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Dialog om ikkevold og somalisk diaspora

Detaljer

26.09.2011

Mandag 26. september 2011 deltok Fredslaget ved informasjonssjef Alexander Harang i panelsamtale med den amerikanske kongressmannen John Lewis, fredsforsker Cindy Horst, Bashe M. Musse (NORSOM), Kadra Noor, Kjell Magne Bondevik (Oslosenteret) og Mohammed Hassan Farah på Cafeteateret i Oslo.

Arrangementet fokuserte på hva vi kan lære av den amerikanske civil rights movements arbeid fra 1960 tallet til i dag i forhold til integreringspolitikken i Norge. Fredslaget benyttet denne anledningen til å invitere somalisk diaspora til tettere samarbeid for fred med Fredslaget. Under finner du Fredslagets notat om samarbeidsgrunnlag for fredsarbeid med somalisk diaspora i Norge. 

The Norwegian Peace Association is a traditional Norwegian peace movement. We are the oldest peace group in Norway, established in 1885. In fact, we´re the second oldest existing peace organisation in the world. Even though we´re an old organisation, our members are rather young. We have been experiencing a considerable growth in both membership and activity in our organisation over the last decade, and the peace activists we recruit are mainly in their twenties and thirties.

The Norwegian Peace Association have been involved in people to people cooperation for peace since our beginning. The main difference between the partnerships we as peace organisations are building between Norway and Africa, compared to traditional development aid cooperation, has to do with the importance of reciprocity. This means that we have stronger emphasis on the “I develop you, so that you develop me” part of our work. In our way of working for peace, development is not something you offer the other, but something you create in equal partnership for a common peaceful development.

As a traditional peace organisation our goal is twofold: firstly, we work to promote nonviolent conflict resolution in current conflicts, and secondly, we work to constitute a culture of peace that will make warfare unnecessary and obsolete in the longer run. We are politically and religiously unbound in our peace work, which enables us to work more effectively on a cross-cultural and ideological level. We have no experience working in Somalia directly, but we have been partners with People for Peace Africa, which works both in Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, for some years now.

Our political efforts are also directed in two main directions. The first one is all about trying to limit the utility of military power, and the actual use of violence as a mean of conflict resolution. This is why we are champions of disarmament and seeks to make it more difficult for our politicians to go to war. This is why we work to stop the next war, before it happens. The other political dimension of our work promotes a culture of peace by building bridges between people in conflict at the grass root levels, and promoting institutions and other tools for handling our conflicts more constructively. This is why we promote things like conflict councils and mediation in schools.

From this basis, we wish to offer Somali diaspora in Norway an arena for those who want to promote nonviolent conflict resolution both in Norway and in Somalia. We think of you as valuable assets for future ground-breaking peace work. If we can find ways of combining your understanding and experience with our tools and strengths as a grass root peace organisation in Norway, we believe we can engage in a constructive partnership for peace both in Norway and Somalia.

I believe that cooperation between us as a traditional peace movement and Somali groups in Norway can enhance peace in very many ways. Let me just outline a few possibilities for you, that I hope we can explore further:

1. Peace in Somalia needs to be build on very many levels, also at the grassroots. For those of you who have ideas on how we can contribute to this from Norway, through Norwegian – Somali partnership for peace, we are eager to identify practical possibilities for future cooperation.
2. The war in Somalia also affects Norway. For example; every seventh ship being attacked by Somali pirates this year is Norwegian. This means that one Norwegian ship is attacked every week off the shores of Somalia. This has brought about a sence of being a victim of the conflict in Norway. Norway also has a certain saying in EU fishery policies and NATO efforts in the Gulf of Aden – both relevant to the conflict dynamics of the ongoing warfare in Somalia. A cooperation between Norwegian peace activists and Somali diaspora in Oslo can therefore also contribute to bringing about a better understanding of the conflict in Somalia in Norway, which is indeed needed.
3. Somalis in Norway have offcourse different political views on how to bring about peace among for example clans in Norway as well as in Somalia. For those of you who want to address such conflicts nonviolently, the Norwegian Peace Association can contribute with an arena and our partnership. We can also contribute by pushing different Somali peace propositions into the Norwegian public debate.
4. Both among the Norwegian public and the people of Somalia there is a great need to discuss possibilities for future peace in Somalia to a much greater extent than we are currently doing. This means that we also need more creativity, and more intellectual powers devoted to solving the issues, in our public debate. Diaspora cooperation with Norwegian peace activists can contribute to this.

In conclusion, I believe that cooperation between Somali diaspora in Oslo that seeks nonviolent conflict resolution and the Norwegian Peace Association can be constructive on at least four levels:

1. For fostering and creating new proposals and projects for peace in Somalia, from Norway.
2. Building peace in Somalia from the grassroots, through people to people cooperation between Norway and Somalia.
3. For educating the Norwegian public on situation in Somalia, through pushing peace proposals in our public debate.
4. For promoting nonviolent conflict resolution in conflicts in Norway that the Somali diaspora is part of.

Alexander Harang, Director at the Norwegian Peace Association