Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Jose Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor, was shot twice in the back by rebel soldiers in an attack on his home in Dili in the early hours of Monday, 11February 2008.  This article gives details and reviews his life-long service to humanity in the cause of human rights.

The attack was led by the fugitive rebel commander Alfredo Reinado who was killed in the attack.  One of Ramos-Horta’s security guards was also killed.  Alfredo Reinado had been jailed in 2006 for murder and for inciting bloody clashes based in part on ethnic rivalries among military and police forces.  Some 30 people had been killed in the violence at the time, and many fled their homes before an Australian-led international force supported by the UN restored order. In August 2006, Reinado was helped to escape jail and had been hiding in forests while regrouping his supporters. Ramos-Horta has been flown to Darwin, Australia for treatment. The Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who had been President before Ramos-Horta, will lead the government while Ramos-Horta is away.

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Mahatma Gandhi was a man of dialogue and compromise. A British-trained lawyer, he always knew the limits of the law and knew when not to push too far even when his aim was to be arrested. However, when your opponents refuse dialogue, when events move so fast that no compromise is possible, what is one to do? On the anniversary of his assassination, 30 January, these questions confront us as we try to find peaceful ways to resolve conflicts.  read more »

by Rene Wadlow

The recent, 27 November 2007, Israel-Palestine conference sponsored by the US administration at Annapolis has highlighted the need for concerted efforts to bridge the walls of separation between Israelis and Palestinians. The conference also made evident the need to place the Israeli-Palestinian tensions in the context of broader Middle East currents including Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria where tensions and difficulties abound. On all these issues, governments and their diplomatic representatives have an important role to play.  read more »

Poem by Cindy Sparrow

How clear is the vision!
How it sends waves of Peace throughout the world, riding on the smoke of incense and the sound of bells!
How warm and free it makes you feel inside.

You are standing in a beautiful place, thinking thoughts of Peace.
Reach out your left hand and join hands with another Peace Seeker.
Reach out with your right hand, you will find another Seeker.
These Peace Seekers on your left and right also join hands with others, and they with others still.
On and on, we join hands and send thoughts of peace, compassion and oneness.  read more »

from Soldier's Heart News, http://www.soldiersheart.net

By Michael Broas

I recently returned to Viet Nam, after being there 37 years ago.  I journeyed with Ed and Kate, my wife Valerie and 10 others, four of whom were other Viet Nam veterans. I am not the same person I was before going.

I read War and the Soul in July and from that time on, my life took a direction all of its own. Something deep within me was touched. For years, I never even considered the thought of going back to a country that for me represented so much lost innocence, grief, terror and confusion.  read more »

Rene Wadlow

On 31 October 2000, the UN Security Council adopted unanimously Resolution 1325 (2000) urging “Member States to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts.” Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security was the first time that the UN Security Council acknowledged that women play a key role in promoting sustainable peace and stressed the participation of women in peace processes from the prevention of conflict, to negotiations, to post-war reconstruction and reconciliation.  read more »

Two October is the United Nations-designated International Day of Non-Violence.  October second is the anniversary of the birth of Mohandas Gandhi who has become the world-wide symbol of non-violent action against injustice.  Speaking of the power of non-violence, which he called Satyagraha (holding fast to truth), Mahatma Gandhi warned that “Unless all of us strengthen the forces of satyagraha, the methods of violence are bound automatically to gain ascendancy.  read more »

The determination of Burma's Buddhist monks to bring about change non-violently in their country has awakened a civilian population long held in fear by the governing military. The monks are marching behind large banners saying "Love and Kindness must win over everything." Demonstrations have been growing in city after city as the monks have taken the leadership of protests which began in early September against the sudden rise in fuel, food, and transportation costs.  read more »

 
The following information was relayed to me by Betty Bland, Secretary and record keeper of TOS-USA.

"Dr. R Gandhi, grandson of Mohandus Gandhi, is visiting prof. at U of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.  I don't know for how long, but can we see about having him speak here?  read more »

by Deni Gross

We implore Thee, our Creator . . . bring peace upon planet Earth.

We all have our little rituals which somehow seem to get us through the day: coffee first thing in the morning; reading the mail before settling down to work; unwinding with a good book before bed. Even when we complain that our lives seem rather boring or uneventful, we may be surprised to find ourselves performing these same daily rituals as regularly as clockwork. There is a certain amount of comfort in familiarity; and our daily rituals bring to us a sense of inner peace and control over the chaos, stress, and uncertainty that seem to accompany life in our fast-paced, globally interconnected world.  read more »

Do you support a peaceful solution to the Chinese occupation of Tibet?  The United States has long pressured China to improve its human rights record.  Follow this link to see how public sentiment and peaceful actions may influence the Chinese government in this regard as they prepare for the Olympic Games in 2008. http://www.racefortibet.org/

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" (Psalm XXIII)

At least since 1980 and the start of the Iraq-Iran war, Iraqis have lived in the shadow of death, repression, war, the decay and destruction of the economy and social services, the growth of religious sectarianism and crime. Such events have created deep karmic currents and thus have drawn to Iraq non-Iraqi military troops, irregular fighters as well as those who try to help and heal.  read more »

WORLD PEACE BELL
Christchurch, New Zealand

(Photos courtesy of Susan Noble)

This beautiful ceremonial peace bell was dedicated on October 2, 2006 at Christchurch, New Zealand's official peace city.  It is a replica of the original World Peace Bell gifted to the United Nations in 1954 and is one of only 19 such bells around the world.  It is made of coins and medals from 106 countries, including New Zealand.  read more »