'Big people must reconcile' - sounds familiar?
But this is not Lebanon
DILI: 16th August 2006 -- The focus on the disastrous
humanitarian situation in Lebanon must remain at full exposure - it
demands our full attention. But it is equally true that the media
can often only focus on one thing at a time, and other disastrous
situations remain uncommented on. Fortunately there are groups
who keep a 'watch'. Reuters is one. They have an 'alertnet'
which keeps an eye on humanitarian disasters past, present and
brewing. One of those from the past, still present,and still, it
would seem, brewing, is Dili and, more pointedly Don Bosco Comoro.
"We're waiting for the big people to embrace each
other and to sit down together and talk among themselves and then we'll
feel safe", says Rosa Soares, one of the 100,000 internally displaced
persons still in camps around Dili! This is nearly four months
after things broke out and broke down in Dili and environs. Rosa
puts it in simple, familiar terms - the need for big people to
talk. Bro Adriano de Jesus, 35 year old Salesian who has
coordinated much of the effort at Comoro over these months - and cannot
yet relinquish that role given the presence of substantial numbers of
refugees still (9,000 of them) - has much the same thing to say.
He believes that the nation's leaders "have to reconcile because they
are the ones who created this problem and now they're insisting that
the people dialogue".
Whether it's Lebanon or Dili, the problem is similar
in that it revolves around a home which no longer exists, destroyed in
battle, and perhaps more to the point, revolves around security.
"Outside camp at night there are people throwing rocks at each other
and chasing one another", said Martin Douel in Dili to Reuters. It
echoes conversations no doubt in Southern Lebanon - where what is
thrown is bigger and more deadly, and the chase is more extreme.
Yes, big people must reconcile.
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