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Why peace movements need to be strengthened, acquire a wider base to heal a violent world

By Bharat Dogra 
The killing of 26 tourists in Pahalgam has caused great distress to people all over India extending for a long time. Now imagine the distress being caused every day at world-level when on average over 1000 persons are killed every day in wars, civil wars and terror strikes.
This may well be an underestimate. It is increasingly agreed that actual war mortality can be about five times higher than the direct mortality caused by bullets, bombs and other weapons. In the case of the widely quoted estimates by Brown University of various conflicts in which the USA was involved in the course of the War on Terror during 2001-21, the direct mortality was estimated at around 0.9 million while the total mortality, including about 3.6 million indirect deaths, was estimated at 4.5 million. This is because wars cause destruction of essential health, sanitation and water infrastructure, expose people to many toxic substances and result in denial of basic needs, including basic medical care, over several years.
Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, Somalia, Ethiopia—these are only some of the countries that have been devastated by war, civil war and terrorism. In addition there are the Palestinian territories of Gaza and West Bank. Pakistan too has suffered, although these are largely self-inflicted wounds. If we go back a few decades, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, North and South Korea suffered the most from devastating ruin from some of the heaviest bombing ever seen. Various constituents of the former Yugoslavia also suffered hugely. Iraq suffered a lot not just from two US (plus allies) invasions but in addition earlier from a very long war with Iran (in which Iran also suffered heavy loss of life). In addition Iraq also suffered heavily from the highly destructive forces of terrorism created as an indirect impact of invasions. The Kurd minorities in various West Asian countries and Turkey have been involved in many conflicts resulting in heavy loss of life.
At present there are over 50 conflicts in the world. A growing concern is that peaceful resolutions are not emerging in several serious conflict situations, or else are taking too long to emerge. Many wars, when these end at all, are ending as frozen conflicts and not on a note of goodwill and durable peace. In many cases simmering tensions remain which can erupt again. The UN has been increasingly marginalized as a peace-making force.
Even when big powers are not involved directly, big powers or wealthy countries often get involved as secretly supporting rival sides, as has been seen recently in the Sudan conflict, leading to the availability of more deadly weapons to both sides, in turn leading to more destruction.
In fact it is the increasing availability of more destructive weapons that has made wars of recent decades much more destructive than before. The ultimate nightmare is regarding the possibility of the actual use of nuclear weapons. There are at present about 13,000 nuclear weapons in the world and the actual use of just 5 to 10% of these can destroy the entire world from direct and indirect impacts. Over 10,000 of these are with just two countries, the USA and Russia. Experts have frequently warned that nuclear weapon countries should not come even close to a direct confrontation. Yet in the course of the Ukraine- Russia war, as the Biden administration was increasing the supply of more and more destructive weapons to Ukraine, during several stretches of the war experts were repeatedly issuing warnings regarding the possibility of direct confrontation between the two biggest nuclear weapon powers coming too close.
Now more concern is being expressed regarding the increasing risks of war between the USA and China as a result of their race for supremacy. Again any such war can have very destructive implications for the entire world. Wars, war preparations and arms race have already emerged as the biggest contributor to pollution and accumulation of toxic substances.
With the world and big powers remaining entangled in wars, conflicts and arms race, it has not been possible to mobilize the necessary efforts, resources and cooperation for resolving the nearly a dozen serious environmental problems led by climate change which together pose an existential threat at world level.
During earlier wars and conflicts it was easier to say that remedial action will be taken later towards peace. However now with the kind of extremely dangerous weapons increasing and the kind of environmental problems threatening all life, we can no longer postpone urgent reform for creating a much more peaceful world in which either there are no wars, or else possibilities of wars are substantially reduced and the prospects of stopping wars at an early stage can be significantly improved.
For this the role of the UNO as a peacemaker as well as preventer of wars must be substantially strengthened and improved. This also needs important reforms in the UNO, including incorporating more permanent members like India and giving representation to Africa and Latin America among permanent members.
In addition some of the most senior statesmen and diplomats worldwide known for their commitment to peace, several of whom are in retirement years, should become more active together in one or more groups as an important force for peace. The non-aligned movement should be strengthened to become an important forum for world peace.
All over the world non-partisan peace movements should be encouraged to make their contribution to peace efforts. Women and their organizations in particular should play an important role in these efforts. Youth organizations also have an important role here. Movements for justice and environment protection should also contribute to strengthening the peace movement.
In fact the peace movement should seek to become a much wider and broad-based movement, with important people-based strength at the grassroots.
Violence and violence-based thinking are a very important source of distress among human beings in daily life. It is the inner violence and the urge of dominance which is responsible for a lot of violence in daily life including gender violence, domestic violence, abuse of children, inner turmoil, mental health problems and self-violence. So at the most basic level the peace movement should strive to reduce distress relating to all this violence.
At the level of community this violence and violent thinking is reflected in street violence, workplace and school/college violence, caste violence, inter-faith violence and other such unfortunate trends which increase distress and tensions in society. So at the community level the peace movement should strive to reduce all these forms of violence and violent thinking.
As the distress of people is reduced by such efforts, more and more of them are likely to join the peace movement. Making use of this strength the peace movement can then make much stronger and wider efforts for peace at the national and international level.
In this way peace movements can be strengthened in various countries, and can acquire a wider base. Hence they can contribute in much better and stronger ways to strengthen the support for peace in their own country. These various peace movements can also be supportive towards each other and together can become a much stronger force for peace at the international level.
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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. Earlier he was the first convener of the National Campaign for People’ Right to Information

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