Local community peace project aims at reducing violent conflicts
A Community Peace Project is aimimg to sensitise a cross-section of Guyanese in local communities on ways to reduce the risk and incidence of violent conflicts, especially those that could become politically or racially charged. The 18-month project which will target three administrative regions comes under the aegis of the United Nations Association of Guyana (UNAG). The project to be managed by UNAG and the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) was launched by Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Jacques Crete, at the Hotel Tower last week. The main aim of the project is to sensitise the Guyanese people on the importance of avoiding violence and the advantages of settling disputes peacefully among themselves. Expanding on what the community projects can achieve locally, Crete expects they will among other things, institutionalise mediation systems within civil society organisations and community peace councils at national, regional and local levels; encourage reconciliation between individuals, within families and communities, and between ethnic, political and other stakeholder groups by promoting reasoned dialogue, face-to-face negotiations, and the use of trained mediators and arbitrators where necessary. The projects are also aimed at strengthening the capacity of the media to sustain professional standards when addressing issues of conflict and race relations. The areas in which the projects will be piloted are from Adventure to Devonshire Castle on the Essequibo Coast in Region Two; Windsor Forest to Meten-meer-Zorg on the West Coast Demerara in Region Three; Georgetown and from Victoria to Enmore on the East Coast Demerara in Region Four; and from Number 19 Village to Auchlyne, Corentyne Coast in Region Six. Additionally the project aims at reducing the risk and rate of violence within communities; educating and encouraging people to live in more secure communities; emphasising the need for harmony among Guyanese communities and persuading these communities to accept the responsibility for maintaining peace; facilitating individuals, organisations and institutions within these communities to establish and develop procedures for peaceful solutions to problems, preferably but not exclusively in communities in a number of regions. The project is being funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through its peace-building fund with a grant valued at $12M. Giving a background to the project, UNAG President Donald Trotman said that it had its origins at a workshop at the United Nations Development Programme on December 10, 1998 which involved a number of governmental and non-governmental organisations seeking a partnership for peace. Following the meeting, the Peace Building Committee has been functioning for the past three years. According to Trotman the tri-partite project falls under CARICOM's Programme of Governance with UNAG and CIDA being joint partners. Launching the project, Crete noted that funding for the project was as a result of discussions between Foreign Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, and Canada's former minister for international cooperation. Applauding UNAG for undertaking the project, Project Manager - Resource Mobilisation and Technical Assistance Unit of the CARICOM Secretariat, Eugene Petty, said that the promotion of community peace in Guyana is timely and imperative. He said that in any society where regular conflict exists, the promotion of harmonious relations could only be sustained in an environment where groups and institutions are prepared to confront causal factors head on. Petty noted that the building of sustained good relations among civil society partners and improving governance have increasingly occupied the attention of the CARICOM Secretariat. The involvement of CARICOM in brokering the Herdmanston Agreement between the People's National Congress and the People's Progressive Party and the work of the CARICOM Audit Commission in auditing the 1997 General Elections results and the community's support for the constitution reform process in Guyana, he said, are well known. The community's commitment to the strengthening of good governance, he said, is also evidenced by the support for the Constitutional Review Commission in St Kitts and Nevis; its participation in the Grand Beach Accord for resolving political issues in St Vincent and the Grenadines; and more recently, the fielding of electoral observer missions to Haiti and Suriname. (Miranda La Rose)
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