HOME-GROWN NGOS WORK FOR PEACEFUL CONFLICT

UNCLAS SANAA 000503

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ARP:AMACDONALD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER YM
SUBJECT: HOME-GROWN NGOS WORK FOR PEACEFUL CONFLICT
RESOLUTION


1. SUMMARY. Local NGOs are engaged in a three-pronged
approach to promoting peaceful conflict resolution among
Yemen's tribes: engaging tribal leaders, empowering youth,
and training imams as mediators. These techniques often
overlap efforts to curb the spread of extremist ideology.
The programs represent a uniquely Yemeni approach to
assisting these at-risk populations and may warrant
additional consideration when dispersing development
assistance. END SUMMARY.


2. Engaging tribes may be the most important key to
successful conflict mediation, according to several NGOs
operating in tribal regions. "Government attempts to
interfere in tribal warfare fail for two reasons," Marib
native Mohamed Alsalhi told Poloff. "First, the tribes are
very suspicious of the government. Second, the government
only tries to interfere when it is convenient. Incidents
occur between government checkpoints, yet they do nothing."
Alsalhi operates Future Organization, a Marib-based NGO that
works to protect university students from tribal revenge.
"We have the support of the sheikhs to create a Conflict
Resolution Institute in Marib," he explained. The institute
plans to bring together tribal leaders, teachers, parents,
and students to encourage the creation of a "revenge free
zone" at Yemen's universities.


3. The support of the sheikhs allows NGOs to conduct youth
empowerment programs, both in the villages and in Sana'a.
Sons of sheikhs from ten governorates will attend a conflict
resolution workshop designed by the Democracy School, a
Sana'a-based NGO, and funded by the Middle East Partnership
Initiative (MEPI). In a similar vein, Children's Parliament,
a Democracy School program that recruits next generation
leaders to advocate for children's issues, includes a
"Committee to End Revenge Killings." According to Program
Manager Ilham al-Kibsi, the committee was created in response
to concerns from student participants directly affected by
tribal violence. Recently some of these same students also
designed a "Committee to Combat Extremism." The Democracy
School encourages graduates of these programs to train their
peers in their home cities and villages.


4. NGOs are also training imams to combat the cultural
acceptance of violent retribution. "We use peaceful messages
from the Quran to convince tribes to give up their weapons.
Now we use those same messages to convince young people that
Islam is a religion of peace," said a local imam during a
March 16 round-table discussion with peace activists. Dar
al-Salam, a peace organization dedicated to combating acts of
revenge, expanded its conferences that train imams to act as
conflict mediators to include this type of religious
instruction. These conferences are especially effective,
according to Dar al-Salam's Chairman Sheikh Abdelrahman
al-Marwani, because the discussions are led by well-respected
volunteer imams. Sheikh Abdelrahman's status as a sheikh and
victim of violence himself (Note: He was severely injured by
a hand-held grenade as a child. End note.) helps to recruit
volunteers for his organization, no easy feat in a country
with an under-developed sense of volunteerism.

COMMENT
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5. The NGO managers are eager to expand cooperation with the
USG, although the Democracy School mentioned having to remove
the MEPI label from a project during the recent fighting in
Gaza. Providing assistance to these types of programs may be
an additional way to achieve the Mission's goal of engaging
tribes, especially since their conflict resolution programs
target the same young, religious, and disenfranchised
populations who are so susceptible to recruitment by
extremists. END COMMENT.
BRYAN