Your Royal Highness, Mr President, Ladies and gentlemen

The Workshop on ”Anticipating Genocidal Violence” which I had the honor to chair” discussed the topic in a very initiated way. I will bring some of the issues to you, but also give my own impressions.

I have to admit that I felt almost desperate listening during three days to the statements given by official delegates. There was one important element totally missing, and not until Dr Brigalia Bam’s intervention the word ”women” was brought to the attention of the audience. She strongly stressed the role of women in wars and conflicts, not to mention genocide.

Hopefully the fact that the role of women was missing from the official interventions was not depending on that most heads of delegations were men….

It is well known that during genocide women are becoming the main victims. Women bodies have become the battle field of fighting troops, rape, sexual violence against women and girls, even small babies is a well working tool when you want to totally humiliate the enemy.

Men are killed, but sexually abused women are suffering for the rest of their lives. The traumatic experience of a rape will never leave you, told by so many women and girls who have been the victims of rape.

Women have also to build up the life for their children, often as sole householders.
The fate of their missing husbands, sons, like in Srebrenica, Rwanda, is adding an unsafety to their life and future. Many women suffer from trauma caused by the war, something we should pay much more attention to. Of course many men are suffering likewise.

In the workshop the threats for the future were intensively discussed.
One of them is Islam, where fanatic groups are destroying the reputation of all good islamic people, the majority. We have to be very much aware of this, the situation of today is dangerous for the whole mankind, as individual human rights are offended because of the fanatics.

Unfortunately there is a tendency to place collective guilt on a whole people, when some of the leaders have committed crimes against humanity. Serbs have had to carry a lot of the guilt of people like Milosevic, Mladic, Karadcic There are many reasons for justice, one of them is to get the real war criminals to take their responsibility, and free the rest of the people from the collective guilt.

The situation of the Roma population was discussed quite intensively. During the holocaust romas were killed in hundreds of thousends. The holocaust still is ongoing in Europe, especially in South Eastern Europe. Roma people are the poorest of the poor, there is little or no tolerance towards them. This could be a real threat for the future. If EU is not understanding the importance of supporting romas to a descent life, with education for the children, jobs and participation in decision making, we could have a ticking bomb amongst us. It was important that during the plenary, the director of OSCE mentioned this as a very serious problem.

The discussion on the psychology of genocide has been important, not at least in the presentation by UNESCO’s director Mr Sané. I have been strongly worried for the violence I have personally seen around the world Is there no limit for what human beings can do to each other. Could my own sons, sons in law, good family fathers, turn to some kind of monsters with the wrong leadership, in a n euphoria of mass psychosis? Unfortunately the answers I have got from psychologists have not been encouriging. In a few weeks time, you can be made believe that your enemies have no human value, you have the right to behave like we have seen during genocides.

Education, and education for all, is one of the key issues. To teach tolerance and respect for human rights, to work on democracy is a perhaps slow, but though the only way to prevent people from the massive violence.
Highly democratic countries are not as open for genocide as those without democratic systems, led by dictators.

We have also to come away from the system of impunity. The perpetrators must know that sooner or later they will stand trial. We have too many examples of the disaster regarding impunity. Indonesian army committed a lot of sexual crimes when leaving East Timor, the known army officers, some with high ranks, have been saved from trials because of impunity. Without justice there will be no reconciliation.

There should be no impunity for the internationals either. Trafficing in women for sex purposes is partly a result of the presence of many internationals, who have the money to pay for services. Those who use these services, are at the same time supporting organized crime. For the internationals misusing young girls and boys, children, there should be no impunity, they should face trial were the crime was committed.

It is important to create a system of indicators from signals of an uprising genocide. These indicators must also then be followed. Unfortunately we are playing with some double standards. Big and important countries inspite of clear indications are excluded from actions. It seems to be easier to interfere in a small country. Either there are no economic interest, or then the interests are so essential, that it is important for others to intervene.

Secretary General Kofi Annan has made a very interesting proposal in his opening statement, for creation of a Genocide commission, and a Special Rapporteur on Genocide. What we have to avoid is to create new buraucracy around the commission. The Special Rapporteur must have such a heavy mandate, that he or she can walk to the Security Council and demand steps to be taken. ”Listen to me, and don’t play political games, watering out necessary steps. Action should be taken immediately” If a mandate like this can be agreed upon, if the right person is found, then SG:s proposal could be an important instrument to the benefit of the people.