphasized the role the media can play in transforming war machines into peace.

One of the most important figures at the UN is Jayantha Dhanapala, Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs. He noted the cluster of vested interests to increase armaments and demonstrate the capability of arms, as well as to promote the ideology of weapons being the most reliable means of security. Costa Rica and Iceland (also Haiti and Panama) have no military. Defence conversion gives benefits and increases jobs. According to the Brookings Institute over five decades the U.S. has spent $5.6 trillion on the military. There is a UN Register on Conventional Arms and a conference was held on illicit trade in small arms. The UNDP exchanges arms for development assistance. This has reduced local conflict. War machines are human decisions supported by public opinion and money, he said.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, (a man), Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, described DDR – disarmament, demobilization and re-integration as key issues. Peace agreements need good planning, strong structures and humanitarian aid. DDR must be fair, transparent, public and well–funded.

The next speaker was a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, Vandy Kanyako. He started the youth group Peacelink. Sixty percent of the nation is under 25 years. They are the poorest, they can’t vote, the school curriculum is inappropriate and the government, run by adults, has no money. People fear the child soldiers who had no hope, nothing to lose and saw war as a game. For the first time children in Angola have been written into a UN peace agreement. Peacelink is a Hague Appeal for Peace prize winner.

The final speaker of this plenary was Cora Weiss, President, Hague Appeal of Peace. She was interrupted many times with applause. “History is a race between catastrophe and education.” “There is a failure of leadership and an erosion of democracy.” “The rush to Iraq is all about oil.” “Pre-emption is not a form of prevention.” “The global military budget is $850 billion while 1.5 billion people have no clean water.” But what brought down the house was her simple statement “No women, no peace”. The UN needs a Women’s Unit and Gender Training, she advocated.  “Peace must be learned, it does not come with your DNA”. HAP has produced “Peace in a Box” for schools. Order from www.haguepeace.org. “If we remove the guns, I’ll bet you can make peace last”. She called the UN the “greatest invention of the last century”. “The 1987 Disarmament and Development report is ignored and at the recent conference in Johannesburg they couldn’t get disarmament on the agenda.” She will not be organizing another peace conference in the Hague but will continue her publication and peace education work.

There was a final session with two prestigious speakers. Jose Luis Guterres Vice-Minister Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in East Timor, which was subsequently admitted to the United Nations. “We have ratified the International Criminal Court, and we have a declaration of human rights in our constitution.” But we need jobs and housing now.

Vojislav Kostunica, of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia described the progress his country is making since the elections. 

Then it was off to an emergency meeting on Iraq! The speakers there were very concerned about the situation and warned that the Security Council could be convinced to pass a resolution authorizing the war. There is a call for non-violent civil disobedience at all military sites in the US should that occur.

Conclusion: There are so many people of good will around the world and so many difficulties to be overcome that I think we will eventually see the end of war.

Footnote: The countries which have received humanitarian and other aid from the United Nations will, I believe, be most supportive of the UN in the future.