As we are about to remember Independence Day in the United States and Bastille Day in France this month, it is easy to forget the terrible cost of human life associated with the freedom these events celebrate.
Anyone who has witnessed war knows these costs. In the world today there are dozens of conflicts taking place in the name of independence. To understand them is nearly impossible, especially as most of us receive our knowledge from sound bytes on the nightly news. How do you explain and contextualize an ethnic or religious conflict in 30 or 60 seconds? Plus the views given are usually directed and biased towards the culture that is watching.
If we look at Kosovo, which received so much news coverage, we can be forgiven for believing that a predominantly Christian people were inflicting enormous pain on a Muslim people or vice a versa. To understand this conflict one needs to look at the culture and history going back centuries and even then we can only do it as an outsider. As an audience do we have a responsibility?
To give you some idea of Kosovo let me tell you a story. I had been covering the Balkan conflict for some time, this consisting of
My translator, Melinda, was a beautiful 20 year old Kosovar woman who is also branded an ethnic Albanian. She called herself a Muslim Christian and was quite comfortable worshipping in a church or mosque. For me this was a little confronting but for her my singular religious Christian stance was not.
We traveled together back into Kosovo when the UN troops entered. Travelling through the beautiful countryside, we would wait as mines were cleared from the road and as we waited we talked endlessly and listened to music in our modified 4WD
Over the next few weeks we covered most of the country from the capital Pristina to the towns Prizren, Pea, Mitroviza and many others. The UN gradually was controlling each area. We filmed ethnic Albanians returning on their tractor-trailers. Large families who often arrived to find their homes completely destroyed. We witnessed first the joy of returning and seeing familiar things, then disbelief and despair as they arrived at their destroyed homes. Their faces streamed with tears and anguish burned into their eyes. Is it surprising that this can turn into anger and revenge?
As the tractors were unloaded with the few belongings they managed to take when they left, questions were asked about those who stayed. This often led to grizzly finds in the fields around.
You can imagine how Melinda felt as she translated the answers to my questions and learnt herself of the brutality that had been dealt her people. One day, as we went with a family to look for the bodies of the men who had stayed behind, we walked into a field next to the village, which had become alive with colour. In the bushes we found the mutilated and tortured bodies and it was more than Melinda could stand. Her anger raged in a verbal torrent against the people who had done this. Tears streamed down her face, her eyes searching my face for answers, though none came forth. Melinda declared she would never forgive them and that they would pay.
I walked her to the centre of the field, sat her down, picked some of the wildflowers for her and went back to document the scene. Documenting scenes like this is something I did many times in Kosovo and have done many times before in other countries.
When I returned to Melinda, she was no longer sobbing but merely staring at the beautiful colours of the flowers I had given her. I took a photograph of her hands holding these flowers and that is how I have chosen to remember that day.
The events that took place for Melinda and I coloured the way we see the future. While I definitely do not agree with revenge I can understand it. The reconciliation of people, ethnic groups and nations after conflict is so important and it is where the salvation message of Jesus has so much to offer.
It is so easy to judge another from where we stand and yet unless we have walked in their shoes how can we judge? I thank God that when we meet in heaven it will be His judgment and not mine.
Jesus met people where they were and still does today through His Holy Spirit. Perhaps we should try to meet and understand people where they are and allow his Spirit to work. If God can forgive surely we can try to understand.
How blessed I am to live in a democracy where I take so much for granted. My freedom, my family, my choice - it could all be so different had I been born somewhere else.
So as we celebrate Bastille Day or Independence Day let us never forget that our freedom was bought at a great price. Today many people pay a price and place their lives at risk for independence because they believe in a future for the next generation. As Christians I believe it is our responsibility to try to understand the situations we hear about and not dismiss them as simply 'over there'.
As the world watches
The leaders of the world's supposable super powers have just met. Have Presidents Bush and Putin done a deal, where should the conflict escalate into a nuclear war, they will join sides and sit on the fence? In the past they would have backed opposite sides, choosing a country each. Is this a way for them to see the effects of a war of this type, all the while sprouting a rhetoric that calls for peace?
It is ironic or sad that barely 50 years ago, the British faced a similar problem in the same region. Lord Mountbatten oversaw the independence of
As Mountbatten had his forces concentrated in the West, he asked Ghandi to travel to the east, which he did and lived with a Moslem leader in
Lord Mounbatten dubbed Ghandi 'my one man boundary force' and the world's media called it 'The Miracle of Calcutta'.
On the 17th day two Moslems were murdered and Ghandi began a fast unto death, he would not eat again until those responsible had repented and vowed to stop the violence. Over time and with reports of his health being broadcast hourly over Indian radio, the murderers came forward and the leaders of every religious group in the city signed a declaration guaranteeing no more killings. Peace held.
The contrast in styles of Mountbatten's military force and Ghandi's peaceful approach could not be greater. Ghandi who modeled his lfe on the teachings of Jesus, brought peace in a way, the world was not used to then or now.
Today perhaps instead of rattling sabers and world leaders forming pacts, we should be praying for a leader to come forward and show the only way that can ultimately bring about peace.
The cost may be high but certainly not as high as the alternative. There is nothing more disarming in war than turning the other cheek and forgiving your enemy.