REPORT OF FIELD STUDY I: NORTHEASTERN THAILAND (Appendix)

The field studies which lasted for six (6) days starting from 6^th -11^th January 2011, included visits and interactions with communities on various issues that are clear indications of conflicts that require solution. The first day of the field study was an orientation on the history of Ubonratchathani by Professor Sombat Worthong, former Dean Faculty of Law, Ubonratchathani University. Thereafter, Professeor Songwut Sansarin of the Department of International Law from the same university oriented us on the Nationalityless and Stateless people who are leaving in different settlements within the Thai Nation without an identify, and it is viewed as breeding ground for resentment that may a in the long run result in conflict as such groups of people are currently insecure.

A good part of the second day was taken to survey the tourism potentials and endowments of the area during which we had the opportunity of visiting Phataem National Park located at the most eastern past of Thailand. Other places visited were the 3000 thousand waves and holes river located along Moon River. The two colour river which is the midpoint between Moon and Mekong River was also visited. The interesting thing about this place is that the meeting point of the two rivers is the border line between Laos Republic and Thailand. The tour was rounded up with a warm welcoming dinner by the Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Lotus City, Ubon.

The active study started with a visit to the Civil Society organization, in which fellows were addressed by Miss Jongkonnee Sirrat in the company of other volunteers on the roles of Civil Society Ubonratchathani, during this session we were able to learn that they play active role in training different communities on the basic human right information and other essentials knowledge based skills. The team visited the Senior Deputy Governor of Ubonratchathani City who addressed us on the urban development policy in Ubonratchathani during which he addressed areas of land use and right within the country, this is because the land form the common causes of conflicts mostly between the communities and the government authority. The Urban Poor Community Network was visited, during which an interactive session that lasted for about 2hours 30minutes was held. Questions were asked on the operations of the network and what it stands for. The network is a non political organisation aimed at protecting the interest of the poor in various communities and they do this by making consultations with government at all levels. Where the government fail to address their needs they embark on protest.

The Wat Luang community was another group of people visited and their issue heard to do with government constructing a river bank to avoid flooding in a nearby river in which the community depends upon for their livelihood. After the river bank construction, it was not high enough to prevent the flooding; this made the community to continue to put pressure on the government to make adjustments of the constructions to prevent flooding into the community houses. After assessing the situation, the government decided to find a more lasting solution to the problem and this was to involve reconstructing the houses of the community population and for this to be done, it will require that government pull down the houses of the affected community members to allow for the reconstruction of new and modern houses at an arrangement of 80%: 20%. In which the government will pay 80% of the total cost of constructing each house, while each house owner takes care of the remaining 20%. So far, the project is completed but the community is left to pay their part of 20%. The impact have created some socioeconomic gap in the community as finding alternative livelihood is difficult, this is because they were left with no space for vegetable farming where they use to earn their living from. Fellows heard the opportunity of asking questions and learning from the community on the procedures they followed to peacefully resolve their problem with the government.

Another community visited was the communities located near the Pak Moon Dam, their issue was the case of construction of a controversial dam for generation of electricity in Pak Moon Rivers which is over the years known to be a place for fishing by 55 surrounding villages covering four main areas. After several protest for over 20yrs by the community against citing of the project, the government insisted on constructing the dam, this is believe by the community to have frustrated their age long profession of fishing thereby denying them of their right to livelihood. The problem has persisted for long as the communities insist the Dam be open. The protest camp was visited by fellows, in which it was observed the communities are maintaining a firm position of continuing the protest against the government as long as the government will have the dam open and on the worst scenario the community may be forced to destroy the dam. A practicing Lawyer in person of Mr. Nikom Veesapan, who delivered a lecture to us on the dam and issues surrounding it, was of the opinion that the right thing to do is for the government to order for the opening of the dam which is in agreement with the outcome of a research sponsored by the government on the situation.

The Meeting with Nhongpak Village Community, Boondarik District and Ba Hai Tai Mui Community was held on the 9^th and 10^th. Their issue has to do with Nationalitylessness. They are Lao citizen who migrated to Thai Area for the past 36 years and their legitimate country Laos Republic reject their plea to return after displacement form Laos due to conflicts. The Thai Government on the other hand has allowed them to stay in their territory but does not allow them access to Thai national ID which allow citizen have access to the social security (Health, School, Work) provided by the Thai government. The life of these groups of people is characterized by;

·         Threat from the security men, restrictions from moving around, no government scholarship opportunities for their children, limited land for farming and no ownership to any property.

·         20,000 people involved (Nhongpak)

·         Applying for National Identity is difficult for them as they have to come to Bangkok and in most cases before reaching the Bangkok City, they suffer harassment from the police because of their lack of identity, which further discourage them from making efforts to get the ID.

·         They only wait for opportunity of daily pay hired job as they have no access to schedule paid jobs and this get them grossly unsecure.

This is another dimension in conflict studies as fellows were not only surprise by such situation but emotionally moved by the hopeless state of this categories of people. It was another opportunity of open learning as the interaction with the people resulted in several questions from both the communities and the fellow.

The field studies ended on 11^th with debriefing by the fellows and the Rotary Peace Center (RPC) staff facilitated by the Deputy Director, Jenn Wiedman. This was a time of hearing the reactions and comments of fellows on their experiences and challenges based on the analysis of all the cases studied. During the sessions fellows expressed their appreciation to the Rotary International for providing such an opportunity of learning and also to the RPC for the good organization of the field study.

Phograph of Fellows with Nationalityless Community Bahai

REPORT OF TRAINING AT THE ROTARY PEACE CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF CHULALONKORN FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2011.

The month of February commenced with the continuation of one of the sessions in the 3^rd module of the training by Mr. Jan Sunoo and Mr. Stephen Kessler of the ADR/International Programms, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service USA. Their session focused on cross cultural conflict resolution and the use of other conflict resolution tools such as techniques for third party intervention as well as different approaches for problems solving and intervention. This session is quite necessary for me, as I was exposed to the techniques necessary to handle multidimensional conflicts cases like the one from where I come which is often seen from different cultural perspectives. To do this, certain issues need to be viewed from different cultural perspectives in order for one to give a balance assessment or judgments and this is what is required for effective third party mediation. The field study which took us to the far northeastern Thailand, bordering Thailand with Cambodia and Laos Republic lasted for six days (6^th -11^th February, 2011) and it was an opportunity to be exposed to various conflicts cases including community, resources and identity related issues. It was a great time hearing from different actors the nature of their conflicts and how they were able to handle it (refer to Appendix for a more detail field study report). The use of appreciative Inquiry (AI), is a strategy for meaningful change which is a participatory approach that seeks to find the strengths and passion within every system as well as the open space technology facilitation were tools we were exposed to by Jost Wagner from the Facilitators Forum Thailand.

Another major tool we were exposed to was the use of media in conflict situations, and conflict resolution films as tools for peace building; this time around it was presented by The Chair, Fine Arts Department, Co-Director, Film studies program at Boston College, John Michalczyk and Instructor in Conflict Resolution, Department of Theology, Boston College, Ray Helmick. The session extensively dwell on various ways the media can be used in conflict situations involving, interviewing, press releases techniques using selective languages that cannot escalate the conflicts and the use of appropriate medium to address different conflict situations. It was another opportunity for fellows to watch various documentary films produced by the two guest lecturers which are aimed at promoting peace process in Northern Ireland, Peru, Middle East, Kosovo, South Africa and Kenya. This resulted in open discussions on the technicalities involved in producing the films. 

We were also trained by the Deputy Chief of Party, International Relief and Development, Indonesia, Mr Bobby Anderson on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) which is used as a very significant tool needed in post conflict places where many types of ammunition are usually used during the conflicts. The DDR therefore comes in as a strategy needed to help in withdrawing the ammunitions, rebuilding and rehabilitation processes of affected communities. The session is an opportunity of learning what is expected in rehabilitation process in places that are involved in conflicts.

A one day comprehensive lecture was delivered to us on security sector reforms (SSR) and Responsibility to Protect (R2P) by Dr Norbert Ropers of the Peace Research Institute and University of Frankfurt am Main, Berghof Foundations for Conflict Studies and Peace Support Berlin. In this session, the theory, trends and critical issues in civilian control of the military was clearly discussed. Other issues discussed were peace building in post-war situations and engaging the non-state armed group (NSAG). These were important tools that will be quite helpful in addressing the security sectors with a view to ensuring conformity with human right issues and will be important for us in addressing related areas in our various areas of conflicts.

To expose fellows to basic skills in promoting non-violent and other harmless approaches by aggrieved parties in different communities, Prof Chaiwat Satha-Anand who is currently the Director of peace information center, Thammasat University & Senior Research Scholar, Thailand Research Fund, delivered an all encompassing lecture on Theories of Nonviolence and Forgiveness. In his lecture, the dynamics of nonviolent action involve changing the opponents behavior by changing his or her heart as well as by shaping and pressuring forces that constitute his/her context. The non violence action (NVA) is achievable by allowing self suffering and avoiding hatred. On forgiveness, he was quick to point out that without the magic of forgiveness, reconciliation would be unbearable for human society. It therefore becomes very important for peace makers to be more active in promoting the prevention of destructive conflicts and one of such ways is by promoting the NVA and forgiveness.

The training continued as it focused on the capacity building on peace studies and conflict resolution, peace education, monitoring & evaluation as well as truth commission and social justice by the Director, Partnerships and Consultations, The Initiative Inclusive Security, Hunt Alternatives Fund, Miki Jacevic. The goal of the session is to develop an understanding of capacity building and related processes, increase the ability to design and conduct trainings, frame goal for peace education and to gain knowledge of key resources in the field. This session was more of an opportunity of ‘train the trainer’ during which we were exposed to techniques in experiential learning, as it is expected that fellows may be involved in facilitating the training of some key actors in an effort to address some conflict cases after the fellowship. During this session fellows were also exposed to translational justice with an objective of establishing a stable foundation for the restoration of the rule of law, foster the atmosphere that is conducive to democratization and human rights, health societal divisions and provide justice and accountability.