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Rights & Wrongs V.O. ANNOUNCER: Principal funding for "Rights & Wrongs" has been provided by the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Open Society Institute. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: I'm Charlayne Hunter-Gault, and you're watching "Rights & Wrongs," human rights television. This week, turning enemies into friends, and hatred into healing. V.O. ANNOUNCER: Globalvision presents "Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television." CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Traditional human rights advocates stress the importance of the law and international covenants to curb abuses, but increasingly, human rights supporters say that what is needed to promote tolerance and respect for minority rights and opinions is a human rights culture. Many now actively back programs to teach the values of freedom, equality, and coexistence. This week, we'll look at three different initiatives in three corners of the world that seek to heal painful conflicts fueled by decades of distrust. We'll take you to still- segregated Northern Ireland. There, a handful of parents and teachers have created a school for both Catholics and Protestants to bring people together across religious and political lines. We'll visit a unique summer camp, "Seeds of Peace," where young Israelis and Palestinians learn how to talk to each other and resolve differences. And you will hear from the man who is leading south Africa's effort to confront the crimes of apartheid, Nobel prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, head of South Africa's Truth Commission. All of these stories are bound together by a common thread, the search for reconciliation and healing. A year ago, before a cease-fire quieted the guns that inflamed the troubles in Northern Ireland for a quarter of a century, a small group of parents and teachers decided to build a bridge of understanding between Protestants and Catholics. They did so by starting a school that would be open to all-- a small step, you may think, but in that climate at that time, it took a great leap of faith and bravery. The story of the Cranmore School Is captured in a new film, "A Leap of Faith," produced by Jenifer Mcshane and Tricia Regan. It will be shown in its entirety in New York and San Francisco in the fall of 1996. Here's an excerpt. (Explosion) LIAM NEESON V.O: A nation divided by history, a people divided by war and long memories of oppression and hatred. In northern Ireland, religion is a badge of identification to distinguish two traditions, two cultural identities, two perspectives on the past, two kinds of fear. Catholics are the minority in northern Ireland. Resentful of over 800 years of British domination and destruction of their culture, many seek an end to the political partition which divides their island. They feel that, having been the first colony of England, they are now the last. Protestants maintain the majority, and have traditionally been the power-holders in northern Ireland. They are fiercely determined to retain their allegiance to the British Crown. (Bell ringing) SCHOOL TEACHER: All right, I'm glad you all responded to that. (Laughing) SCHOOL TEACHER: Could I have... If there's any T-1's here... TRICIA REGAN: When I heard about the integration of the schools in Northern Ireland, I think my initial response was similar to most Americans'-- like, "well, are there black people in Northern Ireland?" And I thought that this was a great opportunity to look at what prejudice is, and what its basis is, because you've eliminated the racial element. JENIFER MCSHANE: I think it comes down to fear and mistrust and misunderstanding, the issues that are the same around the world when you're dealing with issues of segregation or intolerance. RHONDA GONSLAVES: I come from a Protestant family, went to Sunday School, then went to Protestant School. We were married in the Protestant church, and the children have just been brought up as Protestants, but the point is, Sheridas didn't even know what she was, you know. There's really one god in her eyes. So do Catholics pray to different people, or what is a Protestant, what is a catholic? Why are we different? And it just comes down to all the questions, because how\are they different? They aren't. TRACIE DOUGHERT: Because my mum's catholic and my dad's a Protestant, we got in a real mess about her, you know, being a Catholic and him being a Protestant. I decided to send her to an integrated school because she'll meet people that she would never have the experience to meet, and think of them as friends, and not of "that's a Catholic" or "that's a Protestant." And there'll be new parents that I'll get to know as well. So it will be like a support system for both of us. SCHOOL TEACHER: You're the very first class to go through the door of the school. TRICIA REGAN: A lot of kids, by the time they're five or six, will know, you know, or will be saying things such as "Protestants are all this" or "Catholics are all that." And by getting kids into an integrated setting, in effect you have prevented a conflict because you have given this child real experience with the other side, and real emotions and real feelings for the other side, so that they are less likely to start wearing that cloak of hatred. (Bomb explodes) LIAM NEESON V.O.: Two months after Cranmore opened, Belfast was stunned when a bomb planted by the I.R.A.. exploded in a fish shop in the Protestant area of the Shankill road. (Siren blares) JANE LOUGHREY V.O.: A fleet of ambulances raced to the scene of yesterday's bomb attack... JENIFER MCSHANE: There's a very violent time, in October '93, during the film, when Belfast is at its worst in terms of violence, and interest in the school went way up. People say, "you know, I have to get serious about this-- what can I do that's an ongoing commitment?" SCHOOL TEACHER: Who would help them? CHILDREN: Um... SCHOOL TEACHER: what sort of services come... CHILDREN: Creation? SCHOOL TEACHER: Ah, no. What sort of services... CHILDREN: Help? A help line? SCHOOL TEACHER: Help line. What kind of help line? HELEN FARRIMOND: It would be comfortable to think that I wasn't going to have to deal with it, but I will have to talk about it, because after all, that is what an integrated school is about. If we bury our head in the sand and pretend that our school is an oasis of calm and justice and peace and reconciliation, et cetera, which we want it to be all those things, but if we see it only as that, well, then we are doing those children a disservice. CHILD: People around the world would want to find out so they can move out if there's going to be bombs or things. SCHOOL TEACHER: Right. HELEN FARRIMOND: I want to talk to the children about how they feel about the events of last week, because a lot of very bad things have been perpetrated in the name of one community or another, and I would like to think that I could dispel some of their fears and some of their suspicions. SCHOOL TEACHER: You have to show one person's point of view, and you have to tell the other person's point of view. What will you like doing, kids? CHILDREN: Balancing. SCHOOL TEACHER: Balancing it, and that's what it is-- it's balanced. FATHER FAUL: I don't want to criticize the integrated schools. The teachers in them are idealists, and they're doing their best. I'm not blaming the teachers. No, it's the universal chorus of every English newspaper reporter, even some English... Even English Catholic bishops said to me, "why don't the Catholic Bishops of Ireland, adopt integrated education to solve the problems of Northern Ireland?" They... Because the clever politicians in England and the unionists, they thought the Catholics were getting too much power through education, that it was necessary to sabotage it. LIAM NEESON V.O.: Four months into Cranmore's first year, there have already been 62 explosions and 43 sectarian killings. JOHN GONSLAVES: The violence around northern Ireland has been escalating. It's getting worse. A lot of people are leaving. We're not safe here. No one is safe anywhere in Northern Ireland, because if someone can just put a bomb in a bus, put a bomb in a shop, there's always that fear lurking in the back of your mind. And that shouldn't be happening, because it's not normal life. It's not the way life should be lived. There's a lot of sadness here. Every family is affected. There is a hidden pressure, and that pressure comes through all society at all levels. KEN MAGINNIS: If I had taken my children, if I had the opportunity and taken my children out of the control sector, and put them into the integrated sector-- that would be 25 years ago-- they would in fact have been totally isolated. They would have grown up in a different environment from the workplace. Let's look at what happens to the 1% in the integrated sector. At some stage, they come out into the real world-- not that cushioned, privileged world, but they come out into the real world, and they find 99% of the people viewing each other with a degree of distrust and misunderstanding and suspicion. It must be a cultural shock for them to start off with, and they're not in a position to do other than stand back with a rather pompous view of the situation. They'll not contribute to it. LIAM NEESON V.O.: At the end of Cranmore's first year, the I.R.A.. Announced a cease-fire conditional upon their inclusion at future peace talks. Within a few weeks, all Protestant paramilitaries agreed to lay down their weapons as well. JENIFER MCSHANE: I think the schools, along with a lot of other peace organizations, are creating this infrastructure that will, hopefully, allow a peaceful resolution to happen in Northern Ireland. COLM CAVANAGH V.O.: If you go to the integrated schools and talk to people, you will find people who are related to paramilitaries on both sides, you'll find people related to the security forces on both sides, you'll find people who have gone through immense personal tragedy themselves. COLM CAVANAGH: I believe that what we're doing here in terms of integrated education has lessons for Harlem and Bosnia and Johannesburg and all over the world. We're doing it. There's a whole lot of people tackling the same basic question, and I think that we have made, in a small area, small ways, enormous strides forward towards that.
V.O. ANNOUNCER: You are watching "Rights & Wrongs," human rights television. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: In the quiet woods of Maine, young Israelis and Palestinians have for the last three years been taking part in a unique conflict-resolution initiative, the seeds of peace summer camp. Globalvision has been documenting the program for a new film. Here's an excerpt from a work in progress. (Singing and clapping) (Chanting) ANDY ARSHAM: Every time you begin to think of them as normal campers, something happens-- like, you know, the shelling of Serbia or the announcement about the Palestinians dying or the bus bombing-- and it drives home that they're not regular campers. They're not going home to Scarsdale and Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. next week. They're going home to war zones, and it's very difficult to get attached... It's very difficult to get attached to them and realize that they're going home to very dangerous situations. I've got to get to my event. (kids yelling) relax, relax, relax, relax. CAMPER: Relax, after all... JOHN WALLACH: The idea behind Seeds of Peace is very simple. These are generations that have grown up learning to hate each other, and in order to break that cycle, one has to get the kids out of the area, onto neutral ground, into a safe, supportive environment where they can get to know one another as human beings. CAMPERS: Come on, you can do it! PARENTS: Come on, honey! Whoo! CAMPERS: Come on, run!,run!, no, no-- foul ball. ANIL SONI: Behind us, everyone is sitting in their delegations. They're sitting with people from their own country, but that's only for now. Because of, one, in the bunks, when they go to sleep, and during the day when they're doing the sports activities, we break that up, so that there are people from, like, several countries on each team-- you know, Palestinians and Israelis working, playing together; Serbs and Bosnians working, playing together. All that. CAMPER: The first day we came here, the counselor told us to Everyone define about hisself and say from where he comes. And so I defined about myself, and I said that I am from Palestine. An Israeli boy said, "you think that there's something called Palestine, but really there is nothing called Palestine." MITCH ROSE: The importance of conflict, the importance of having different values and coming to terms with those different values-- that's the real key of this whole program. It's not just creating the friendships. It's creating an understanding, a mutual acknowledgment of the differences, and dealing with them. CAMPER: For me, there is no difference between the death of one person and the death of Six million-- it all causes suffering, okay? CHRIS LYBOLDT: Through the process of the coexistence groups, the kids became more sincere. At first, everything's very sugar-coated, and they're trying to make everybody very happy, and they're trying to say things that they think they should say. They go through the meetings, they go through their relationships during the day, and by the fourth or by the fifth day, they begin to open up. They become honest. The pain comes through. LINDA PIERCE: Many of you crossed the room when we asked you if you had experienced prejudice. We're going to ask you to begin to share those experiences. They have reached a point where they were able to peel through the layers and really become vulnerable and really open up to each other and share their pain. CAMPER: Your father killed my brother... CAMPER: Mm-hmm. CAMPER: ...Just because I am an Israeli, just because my father was a soldier. LINDA PIERCE: What I feel like we're trying to give them now are the tools-- listening skills, how to talk to one another, how to share experiences, without the explosion. (praying in Hebrew) (praying in Aramaic) (praying in Hebrew) (praying in Aramaic) LAITH ARAFEH: Me and Uri are really good friends. We try... It is not to persuade one another with their... With their points of view, okay? We try to let the other side just listen and understand. MICHAEL HESSEL: If we're going to have peace, then the border should not be important-- not in Jerusalem, because in Palestinian and Israeli, for people to walk together... CAMPER: We're not going to divide it. We're both going to live in it in peace-- that's what I'm saying. What I'm saying... CAMPERS: Ah! CAMPER: I think it's the first time we're agreeing about something. Yeah! all of us agreeing. We're usually always fighting and shouting at each other... CAMPERS: Yeah. Now we're getting to...hallelujah. TIM WILSON: Are we willing to allow children to lead us in the right direction? I think that's a problem we have. Are we willing to let children, and people who care, without getting into all the religious and the right and the left and whatever-- just look at it realistically, and look at what was being said, and look at the value, and then move on. (cheering) (applause) DAVID ALLYN: These kids are going to return to their countries, and they're going to hear others talk about... If they're Israeli, they're going to hear others talk about Arabs; and if they're Arabs, they're going to hear others talk about Israelis; and they're not going to be the same person that they were when they came here. (applause) They're going to feel differently, they're going to know differently, and they're going to think differently. SHOUQ TARAWNEH: We are all members in the child's body-- that anything hurts this body, hurts me. The Israeli problems, the Palestinians' problem, the Bosnia problems is my problem, 'cause it's a child problem. It gave me this feeling that I'm a member of this whole body. SHOUQ TARAWNEH V.O.: We are living here together, Israeli with the Arab, with the Egyptian, with the Jordanian. So I think this is the war that we like to have. We are the generation. We are the building of the futures. It's not impossible; It's possible.
V.O. ANNOUNCER: "Rights & Wrongs" is now on-line. Please be in touch with us by e-mail, and visit our internet site on the worldwide web.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT V.O.: These are the images that the world had of south Africa for almost 50 years. And then, in 1994, those images changed, replaced by these: democratic elections that elevated former prisoner nelson Mandela to the presidency. But South Africa is now returning to that past in order to try and reconcile it. The vehicle, a Truth Commission led by Nobel prize winner Desmond Tutu. In his Cape Town office, Archbishop Tutu explained its goals. DESMOND TUTU: The primary objective of everything that we're going to be doing is to assist in the process of healing a traumatized, divided, broken, wounded people; to try to make them one; to try and integrate and put together and make more whole a people who were deliberately upset peoples, been alienated from one another. SPEAKER: They gave him poison drops, but he didn't die immediately from these poison drops. So somebody had to shoot him. DIRK COETZEE: It was done by giving them knock-out drops, and then shooting them at close range, eventually burning their corpses. DESMOND TUTU: We need to know the truth. But in fact, if we start with reconciliation... Reconciliation, for it to be true reconciliation, depends on forgiveness; forgiveness, to happen, depends on contrition; Contrition is based on acknowledging the truth. That is why the truth is so important. Without forgiveness, there's no future, because the past doesn't just go away and be nice and lie down in the quiet. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission theme is that it extends in the middle, between two extremes. The one extreme is the one that we've just been discussing-- amnesia: "let bygones be bygones." On the other side are those who demand justice, who demand retribution, quite rightly. DR. CLARENCE MINI: There are people who are just not prepared to forgive, let alone forget. DESMOND TUTU: It's a choice between justice and ashes, on the one hand, amnesty and stability on the other. But it is not entirely the case that these people are getting off scot-free. A full disclosure must be made. We are not therefore letting somebody get off scot-free. It isn't in fact easy to acknowledge in front of the whole public. No matter how tough you maybe be-- there may be some for whom it means nothing-- but I think... Imagine a guy who is a father of little children having to say, "I shot and killed innocent children," and his children will know about that. His friends will know about that. His relatives will know about that. You are connected because you are human. That's the African understanding of being a person, because you can't be a person on your own. We say, in our languages, a person is a person to other persons. I believe God is doing, in South Africa-- because it is so improbable-- God is saying South Africa is going to be a beacon of hope, because who could ever have said that of us just a few years ago? DESMOND TUTU V.O.: These people, with what appeared to be an intractable problem, these people who had this nightmare that was apartheid, today we can be on the road to being truly the so-called rainbow people. God is saying in Bosnia, in northern Ireland, Somalia, whatever, Sri Lanka, "if that nightmare in South Africa could end and end in the way that it did, your nightmare surely must end; if people who came from all of these diverse background can begin to cohere as one nation, surely you, too, ought to be able to cohere as one nation." CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Thank you for watching "Rights & Wrongs." Please share your reaction with us by mail or e-mail, and be sure to check our internet site on the world wide web. I'm Charlayne Hunter-Gault. V.O. ANNOUNCER: Principal funding for "Rights & Wrongs" has been provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "Rights & Wrongs" welcomes your written comments and suggestions. You can also order a transcript for $5, or a videocassette for $24.95, by writing to: the Global Center, P.O. Box 311, Radio City Station, New York, New York, 10101. Send checks or money orders only. Credit card holders, call 1-800-541-2535. You can also reach us by e-mail, and please visit us at our web site on the world wide web.
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This Page Last Updated April 19, 1997. |