Conflict, fighting, and the making of peace and reconciliation in the world

By Omar Shaban

No period of humanity's history, and no region of the world, has been free of the outbreak of bloody disputes, whether taking the pattern of internal fighting or of cross-border disputes.

In our modern era alone, by way of example: from the First and Second World Wars, passing through Cambodia, Vietnam, the Congo, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Sudan, Western Sahara, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Spain, Ireland, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Palestine, and others — hundreds of internal fightings and wars between states.

This created the need for specialisations in war and peace studies, and for specialists and mediators for resolving disputes and achieving peace.

War usually seizes the news headlines, while agreements of reconciliation and peace do not seize the same measure of attention. There remain in the shadows the names and efforts of unknown soldiers who contributed to stopping war — the peace mediators.

A few weeks ago I took part in a specialised programme — a “diploma” — on qualifying mediators for resolving disputes, with support from the Swiss government and with effective participation from the conflict areas: Somalia, Colombia, Kenya, Syria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and others.

One of the programme's eminent lecturers and supervisors was Mr Julian Hottinger — a Swiss who is seconded from time to time to work in the world's conflict areas for achieving reconciliation and peace.

Mr Hottinger took part in drafting the Taif agreement concerning Lebanon, in the reconciliation agreements in Colombia and in Indonesia, the civil war in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, and other areas of conflict and fighting around the world. Mr Hottinger is a rich, inexhaustible store of experiences, lessons, and advice in this field.

Some conflicts consume years of constant work to stop them, while the mediators succeed in achieving a ceasefire and achieving peace in other areas within a few weeks.

Some agreements do not live long: fighting soon breaks out a second time and a tenth, as is the case in the state of South Sudan.

The success of stopping the fighting and achieving reconciliation depends on the political will of the dispute's parties, the scale of the support the regional powers provide, in addition to the level of the mediation process, the extent of its application of the principles and foundations of the mediation process, and the extent of the engagement and activation of society's own forces.

Mediators are forbidden from disclosing, in writing or by word of mouth, their interventions.

They are likewise forbidden from being called to testify at the international criminal court, despite their acquaintance with many related secrets and documents.

The mediators' work may require shaking hands and sitting with war criminals such as Joseph Kony, commander of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, who caused the terrorising and displacement of two million people from their areas.

Joseph Kony is accused of killing ten thousand people and abducting and enslaving more than 24 thousand children.

Mediators usually retire after only 10–15 years of work, for the inability to continue — with certain affliction by high blood pressure and diabetes at a minimum, as a result of the horrors and human criminality they hear and see.