Cambodia's Army of Peace

March 2, 2002 10:53 AM

The work of Cambodia's Army of Peace is known throughout the world, and a Southeast Asian Peace Army or Shanti Sena is in the works for 2002. Gandhi called for a Shanti Sena for national defense in 1942. Because the Japanese did not invade, India has used a "Shanti Sena" for combatting riots rather than homelands defense. (The Rainbow Gathering also calls its security people "Shanti Sena, or the Peace Army.") A short history of grassroots initiatives in unarmed peacekeeping from 1932 to the Present" shows that many of the Peace Army initiatives preceded Gandhi. Narayan Desai is one of Gandhi's successors. Californian Sanderson Beck offers comprehensive links to religion, non-violence, and peace movements. Peace Brigades International is known for its work in the Balkans, Colombia, Indonesia and the Middle East. Working directly on terrorism, as well as war, is the Sarovodaya Movement of Sri Lanka. Prize for the most highly focused "Peace Army" goes to the North Koreans. Governments always come up with money for soldiers, but they don't hire unarmed, non-violent peacekeepers. Howcome?
posted by sheauga (7 comments total)

This summary of efforts to put together a "Peace Army" is in response to threads about Gandhi and Israel/Palestine. "No matter how insignificant what you are doing may seem, it is very important that you do it!" Are any of these initiatives cause for hope?
posted by sheauga at 10:55 AM on March 2, 2002

Governments always come up with money for soldiers, but they don't hire unarmed, non-violent peacekeepers. Howcome?

Because it costs money to train unarmed peacekeepers, and when they are faced with an armed opponent with an ounce or two of resolve, it's going to cost a fair amount to provide a decent burial for the peacekeeper and train his replacement.

Eh, give war a chance.
posted by dissent at 11:25 AM on March 2, 2002

Tibet had a quite a few unarmed, non-violent peacekeepers.
posted by barkingpumpkin at 1:22 PM on March 2, 2002

Well this is a great compendium of links, probably took a while to compile, it will certainly take a while to digest (i.e. longer than the lifetime of posts on mefi).

World peace is definitely out of my range of expertise but I don't mind sharing my observations in the name of discussion and seeking:

1. War is a viable means of survival. Viable in the sense that if I kill an aggressor I have survived.

2. Many of the ardent non-violence approaches seem to be advocating that there are principles worth dying for, but not killing for. Not a survival tactic that most homo-sapiens can instinctively relate to.

3. Many of the links you point to and mention are tied to religious organizations, or at least organizations with religious themes. Governments that would fund these movements could be seen as effectively "picking sides" in a worldwide struggle between faiths. That can't be productive.

It seems to me (in my cloistered, suburban existence) that if humans could be shown the data that proves that non-violence actually yields a numerically higher survival rate than the alternative, then serious headway could be made to a more stable, safer world.
posted by victors at 3:11 PM on March 2, 2002

Prize for the most highly focused "Peace Army" goes to the North Koreans.

Since the article you link to describes this "peace army" as "a group University of Dayton students representing The People's Liberation and Revolutionary Peace Army, a radical Maoist grassroots organization", I don't see that that any North Koreans are actually involved in it. Which is good, since whoever wrote this article calls the Great Leader "Kim Sung Il" when his name was "Kim Il Sung". I thought it was a typo at first, but it's written that way twice. You can probably go to jail a long time for that mistake in North Korea. Kim Jong Il, the Great Leader's son, isn't known for his sense of humor.

That error, combined with referring to "the North Korean language", as if there were more than one Korean language, almost causes you to overlook the description of Korean vets as "grumpy-Gus war veterans". Or how about this section. "Sadly, no Dayton student has lasted more than 3 weeks as a student at Great Leader University in Pyongyang. It's a shame that our young people are so weak-willed." Yeah, or maybe just not dumb enough to put up with living under a military dictatorship that was evil long before before George W. discovered it.

That whole section reads like a parody. I'm still not sure it isn't. You discredit the rest of your point by including that link. The idea that a military dictatorship with the world's fifth largest standing army has anything to do with "peace armies" is just ludicrous.
posted by norm29 at 5:24 PM on March 2, 2002

Apologies, my attempt at humor didn't work. Guess I've spent too many hours watching material like the PBS Bombies Documentary. Thank you for proving that someone can be hard-headed enough to know the score on North Korea and still care about peace.
posted by sheauga at 6:10 PM on March 2, 2002

Apologies, my attempt at humor didn't work. Guess I've spent too many hours watching material like the PBS Bombies Documentary. Thank you for proving that someone can be hard-headed enough to know the score on North Korea and still care about peace.
posted by sheauga at 6:10 PM on March 2, 2002