Dear Friends,
It is five years ago that the U.S. Department of State invited me, on
behalf of the ICfC, to join its Consular Staff in Calcutta for a first
time visit to Nagaland, in the Northeastern Territories of India where
insurrections have been erupting against Indian sovereignty since the
very establishment of the Indian State. Following all of these years
of bloodshed, the Naga political parties, with strong tribal
divisions, were still themselves in conflict, adding the violence of a
civil war to the frustration of a war of liberation that was going
nowhere. I was to meet with a select group of representatives of the
factions for a two day workshop that strained my imagination for what
might be achieved. When initially asked for an ideal number of
participants I warned -- no more than 10-12. 18 were invited, not an
unreasonable effort to get the right number of the right people. 200
people showed up and demanded to participate in this "conflict
resolution workshop". Altogether uncertain about how I might handle
this mob-like situation but remembering what I had often told our
Fellows that people who wanted to contribute to peacemaking had to be
flexible, I approached the podium.
Intuiting my sense of panic, a young Naga woman from the audience,
Neichu Angami, followed by several colleagues quickly approached me
and introduced themselves. She indicated that she and her friends had
a good deal of experience facilitating groups and would be happy to
assist me in handling this unmanageable crowd. Repeating to myself my
flexibility mantra, I quickly recovered a measure of equanimity and
focus, had a one minute planning session with my new staff on the many
needs of the Naga people in a globalizing world other than 19th
century style sovereignty, and we divided the group into planning
commissions that worked productively on envisioning the New Nagaland
and sharing plans and reconciling priorities among the different
commissions. The exchange was most successful.
Neichu Angami is making a life of such moments "to the rescue…" In the
ensuing years, the ICfC has had the privilege of working with Neichu
and her friends in several workshop frameworks, in Nagaland and
elsewhere, helping incredibly effective leaders be all the more
effective in their peacemaking efforts.
Several days ago I was again in India, invited by that great
organization, WISCOMP, Women in Security, Conflict, Management, and
Peace, in cooperation with the Dali Lama and to analyze the usefulness
of dialogue in fostering development and resolving conflicts
throughout the troubled spots of the region including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. What a
pleasure it was to visit Naga House in New Delhi for a day and to meet
up with Neichu and other Naga trainees and friends and to hear of
their important activities in the Northeastern Territories and
elsewhere in the world. Neichu is on her way to Myanmar where she is
allowed to work for a month at a time on developing HIV prevention
programs, clinics, support groups for the afflicted, and their
relatives -- comprehensive services and development projects for a
suffering population in an oppressed society. Her work is funded by
the Gates Foundation. If that were not enough for one person to be
doing, she uses these opportunities to promote sustained dialogue and
to build empathy from the pained memories of conflict among the people
and groups of Burma. Her approaches to dialogue and development will
certainly place prominently in the "tool box" that the ICfC shares
with its trainees elsewhere, the world over.
There is an apt Jewish phrase to describe what I felt on behalf of the
ICfC in meeting Neichu and her colleagues that day at Naga House in
New Delhi: "Nahus," humbling pride in the accomplishments of those to
whose lives we try to make a contribution.
I look forward to hearing from you and to seeing you on May 29th.
The past few months have been very exciting for ICfC-Cambodia!
The Social Needs and Justice Outreach Project (sponsored by the
Open Society Institute) is well underway. The ICfC team was joined
by three volunteers from the Youth for Peace to conduct village
dialogues in new areas. The program is getting overwhelmingly
good responses from the villages we work with. The project is
also supported by the American Friends Service Committee.
The Dialogue group consisting of Israeli Jewish inhabitants of Yaad and descendants of the destroyed Arab village of Miaar is going strongly forward. As is consistent with our philosophy, the group is not in the dialogue process only for the sake of talking, but to change reality in their villages and to spread similar programs elsewhere.
Imagine 2008: Armenian and Azerbaijani Student Retreat and Dialogue
On June 3 - 11, 12 Armenian and Azerbaijani
students will get together for an intensive 9 days long dialogue
program, combining elements of basic conflict resolution training,
outdoors team-building, sharing living space and responsibilities,
with the dialogue on the Armenia -Azerbaijan conflict, possibilities
for resolution and plan future activities. Program was co-founded
by ICfC fellow Phil Gamaghelyan along with an Azerbaijani colleague
and will be co-facilitated by two ICfC fellows this year.
Visit the Imagine website:
Europe - engaging history educators in wider community
The annual EUROCLIO conference will gather hundreds of history teachers and educators from Europe in Bristol on March 31-April 6. ICfC will be represented at the conference by the Senior Fellow Dasha Kusa in order to meet with the EUROCLIO Board and staff, as well as with the participants from over 30 countries to plan future avenues of cooperation.
Phil grew up in Armenia. In the late 1980's and early 90's, a staunch
nationalist teenager, he participated in anti - Soviet and later
anti - Azerbaijani demon-strations. After the break-up of the Soviet
Union, Phil tried to join the army as a volunteer to fight against
Azerbaijan. Recruiters turned him down because he was only 16. He was
then drafted to the army at the age of 22 and served as a tank
commander at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The reality of sitting
in a tank facing Azerbaijani tanks was nothing close to the romantic
image he had before. The cruelty between the two sides, but also
within the Armenian army itself, made him reconsider his life values
and commit himself to human rights and later conflict resolution work.
Phil has studied political science and then conflict resolution at Yerevan State Linguistic University in Armenia and Brandeis University
in the U.S. respectively. His research focused on development of
methodology that will employ collective memory theories to better
understand and resolve identity-based conflicts. The question Phil is exploring today is the role of historical educational
materials, electronic and printed media in shaping conflicts. How can
school curricula and media be transformed into factors contributing to
the resolution rather than to exacerbation of conflicts? Can a better
understanding of the relationship between memory and conflict be used
to produce less dichotomous policy-making?
Presently, Phil actively works on the improvement of the
Turkish-Armenian and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. Together with a
Turkish friend a colleague Ceren Ergenc, he developed and taught a
course titled 'The Politics of Memory in the Turkish-Armenian
Conflict' at Tufts University in Fall 2007. They also co-facilitated
together the Turkish-Armenian Student Dialogue Group of
Boston in 2005-2007.
Before joining the International Center for Conciliation in the summer of 2007, Phil also
worked with the Seeds of Peace and founded and lead the Imagine Program
for Conflict Transformation that brings together Armenian and
Azerbaijani graduate students. Phil also presented his work at a
number of conferences, including in Cape Town, Toronto, Geneva, San
Francisco and New York.
We'd like to hear
what you think. Email
us with your thoughts.
ARTICLES BY
THE FELLOWS
Know Thy Neighbor: Who are the Cambodians in Lowell, MA?
By Dasha Kusa
(c)Telegraf
Most of the 30,000 Cambodians living in Lowell today came more than two decades ago. Yet we know little of their story. Some of the older Cambodians think that their own community is beginning to forget why they came. "Young people do not take interest in their community or in Cambodia," says Vong Ros of the Cambodia Mutual Association. That's because they don't know the stories of their parents and grandparents, he believes... .. ... . . .. ... . .. . .. .. .. . .. ... . ....More>
Finding a compromise solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is usually considered
(c) Photolur
the prerequisite for peace and cooperation in the Caucasus. The analysis of the conflict, however, shows that the mutual mistrust and animosity of Armenians and Azeris presently is so high that even the smallest concession, particularly related to the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, is unacceptable to either side. As long as those attitudes persist, no compromise can be reached.
The approach, therefore, has to be reversed. In stead of pressing parties to compromise, peace-building efforts must foster regional cooperation. If a high level of regional economic and security integration in the Caucasus is achieved, the significance of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh will decrease, which in its turn will clear a path for a sustainable peace.
