In the video resources provided here, we met Dara, a Cambodian child who suffered a disability when a landmine exploded in his hand. In Cambodia, landmines are a legacy of its recent violent and tragic past and the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot’s rule in the 1970s. Since the 1980s, there have been thousands of deaths and disabilities caused by landmines. Many Cambodian people also suffer mental health problems having lost family members and witnessed untold trauma during this time.
While there are organisations such as The Halo Trust working to remove landmines, they estimate that only around half of Cambodia’s minefield have been cleared and “those remaining are largely concentrated in the rural north-west of the country, especially along the Thai border. As the population expands, families have little choice but to move onto mined land, placing themselves at risk”. As many rural families rely on their land for small scale farming, identifying and clearing this land is a priority.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) is a global network in more than 100 countries that is working for a world free of antipersonnel landmines and for landmine survivors to lead fulfilling lives. Their advocacy is largely responsible for the introduction of the United Nations Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, typically referred to as the "Ottawa Convention" or "Mine Ban Treaty” in 1997. Because of this treaty, international norms have now formed that discourage any country, signatory or not, from using mines. The Catholic Church in Battambang is just one of the many members of the ICBL.
Although our story here focuses on Cambodia’s recent past, its earlier history is not without its sorrows, with centuries of contested land, power struggles and colonial dispossession.
Jesus is sometimes referred to as the “Prince of Peace” and the Church sees peace as his legacy and something much greater than merely the absence of war or armed conflict.
“True peace is of God, so it involves the harmony of all people pursuing justice for all”.
This more holistic understanding of peace is sometimes called ‘positive peace’, ‘sustainable peace’ or ‘just peace’. Peace is the very heart of God’s Kingdom and therefore cannot exist where there is injustice and inequality between people and nations. Peace cannot prevail where there is a desire for power, greed and, as Pope Francis has more recently reminded us, the destruction of Creation and our Common Home.
To seek this ‘Just Peace’, and fullness of life for all is something we are called to do as members of God’s family. In 2013, Pope Francis wrote an important document called Evangelii Gaudium, or in English, The Joy of the Gospel. In this he writes “Peace in society cannot be understood as pacification or the mere absence of violence resulting from the domination of one part of society over others. Nor does true peace act as a pretext for justifying a social structure which silences or appeases the poor, so that the more affluent can placidly support their lifestyle while others have to make do as they can. Demands involving the distribution of wealth, concern for the poor and human rights cannot be suppressed under the guise of creating a consensus on paper or a transient peace for a contented minority. The dignity of the human person and the common good rank higher than the comfort of those who refuse to renounce their privileges. When these values are threatened, a prophetic voice must be raised”
Hear Cardinal Peter Turkson, close advisor to Pope Francis, speak on the topic of Christian Nonviolence and Just Peace.
How can you raise your prophetic voice for Nonviolence and Just Peace?