Participants in the fifth World Peace Forum have agreed that during a conflict, the media plays a significant role in delivering information that could lead to conflict resolution or, in the worst case, escalate violence
articipants in the fifth World Peace Forum have agreed that during a conflict, the media plays a significant role in delivering information that could lead to conflict resolution or, in the worst case, escalate violence.
Muslahuddin Daud, an activist from the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA), said other than foreign governments and international organizations, the media had been instrumental in helping to accelerate conflict resolution between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Jakarta government.
'From what I saw in Aceh during the conflict, newspapers were not only publishing news as a business, they were also helping to spread the peace message in Aceh,' Daud said at the conference.
Aceh was ravaged by a decades-long military conflict before the tsunami hit the province at the northern tip of Sumatra in 2004, claiming the lives of 230,000 people across the Indian Ocean region.
The conflict ended with the signing the Helsinki Peace Accord, signed by the Indonesian government and GAM on Aug. 15, 2005.
In December 2005, the GAM leaders announced that they had disbanded the military wing of the organization.
In the discussion, Daud added that conflict resolution in Aceh was difficult and the media could play a role in bridging differences between the two sides.
'It is almost impossible to reach peace without a mediator, the media or other neutral parties,' Daud told the forum.
A senior Maluku journalist, Rudi Fofid, said it was not always easy to work in a conflict environment.
Communal strife engulfed Ambon in 1999 and quickly spread to adjacent areas. By the time the inter-religious clashes ended in February 2002, at least 6,000 people had been killed and 700,000 others displaced.
Rudi said that even established media outlets had failed to grasp what really transpired in Ambon.
'Some prominent media companies in Jakarta wrote misleading news about our conflict. They did not send their journalists to the location but described it as if there was an apocalypse ongoing in Ambon,' Rudi said.
He said, however, that later, as journalists began to be aware of the presence of provocateurs in the conflict, they started writing news to support peace building in the province.
The country's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, organized the forum with Cheng Ho Multi Culture Education Trust of Malaysia, with the theme 'Quest for Peace: Lessons of Conflict Resolution'.
'Our message is clear, we have to work together to end any conflict and we also hope that through this forum we can learn something from a conflict resolution success story,' said Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah.
Peace activists, religious leaders and scholars from 21 countries, including post-conflict countries such as Kosovo, Nigeria and Myanmar, joined the event as participants. The event runs from Nov. 20 to 23 in Jakarta.
Jusuf Kalla, who opened the forum on Thursday evening, said conflict settlement could be reached through peaceful negotiation.
Kalla also said that prosperity was the key to maintain peace, as poverty could lead to social resentment and direct people to conflict.
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