Nonviolent Peaceforce proposed for Pridnestrovie / Moldova conflict

Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen, international peace specialist and founder of Patrir (Romania)

CLUJ-NAPOCA (Tiraspol Times) - With an involvement going back two years, the Romanian peace research institute "Patrir" is very familiar with the situation in Pridnestrovie, also known as Transnistria, its Romanian name.

From October 15 to 21, Patrir's Cooperative Peace Project carried out an advanced experts training in peacebuilding for civil society and media participants from Moldova and Pridnestrovie, titled “Professional Training for Civil Society Peacebuilding Experts from Pridnestrovie
and Moldova”. The training included courses for PMR public administration officials, with several participants from Tiraspol taking the time to get special training in peacework and conflict resolution.

PATRIR stands for Peace and Transformation Research Institute, Romania. It was founded 4 years ago by the manager, Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen and his wife Denise Jacobsen. There are 7 paid staff, and 40 active volunteers and interns. Now, Institute has suggested that Tiraspol should consider the introduction of a nonviolent peaceforce.

The mission of the Nonviolent Peaceforce is to build a trained, international civilian nonviolent peace force. A Nonviolent Peaceforce is sent to conflict areas to prevent death and destruction and protect human rights, thus creating the space for local groups to struggle nonviolently, enter into dialogue, and seek peaceful resolution.

Such a force would function as a broad-based international civil organization, working in partnership with local groups whenever possible, to provide large-scale nonviolent protective services to people in conflict situations. It will train and maintain a pool of well-trained professionals with competencies in various civilian peacekeeping roles, from different cultures.

How a nonviolent peaceforce works

A nonviolent peaceforce works with others, including existing peace team and peace service organizations, to develop the theory and practice of third party nonviolent intervention in order to significantly improve its effectiveness.

Nonviolent Peaceforce representatives will only use nonviolent means and strategies in all circumstances. They will not take any side in the conflict nor make its services available to one party more than another.

Nonviolent Peaceforce comes at the invitation of locals, and undertakes activities only under the guidance of locals. Nonviolent Peaceforce will not undertake to influence the outcomes of conflict resolution except to assure that they are not violent.

Such a peaceforce strives not to undermine the reputation of any person or group, rather to understand and report causes and needs while opposing violence itself. The overall goal is to seek goodwill and acceptance from all parties.

A first such step took place between 5 and 13 February 2006, with an indepth peace building workshop aimed at cooperation on both banks of the Dniester river. The training program sought to developing a Civil Society Peace Building and Conflict Transformation Strategy in Moldova-Transnistria, with the main participating organizations being PATRIR (The Peace Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania), TRANSCEND (Peace and Development Network and the European Network of Civil Peace Services), in cooperation with NGO World Window (in Tiraspol) as local partner.

Sadly, less than a month later, the conflict escalated when Moldova introduced harsh economic trade measures that were seen by Tiraspol as effectively amounting to an economic blockade. The blockade has still not been lifted, and trade is down just two thirds of the similar levels of last year.

Implementation methods: Will it work in PMR?

The Nonviolent Peaceforce is an independent NGO using international presence and pressure to deter human rights abuses and violence therefore enabling local groups to continue their work of building peace and civil society. Its methods of implementation include:

1. Presence, which involves the placement of teams of trained civilians in vulnerable locations to reduce the risk of violence. This strategy relies on the sensitivity of combatants to international exposure or pressure. The visibility of the international teams is usually a requirement. Activities include maintaining regular contacts with key individuals and groups, patrolling, or just letting themselves be seen as observer-witnesses. The impact of the protection can be extended if the monitors patrol more extensively, e.g. showing up several times a week, in each place, thereby demonstrating that they 'have an eye' on the places they visit. Presence is appropriate when violence is one-sided and/or parties are impossible to separate. This strategy is often successfully combined with the methods described below as well as with a variety of other peace-building activities.

2. Accompaniment of persons who are at risk is the physical counterpart of international advocacy. In most instances death squads and other human rights violators do not want their actions exposed to the outside world. Thus the physical presence of an unarmed international volunteer, backed by an emergency response network, deters violence directed against the accompanied person.

3. Observing/documenting/monitoring activities have potential for both reporting and deterrence. Team members can put into effect a string of consequences for an abuser of human rights by channelling information to the outside through emergency response networks with people ready to send messages to protest the violation. But the more immediate goal of observing is deterrence. Reporting human rights abuses would of course have to be matched by maintaining confidentiality of sources where the risks are too great for the witness.

4. Advocacy with the International Community involves alerting those in other places to the conflict violence, injustice and human rights abuse and is nearly inseparable from the other tactics of peace teams. The attention in and of itself has potential to decrease violence if parties in the conflict are concerned about their international image. Secondarily, well-directed advocacy engages those who can apply political pressure that increases safety and causes positive change in the nature of the conflict itself.

5. Warning/notification: Often NP workers will be the first international organisation to know of a crisis, and can notify authorities/humanitarian organisations, and inform them of the resources needed to tackle the crisis.

So far, no one knows if this will work in PMR. But the existing peacekeeping operation has shown that the conflict is well controlled. Since a ceasefire in 1992, Moldova has not invaded again and no more lives have been lost. Chisinau has kept itself on its own side of the border, and the existing troops have prevented bloodshed. They have not, however, been able to solve the conflict or bring the two sides closer together. This is what a Nonviolent Peaceforce can do, says Patrir. Now, in PMR, some are willing to give it a try...

On the web:
» Transcend
» Patrir.ro (in Romanian)