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Hague Appeal for Peace



A report from a young delegate to the Hague Appeal for Peace, which met in 
Holland last month.  You can find it at http://journal.jrsummit.net.  Click 
on "News" then click on "A Small World."


News 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Small World 
My experience of attending the Hague Appeal for Peace  
Thomas Middleditch,UK 
I was sitting in the Staten Hall gazing at a huge video screen wondering why 
my Aunt Tin Tin's childhood friend, Sue, was pleading for the world to 
support her peoples fight for freedom. Tin Tin  was brought up in Burma and 
when they were at school many things changed for them besides their native 
names.  Sue is now Aung San Suu Kyi and she leads the opposition to an 
oppressive dictatorship that runs her country.  But she escaped, she was a 
happily married wife and mother living in the countryside of Oxford not so 
long ago. What made her abandon her peaceful and hard won freedom; and why am 
I sitting here watching a smuggled videotape of her on a video screen in 
Holland? 

Suu Kyi felt a need, an overwhelming urge to return to her roots and fight 
for something she believed in, she just had to, something was driving her. 
What is this driving force? What could make a person sacrifice a comfortable 
lifestyle and abandon her family? 

" A battlefield is not necessarily a place where people are shooting at each 
other" The Nobel Peace laureate said in the tape, which was smuggled out of 
her country for the occasion. 

" In civil society where basic human rights are ignored, where the rights of 
the people are violated every day, it is like a battlefield where lives are 
lost and people crippled" Suu Kyi said. 

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962. In 
1990 the junta refused to recognise elections that gave Suu Kyi's party a 
landslide victory. 

Hundreds of members of Suu Kyi's party have been detained. The army has 
frequently been accused of brutality and murder in ethnic areas and Suu Kyi 
lives under conditions of house arrest. 

"When we talk of peace we cannot avoid talking about human rights, especially 
in a country like Burma where the people are troubled constantly by the lack 
of justice, by the lack of peace", she said. 

I was attending the Hague Appeal for Peace (HAP) in Holland during May 1999 
and I met other people like Suu Kyi; strong, genuine people with the strength 

and will to stand up for their beliefs and fight for freedom for all. 

"Burma is not really unique", Suu Kyi said in the videotape. " We are not the 
only country where people are suffering from a lack of basic human rights and 
we feel for others in the same situation. If there is any lesson to be learnt 
from Burma it is that it helps when people care". 

HAP was commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First International Peace 
Conference and launched several political campaigns; against child soldiers, 
to promote an International Criminal court and global peace education in 
schools, against small arms and for a convention outlawing nuclear weapons. 
Some 6-8,000 participants; including Nobel laureates, religious leaders like 
Desmond Tutu and UN Secretary-General ,Kofi Annan met in the Netherlands for 
the four day peace conference to discuss how to create "a culture of peace" 
in the new millennium.  I was there because, as Suu Kyi said, I cared. But 
how did I get to be at HAP? 

I was part of a delegation of nine teenagers from all over the world 
representing Nation1.We came from Malaysia, Jamaica, Australia, Europe, 
India, USA, Mexico, Morocco and New Zealand bringing with us quite a mixture 
of nations, religions and cultures. 


So what is Nation1? It is a Network of Networks, a virtual nation inhabited 
by kids worldwide. 

Nation1 is about mass participation. It is about millions of young people 
connecting their minds and sharing resources to collaborate on solutions to 
world issues and about local problems. 

Nation1 is about technology connections. It lets youth speak about the 
problems they face and uses this forum to generate local action based on 
global discussion. It is an organization of the world with no set location 
other than cyberspace, its decentralization allowing everyone an equal voice. 

Nation1 is about young people voicing their opinions and funneling 
information to the people making decisions. 

Nation1 is about working together. What ever the organization, whatever the 
goal, Nation1 weaves new ideas for youth together and by joining forces gains 
maximum impact while allowing organizations to maintain their individual 
identities. 

Nation1 is built by kids, governed by youth and open to all. 

Nation1 is just beginning, we are considering how to create digital political 
systems, how to deal with language problems, how the technology behind the 
country will work. We passionately believe it is worth it, because uniting 
kids changes their perspectives, widens their understanding and leads to a 
better world for us all. 

If you think you can help us with ideas, expertise or sponsorship or if you 
are interested in inhabiting Nation1, we'd like to hear from you. Find out 
more at http://www.nation1.net or email nation1-info@xxxxxxxxxxxx  or just 
shout for Tom! 

I care about Suu Kyi, about oppression, about conflict and I care about you. 
I want to make this world a better place, a cleaner and more peace place and 
sitting in that hall in Holland I could only wonder about meeting a family 
friend in this sad and wonderful world. 


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