Russia, Georgia and South Ossetia - Survivor Corps

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This is not normally a blog where I launch into political issues, but the current conflict in Georgia keeps welling up in my heart. I know that this conflict is not a ‘new’ thing: I can’t tell you how I know, but I know that several major nation states have been involved in quiet ways within Georgia for over a decade.

Anyone who seriously believes that Russian troops have both invaded and then totally withdrawn — both events in a professional, calm and respectful manner — needs their head examining.

Again and as in all wars, its the innocent who are the worst affected. Sitting safely here in Australia, half a world away, I thank God for this country’s freedom from such aggression and pray that we never see such atrocities as all the unwilling victims of wars are inflicted with.

For example, Russia has dropped cluster bombs on civilian areas in the neighbouring country of Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding dozens more. On August 7, 2008, Russia began an armed offensive against Georgia over South Ossetia, a region long recognized as part of Georgia but home to an ethnic minority with close ties to Russia.

Russia’s use of cluster munitions is the first known use of the weapon since 2006, when they were used during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The extremely high number of civilian deaths attributed to cluster munitions in that conflict initiated an international movement to ban cluster munitions, called the Oslo Process.

The Oslo Process culminated with a new international treaty in May of 2008 banning the use, trade and stockpiling of cluster munitions.

Survivor Corps was one of the 12 lead organizations that worked with campaigners, governments and intergovernmental organizations to secure the treaty. Survivor Corps also led the charge to include provisions in the treaty requiring governments to assist survivors of the weapon, a revolutionary achievement in a weapons treaty. So far, 107 countries have adopted the treaty, which will open for signatures in December of 2008. Unfortunately neither Russia nor United States are among them.

Which is why I am very happy to help Survivor Corps spread their campaign and encourage others from around the world to sign the People’s Treaty to say that YOU want to ban cluster bombs forever.

If you are reading this in the USA, your Senators must tell the military to stop using cluster bombs, and your Senators like hearing from people like you! Tell your Senators to ban cluster bombs.

Cluster munitions are large weapons which are deployed from the air and from the ground and release dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions. Submunitions released by air-dropped cluster bombs are most often called “bomblets,” while those delivered from the ground by artillery or rockets are usually referred to as “grenades.”

Air-dropped or ground-launched, cluster bombs cause two major humanitarian problems and risks to civilians. First, their widespread dispersal means they cannot distinguish between military targets and civilians so the humanitarian impact can be extreme, especially when the weapon is used in or near populated areas.

Many submunitions fail to detonate on impact and become de facto anti-personnel mines killing and maiming people long after the conflict has ended. These duds are more lethal than anti-personnel mines; incidents involving submunition duds are much more likely to cause death than injury.

Please please please strongly consider telling your friends about this campaign. Help Survivor Corps spread their campaign, sign up yourself and encourage others from around the world to sign the People’s Treaty to say that YOU want to ban cluster bombs forever. Email your friends the link to this blog post. Add the logo and/or banner below to your own website if you have one.

More info on Survivor Corps

Survivor Corps founder Jerry White is a global survivor activist who has dedicated his life to helping victims of violent conflict. While camping in Northern Israel in 1984, he stepped on a landmine, and he spent nearly six months in Israeli hospitals learning to walk on an artificial leg. Since then, he has become a recognized leader of the historic International Campaign to Ban Landmines, co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Peace. He has testified before the US Congress and the United Nations and appeared in hundreds of media interviews and profiles.

He has written an incredibly powerful book, "I Will Not Be Broken: 5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis" and here’s a summary:

The loss of a loved one, a painful divorce, or a serious physical injury—we must all, at one point, face tragedy — unavoidable moments that divide our lives into “before” and “after.”

How do we muscle our way through tough times and emerge stronger, wiser — even grateful for our struggle? In 1984, author Jerry White lost his leg — and almost his life — in a landmine accident. He has endured the pain of loss and the challenge of rebuilding. As cofounder of Survivors Corps, White has interviewed thousands of victims of tragedy. With this book, he shares what he has learned.

White outlines a very specific five-step program to coping with disaster; to achieving strength and hope; and to turning tragedy into triumph. In their own words, his survivor friends and colleagues share their stories. It’s a group that includes the well known, like Lance Armstrong, Nelson Mandela, and the late Princess Diana, and also everyday survivors. Through their stories and the author’s words, the book takes readers step-by-step through the process of not only surviving tragedy and victimhood, but going on to thrive.

For more information about I Will Not Be Broken, visit: http://iwillnotbebroken.smnr.us

 

Download the Introduction and Chapter 1 of I Will Not Be Broken
Download Chapter 1 of I Will Not Be Broken
Download Chapter 2 of I Will Not Be Broken

Anyone who has read the heart-wrenching story of Phaly Nuon in Andrew Solomon’s breath-taking ‘The Noonday Demon’ will recognise a survivor and eventual thriver, helping others deal with the outcomes of the Pol Pot regime.

Synopsis: In 1975 Phaly and her family were forcibly removed from their home, her husband sent off to goodness-knows-where and she didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. She was put to work as a field labourer with her 12-year old daughter, three-year-old son and her newborn baby. A group of soldiers tied her to a tree and made her watch while her daughter was gang-raped and then murdered. A few days later it was Phaly’s turn. Her infant was tied to her chest and she was tied and bound in such a way that her legs had to be permanently tensed, otherwise she would lose her balance, fall into a mud pool and, unable to move, drown, killing her own baby with her: she would be the murderer of her own baby.

After the gang rape, she told a lie and managed to escape, her baby in one hand and her distraught five year old son in the other. They hid in the jungle, but food was hard to find. Eventually, heavily malnourished, her breast milk ran dry and the baby she could not feed died in her arms.

After the war was over she found her husband — he had been severely beaten around the head and neck, resulting in significant mental deficit. She, her son and her husband were placed in a temporary border camp near Thailand, where again she was subjected to physical and sexual abuse.

Somehow she found the strength to not only survive (itself a miracle), but to develop a way of helping not only herself but other women overcome the horrors they had endured. She now runs a shelter in Phnom Penh.

It is this willingness to not only overcome the horrors but actually help others that Jerry White and Survivor Corps both encourage and epitomise.

Around the globe, people are inflicting harm on one another on an alarming scale with alarming ease. There were approximately 250 wars throughout the 20th century. Today, there are more than 39 conflicts raging in the world -from armed conflicts in Latin America to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to genocide in Darfur. 

More than 35 million people have been displaced from these conflicts; innocent people who have been robbed of their dignity, their homes and their livelihoods. With no hope or tools to rise above their circumstances, far too many victims lash out, seeking revenge for their plight and perpetuating the cycle of violence and suffering. Something has to be done to break this downward spiral.

Jerry’s Survivor Corps operates under the credo that no one is better equipped to change the world than those who have been most scarred by what’s wrong with it. There is a way to break the cycle of violence, and it begins with showing survivors a new, more hopeful way forward. Here’s more on Survivor Corps:

What is the Survivor Corps philosophy? No one is better equipped to change the world than those most scarred by what’s wrong with it.

Whom does Survivor Corps serve? We serve people who have been injured by global conflict. Primarily through training and support of the organizations that serve victims of conflict.

Where does Survivor Corps work? Wherever communities are experiencing or recovering from conflict - currently in over 50 countries.

Why should I support Survivor Corps? We have a ten-year track record of results improving health, creating economic opportunity, and changing laws & policies for survivors of conflict.

How does Survivor Corps work? We work across the spectrum of issues and organizations that affect the lives of survivors.

Can Survivor Corps really solve this problem? Yes. We believe that by showing survivors a new, more hopeful way forward, we can help break the cycle of violence.

Survivor Corps provides the tools and support survivors need to rise above their injuries and give back to their communities. Learn more at www.survivorcorps.org

Again, I ask you please sign it yourself and encourage others from around the world to sign the People’s Treaty to say that YOU want to ban cluster bombs forever.

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