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At the World Vision center

No 20 Street 71 Sangkat Tonle Bassac Khan Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh Cambodia

May 28-29 From 7.30 to 17.00

Sponsored by: Oxfam/GB, AFSC, CIDSE, NGO Forum, Forum for Peace, SILAKA, CIHR, Dhammayietra Center, PADV, Star Kampuchea, KSA, KWVC, IDV, CSD, WFP, HRDP, MCC, and VBNK.

Participants:

Russell Peterson, NGO Forum on Cambodia, Brian Heidel, CIDSE, Prak Sokhany, ACR, Khoun Channy, CRS, Mudita Chamroeurn, CIDSE, Leonor Montiel, Maryknoll, Bob Liarke, AFSC, Fudy Saunudeer, AFSC, Edgar Janz, MCC, Ek Sophanna, NGO Forum, Van Tooch, Pact, Ngin Chanrith, minute taker, Kim Kirivadid, KSA, Prack Tapy, KSA, Chhim Maly, TV 3 FM103, Chhoeun Kuncheat, KSA, Ong Vuthy, Dhammayietra, Seam Vinnhou Ratanak, Religion and Cult Ministry, Sim Muni, Religion and Cult Ministry, Rath Saroun, BSN, Dy Sam Sideth, Rupp, FLC, Chet Charya, Star Kampuchea, Lakhan Mehrotra, UNOSGRC, Helen Clarke, AFSC, Mov Lean, VDNK, Nou Sambo, Mother's Love, Ouk Chettra, Silaka/Forum for Peace, Mom Sorou, Star Kampuchea, Yann San, KSA, Oeur Sam Aun, KSA, Chaipant Prabhasavat, Forum for the Poor in Thailand, Samdech Moha Ghosananda, DYA, Yos Hut Chemacharo, Rin Monichanto Mohamontry, Sar Samen, PADV, Chhay Yiheang, RUPP, Tun Youheang, Silaka, Ya Navuth, Silaka, Nou Bunnary, Star Kampuchea, Prok Vanny, Oxfam/GB, Cham Phally, VBNK, Koy Veth, KWVC, Phay Sophal, CPR, Tang Sunhao, CMGC, Ven Sosarith, Langka, Ven Punchandara, Langka, Ven Kong Somath, Langka, Chan Sobunry, ANLWC, Ouk Sinoun, Nuns' Association, Heang KimYon, nun, Khun Bouvhuy, nun, Sun Thouk, nun, Chin Bour, nun, Thida Khus, Silaka, Leng Lakhena, KDYA, Singha Savera, VSG, Yuk Kalyan, PADV, Um Sokhom, Outreach, Ok Kong, SABORAS, Sua Chanthol, Langka, Khan Savoeurn, Langka, Rin Chor, QIHR, Phoung Sith, HRVC, Him Moniphak, KSA, So Sokhon, IDA, Yong Kimeng, KYA, Lim Mon, Human Rights, Takeo, Un Chanvirak, VCAO, Touch Yorn, BFD, Kim Leng, Dhammayietra, Hour Serei, Moeys, Soth Phai Ngam, CDRI, Prak Sophea, KWVC, Aine Dudy, CDRI, Meng Ho Leang, CDRI, Tum Bunthan, KAWP, Ker Pros, ADHOC, Peung Yok Hiep, LAC, Boua Chanthou, Padek.

IFL, RUPP

Day 1:

08:00 Opening ceremony by Ven. Yos Hut/Ven. Moha Ghosanada (p.4, p.7)

08:30 Purpose of Workshop

08:45 Problem Summary (p.5)

10:00 Break

10:30 Developing Vision (p.7)

12:00 Lunch

13:40 Options for Future Action, Problems/Risks and Favorable Conditions (p.13)

15:00 Break

15:20 Options for Future Action, Problems/Risks and Favorable Conditions

continue

17:15 Close of Day 1

17:25 Meeting of Facilitators

Day 2:

08:00 Recap results of Day 1

08:10 Introduction of Panels (p.18)

08:15 Experiences from Thailand and Sri Lanka

Mr. Vaida Pantivitayapipak, Forum of the Poor in Thailand, Thailand

Mr. Jehan Perara, National Peace Council, Sri Lanka (p.20)

10:15 Break

10:45 Questions and answers

11:30 Ranking options by priority (p.24)

12:00 Lunch

13:30       Initiating Peace and Non-Violence: Developing Action Plan, Principles and Structure for Operation (p.24)

15:15 Break

15:45 Developing Action Plan, Principles and Structure for Operation (continued)

17:00 Closing

APPENDICES:

1. Problem Statement (p.27)

2. Matrix of Peace Work in Cambodia

3. Song of Peace

4. Draft Principles

5. Guidelines for the Peace Campaign

Introduction by Ms. Thida Khus

The workshop started with Ms Thida Khus, facilitator, welcoming national and international honored guests, including the UN Secretary-General's Representative in Cambodia.

According to the planned agenda, Samdech Preah Moha Ghosananda is expected to deliver a speech to open the workshop. But due to his late arrival from Siem Reap Province, Venerable Yos Hut Khemacharo gave a speech instead. He offered a wishing sermon to the Participants.

Venerable Yos Hut Chemacharo's Remarks

He said the sermon not only offers good luck and happiness but also a prayer of Buddhists to thank Buddha who had enlightenment and advised human beings about physical, mental and verbal nonviolence which is the cause of happiness. He added that happiness depends on individuals ’act. The Buddha therefore advised people to do good things.Peace relies on each individual’s mind.To get peace, first we ourselves must have a peaceful heart or mind.Because if we have love and compassion, we will have peace because the mind orders all work we do. Furthermore, we know that we people wish for peace, pray for peace and wait for peace, but many do not know how to gain peace. We should not wait for or just pray for peace or wait for leaders to give us peace - we must do it by ourselves. Even Buddha could not make or provide us with peace, but he is just a model of peace. So, each individual must do it by themselves, i.e. we must have peace in our mind first. Because we all, intentionally or unintentionally, must be responsible for peace and violence - not an individual. That is why we should not blame or drop faults on others.

He also expressed his hope that all members of the entire society are aware of and precisely comprehend their contribution and responsibility in seeking peace for themselves in order to develop their society, i.e. we must not wait for other to do it for us we all must contribute. Additionally, those who spread love and compassion must be peaceful, physically, mentally and verbally, first before educating others. Because if we ourselves peaceful, it is not difficult to educate others to be peaceful. A model of peace is of vital importance because we Khmer people have been living in violence since birth and violence characteristics has become a violent culture in society. Hence, we must have a model of non-violence to bring about a non-violent atmosphere to replace the violent one in the society. Therefore, we need a model of peace non-violence from those who need and want to make peace and non-violence in society. It is therefore surmised that we must develop our own soul first before developing other Dhamas. For instance, we must have four Dhamas first: Share living; Physically, mentally and verbally honest; socially beneficial; and non-discriminating, before we have unity. If each individual follows the four Dhamas, we will have solidarity and unification. We should not just call for unity-we should know and follow the four Dhamas if we want peace. Otherwise, we do not have peace. But some people are at times forced to have unity. However, such forcible unity cannot bring peace.

Venerable Yos Hut Khemacharo concluded his speech that peace is from each individual’s mind and therefor we must make ourselves peace and non-violent first before we want peace and non-violence nationwide.

General Workshop Themes

After that Ms Thida Khus summed up venerable ‘s speech and then introduced four general workshop themes:

1. Background of peace and non-violence related activities of NGOS in Cambodia.

2. Vision of what wanted in the future.

3. Options for future action to achieve the vision.

4. Action or strategies to be done in the future.

Workshop Objectives

Next, Ms Leang Meng Ho, CIHR Director, presented workshop objectives as follow:

1. To provide a better understanding of current and past peace and non-violence related activists in Cambodia.

2. To provide a better understanding of a Cambodia Vision of Peace.

3. To provide a better understanding of the obstacles and risks in this campaign, and some strategies for addressing them.

4. To provide some examples for peace and non-violence movements of regional countries.

5. To provide discussion of a wide range of options for initiating a peace and non-violence campaign in Cambodia.

6. To provide discussion on an action plan for following up from the first workshop with some concrete activities and follow-up discussion /workshop/forum .....

Problem Summary

Then, Ms Kuy Veth, KWVC Director, read the workshop statement on problems and causes of violence in Cambodia which is briefly summarized as follows:

Local and international NGOs, which are independent and non-partisan and have organized this workshop, are under an impression that peace in Cambodia is the top priority in the national agenda. We believe that peace and development cannot be separated. Therefore, we have thus far worked very actively in development and peace building. Some NGOs have had activists in training for meditation, peace march to demonstrate peace in the heart and non-violence for peace. Other NGOs have been focusing on human rights and democracy education, educating people to alleviate poverty,cutting down on human rights violations,reducing racial discrimination, leaning skill on conflict resolution, establishing of networking groups, persuading the Royal Government to have affective legal systems /laws /reduction of domestic violence, prostitution, AIDS, the use of mine etc. .However, we are very concerned of the increased of violence in our communities and these violent acts have become more and more brutal, as evidenced by the grenade attacks in front of the National Assembly on March 30 1997, the fighting eruption on 5-6 July 1997in Phnom Penh, fighting in O’Smach and Anlong Veng, revenge, unresolved power sharing, execution, crime and other countless criminal activities that harm, threaten and intimidate the populace. These phenomena contribute to the loss of confidence in the authority.

The people who have suffered from the above mention violence are innocent people including children, elderly men & women. It is found that tens thousand of refugees are scared away from their homes, trying to escape from bombs, mines, grenades and other ammunition attacks. Many got killed or injured, and others became disabled, orphans, homeless, and distraught because of missing family members.

The because of these violent act including the following :

+ Ideological and material competition, nepotism, individualism,and foreign culture competition.

+ Long period of civil war caused the erosion of Khmer identity and emerged in the culture of war.

+ People have greed, hatred and delusion, and lack the five noble truth: loving, kindness, sympathy, compassion and equanimity; and the five golden rules of Buddha: pana(do not kill) anttinitea,kamal (adultery ) musa (lying ) and sora (consuming alcohol).

+Leaders do not pay attention to psychological (need for the culture of peace and the culture of prosperity.

+Leaders do not give good examples in following the teaching of Buddha,and the people’s practice of Buddhist ways is also very limited.

+Political leaders do not make themselves good examples in a biding by constitution law and they do not make much efforts to advise or read the others under their wing to learn and respect the laws.

+Ineffective of implementation of the law illustrate the lack of capacity and irresponsibility of government leaders that lead to social injustice and violence.

+Lack of permanent and strong peace movement throughout the country.

The statement ended by appealing for the real peace to be in the heart of all the Cambodia people and leaders.

Current/Past Peace and Non-Violence Activities

Afterwards, Ms Prok Vanny, Domestic Violence Alleviation Program Director of Oxfam/GB, and Ms Sor Samen, PADV Director, presented peace and non -violence related activities which NGOS have been doing in Cambodia, showing types of work needed to reduce violence, target groups and NGOS that have been working on them on a big table. (also see attached table ). Following is a summary of type of work and target groups which a member of local and international NGOs have been working with:

- Individuals (focusing on youth, elderly, monks and nuns, and working adults) have received meditation training, ethics and morality education, awareness raising peace education, education on conflict resolution and management, education on reduction of weapons, justice human rights, political options / democracy training, strengthening traditional methods, non-violent action training, and coalition building and networking.

-Families (focusing on families and domestic violence ) have received awareness / raising peace education, education on prejudice, reduction, safety and security, reduction of weapons, justice, human rights, and non-violent action training.

-Community (focusing on community institutions: schools, pagodas, local government, police and militia, and local NGOS ) have received meditation training, ethics and morality education, awareness / raising peace education, education on conflict resolution and management, prejudice reduction, reduction of weapons, human rights, strengthening traditional methods, and coalition building and networking.

-Nation (focusing on national governance, political parties, and the media ) has received ethics and morality education, awareness / raising peace education, education on conflict resolution and management, reduction of weapons, human rights, political/ option/ democracy training, strengthening traditional methods, non-violent action training, and coalition building and networking.

-World (focusing on relationships with neighboring countries and with the world ) has received awareness / raising peace education, education or prejudice reduction, safety and security, human rights, conflict resolution and management, non-violet action training, and coalition building and networking.

There are other NGOS and people movements who have aspects of peace work in their programs, are active in peace work but mapped not sure how or what, and should be encouraged to use their programs to promote peace, have been working on many types of works with those target groups (also see the table) Because some NGOS who have working on the types of work but their names are not in the table, the presenter asked them to write their names on piece of paper and stick them in appropriate columns of the types of work they have been working on, and write their names on pieces of different colored paper and the future (also see the attached table in the Appendix ).

Samdech Preah Moha Ghosananda's Remarks

After that Sandech Preah Maha Ghosananda who arrived late delivered his remark and advice about peace and non-violence to the workshop as follows:

Buddha make great efforts for six years to search for the right way towards happiness and calmness, i.e. the eight right middle ways which include right comprehension, right consideration, right speech (at right time and in right place ), right spirit and right efforts........

He continued that only the eight right ways can make us happy and peaceful. But the ways must be the middle ways,i.e. not too lax or not too tough. It is like harp strings which we must not loosen or tighten them excessively because if they are too loose, we cannot play it well but if they are too tight they will be broken; therefor we must adjust them to an appropriate tightness which seems like the middle ways.......

He concluded his speech by offering advice that if a person peaceful, a family has peace and happiness, a peaceful family makes a peaceful community, a peaceful community makes a peaceful nation, and if a nation is peaceful the whole world will be peaceful and happy.

Following Sandech Preah Maha Ghosananda’s speech, Ms Thida Khus, representing the workshop participants, gave a bunch of flowers to him to congratulate him who is an activist of peace and role model of peace who was awarded Niwano Peace Prize in May. Then , Sandech Preah Maha Ghosananda gave a wishing sermon to the workshop and he went back to meet the King in Siem Reap Province.

Developing Vision

After the afternoon break, the workshop went on.

Mr. Chhay Yiheang's Vision

Mr. Chhay Yiheang, Dean of Philosophy Faculty of Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), presented his remarks and vision about peace and violence issues in Cambodia. He said Cambodia is like a nearly broken Glass which needs to be direly repaired to get peace. Though his local and overseas experiences, he understands that many people and countries are interested in war and violence issues in Cambodia and they want to help her to gain a complete peace. He raise many examples of events to mirror the war and split, and peace and reunification in Cambodia, concluding that even Cambodian themselves want peace and reconciliation as well they do not want violence, murders in the war.....

For instance, he attended National Social-Cultural Congresses held at RUPP2 in December 1997 and 1998 two times, in which the participants were mainly interested in erosion of social valves in Cambodia, whose critical content shows that to solve in Cambodia and make her obtain a real peace, all Cambodian must be kind compassionate, tolerant and love each other, and settle problems non-violently and peacefully...... The book has attracted interests of many people, especially students.

He added that because Cambodia has experienced countless wars and violent acts, Cambodian people has been living in a culture which he called culture of violence. So, to get peace,we first must cultivate non-violent spirit in each individual’s mind, that is to say to make them tolerant to each other without using violence.

He also recalled glory and break-away in Cambodian history which prospered in Moha Nokor era which Khmer people nowadays wish for. But because we had split, we fought each other and asked foreigners for help, we abandoned our great Moha Nokor and ran away from one capital city to another from generation,which made us lose almost all our history. This makes us not clearly understand our history because we know it only through foreign scholars, such as Mr Chiv Takuan ( ? ) and Mr Joerge Chedez ( ? ) and we sometimes know it through folk tales or re-telling...which makes us not concisely understand ourselves. Certain people say if looking at current Cambodian people and country and remaining splendid architectural merits of their ancestors, they cannot believe that Khmers could have achieved such great things.

Also, he raised consequences of breaking war between Khmers and Khmers who fought each other and then asked the west (Thailand) and the east (Vietnam) for respective assistance, and then gradually lost their territory due to foreigners' violation or cutting territory to them as a thank-you way. But he raised good things done by France who was protectorate of Cambodia that helped maintain Khmer territory from losing more. However, he criticized France that twined from protectorate to treating Cambodia as its colony and exploited a lot from Cambodians and oppressed them in many ways as well...

About events in 1953-54 he said: I was born to witness violent acts and killing.... But when King Norodom Sihanouk commenced his royal crusade to demand independence from France, people were well united under his leadership.

For example, people want to struggle with him but they did not have weapons, so he advised them to make wooden arms and they follow him.... After independence the society them was very safe and secure, without any robberies or violent murders at all.... People could travel to all places at all time had accurate rules of law and national soul...

Though rules of law at the time were not as thorough and tough as nowadays, people were a ware of them selves and followed them voluntarily.

He also mention his experience in 1985 when he met some Khmer Rouge guerrillas in a village...who he could communicate them in an understanding way, which he drew a conclusion that each other, non-violent, compassionate and tolerant to each other.

Another instance was raised by him to show Khmer youth's sympathy that needs peace and non-violent, i.e. When he gave a one-hour lecture on "peace in people's spirit" to students of Medicine Faculty, which made them so interested and many of them asked him to continue his lecture for another two hours and they agree to gather. Others to listen to him during the break.... He surmised that this was not because he was good at speaking but this is the stage when they are extremely interested and willing to need peace and non-violence.

He also recalled another experience in the 5-6 July event when he and some other teachers went to stay in his village where villagers there generously Prohok (Khmer cheese) with him, which makes him believe in charitable Khmer people who help each other in need which is an essential factor leading to compassion and tolerance and avoidance of violence....

He ended his presentation strongly believing that Cambodia will have peace and absence violence in the future because Khmer people are fed up with and sick of war and non-violent.

Then he provided the workshop participants with copies of article about "The necessity of using the concept of tolerance in Cambodia."

Ms Yuk Kalyan's Vision

Next, Ms Yuk Kalyan, representing Khmer women, presented here vision about peace and non-violence in Cambodia.

She said as a Khmer woman when she was young she saw that the society was very safe and sound. Girls went to school without any teasing or intimidation by naughty boys,i.e. parents allowed their children to go to school without any worry.

But presently as parents she is so concerned when her daughters go to school because when leaving school they are teased and humiliated by rude schoolboys. And parents are also worried about abduction of their daughters therefore, as a Khmer her biggest wish is happiness for all her off-springs in the future which she thinks is the major priority for Cambodia peace. Because if a country is peaceful and non-violent, people have enough time to improve their living condition and contribute with government to develop the country. And the government also has much time to think of developing the country. But to develop the country, we have to develop human resource first and therefore we must think of our kids’ future who will replace us next generations.And the best place for training children is school; so if schools are not safe and secure, we cannot offer them good education.Additionally, our teachers have poor living standard that they cannot pay much attention to their core wok. which also makes pupils’ parents worried. Moreover, educational curriculum and school disciplines are not so good as before......

So, her wanted priority is pe3acewhich initially stems from each individual’s mind before the whole nation has peace. If the nation is completely peaceful,we will have stability in developing scientific and technical education for younger generations.....

Her biggest objective is therefore to train good people to lead the country in the future, and she hopes that people of this generation will stand as good examples for youth of next generations. But it is not easy- we need support from people of all walks of life including pupils’ parents, NGOs, government organizations /institutions, IOs and people at all levels......... to do the work in order to provide safety and security to our children in their schooling so that they will become good citizens to lead the country in the future.

Mr. Cheurn Kun Cheat's Vision

After Ms Yuk Kalyan finished her impression, Mr.Cheurn Kun Cheat, from Khmer Students’ Association, representing Cambodia youth, presented his concern and vision briefly that:

On behalf of Cambodian Youths and Students, he appealed to all youths to combat social violence. He portrayed his experience that: he has attended course of social non-violence education and he similarly understandings that individuals’ mind is the cause of violence. He has noticed that at the present time some people with high education and knowledge but if they do not have morality they still blindly commit violent acts as the ill-educated. So if we are able to combat violence in our mind, violence in society will not exist... Because current robberies, murders and physical violence.... are caused by mental pride and so if we want to stop those acts.

We should have a joint cooperation to educate individuals’ minds and publish non-violent activities as NGOs have been doing.

He ended that today's workshop is a good step to promote peace and non-violence in Cambodian society....

Group Discussion: Developing Vision

Later on, workshop participants were divided into five discussion groups, four Khmer speaking groups and one English speaking group, to discuss their vision as an individual, community and country on the whole.

Following is the summarized content of the five discussion groups:

• Physical and mental peace
• Have freedom
• Decent life
• Tolerance with each other
• Have mutual living/caring
• Respect laws
• Help each other
• Love their own country and culture
• Have high education
• Have morality
• Have national conscience
• Be impartial
• Enjoy with nature without fear (mines, natural disasters....)
• Have good security and safety
• Have peaceful ideas
• Not too much ambitious and non-violent
• Find the roots of problems before solving them
• Good living standard of family
• Solve problems peacefully
• Have honesty
• Be tough but polite and gentle
• Be a good model
• Have self-responsibility
• Follow the majority
  

2. Community

• Good environment
• Tolerance
• Awareness of all fields
• Good education to younger generations
• Solve problems peacefully and justly
• Enough infrastructure
• United to help each other
• Non-violence education
• Share knowledge and experience
• Develop networks
• Increase knowledge in community
• Know how to find main points or the causes of problems, priorities, and strategies
• Support each other
• Have peace and prosperity
• Non-discrimination
• Equal before laws/legal equality
• United
• Have code of ethics and security and safety
• Share ideas and tolerance
• Have compassion and sympathy
• Agricultural development in rural areas
• Help spread love and compassion
• Reduce violence and provide vocational training
• Educate people on women 's rights
• No exploitation over the poor
• No weapons
• NGOs must not be partisan

3. Country

• National pride to be Cambodian
• Energy, commitment, and resources focused on development
• More just society
• Effective government
• More freedom to oppose government peacefully, and lobby openly
• Reduce army and military expenditures
• No civil war
• Maintain national resources and culture
• Have laws, respect laws, and implement national and international laws
• People have harmony, solidarity and honesty in the world\
• Progressive educational sector
• Neutral and just judiciary
• Non-violent action
• Hygiene/sanitation
• Honest nation
• Cambodia should stand as an example of peace
• Respect from international community
• Less dependence on international donors
• Advance
• Economic growth
• Free multi-party democracy
• Respect Buddhism
• Khmers love each other
• No unemployment
• Participation and contribution
• No discrimination
• Integrity
• Leaders have the ten-quality Dhamas
• Cooperate with neighboring countries
• Set up peace education at all levels
• People are the owners of power
• Spread non-violence through religion
• Civil servants must serve people
• State of law
• Transparency
• Eliminate greedy ambition and oppression

A Peace Song: Peace is a Song

After lunch break, the participants listened to a peace song titled "Peace is a Song" whose meaning was explained in English by Ms. Thida Khus, which briefly means: Peace is very noble and sacred and wanted by all people, rich or poor. If we have peace, we live prosperously. Therefore we must abandon violence and make our minds peaceful so that our nation gloriously develops.... (see song in Appendix)

Then representatives of each group presented their discussed vision.

Group Discussion: Options for Future Action, Problems/Risks and Favorable Conditions

Afterwards, the participants were regrouped into five teams to discuss options for their future action, favorable conditions and problems/risks expected to be encountered in achieving their vision.

Following is the content of each discussion group:

Group 1:

Group 2:

Group 3:

Group 4:

Group 5:

Representatives of each group presented their discussed outcome.

Introduction of Panels

Ms. Thida Khus began the workshop on the second day by recapping results of the first day and then introducing two guest speakers who presented their working experiences of peace and non-violence related activities.

Mr. Vanida Pantivitayapipak's Presentation

The first speaker was Mr. Vanida Pantivitayapipak from Forum for the Poor, Thailand. In the course of turmoil to demand for democracy in 1990 in Thailand, he was a modelist student and also an activist of students' movement at the time. He used to lead a successful people' s movement to protest against a project of building a rubbish-generated electricity plan which would pollute environment in Chiang Mai. He is currently an advisor to Cambodian Farmers' Association.

He said he had a history of struggle since he was little and was a student, i.e. he cannot stand social injustice. He recalled his struggling experiences when he did in Thailand. On 14 October 1973 he joined a resistance movement against the then dictatorial regime in which the people were victors.

On 16 October 1973 he remembered that public organizations were suffering from killings and intimidation, which was a crucial incident similar to incidents he witnessed when he was young.... And the incident in 1992 also cost a lot of damages.... He then came to live in Chiang Mai where he led a very peaceful life for six years. But later on a big rubbish-generated electricity plan was going to be erected, which would produce poisonous substances to spoil environment there. He partook in a movement to oppose the project beginning from a small group to a bigger one with tens of thousands of people participating in the movement. And then he became the movement leader. He indicated that the plan equipment was imported from Sweden and worth millions bahts and about forty of such a plan were intended to be constructed throughout the country. So people have rights to struggle to opt for pure, poisonless to live in. In spite of armed menace, people had been struggling for nine months, by, for example, talking to Prime Minister Silapak Acha (?), and at last people got triumph.

The nationwide attended peoples movement officially became "Forum for the Poor" on 10 December 1995 at Thamasath University in Bangkok, with numerous NGOs taking part in.

The Forum afterwards accepted forty-seven protest cases and it took two months to get approval form Prime Minister at the time of handing over of government whose Prime Minister was then Mr. Chavalit Yungchayuddh, and at the time there was also heated cracking down on dissidents.

After that the number of cases increased up to a hundred of seven big categories: forest, land, dam, accommodation of the poor, labor illness, agriculture, and politics and rules of law. Forest and land issues between the State and people happened a long time ago in Thailand. The authority intimidated and imprisoned people and people gathered together to ask the State to see who live came to live there first. Hundreds of thousands of people lived in forests controlled by government. Concerning dam issues, the State moved people's residential homes to build dams but when dams had been constructed the State did not compensate the people or exploited their money which they needed to embark on a fresh life.... There were 2526 families in a province who asked for 1200 million bahts but the new administration did not give them. Now they are demanding at the Forum of the Poor. Before he came here, he met Mr. Prime Minister and he agreed to grant them rice worth about twenty million bahts.....

Pertaining to state projects, he said administration built hospitals, schools....by moving people' s accommodation without compensating them, which made them oppose the government. Poor people coming from provinces live in big towns without proper shelters- some live beneath bridges and some live in public areas, which requires a law to help them, i.e. to help find accommodation for them, that need a fund of not less than five million bahts. Concerning labor illness, it is also a cause of industrial collapse. Industry workers become ill due to chemical substances...... For example, in garments factories workers suffer from dust of cloth which makes them have lung related diseases, and they are not given money for treatment. There are thirty sorts of labor diseases caused by industrial work which a responsible monitoring institution to work on it to get payment for the sick workers..... About agriculture, peasants in some areas cultivated only rice, or only rubber, or just sugar cane..... And when the world agricultural market went down, the farmers were indebted.... They were therefore advised to partly do seasonal farming and at the same time raise poultry and pigs and grow vegetables or fruit trees such as jack fruit trees and mango trees so that they can survive the whole year and makes their living better. Regarding politics/rules of law, the Forum has demanded for a good system of judiciary, and facilitated trials between the state and people, which in general we did well. For instance, people who shared a forest with the state and the case was protested to National Assembly.... As for management of seeds, because there is a variety of useful plant and grass seeds in the forests, the Forum asked for a law to mange it. For example, a kind of plant seed was discovered by Japan as beneficial herb which can be refined into herbal medicine to heal stomach disease, and we demanded to create a law to protect it so that people are more rightfully responsible for this valuable herbal plant.

All the work done by the Forum for the Poor for two years, with participation by many NGOs, in which we met Prime Minister and ministers to set up a joint committee led by Prime Minister to make people have empowerment to protest. After that tens of thousands of people came to protest peacefully at Ministerial Cabinet and National Assembly.... And some of them lost their lives during meditation to protest.... It was an experience of protest attended by the poor because the administration abandoned them, but the government mainly helps the rich, which makes the gap between the rich and the poor much larger. So the Forum for the Poor in Thailand can be a model of other countries, and Cambodia can learn from it, too.

In regard to economic collapse in Thailand, he said thirty years ago Thailand planned seventeen development projects of which a project was for five years, which made its economy collapse because the development aimed for industrial objective by seeking money from abroad and borrowing money from many foreign countries, which seemed the nation was prospering but in fact the loan made the economy fall down.

In 1997 the loan was audited which caused decrease in value of dollar, and there were people who exploited from foreign money as well- they fought each other in economic war which is a new war of modern society, and Thailand lost the war that was why its economy collapsed. Thailand is now prepared to sell out its assets, such as banks, and business enterprises to foreigners, which would allow them to control the assets and land. These are huge issues of Thailand and if it cannot pay foreigners' debt, it will become poorer than Khmer in the future. This is a lesson for us that we have to choose appropriate development....

If a country has bad politicians, vote-buying and corruption, it will end up with terrible consequences.

He ultimately concluded that if human beings do not understand each other and do not have peace from their hearts, we cannot live with each other. We must have love, compassion and caring because this world does not belong to anyone, ie. it belongs to all of us. So we must share in our living.... Human species is the best and what is the worst is also man.

Mr. Jehan Perara's Presentation

The next speaker Mr. Jehan Perara from National Peace Council, Sri Lanka, presented his organization' s working experience. He is also a freelance writer of a weekly Island Newspaper in Sri Lanka. His organization aims to help people find peace based on Mohatma Dhandi' s non-violent philosophy. He was also a student of law at Harwards University, the USA.

He said in 1994 there was a general election in Sri Lanka. At the time people were afraid of occurrence of violent acts because the Government who had ruled the country for seventeen years did not want to lose their power and if the opposition party won the election, violence would happen. People organized peace marches to halt violent acts from happening during the electoral campaign. In all the activities we were in the middle- not biased, and did not support any conflicting faction. We invited Cambodia's Samdech Preah Moha Ghosanada to attend the peace march as a symbol of peace as well. Thanks to the victory of the peace mach, we formed a peace organization in 1994 but we did not operate fully yet. The election finished. The Government started negotiations with the break-away group Tamil Liberation Tigers, which made people happy and hoped that the war would end and peace would come. But the negotiation, like others in 1958, 1965 and 1987, was unsuccessful which made people worried again. Reasons of the failure were explained in a diagram as follows:

• Political, military leaders who determine the war.

• NGOs, community leaders

• Grassroots people

The diagram means that only a leader or a group of leaders involved in the talks and when the talks were decided the entire country disagreed or sometimes did not know. Decisions made by the top level were not understood or at times not aware of by the middle and bottom levels, and when there was an agreement they opposed to it because they did not trust the top level's decisions. This caused violent struggle, such as burning government buildings, which made the government cancel the agreement or not want to continue negotiations anymore. So all appropriate peace resolutions should be raised from the bottom and middle levels because if the bottom and middle levels agree, the agreement is successful. Two months later the negotiation process restarted which made people hope again the talk could be agreed. And we always mobilized people to support the talk, but it still failed.

The civil war in Sri Lanka is like civil wars in other countries which involved many local groups fighting each other and the biggest faction of majority always want to holds power. When there is a democratic election they have the most seats or members of parliament, therefore in making laws they always benefit people of their own race, which disadvantages other races.

In Sri Lanka Tamil people make up 25% of the whole population. They uphold a different religion and want to run the country in their own religious way. And Singhili people make up 75%. They follow Buddhism and believe that Sri Lanka is their country.

In 1956, in the wake of independence, Singhili people thought that Sri Lanka should use their own language to replace English and Tamil language was not an official one. This made Tamil people furious and say it was unfair. However, Tamil people thought that to demand equality of official language use was difficult because Singhili people make up 75% of the entire populace. So they started demanding that Tamil should bee an equally official language as Singhili language. They afterwards demanded peacefully but they were beat up by the Singhili, which made them think that peaceful protest did not work, and then they were forced to use violence instead. At the time India, which also consists of five milion Tamil people, began helping Tamil force in Sri Lanka, which comprises two million Tamil people, to fight against the government.

After that the Tamil force became stronger and conquered many parts of the country. India was then scared that the five million Tamil people in its territory might rise up against it as well. Therefore India sent troops to help Sri Lankan government to fight back Tamil guerrillas.

When a country is in unresolved turmoil and is interfered by foreigners, the situation becomes more deteriorated.

Because Indian troops were strong, Tamil force was successfully fought back. But 2,000 Indian soldiers died and Sri Lankan government asked Indian troops to withdraw.

This could not weaken Tamil force. They sent their combatants to cause turmoil in India and murdered Indian leader Rajiv Ghandi.

The war in Sri Lanka at the time claimed 50,000 lives of people but the confrontation was still going on. So our organization began working with grassroots people by mobilizing them to talk to each other and cooperate with each other to make the two groups shake hands. Our organization had two objectives: facilitate opportunity for the top and middle levels, and form movements with the bottom level. We had contact with elites, politicians and twenty-two members of parliament (regardless their parties: Muslim, Tamil or Singhili....) by allowing chance for them to communicate and discuss peace process with each other in other countries. They normally did not talk to each other, they always opposed each other because they belong to different parties. But when we arranged them to meet abroad, such as in the Philippines and South Africa, they became friends because while they were outside their country to meet other people, they were not under political pressure and not afraid that people would pull them down. So they had a feeling of brothership and friendship. When the MPs met, they discussed peace solution together and then issued a good common statement which amazed their government and parties, and that was a good condition for the continuation of negotiation.

It was our triumph that 22 MPs trusted our organization because they had always thought that we NGOs were CIA agents and foreign spies because we are funded by foreign countries and foreigners sent us into the country to work for them, which most of the government officials paid no attention to us. We also tried to arranged them to meet foreign embassies whose countries are donors to Sri Lanka because the donor countries could influence them. And they supported our organization. In our work, we tried to meet them secretly and privately, not publicly, but when they (MPs) went overseas we let government and news reporters know this because first we had to build their confidence in us. For the middle part, we tried to get local NGOs to work together because they usually work separately and some NGOs undertake various religions.... We organized festivals, concerts, public gatherings and marches about peace, We also asked them to write songs and draw pictures which contain themes of peace...etc. with contribution and participation by many people and NGOs. We made our efforts to set up a national sub-treaty to mobilize people of all sectors and internationals and to make them have the idea of combating the war because both the government and Tamil sides said they did it for the nation's sake. So we want them to clearly understand peace issues. We invited politicians of all parties and religious leaders of all sects to attend a national convention in order to get them to listen to what their grassroots people wanted....

About our organization's activities, we educated people by using pictures, posters... (He presented a picture of people of all of ages crying at a funeral ceremony, with sentences: "DIVIDED BY WAR... UNITED IN THE CRY. DON'T WAGE THE WAR ON MY BEHALF", and another picture of a schoolgirl at her father's funeral ceremony, with sentences which read: "MY FATHER DIED IN THE WAR. IS THIS WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR").

His organization also produced questionnaires and published the in newspapers or came to ask people the questions directly. The questions contained peace related message, eg. What do you want? What do you want to see? What solution do you want to have?.... When they saw the questions, people talked to their friends and families or considered the questions by themselves. And we analyzed the received answers and sent the results to the government and Tamil factions to think of this. As well, we conducted research on cost of war and published it as a booklet containing some portrays of the war. We additionally strengthened other kinds of organizations or peoples movements so that they could share with our work/activities. For instance, we helped a War Crippled Combatants' Association to have appropriate structure and to be active.... so that they can have a voice in society.

His organization employs only four full time staff. So they cannot work with 18 million people throughout the country. His organization therefore decided on four strategy areas to work on: work with members of parliament, work with people assigned by politicians, work with government officials, and work on peoples mobilization, convention and workshop with politicians of different parties to make them better understand each other.

Problems encountered by his organization are: because his organization is funded by partner IOs or foreign donors, they always want to know about and see his organization' s activities because they need a report. But owing to some of the activities are secret and private, it is difficult to report to or make the activities known to them. However, his organization tried to balance between public activities (eg. open peace march, public meeting/convention....) and the private and secret ones (eg. arranging MPs of different tendencies to meet....). Because it is difficult for IOs get close to or work with government. If they criticized the government, it could punish them by asking them to leave the country, but if with local NGOs the government cannot ask them to leave because they are part of the country. What is more, his organization staff are competent and qualified so they need high salary to maintain the quality of their work, which is against NGO work concept that the personnel must be voluntary and work for no or less income/benefit- they work to serve civil society without thinking of personal advantage. He said in Sri Lanka many local NGOs have poor quality or inexperienced/ unqualified staff, and as a consequence their work quality is not good.

He finally concluded that the idea of trust is of great essence in peace work.

Summary of Main Options

After the two honored guest speakers' s presentations, some of their main experienced ideas were excerpted and included in the principal options earlier discussed, which made up of 33 options as follows:

• Education on peace and non-violence for all sectors in society.

• Regular ceremonies about peace and non-violence related activities (Peace Day, Dhammayietras/ pilgrimages, meditation....).

• Public awareness and advocacy campaign.

• Identify and support national peace makers.

• Networking and coordination of peace and non-violence related activities.

• Education on human rights and democracy.

• Education on environment related issues.

• Education on health.

• Round table discussions with political parties.

• Human resources development and management.

• Reduction of weapons, gun control and work towards ban on weapons.

• Encourage villages to become "Peace Villages" where the whole villages decides to ban weapons and violence.

• Frequent Dhammayietras/pilgrimages to spread messages of peace, non-violence and reconciliation.

• Monitoring the media for violence in messages and raising public attention about them.

• Hold a national meeting/convention on peace and invite all stakeholders to attend.

• Demobilization of soldiers and militias.

• Encourage international presence during official elections.

• Free market economic development.

• Education on national culture, history and arts.

• Strengthen NGO networks.

• Include Buddhist principles into national educational programs.

• Advocacy for respect of rules of law.

• Job creation programs.

• Forum for the Poor.

• Invite all political parties to listen to grassroots people' s needs.

• Create opportunities for local conflicting factions to meet and discuss.

• Support and strengthen capacity of NGOs working with war victims.

• Research on cost of war.

• Communicate with foreign embassies in order to help solve peace problems more easily.

• Questionnaires about peace.

• Provide opportunities to politicians to meet, discuss and study abroad.

• National conferences on peace.

• Organize festivals, songs and drawings about themes of peace.

Question:

A participant asked: What factors make local NGOs able to work with Sri Lankan government without any conflict, but with IOs the government has problems with them?

Answer:

He responded that the first factor is that his organization makes sure that it is non-partisan and the politicians know and strongly trust his organization. His organization also tried not to be biased towards the government or the opposition group by balancing criticism of both sides. For example, if it criticized the government for bombing and killing Tamil villagers, it also condemned Tamil side who burnt or bombed government offices because they both slain innocent people. It did not attack any faction particularly or directly, but it blamed the war by raising bad consequences caused by the war. His organization is neutral and positive to both sides. And it makes sure to the government that it is not interested in toppling them and getting the opposition to replace them at all, that is to say, it does every thing just to terminate the bloody war.

As for IOs, the government thinks that they grant fund to local NGOs who contradict to it, and they have communication with foreign embassies who criticized it as well. Furthermore, ten years ago there were human rights violations in Sri Lanka and foreign embassies cut off or reduced aid to the government, which made it dislike or scared of them....

Ranking Options by Priority

After that, the options were ranked by priority and nine priority options were elected:

• Education on peace and non-violence for all sectors in society.

• Regular ceremonies on peace and non-violence related activities.

• Reduction of weapons, gun control and work towards ban on weapons.

• Networking and coordination of peace and non-violence related activities.

• Include Buddhist principles into national educational programs.

• Education on human rights and democracy.

• Forum for the Poor.

• National conferences on peace inviting all stakeholders.

• Public awareness and advocacy campaign.

Group Discussion: Developing Action Plan & Initiating Peace and Non-Violence: Principles and Structure for Operation

After voting for the nine priorities, participants divide into five discussion groups:

• Group1: Discuss principles

• Group2: Discuss long -and -short -tern Goals

• Group3: Discuss Guideline for the Peace Campaign

• Group4: Discuss Action Plan for the nine Priorities

• Group5: Discuss Fund-raising

Following is the content of each discussion group:

Besides modification of some words and phrases to make the sentences sound better and simpler, the added two more points:

-If an individual is peaceful, a family has happiness, a community advances, a nation prospers and the world is filled with peace.

- If all people do believe incitement by outsiders, it leads to peace.

( All so see the draft ).

Beside modification of some words and phrases to make the sentences sound better and simpler, the content of the draft was not mainly amended. (Also see the draft ).

The group decided it should be:

• Informal

• Management: Form a central committee (some voluntary organizations ).

• Staff from participating organizations and it depends on time, number of staff and amount of work (without salary)

• Location: Phnom Penh

• central committee members are limited but participants open. ( Also see the draft )

Suggestion:

Ms Kuy Vet proposed recruitment of a secretary for the work because if depending only on volunteers the work will not go.

Group4: Action Plan

The group re-prioritized the nine priorities and discussed the following:

Group5: Fund-raising

Following are strategies to seek resources to support the activities.

+ Locally:

- Ask concerned government ministries to help (e.g. Information Ministry helps publish peace activities free of charge.......).

- Include peace non-violence content in festivals and Sermon.

- Ask private media to help publish peace activities on their products (e.g. pens notebooks equipment.......).

- Arrange a fair with participation from private companies and ask for their contribution from their income.

- Arrange a unity festival to raise fund.

- Ask local organizations to include peace content to their programs.

- Appeal for or arrange a one-day expense reduction Day and put the money into peace building Fund.

- Locate Peace Fund cases in public areas.

+Internationally:

- Communicate with international Peace Organizations to:

• publish peace activities

• get contribution in a way

• arrange peace Day for Cambodia

- Ask foreign embassies to help inform their country in order to raise fund to help with peace activities.

-Ask inter-nation organizations interested in peace related issues to help (e.g. CARERE, CIDSE, AFSC, MCC, Oxfam.....).

Suggestions:

+ A participant asked NGO staff to contribute their monthly expense to Peace Fund. Monks are also asked to partake in the fund-raising.

+ A monk asked the committee to contact with chief monks to arrange this. Purposes should be written on Fund Cases, otherwise no-one would contribute.

+ Ms Thida Khus called for volunteers for the committee which would meet every two weeks.

+ A participant asked for some changes to the Peace song. Before it would be filmed as Karaoke. Some rhyming words could be changed, but this may be difficult. But, at least, the music should be louder and the song should be clear.

+ ?Peace Festivals? was asked to be held prior to elections, i.e. on 10 July 1998.

More discussion will be held tomorrow.

Announcement: There will be a Dhammayietra from Takeo to Phnom Penh two weeks before elections.

+ Ms Meng Ho, CIHR Director, Said her organization produced T-shirts to sell for money to produce more so that many people can wear them to educate about peace. She started that the tee- shirt used to be awarded to those who answered the correct content about peace. There were 1803 winners, 149 T-shirt awards and 20 $ award.

1. Problem Statement

2. Matrix of Peace Work in Cambodia

3. Song of Peace

4. Principles

5. Short Term and Long Term Objectives

6. Guidelines for the Peace Campaign

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