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 -------------- ¶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