Reconciliation : from the usually unspoken to the almost unimaginable

Around the world today, numerous communities face an immediate future of intense violence and social upheaval. The Congo, East Timor, Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, the Sudan and Tibet are examples amongst many others. In zones of chronic tension, politics characteristically lurches back and forth from hope to despair to hope…to despair. Peace talks, road maps and new elections descend into a quotidian hell of missiles, armoured vehicles and suicide-martyrs – and then new maps are drawn again. In Sri Lanka and Israel-Palestine, violence erupts in remembrance of past violence. In Tibet, dissent is met with tanks. In East Timor, after the high expectations of independence and the rigorous work of the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR), an unexpected political divide emerges as the brothers and sisters of Lorosa’e and Loromonu become enemies, willing to kill and die over status and resources. While a lot can be said about what does not work, we need affirmative answers to what might be alternative pathways to peace. Inter-state wars may be declining as a global phenomenon, but localized transnational violence and divisive identity politics are more intense, with more impact on non-combatants than ever before. In such a context, and despite the need to say something positive, it is crucial to begin by addressing the quandaries of reconciliation that in the main continue to be either unspoken or haphazardly insinuated by cynics. It is only by taking these issues seriously that we can get beyond high-sounding rhetoric