International peace activist Mient Jan Faber emphasized the importance of creating networks between war zones and free countries when he spoke Thursday afternoon at The Honors College Commons.
"I can’t imagine a more timely lecture than one on the possibilities of peace," said Bill Monroe, executive associate dean of The Honors College.
Faber spoke to a crowd of 30 students and professors about his experiences as a peace activist. World-renowned as an expert on peace affairs with intimate knowledge on the war on Iraq and the situation on the Gaza Strip, he serves as political director of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly and acted as secretary general of the Interchurch Peace Council in The Hague for three decades. In addition to writing prolifically on international affairs, Faber teaches Human Security in War Situations at the Vrijie Universiteit Amsterdam.
Faber travels to war zones, seeking information on international crises. Faber marched with the anti-communist Solidarity movement in Poland and played a key role in investigating ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia. Because of his activism, Faber was declared an enemy of the state in Russia, East Germany and Yugoslavia.
On Thursday, Faber shared his experiences speaking with a Christian who was kidnapped and held ransom for $50,000 in broad daylight in the Middle East, a man who was the sole survivor of an entire family killed by genocide; and an Iraqi school teacher who held class in candlelit basements since it was too dangerous for children to cross the street.
Faber also spoke on the Iraq war. He said opposition leaders hoped for liberation from Saddam Hussein, including one leader who saw 26 family members die under Hussein’s regime.
Faber recalled the leader said, "I really hope that the Americans will come to liberate us, to remove that guy from power, because I cannot afford for another 25 or 26 family members to be killed."
While Faber supported the invasion of Iraq, he criticized a lack of organization on the part of the United States government while planning a cohesive administration to replace Hussein’s regime.
"I discovered there was a problem – preparing for removal of regime, but not the day after," Faber said.
In the chaos following Hussein’s removal from power, Faber described the chaos of neighbors seeking vengeance on each other for petty disputes.
Faber first saw the power of lifelines when an Iraqi schoolteacher brought him to an apartment cellar, where he taught schoolchildren of all ages by candlelight. The war made an act as mundane as school children crossing the street to attend regular schools in the morning too precarious. The teacher told Faber the children were writing letters to children in Europe.
"I asked, ‘Do they know children in other countries?’ This was a stupid question," Faber said.
In response, the Iraqi schoolteacher gave the letters to Faber and asked him to bring back responses from the Netherlands.
Faber said he returned to the apartment cellar with translated replies from European children and will never forget the joy that lit up the faces of the Iraqi students in the candlelit cellar.
"They had a lifeline to the free world," Faber said. "The people who live in Iraq are in this kind of closed situation. They know exactly what happened to them, but they don’t know what’s happening in the rest of the city."
Faber stressed the importance of giving lifelines to people living in war zones. He said people living in countries at war often have no access to reliable information on the state of their country or even their own cities.
"You have to talk to people. It will not save the world, but you will understand what is going on," he said. "The role you play is an additional role to their experiences. You know other things than they know. You’re in a different situation than they are. They have a particular situation that will never end. You can cheer them up. Be a lifeline."
