Dear Mr. Chakma,

happy to meet and visit your profile here. keep it up and we

can be good partners on common issues.

Peace.

Hi friend,
Wish you success in your vision and mission to establish peace in the hill area of Bangladesh'
Arun Kumar Goswami

Hi subha,
Nice to have a look in your profile. I am also from Bangladesh (Dhaka). I think it will be better if we can share our ideas and experiences in doing research on peace and human rights in Bangladesh. Wish you a very happy and prosperous life.
Arun Kumar goswami

Hello,
Today I will be leaving for Bagladesh and shall be there for a week. But I do see the possibilty to meet you as my programs are arranged. However, it will be interesting to be in touch with you. Paul

Dear friend
Violance,war,conflicts,sufferings my desire to see world in peace and non violance has motivated me to join this network."Vasudev kutukbkam" entire world as a family, this was a teaching of our culture and traditional.we created countries,boundries,religions,cast,race for a genuine reason or a false reasons for any reason.but this the time to realise that we are one and we naturaly interconected with each other ,which we can just realise by watching inhale and exhale of breaths the source is same ,without any descrimanation,religion,bonundries, equaly for all living life of universe .When we understand this simple thing then we must understand how our and other's life is equaly important,valuble ,respectable .we should follow the nature's rule ,non violance .peace ,god has given us a human life not for destruction but for lookafter the wellbeing of all living life.
i shall be happy if you could include me in your circle of friends

I am pleased to send you an article on the need for reconciliation bridge-builders in areas of tensions and conflicts as in eastern Congo. Just as world citizens had pushed in the 1950s for the creation of UN Forces with soldiers specially prepared for peace-keeping service, so now we are again pushing for a new type of world civil servant. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have all contributed actively to military-peacekeeping forces. Perhaps these same countries can take a lead in forming reconciliation teams. Your support and advice would be most appreciated. With best wishes, Rene Wadlow

East Congo — Need for Reconciliation Bridge-Builders

Rene Wadlow



On bridges are stated the limits in tons

of the loads they can bear.

But I’ve never yet found one that can bear more

than we do.

Although we are not made of roman freestone,

nor of steel, nor of concrete.

From “Bridges” – Ondra Lysohorsky

Translated from the Lachian by Davis Gill.



Violence is growing in the eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, basically the administrative provinces of North and South Kivu. The violence could spread to the rest of the country as Angolan troops may come to the aid of the Central Government as they have in the past while Rwandan and Ugandan troops are said to be helping the opposing militia led by Laurent Nkunda. While Nkunda and his Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) say that they are only protecting the ethnic Tutsi living in Congo, Nkunda could emerge as a national opposition figure to President Joseph Kabila, who has little progress to show from his years in power.



There is high-level recognition that violence in Congo could spread, having a destabilizing impact on the whole region. UN diplomats, led by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, have stressed that a political solution — not a military one — is the only way to end the violence, and they are urging the presidents of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania to work together to restore stability. The instability, along with Congo’s vast mineral and timber riches have drawn in neighboring armies who have joined local insurgencies as well as local commanders of the national army to exploit the mines and to keep mine workers in near-slavery conditions.



The United Nations has some 17,000 peacemakers in Congo (MONUC), the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission, but their capacity is stretched to the limit. Recently, the General in command of the UN forces, Lieutenant General Vicent Diaz de Villegas of Spain resigned his post after seven weeks — an impossible task. Their mission is to protect civilians, some 250,000 of which have been driven from their homes since the fighting intensified in late August 2008. The camps where displaced persons have been living have been attacked both by government and rebel forces — looting, raping, and burning. UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, is asking for an additional 3,000 soldiers, but it is not clear which states may propose troops for a very difficult mission. While MONUC has proven effective at securing peace in the Ituri district in north-eastern Congo, it has been much less successful in the two Kivu provinces.



The eastern area of Congo is the scene of fighting at least since 1998 — in part as a result of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994. In mid-1994, more than one million Rwandan Hutu refugees poured into the Kivus, fleeing the advance of the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front, now become the government of Rwanda. Many of these Hutu were still armed, among them, the “genocidaire” who a couple of months before had led the killings of some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda. They continued to kill Tutsi living in the Congo, many of whom had migrated there in the 18th century.



The people in eastern Congo have lived together for many centuries and had developed techniques of conflict resolution, especially between the two chief agricultural lifestyles: that of agriculture and cattle herding. However, the influx of a large number of Hutu, local political considerations, a desire to control the wealth of the area — rich in gold, tin and tropical timber — all these factors have overburdened the local techniques of conflict resolution and have opened the door to new, negative forces interested only in making money and gaining political power.



UN peace-keeping troops are effective when there is peace to keep. What is required today in eastern Congo is not so much more soldiers under UN command, than reconciliation bridge-builders, persons who are able to restore relations among the ethnic groups of the area. The United Nations, national governments, and non-governmental organizations need to develop bridge-building teams who can help to strengthen local efforts at conflict resolution and re-establishing community relations. In the Kivus, many of the problems arise from land tenure issues. With the large number of people displaced and villages destroyed, it may be possible to review completely land tenure and land use issues.



World citizens were among those in the early 1950s who stressed the need to create UN peace-keeping forces with soldiers especially trained for such a task. Today, a new type of world civil servant is needed — those who in areas of tension and conflict can undertake the slow but important task of restoring confidence among peoples in conflict, establishing contacts and looking for ways to build upon common interests.



Rene Wadlow, Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, Association of World Citizens

Dear Subhagya,

Your patience is noted in waiting for this reply - thank you and have a good weekend coming - good things come to those who wait. Jennie

Hello Subhagya,
thanks for your kindly words, i think that we must create a
worldwide network of friends sharing dreams, experiences and projects for a better world.
Love & peace
Alessandro Morsilli