CHAPTER 15“IS THE WAR REALLY OVER?”

Mighty Be Our Powers – Leymah Gbowee

AFTER 14 YEARS OF WAR – SO MANY FALSE STARTS

War “officially over Aug. 14, 2003 Hard to believe the war was really over

after there had been more than a dozen peace treaties signed and broken

Many rumors People live in a constant state of fear After 14 years of war, it doesn’t just go

away

CONFRONTING THE TRUTH

250,000 people were dead – ¼ children 1 out of 3 people was displaced 350,000 living in internally displaced

persons camps One Million – mostly women and children

at risk of malnutrition, diarrhea, measles and cholera due to contaminated wells

75% of country’s infrastructure destroyed (roads, hospitals, schools, etc)

MENTAL/EMOTIONAL DAMAGE

A whole generation of young men had no idea who they were without a gun in hand

Several generations of women were widowed, had been raped, had seen others raped, and their children kill and be killed

Neighbors turned against neighbors Young people lost hope – old people lost

everything they’d worked for Everyone was traumatized

PEACE ISN’T A MOMENT –IT’S A VERY LONG PROCESS

LEYMAH’S NEW DETERMINATION

Had to continue to show the awesome power of women

Peace is not “the end” but the foundation of a movement that had to continue

Ran a 3 day conference to teach women what the peace agreement meant

DEALING WITH “OFFICIAL” PEACEKEEPERS UN Missions in Liberia (UNMIL) was the

official peacekeeping force Very arrogant Supposed to kelp with humanitarian

assistance and refugee return Never consulted with anyone in the

society on how to do this Result = avoidable disasters

PROBLEMS WITH UNMIL

Policy not to give food/supplies to former fighters

Made food delivery to civilians Didn’t consult locals and didn’t know

there were armed men in the area Fighters came in and took everything

PROGRAM OF DDR

“Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration”

Leymah told them they should let knowledgeabe locals help – she was told not to worry – there were “experts” in charge

Plan was to offer money for guns

EXPERTS KNOW EVERYTHING, RIGHT? UN helicopters buzzed villages and

dropped leaflets describing the program to communities were most people were illiterate

Dec 7 – supposed to be a “just for show” demonstration of how the program would work

Didn’t tell fighters this was “just for show”

Almost 3000 heavily armed troops showed up and got in line (many were Taylor’s troops)

YES, THE EXPERTS KNOW…

They smoked pot while they stood in line There wasn’t enough food, water or

money for all the fighters who showed up Did they go away peacefully when the

supplies ran out????? Of course not! Chaos = Rioting, Looting The UN Staff left the locals to clean up the

mess

OOPS! LET’S SEE WHO CAN DO THIS RIGHT…

3 days later the UNMIL shut down the DDR program

Leymah and Sugars approached Taylor’s generals and offered to help – told them they knew how to work with the boys

Recruited over 50 volunteers to start Taught women around the country how to

run an effective DDR It worked!!!

FINALLY, SOME RECOGNITION

In 2004, a UNIFEM report on DDR in Liberia praised the women for their assistance, noting that they performed “many essential tasks that would normally be the responsibility of armed military personnel.”

Leymah broadens her involvement

WIPNET got a lot of attention in the world of conflict resolution and peace-building.

Leymah was asked to present at conferences Thelma started Herstories publication Leymah went to New York to a USAID

conference in 2004 (US Agency for International Development)

That led to a conference in Switzerland Leymah started to read more and get

involved more with “officials” in the peace groups

Steps toward college

Leymah attended a month-long program at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Virginia

Learned the concept of “Restorative Justice” Gets away from punishment and

retribution Focuses on joint effort between victim and

offender Leymah saw this as a great solution

because it followed the village tradition

She also dealt with her own issues – forgiving and moving on