Introduction
Jirga
is a council of elders in the Pukhtoon community of Afghanistan And North west
frontier providence of Pakistan, deals with local problems through its unwritten
traditional code of life called “Pusthunwali”. It is a full fledged every
day life system. It’s a community open circle process where victim and
offender have full right to level their allegation against each other with out
any fear and the Jirga members decide and implement their decision through
anonymous decision. Jirga is the most effective, neutral institution that brings
durable and sustainable, community based solution to each and every problem in
our culture. In the present scenario I select jirga for my project as it is
democratic, non-bias and neutral community based approach to the above problem.
It’s an institution, which bring justice to the parties and restore the
relationship. Three participants and a facilitator represent the international
jirga from different national, cultural, religious background. One of them was
born and grows up in the American culture while the other three were from Middle
East Palestine, Afghanistan and Pakistan.The
three individual set in a circle with facilitator as head of the jirga to make
the process on track and guide them to a peaceful anonymous decision. The
participants are free to express their feelings, with out any fear and to share
/suggest opinion in a cordial atmosphere. The decision will be anonymous and
will be acceptable to all of the members of the jirga. The proceeding of the
Jirga is based upon the actual words from the interviews with three people who
talk on issues of political disparities and their emotional attachments to
different causes in their area of work. All of them are from different fields
practical life. The
two main areas of concerns for the Jirga are emotional and political nature of
the problems. Emotionally the people’s, attachments with their homeland, and
their struggle against each other nations for different causes bring the people
to the verge of war. While on the political front the American pro and against
policies in respect of different countries make the situation imbalance in
different part of the world. The Jewish policies against the Palestinian people
are the root cause of the present crises to many peoples in general and Muslim
world in particular in the world. The Afghanistan role in the present conflict
as a breading ground and university of terrorism focus the attention of the
world. Afghan land is used for different terrorist activities after the
withdrawal of Russian forces in 1992; different fundamentalist and terrorist
groups who established strong network the world over filled the vacuum.
BACKGROUND
The
following text of international Jirga is the final product of Methods And
Philosophy of conflict research course at the fall semester in the Department of
conflict transformation program at Eastern Mennonite University lead by
Professor Haward Zehr.The
main objective of the course was to empower the course participant in the field
of research, to decide a theme, develop a proposal and interview schedule,
interviewing, transcribing, keeping in view the ethical issues and present the
final product to the class.The
three interviewees a Jewish American, Christian Palestinian, and a Muslim afghan
give full detailed interviews.The
identities of the participants were kept in secret as desired by one of them and
in the Jirga they are represented with their nationality names. International
Jirga was presented to the class as it is. The words and sentences were kept as
it is, to the participants.
International Jirga
Pakistani;
Thank you very much dear friends for being with me in this important
International Jirga today, to discuss the after effects of sep.11th which not only effected us in particular and the whole world community in
general. I am still confused enough recalling and thinking on different angles
of the sep.11th that, why it’s happened?Afghan:
To me it has three main reasons. US back/support to Saudi kingdom where people
are oppressed and the Saudi soil is a breading ground for the rise of Islamic
fundamentalism and a place of enemy building for USA. Secondly US are supporting
Israel against the Arab world. Third sanctioned against Iraqi peoples, which
caused many innocent lives to be lost over the past ten years.Palestinian; Those people who enter US to kill themselves, regardless killing others.
To kill one self-needs ultimate desperation, guess different political, economic
oppression atmosphere they lived in, US always follow their own interest
destroying others for their interests. Do they really consider them as people or
human being?American;
I would take it as a direct result of American policy. It’s a reaction of the
oppressed people, but again a violent reaction. We have a high standard of
living. The way we keep of standard of living high have directly impact on other
countries; keep their standard of living lower.Pakistani;
the incident of sept.11th has effected peoples differently, how it
effect you, your family, faith and nationality? American;
previously as you were walking in a street at night, seeing an African American,
a typical white person wonder that he will hurt me, now the Muslim they see a
person with Arabic feature, speaking foreign language they get worried, which is
sad. My parents are very positive that this was caused by the terrorist and we
did nothing wrong, As far as the Jewish community is concerned I have very
little contact with them, but there is a lot of anger around what’s happened
and it is done by Muslims. It does not matters they have directly attack Jewish
people. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Jewish people in the US are not
only feeling hurt but they are more hurt that it caused by their enemies.Palestinian;
I don’t think I differentiate the emotions that comes, when other people die,
when I see tragedy. I get angry when the things are port rated in media. Media
is only portartingUS perceptions, it neither talking about us, about Afghan
people or other people effected. It focuses on the oppressor to me. Our image is
getting worse and worse with out any one looking into the causes. We are less
and less human and therefore deserve what is happening to us.Afghan;
since I am an afghan and Muslim the event ofsep.11th have been a
tragic event for both the people of the US and also for the afghan people. This
war brought death and destruction to my people and hundred thousand of the
people have been displaced from their homes and have become refugees.
Unfortunately many people who have lost their lives in Afghanistan were like the
innocent people who lost their lives in New York and Washington. They were also
the victims of terrorist organization who represent Islam in negative way.Pakistani;
All this were discussed on different forum but being setting in the
international Jirga what we suggest. How we can see the future.Palestinian;
There is definitely no magic formula but the actual honest attempt to get rid of
the cause for why people would reach such desperation definitely be a start. It
some one wants to be peaceful they should go to the root cause, identify it and
address it. I think it will help, if any body wants to be safe. They should
attempt to work at peacefully. For me peace does not mean any thing if I am
still in danger. If you want to be safe, try to think another way to deal with
it so you can stay safe for longer period of time and be able to think about
thing more rationally.American;
the best way to go, there should be organizations to get Muslim and Jew
together, they should treat each other as a person and not as Muslim and Jews. I
can see the need to work for future generation. People needs to communicate, to
learn who the other one is, once you see some one as a human being, I don’t
think you can believe to kill him.Once
we set and talk to each other I think we can learn from each other’s. I
don’t see that there will be Palestinian state any time soon. A Palestinian
state surrounding by Israeli army is not a state in the real sense. So I can see
dislike and hatred will continuing based on the entire problem in the past as
well as occur in present. Israel has done quite a lot of bad thing. No body said
to them, you must stop it. No one said to the Palestinian, stop killing people,
stop assassinations. Some one should say to both sides. US could say.Afghani;
America is the main player in the whole game. They should arrange Lowai Jirga
(broad based Jirga) and decide the future of Afghanistan with out outside
intervention, specially the neighboring countries i.e. Iran, Pakistan,
Tajikistan under the UN supervision. Northern alliance should be kept aside and
lowai Jirga should level the ground for democracy and elected democratic govt.
in Afghanistan. Then there will be no room for any sort of terrorism inside
Afghanistan. As the power vacuum after 1992 give birth to terrorist elements on
Afghan soil. Once they are safe from the Afghanistan side I think in the Middle
East America is serious now to sort out a peaceful solution. If that has been
done then the war of terrorism against America will be finished once for all.Pakistani;
- Thank you very much friends for your valuable suggestions and fair discussion.
With this we reached to the conclusion that whatever happened in Afghanistan was
the power vacuum created by most of the developing nations after the Russian
withdrawal. It gives a chance to the terrorist elements to start different
activities on Afghan soil. Afghanistan needs support/ help in its rehabilitation
process. Peaceful efforts are the only tools to the Middle Eastern crises, as
war brings hatred to the people. Efforts are needed to develop dialogue between
the warring fictions the world over to make the future safe for the coming
generations. Lets pray that our Jirga efforts bring peace and a bright future
for the peoples suffering from the miseries of war the world over.
ALI GOHAR
Just Peace International Inc.
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