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Special Report |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| September 10, 2004 |
Voices of Northeast Asian Youth at the United Nations
– Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict |
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| The group of four Peace Boat youth |
A Korean in a hanbok dress, two Japanese in traditional samue and yukata wear and an American in a
sharp suit are hardly unusual at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, where leaders from
hundreds of countries can be found everyday. These clothes, however, weren't worn by any visiting
foreign dignitaries or heads of states, but by four youth participating in Peace Boat's International
Student (IS) and Global University (GU) programs. And this group hadn't come for just a guided tour,
but to voice their views on Northeast Asia's future and conflict prevention one day before the third
anniversary of September 11th. |
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| The United Nations building in New York City |
This presentation was a contribution towards the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict
(GPPAC), a civil society initiative inspired by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's call for civil society
to contribute its expertise in building a comprehensive strategy to prevent conflict. Organised in
partnership with the NGO Section of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations,
and GPPAC's UN-NGO Conflict Prevention Working Group, panel members included Hanifa Mezoui, Chief
of the NGO Section of DESA and Jack Patterson of the UN-NGO Conflict Prevention Working Group. Assistant
Secretary General for Political Affairs Danilo Turk attended to receive and comment on the recommendations
of the Peace Boat youth.
The young people presented a model of a more peaceful Northeast Asia, evolved from the experiences
onboard Peace Boat of youth from Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Taipei, as well as Israel, Palestine and the
United States. Held in the Economic and Social Council's Chamber at the heart of the UN building,
the discussion drew a crowd of Peace Boat participants, civil society organization members and officials.
IS coordinator Jasna Bastic spoke first about her experience of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Between 1992-95 Bastic's hometown of Sarajevo suffered constant sniper and grenade fire, claiming
the lives of 12,000 people, including 2000 children. While Sarajevo's 300,000 citizens suffered, she
realized peace should not be sought only after years of killings and war crimes between two armed
sides but that true peace would ensure a conflict never reached the stage of violence. "It is
only about how to prevent the use of military in political disputes in order to save the lives of
innocent people," she said. Bastic argued that the power to oppose unreasonable radical groups
and irresponsible politicians lies in young people's hands. "At the end of the day, it is their
whole future and their lives that are in question if their governments bring them to war." |
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| IS participant Narae Lee |
Narae Lee, a 22-year old student from Seoul, agreed that war itself is a crime, but that governments
justify as necessary or inevitable. Lee said South Koreans like her struggle daily with fear, because
of the remaining military tension from the Korean War. "Although the Korean War was more than
50 years ago, unfortunately we don't have real peace and the Cold War is not over. On an everyday
basis we have been facing the threat that war with North Korea can break out," Lee said. The
situation has heated up even more since the United States government labeled North Korea as part of
an "axis of evil," accusing it of developing nuclear weapons. Lee believes more transparency
in decision-making and more non-governmental groups at the peace table is necessary. "We cannot
let a small group of politicians make the decision anymore, because our future and our hopes depend
on it. If we sustain 30,000 U.S. soldiers, nuclear weapons and a greater military budget, the situation
will just remain complicated and unsolved," Lee argued. |
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| Hanifa Mezoui, Chief of the NGO Section, DESA, UN, welcomes the Northeast Asia
youth |
Jun Kikuchi, a Japanese GU student, felt there is a building political shift towards militarization
in his country. "I want to voice my opposition that because of this trend, our education and
welfare systems are now being neglected." Although Japan renounced the use of force in Article
9 of their Constitution after its aggression during World War II, he feels Japan's recent actions
are violating that peace clause. "Japan is allowing the U.S. military to station their troops
on its land and permits the existence of the Self-Defense Force. Even worse, there are politicians
who are attempting to change the Article 9 itself." Recently the Japanese government has sent
the Self-Defense Force to Iraq, a move which Kikuchi knows is perceived as a threat by people in other
Asian countries. "It reminds them of the Japanese colonial past, which the Japanese government
has not officially dealt with." |
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| Peace Boat passes the former World Trade Center site while going up the Hudson
River |
Tyler Hall, a student at Minnesota State University and IS participant, said US citizens often forget
about the impact their soldiers based overseas have even in times of peace. Incidents with soldiers
constantly remind people in other countries of a military presence in their land. "The presence
adds to the tension and it puts the US agenda at the top of the list," Hall said. Americans also
suffer from the weight of their own $400 billion military budget, Hall argues, pointing at tuition
hikes at his school of up to 17 percent every year for the past four years. "Many other programs
and facilities that foster creativity and culture are losing funding or being eliminated altogether.
I believe it is precisely these sort of activities that can give people a better understanding of
other cultures, histories and ways of life. It is exactly this sort of sympathy for the rest of the
world that will create a public less prone to conflict," he said. |
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| IS participant Iba Farrah in the General Assembly Hall |
Tamiko Hirata, a GU student, presented the group's six point plan for addressing
problems in Northeast Asia, including the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the region and the
reduction of both military spending and US forces in Japan and South Korea. The group also supported
a regional "common history" textbook project, which Peace Boat is involved in, that is
scheduled to be completed by 2005. "Achieving a consensus on our history will become a foundation
of reconciliation and trust between the nations of North East Asia," Hirata said. The youth
also encouraged more NGO-level discussion, and stated their support for the GPPAC process. "We
ask that NGOs be consulted by NE Asian governments on the issues of foreign policy. We urge The
United Nations to be more receptive to ideas generated by NGOs," she said.
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| UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Danilo Turk |
Jack Patterson, chair of GPPAC's UN NGO Conflict Prevention Working Group (CPWG) and said it makes
sense to involve a greater diversity of organizations in solving social problems, especially armed
conflict. "If all you have in your toolbox is a hammer, then every problem is a nail. So what
we're trying to do is to include more tools in the toolbox," Patterson said. The stakes in war
are high and civil society groups can help prod elected officials hesitant to take action because
of politics. "We pay a very high price when we come too late - there's people in this room who
have experienced that, whose families have experienced that," Patterson said. He compared the
current evolution of the peace process to the New York City Fire Department's shift away from fire
fighting to fire prevention more than a decade ago. "The result was that the fire department
fights very few fires." |
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| A peace sculpture outside the UN |
Towards this, the GPPAC initiative is building regional groups to look at their
areas' problems and the unique ways potential conflicts could be defused. "Our goal is to
create a sustainable and credible network of conflict prevention professionals," said Jennifer
Nordstrom, who is helping organize the process. The collected examples will be presented at a
global conference at the UN in July 2005, when Peace Boat will once again be stopping in New York
City. Vandy Kanyako, a CPWG coordinator who experienced 11 years of violence in his native Sierra
Leone, knows peace when he hears it and was excited to help the GPPAC process along. "It
has become clear that conflict prevention is far cheaper than conflict resolution," Kanyako
said. "When people not only preach, but practice peace, we know there is cause for hope."
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