Perspectives on Peace: An Examination of Post-Conflict Societies

Hi guys,

 Here is the info. on checking out the show (Departures) I mentioned last class. The entire series is amazing! Here is how to access the Sri Lanka episode. It’s a bit complicated because I can’t seem to post the exact link here…so,

• go to: oln.ca
• click on “shows”
• click on “travel”
• click on the third show down, Departures
• scroll down a bit and on the right hand side click on “watch latest episodes”
• then pick Sri Lanka

Its just the last five minutes of the episode I was reminded of in class. It shows a festival in Colombo where apparently people from all different religions come together to celebrate. I found this very interesting after talking so much about the polarization that seems to exist in Sri Lanka. This kind of gathering seems to show that there is some degree of tolerance and unity in the country. It would be interesting to explore what exactly is generating and sustaining this kind of acceptance and how it can be expanded further.

Enjoy 🙂

Bre

Hey guys, I received this email through the IR program. Even though we’re officially done Uganda now, would anyone nevertheless be interested in going right after class? Let me know! 🙂

A Screening of Pete McCormack’s Award-Winning Documentary:
Uganda Rising

When: Tuesday November 2nd 2010 @ 7pm
Where: The Norm Theatre in the UBC Student Union Building (6138 SUB Blvd., Vancouver BC)
Cost: By donation

ALL Proceeds to Benefit War-Affected Youth in Northern Uganda.

Presented by the 2010Movement

Generously Supported by the UBC Israel Awareness Club

Just got this email through my program:

A Screening of Pete McCormack’s Award-Winning Documentary:
Uganda Rising

When: Tuesday November 2nd 2010 @ 7pm
Where: The Norm Theatre in the UBC Student Union Building (6138 SUB Blvd., Vancouver BC)
Cost: By donation

ALL Proceeds to Benefit War-Affected Youth in Northern Uganda.

…

Anyone want to go? It’s right after class on Tuesday. – Daniel

It’s frustrating that inhumane leaders can hide behind their right to sovereignty when they commit atrocities domestically. It’s clear that the prevailing opinion in the international community is that at the very least, cases exist where foreign intervention is justified in the domestic arena – whether it be in cases of civil war, gross human rights violations or severe discrimination. Just look at what the international community has not accepted in the past by intervening (if even indirectly with soft power): in civil conflicts like Darfur or human rights atrocities committed during Apartheid in South Africa; unconditional sovereignty is outdated and in need of revision.

So why not revise our understanding of “sovereignty” as a concept? We still cling to a world system comprised of sovereign nation-states, so sovereignty should still be a vital component of international relations. But there needs to be limits to sovereignty.

What international bodies such as the UN need to set forth are basic definitions of what is expected of a state. From this, the UN can justify intervention in a situation where people’s basic rights guaranteed by its nation-state are being violated. For example, say the basic responsibilities of a state are to be able to:

(a) ensure sufficient access to food, water and shelter

(b) protect its borders from outside aggressors

(c) have sole legitimate monopoly of the use of force for protection of its citizens domestically

(d) allow its people the freedom to earn a living and survive

If a state consistently and widely fails to meet these basic requirements and deliberately neglects their importance to all or specific citizens, it should be viewed as a dangerous regime that is violating its citizens’ rights.

To defend the integrity of states that honestly struggle to provide for their people, there ought to also be checks and balances to ensure that there is no hasty intervention where it is not justified. It might therefore be prudent for UN votes to intervene to pass through mulitple divisions with required supermajorities (for example, 60% of votes agreeing to it). In this way, only the most necessary intervention is sought in a responsible manner.

People: argue with me. I don’t know the answer but I am also not satisfied with resigning to sovereignty just being problematic. It is. Fix it.

Hey guys,

Here is another article about Tamil’s living conditions in Sri Lanka, posted on May 2010. It talks about the lack of reconciliation efforts by the government. One of the significant points it touches on is that many landmines are still dispersed in the Northern region and infrastructure around the Tamil region areas has been neglected.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/17/sri_lankas_vindictive_peace?page=0,0

hi guys!

this article is from december 2009 but i thought it was really relevant to our discussion. it’s about former child soldiers of the LTTE and how the government is providing an education and vocational training for them to basically help them reintegrate into society and contribute. courses are taught in Tamil rather than Sinhala, so these children are getting an awesome opportunity at an education that they might not have had before. this sounded like a great idea to me, but there are a ton of criticisms that come along with it. the most prominent one was that this was just a propaganda move on the part of the sri lankan government;

“The government wants to showcase this to the international community and to the media. It wants to create an impression that other camps are run on the same lines. Sri Lanka’s government is keeping over 10,000 suspected LTTE members in various camps. International organisations are not given any access to these camps…”

here’s the link to the article if you want to read it! i thought it was really interesting.

-shaheen

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8400366.stm

Hey guys,

 This is an interesting article relating to yesterday’s topic. Just last week two men in the U.S. were convicted of trying to move $900,000 in American arms to Sri Lanka intended for use by the Tamil Tigers. That’s a lot of arms!

 I think the situation in Sri Lanka parallels some of the other cases we have looked at in the sense that you have government vs. “rebel groups” both of which have been committing acts of violence for some time now and one of the results has been difficulty in distinguishing victim from perpetrator. I think one of the differences between Sri Lanka and Uganda, for example, is that in the case of the former the rebel group is mainly pursuing liberation whereas the latter rebel groups motives seem somewhat unclear and even corrupt. I think this distinction may possibly lead us to be able to feel some sympathy for a group like the LTTE. Although with that being said, an article like this really demonstrates the LTTE’s demand for significant amounts of weapons and ability to procure those arms abroad in places like the U.S.

Although Canada’s potential to indirectly contribute to LTTE violence in terms of arms smuggling is probably insignificant compared to the U.S., I would say that there is the potential for other types of support, for example funding, through a diaspora.

Here’s the article if you’d like to check it out:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/18/maryland.tamil.tigers.terror/index.html?iref=allsearch

Cheers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11558746

Hey everyone,

Looks like the 4 countries affected by the LRA have decided to take some action…a joint brigade between Uganda, Sudan, Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, backed by the African Union, is going to “go after” the LRA rebels. It is believed that this will be a mobile brigade that can be used by the AU in “times of trouble,” such as going after the LRA, and other groups like al-Qaeda in Mali and Mauritania.

Seems like a legitimate possible solution to me, but its crazy that it’s taken 20+ years to get to this point! Maybe now that all of these countries have united to fight against the LRA, something can finally be done about it, but our discussions have shown that things are a little less cut and dry than they may seem. What do you guys think?

-Shaheen

I was taking the bus back from Tsawwassen at midnight the other day and had a great conversation with the driver. He told me about this website (kiva.org) that gets involved in micro-credit loans. Maybe you all are aware of these sites but I had never come across one.

It is really easy to use and you can specify where you want your loans to go. Maybe you only want to help women in Sierra Leone who work in the sustainable agricultural industry or men in Cambodia who want to start a bike repair shop- chances are they have someone!  Many of the countries we are studying are involved in this.

I thought this was a great thing to help people in these areas when one becomes a bit disillusioned with the more “macro” approaches to post-conflict studies.

The cool thing with this is you can get your money back (not guaranteed) and potentially to use that money to help people for years to come. I believe they also accept team donations if anyone is interested in chipping in $25 or so each.

http://www.kiva.org/

neat stuff

Hey guys!

This is the article that I was talking about in class. Ok, so I can’t seem to upload it.  It’s by P.W. Singer and called Corporate Warriors: The Rise of Privatized Military Industry and Its Ramifications for International Security (pages 186-220).

Private Military Firms (PMFs) are profit-driven organizations that trade in professional services intricately linked to warfare.  PMFs emerged at the end of the cold war due to a gap in the security market, transforming the nature of warfare.  They operate as companies and are thus profit-driven endeavors. They provide logistics, operational support and post-conflict resolution.

James had compared them to mercenaries in class and I specifically looked it up in the article.  Singer states that mercenaries differ from PMFs as mercenaries often demand payment in hard cash and cannot be relied on beyond the short term.

How would the situation change in Uguanda if PMFs were hired by the Ugandan government to help alleviate the LRA?

Thoughts??