Mediation Based on Confidence and Friendship
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MEDIATION B ASED ON CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP INTERVIEW WITH MARIO GIRO What is Sant’Egidio’s membership base No doubt, partnership is essential when So, a mix is essential. The ‘Sant’Egidio Mario Giro is a member of Sant’Egidio, an and scope of work? you are engaged in a mediation process. What Formula’ was a term coined by Boutros international, ecclesiastical community that Sant’Egidio has a membership of around is the so-called ‘Sant’Egidio Formula’? Boutros-Ghalli when he was UN Secretary- was founded in Rome in 1968. His role has 55,000 and across 70 countries. It works on At Sant’Egidio, we talk in terms of syn- General and it refers to exactly that blend of a particular focus on West Africa and he is combating poverty and undertaking social ergies. A peace process is invariably a long the institutional and non-institutional. responsible for Sant’Egidio’s international actions. In the last 20 years, it has also in- one. When it tries to move too fast it never relations as a whole. With an involvement vested a lot of effort in the field of con- works. Every situation is unique and that What are the other challenges that you in the Sant’Egidio that stretches back over flict resolution, but of course it continues requires a certain expertise. You have to har- face? two decades, Giro has personally mediated in the social work that it has always been in- monise yourself with the reality of a conflict, Involving governments is one issue, but it many conflicts worldwide. volved in. so of course we need a lot of partnerships. is not the only problem or the largest one. Regarding conflict resolution, our first in- We need local partners in particular, because When we began, there was a transitional volvement was in 1982 in Lebanon. Since they have direct experience of the conflict. phase between the Second World War and then, we have mediated in Mozambique, You also need institutional partners. We the Cold War. Many powerful states did not Guatemala, Burundi, Algeria, Kosovo/a, don’t believe in parallel or privatised diplo- want to get involved in conflict resolution in Liberia, Togo, Rwanda, the Democratic macy. The term ‘track II diplomacy’ is often Africa because they considered that war and Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Colombia, used but I prefer the term ‘track I and a half’ conflict were inevitable and nothing could Sri Lanka, Nepal and most recently Darfur. because you need a synergy between insti- be done about it. tutional and non-institutional. This pessimistic mentality has spread. Now, How does Sant’Egidio decide to become A non-institutional civil society organisa- many people have a tendency to think that involved in a mediation process? tion such as Sant’Egidio is able to intervene all conflicts are inevitable. Some even talk It is a question asked today that we did not in a conflict with much greater ease than about something on a far bigger scale: there ask in the past because nobody was work- an institutional actor because we are able to is the rhetoric of a “clash of civilisations”. At ing on “conflict resolution”. In the case of wait. We can keep time management open, Sant’Egidio, we believe in the opposite of Mozambique, we simply went because no- have patience, and keep faith in a situation that. We believe that you can always count body else did. There was no civil society until the time and situation is ripe. on humanity and that it is possible to turn organisation at that time that was tackling Many representatives from NGOs ask me a fighter into a politician. crisis management or conflict resolution at how Sant’Egidio can act in competition with This is not to say we delude ourselves and all levels. How we make such a decision to- states. My answer to them is that we have deny that there will always be conflict. What day depends on the requests we receive. We the opposite problem: getting state actors in- I mean to say is that we can move conflict can receive an invitation to become involved volved. You also have to consider that states from the battlefield to the political arena. from a wide variety of different actors. It are always needed to guarantee and arbi- We can progress from an atmosphere of can come from groups, states, civil society, trate, in signing or implementing a peace hate and exclusion to one of dialogue and or churches. agreement for example. negotiation. [ 213 ] What is the first step to take in mediation A mediation based on threats does not There must always be a synergy. When talks if you are confronted by the kind of work either. As we saw in Darfur, a peace states are able to do something, it’s better pessimistic attitudes you describe? agreement can be signed but immediately re- that they are the ones to do it. What they The first step is to build confidence be- nounced afterwards. These situations call for can’t do can sometimes be done by the non- tween the actors. It is always possible to long-term work and that requires confidence institutional sector. convince the actors that there is another way and friendship. You could say it’s a pedagogi- I have another job to get on with. I am a to achieve their objectives. Most civil wars cal process too. trade unionist, and I am responsible for the — remembering that 80 per cent of conflicts You have to harmonise yourself with the international matters for Sant’Egidio. When are internal ones — are a question of exclu- root causes of the conflict, which are almost there is mediation to do, I dedicate myself sion and recognition. We can show a path never economic. Economic factors are there entirely to it. It’s good to have other things to guarantee recognition of rights without but they come in at a second level to perpetu- to do and then focus all efforts on mediat- the use of arms. ate or give sense to a conflict. Other reasons ing talks when the time comes. In between, You need patience for that. Consider are usually at the root. You have to listen it is about maintaining links and contacts. It Uganda where we negotiated with the Lord’s and be patient enough to let others have their requires a long-term engagement. Resistance Army from 1996 to 2006. Af- say. This can be done more easily by a non- ter the first contact in 1996, there were 10 institutional organisation, ideally working in What are your hopes for the future? years of intermittent contact, silence, and partnership with institutions, of course. It seems to me that conflict resolution re-establishing contact. That is the nature has become fashionable. A lot of people are of the work that needs to be done, so you Apart from patience and willingness to lis- studying or discussing it. But what I also must have political conviction from the start. ten, what does it take to be a good mediator see is that very few people are actually tak- Only then can the peace process also take in your experience? ing action on the ground. You could say hold among the population. The best mediator is one who also has other there are fewer than 10 organisations, not Peace requires a long process of recon- work to do. Allow me to clarify that. Media- counting the institutions, which are engag- ciliation that must be taken on by the par- tors from civil society, outside an institutional ing hands-on in that way. ties concerned. You cannot impose peace on context, can only count on their personal We do far too little mediation and facilita- people. It is that attitude that leads to fro- credibility or that of their organisation. A tion. We talk a lot: maybe too much if you zen conflicts. The major example of that is mediator who is too professionalized runs consider just how many conflicts are ongo- Bosnia-Herzegovina. We can deploy thou- the risk of being personally dependent on the ing in the world. Personally, I think there sands of troops but if you want to get to the success of the mediation. That is a potential is a lot of scope to do more than what is root of a conflict and resolve it, you have to weakness. The advantage of the non-institu- happening at the moment. What we need is take the necessary time to convince the peo- tional mediator is the right to failure and that fewer words and more action! ple involved to move towards peace. is a luxury that states cannot afford. [ 214 ].