Babloo Loitongbam
Country/region India (federal state of Manipur in the northeast region)
Conflict Human rights violations by the Army; armed rebel groups
Organisation Human Rights Alert
Field of work Human rights; civil rights

Babloo is a lawyer, anthropologist and human rights activist. He has been fighting to protect human rights in the northeast of India for more than 20 years. In this area, a Special Powers Act gives the Army powers that are almost impossible to control, including the right to “shoot to kill” if they merely suspect terrorist activity. With his organisation, Babloo Loitongbam has meticulously documented no fewer than 1528 cases in which innocent people were killed in so-called “fake encounters” (alleged combat against terrorists). The motives of the soldiers: robbery with murder, or the prospect of promotion and a medal for bravery, as one has allegedly killed a terrorist.

Babloo bases his methods on Gandhi’s form of non-violent resistance, employs all legal means offered by the Indian State and uses the international stage. His non-violent resistance is creative. He works to defeat hardness (the violence) with softness. The exceptional victim Irom Sharmilas is in the centre of the HRA campaigns. She has been on hunger strike against the Army law for 15 years; she is in police custody and force-fed.

Babloo has been caring for Sharmila since the start of her hunger strike. He has coordinated by agreement with her the political and legal campaigns, including appeals to national and international human rights commissioners, as well as fasts in solidarity in public places and intensive media work. He also supports and coordinates the association of widows whose husbands have died through extra-judicial killings. The Indian State refuses compensation, even when it is proved that the victims were innocent.

He was a Fulbright Scholar and is an Ashoka Life Fellow.

 

 

LINKS:

Reportage from Peace Counts

http://www.peace-counts.org/toten-fur-medaillen/

Lecture on the Army Special Powers Act

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0SIAdnr4NI

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/HUMAN-RIGHTS-ALERT-122566984429340/timeline/

Ashoka:

https://www.ashoka.org/fellow/babloo-loitongbam

 

 

 

 

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Land/Region: Indien

Konflikt:

Organisation: Human Rights Alert

Arbeitsfeld: Menschenrechte

URL

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Nobokishore Urikhimbam

Land/Region: Indien

Konflikt:

Organisation: United NGOs Mission

Arbeitsfeld: Versöhnung zw. versch. Volksgruppen

Nobokishore Urikhimbam, Secretary of United NGOs Mission, Manipur, Northeast India: UNM-M is a network of 235 indigenous peoples’ organisations from Northeast India, a multi-ethnic civil society platform working for Peace for more than two decades.

They are also supported by the German Church. They have already initiated lobbying and advocacy work by organizing a NE solidarity group in Germany.

Artikel auf der Website Welt-Sichten (hg. von Brot für die Welt, Misereor u.a.)

URL

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Leban Serto

Land/Region: Indien

Konflikt:

Organisation: Peace Counts NEI

Arbeitsfeld: Friedenspädagogik

Dr. Leban Serto, Local Coordinator Peace Counts, Northeast India. Er ist Anthropologe, Sozialaktivist, Friedenspädagoge und ausgebildeter Trainer von Peace Counts. Er trainiert FriedenspädagogInnen im ganzen Nordosten Indiens und koordiniert deren Netzwerke.

LINK:
welt-sichten.org/artikel/2814/zusammenhalt-ist-unser-einziger-schutz

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T. Thayaparan

Land/Region: Sri Lanka

Konflikt:

Organisation: Peace & Community Action

Arbeitsfeld: Trainings in Gewaltfreiheit; Versöhnung zw. den einstigen Konfliktparteien

T. Thayaparan, National Coordinator  is a Founder member of „Peace and Community in Action“ (PCA) in Sri Lanka and has been National coordinator for the last seven years.

He has 15 years local and international experience of facilitating and training on conflict matters and non violent processes. He hold an MA in Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation from the American University and an honorary doctorate from Ruhunu University. In 2009 Thaya received the Maja Khone International Peace Award for his international peace work.

Peace & Community Action (PCA) was formed in 1999. It grew out of Quaker Peace and Service (QPS) and was started by a group committed to helping people explore alternatives to the use of violence as a response to conflict. The organisation has been deeply influenced by Gandhian philosophy and Rosenburg’s ‘non-violent communication’ approaches.

PCA began as a grass root level peace organization and now has excellent networks and relationships in the communities it works with. At first we worked primarily in the predominantly Tamil and Muslim Eastern Province ;Ampara, Trincomalee and Puttalam Districts. Setting up offices in Matara in the last three years has given more balance by introducing our work to the predominantly Sinhala Southern Province.

We manage and deliver a mixture of community-based programmes showing participants the impact of using non-violence in their relationships and supporting them to learn and use these techniques in their own lives and work. We also run training courses for government officers and other NGOs on non violent approaches. We work with communities from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, frequently bringing together people whose groups are in conflict.

Most recently PCA has developed an ongoing partnership with the British Council which resulted in the Global Exchange Project.

WEBLINKS:

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Mariam B. Barandia

Country/region: Philippines

Conflict: Religious conflict

Organisation: Kapamagogopa Incorporated

Field of work: Reconciliation Muslims / Christians in Mindanao

 

For decades the Philippines has been victim to a bloody armed struggle between the government and Muslim separatists seeking an independent state in southern parts of the country. At least 150,000 people have been killed and, since 2000, three million people have been forced to flee their homes. The violence has left a legacy of suspicion and mistrust between Christian and Muslim communities.

In this background Mariam B. Barandia finished her career in banking in Mindanao, the region worst affected by the conflict and founded Kapamagogopa Incorporated (KI). The organization provides opportunities for Young Muslim graduates who were facing the same prejudices as she experienced herself as a Maranao, a minority Muslim tribe in Mindanao. KI is bringing the two communities back together as they counteract prejudice between Muslims and Christians by introducing Muslim volunteers into community organisations across the region. They empower Muslim volunteers to apply their talents in other communities to bridge the deep-rooted religious divides in between. KI volunteers reached already more than 9,526 individuals through their work in host organisations.

Mariam B. Barandia is the Executive Director of KI and also board member of several civil society organizations working for peace in Mindanao. She is a committed peacebuilder and a leading light in the promotion of national volunteering in the Southern Philippines. In 2013 KI were winners of the Tomorrow’s Peacebuilders prize and their work is supported by Peace Direct.

LINK:

Peace direct:

http://www.peacedirect.org/bridging-divide-philippines

Preis Tomorrows Peacebuilders:

http://www.insightonconflict.org/tomorrows-peacebuilders/award-2014/

United Nations Alliance of Civilizations:

http://www.unaoc.org/peaceapp/judges/

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Gulalai Ismail

Country/region: Pakistan

Conflict: Oppression and injustice against women

Organisation: Aware Girls

Field of work: Women´s rights; Strengthening young activists; Youth Peace Network

Gululai Ismail is a youth and peace activist working for awareness and social mobilization to ensure the right of women to live a dignified life. She runs a social organization, ”Aware Girls”, which promotes women’s awareness, democracy and peace. Her organization teaches girls and women from deprived communities in the region about their political and social rights.

She started the organization at the age of 16 to provide young women with leadership through which they can act as agents of change for women’s empowerment, peace and democracy. Within ten years Gulalai has developed Aware Girls into a well-supported, women’s-led organisation working towards gender equality and peace in Pakistan in one of the most fragile regions by developing a “Youth Peace Network”. The trained peace activists then work at the community level using peer education, study circles and peace education. The overall goal is to promote an alternative pluralistic discourse based on the values of tolerance, non-violence and peaceful co-existence.

Gululai Ismail has won the 2009 YouthActionNet Fellowship, the 2013 Democracy Award and the International Humanist of the Year Award in 2014. Her work is supported by Peace Direct.

LINKS:

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulalai_Ismail

Organisation “Aware girls”:

http://www.awaregirls.org/

Peace Direct:

http://www.peacedirect.org/author/gulalaiismail


 

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Dieudonné Munyankiko

 

Land/Region Ruanda
Konflikt Bürgerkrieg, Genozid
Organisation Association Modeste et Innocent (AMI)
Arbeitsfeld Versöhnung zwischen Hutu und Tutsi

Dieudonné Munyankiko ist der Sohn einer Tutsi-Frau und eines Hutu-Mannes. Beide Seiten haben Vorbehalte ihm gegenüber, aber er genießt auch den Ruf eines neutralen Vermittlers. Den braucht er auch, um nach dem Genozid in Ruanda, bei dem schätzungsweise 800.000 Menschen umkamen, Versöhnungsarbeit zwischen den Hutus und Tutsis zu leisten.

Seine Methode sind „Groupes de rapprochement“ – Annäherungsgruppen, in denen sich Täter und Opfer begegnen. Die Annäherung verläuft in drei Schritten. Zuerst sprechen die Teilnehmer mit ihresgleichen über das Erlebte und ihre Gefühle. Täter mit Tätern. Opfer mit Opfern.

Im nächsten Schritt tauschen die Gruppen untereinander ihre Gesprächsprotokolle aus – sie sollen, mit der geliehenen Geduld des Papiers, die Lebenswelt der anderen verstehen lernen. Als Drittes folgt die direkte Aussprache.

AMI versucht eine heikle Balance zwischen zwei Zielen, Gerechtigkeit und Frieden, die sich zunächst widersprechen. Würden alle Taten des Genozids strafrechtlich geahndet, würde das Land lange nicht zur Ruhe kommen. Würde man sie vergessen „um des lieben Friedens willen“, blieben bei den Opfern viele offene Wunden.

So wie Dieudonné selbst: Die Familie seiner Mutter wurde von Hutu-Extremisten ausgelöscht. Als schließlich im Sommer 1994 die Tutsi-Rebellenarmee um den jetzigen Präsidenten Paul Kagame das Land eroberte, fiel ein Großteil der Verwandtschaft des Vaters.

Er findet halt in einer Spiritualität, die nicht unbedingt an Konfessionen gebunden ist. AMI hat ihrer Versöhnungsarbeit einen Überbau aus christlicher Metaphysik, Tai-Chi-Meditation und sozialpädagogischen Konzepten gegeben, arrangiert um jenes Herzstück herum, das in der Landessprache Ubuntu heißt: Menschlichkeit.

AMI organisiert seit dem Jahr 2000 den Wiederaufbau zerstörter Häuser, gibt Polizisten Kurse in Gewaltprävention, schult Freiwillige in der Betreuung von Traumatisierten, unterstützt Schülergruppen, in denen Hutu- und Tutsi-Kinder gemeinsam Theater spielen.

 

LINKS:

Reportage von Peace Counts: http://www.peace-counts.org/ruanda_versoehnung-genozid/

AMI: www.ami-ubuntu.net/

 

 

 

***

Land/Region: Ruanda

Konflikt:

Organisation: Association Modeste et Innocent

Arbeitsfeld: Versöhnung; Überlebende/Opfer des Genozids

 

LINK:
http://www.paxchristi.net/member-organizations/rwanda/193

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