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2007 - no respite
Daily death and hatred remain with us
Coexist Magazine - Editor's comment
IT has been a miserable year for those working in conflict resolution
and promoting coexistence. The assassination of Pakistan's most
intentionally renowned politician, Benazir Bhutto, at the end of
the year seemed a depressingly apt symbol of the hatreds that divide
Pakistan - and indeed the wider world.
There was a sense of the inevitable when Bhutto returned to Pakistan
in October. She spoke frankly of the dangers as she sought to regain
political power in the land where she had served as its first woman
prime minister. "There are risks that must be taken,"
she said, and "I'm prepared to take them." She took them
and paid with her life - not the first person to do so in the never-ending
struggle to bring stability and coexistence to riven communities
and nations.
Unfortunately, while conflicts last and others erupt anew, those
who are appalled by the violence have no choice either. They must
face the risks, face down the cynical assertions that coexistence
work is pointless, and just carry on regardless. It took decades
for concern about the planet's environment to move from a minority
interest to a global activity.
Regarding coexistence - we must also work to turn around the feeling
that combating global ethnic strife is a hopeless cause, and work
to make it a globally accepted mission of necessity.[Dec
28]
(Picture: Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's first woman prime minister).
the world is impotent
DIPLOMATIC wrangling dashed hopes for an end to the killing
and rape in Darfur this year and a new UN-backed peacekeeping
mission scheduled to start on January 1 faces an uphill struggle.
UN AND OTHER Darfur envoys have had scant success trying to
revive a peace deal reached last year between the Khartoum government
and rebel groups in the strife-torn region.
There has been no end to the violence — which most of the
world calls "genocide" — and both sides are still
blaming each other for the carnage and destruction that began
in February 2003.
>> MORE, Analysis, by
Agence France Presse, Dec 25
(Picture: Children in a Darfur refugee camp).
christmas attack
on indian christians
HINDU extremists in Orissa state attacked village churches and burned
down the home of a prominent Christian politician as ethnic strife
continued over the Christian Christmas period.
Gangs of Hindus and Christians defied a curfew imposed following
two days of attacks by Hindu hard-liners. Local police were unsuccessful
in halting the attacks and the federal government announced it was
sending in a paramilitary force.
Police said they had deployed hundreds of officers to the area,
restoring calm after hard-line Hindus marred Christmas celebrations,
ransacking and burning eight village churches in Orissa state, a
corner of the country with a history of violence against Christians.
One person was killed.
>>MORE News report from India, Dec 28
(Picture: Flames and water cannon on the streets of Phulbani,
Orissa).
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