Peace & Justice Witnesses

Crowd-control debris left after security/student confrontations

Lesley and I have been involved in a movement called Peace & Justice Witnesses, monitoring the student protests on various campuses as observers. Our fragile South African democracy constitutionally allows protest (withing carefully delineated outlines of peaceful action) and  correspondingly limits the options of police and private security personnel. Our task has been to be part of a neutral presence at confrontations between protesters and police/private security.

We have had two tasks. One is to obserrve objectively what happened, when, and how: did the stun grenades come before the stones, or the stones before the stun grenades?The other is to pray for peace and justice. Our mandate derives from citizenship of South Africa (a desire to ensure constitutional freedoms - of both sides - and the curbing of unconstitutional aggression -of both sides); and our mandate derives from being citizens of the kingdom of God (a desire to be peacemakers in the service of God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven.)

Neither side has been universally happy with our presence, but we have noted that the presence of witnesses has reduced the intensity of the conflict, and promoted a search for a negotiated settlement. But after more than a month of concerted involvement we seem to have won a grudging trust of most of the involved parties. Some Peace & Justice Witnesses have been organic parts of talks and trust building. Lesley and I have had the privilege of playing a very small part in a movement of Christians to make a difference in a hurting world

But it's taken somewhat of a toll. I am pulling out for a rest and some reflection at this stage - too many ghosts of my former military involvement, I think. Lesley is also quite down. The extra prayer and filling up every spare space with the intense attention has become a little too much. I feel terrible stepping back, but I need a strategic retreat to do undemanding stuff like work on my puppets and write my thesis before being able to step back into the fray.

Please pray for us. Please pray for the conflicts that remain to settle. Please pray for negotiated settlements to hold. Please pray for our country.

Oh...and they still need Peace & Justice Witnesses. They are temporarily losing two, so if you can imagine yourself in a white and green bib making observations on your cell phone...contact us and we will get you trained and mobilised :)