Quakers speak on Ukraine
'Quakers are being encouraged to contact their MPs regarding the need to build preconditions for peace, and to support the rights of conscientious objectors.'
The Quaker group Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB) is calling on all governments and international organisations to create ‘the preconditions for a just peace’, in light of the continuing war in Ukraine. This will involve ‘planning the reconstruction of the areas devastated by the war and restitution’, and ‘rehabilitation of the infrastructure destroyed and the rich farmlands damaged’, NFPB said. Quakers are being encouraged to contact their MPs regarding the need to build preconditions for peace, and to support the rights of conscientious objectors.
The war has been ‘largely forgotten outside Ukraine’, says the statement from NFPB, but has caused ‘widespread suffering, and the deaths of numerous soldiers and civilians on both sides. Since the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022, the war has expanded, with massive attacks of regular armed forces, battles of relentless attrition in the East and with endless missile and drone attacks, many targeted at civilian infrastructure and housing. During this period, opportunities for meaningful peace negotiations were missed’.
The statement was finalised at an NFPB meeting on 24 June in Darlington and can be read on NFPB’s website.
Philip Austin, NFPB coordinator, told the Friend: ‘A significant part of that meeting was again given to Ukraine’: in particular, hearing from Charlotte Cooper, from the Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) peace team, about a peace movement-organised International Summit for Peace in Ukraine she had attended in Vienna. According to NFPB, Charlotte gave an account of the event, ‘highlighting the value of solidarity and of listening to different perspectives in the search for peace. The latter is not always comfortable during a time of such intense violent conflict’.
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the first chair of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, supported by the Quaker Peace Studies Trust. Members of the trust talked at the meeting about their work and future priorities, including a conference in 2024, and fundraising, so that they can continue to support new students.
Comments
Which “opportunities for meaningful peace negotiations’ were missed ?
By gturner on 24th July 2023 - 9:50
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