“Many people, particularly in politics and the media,
seem to believe that peace will unfold when conflicting
parties stop fighting and sign a ceasefire or peace
agreement. Nothing could be more wrong. It is sad enough to
see wars raging, but for professionals in
conflict-resolution it is almost as sad to see how limited
the understanding, the philosophy and the general capacity
is for overall postwar peacebuilding,” says TFF director Jan
Oberg.
“Postwar trust- and peacebuilding has at least two dimensions:
1) Former enemies seek to clarify what happened and why,
to find out what it meant to themselves and the others and
learn to live with the harm and pain. In short, not
forgetting or concealing but living on with memories,
forgiveness and reconciliation. This is basically an
individual process.
2) To develop normal relations, partly re-constructing
the past (e.g. infrastructure and houses) but also building
something new for the future; it is about securing that the
old conflict will not return. In short, violence-prevention
and sustainable peaceful development. This is basically a
societal or collective process.
We should seek to help people remember what happened
and not suppress the hurt, harm and mourning processes.
People who fought wars against each other will naturally
remember both what was done to them and what they did
themselves to others. To live a healthy postwar life, they
will have to forgive the other and, in some cases, be
forgiven.
Former enemies must be assisted in dealing with the past,
with objective as well as subjective truth(s) – even with
the fact that there can be more than one truth. They face
the choice of hating more or less intensely forever; but we
become what we hate, and over tim hate is self-destructive.
They can also liberate themselves from that and grow – grow
even together with those they have hated. Human beings can
choose to forgive and thus open the door to reconciliation,
trust and genuine peace. When they do, they in fact also
apologize to younger generations and say – ‘learn from our
mistakes and be happier than we were.’
Much will have to be individual choices and processes.
But new social institutions, initiatives and policies can
play a decisive role during such difficult times.
Enlightened governments and governance based on a vision
beyond hate, i.e. on forgiveness, generosity and trust
rather than triumphalism, is essential.
Leaders with compassion and empathy can decide to
apologize to people – often minorities – for their own
wrongdoings or that of their colleagues. They can choose
to change from hate speech to reconciliation speech. But
admittedly it requires great courage and is particularly
difficult if wartime leaders continue as postwar
leaders.
Thus, the international community needs to introduce
the notion of forgiveness and reconciliation policies,
it needs educated people to assist individuals, civil
societies and governments in healing their wounds. Many
believe that legal processes such as tribunals, courts and
various types of punishment coupled with some humanitarian
assistance is all that is needed to heal war-torn societies.
This view is indicative, I am afraid, of very shallow
understanding and could well fuel the dark forces of revenge
and perpetuated hate,” says Dr. Oberg.
This and future TFF PressInfos will offer some
proposals for civil society-based initiatives which can
help to bring about a notion of truth to live by,
forgiveness and reconciliation and – ultimately –
peacebuilding together.
They are presented with the deep conviction that each of
us, nations as well as the so-called international
community, has a long way to go to understand and implement
these processes. Forthcoming PressInfos will focus on
history commissions, schoolbook production and on the need
for educating citizens in the art and science of human
rights, democratic citizenship, conflict-understanding and
reconciliation. They stem from our reflection of what we
have come to see as urgent needs while working in
ex-Yugoslavia – but they hold a potential value in any other
conflict,” concludes Jan Oberg.
