Southeast teacher attends peacebuilding course at Eastern Mennonite University

Ellen Dillon attended a monthlong course on peace-building at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va. Mennonites are traditionally pacifists and have a history of being leaders in the field of peaceful thought. Dillon teaches speech and communication courses at Southeast Missouri State University, and this fall she will teach a speech class at the Kennett Area Higher Education Center. She sat down for an interview with Southeast Missourian reporter TJ Greaney about her experience.

Q: So what was this summer course you attended?

A: What I went to was summer peace institute at Eastern Mennonite University.

The student body at this institute is not a regular college student body. These people are international, and generally what I found out is that they are leaders in the peacebuilding communities in their countries or they are affiliated with some NGO or something. Some of these people were doing incredible things in their home countries as far as running [refugee] camps and camps for rape survivors.

The focus is to learn the technical parts of peace-building, which has become an academic field now. But also the human parts of peace-building and the focus that I took and the classes I was taking were more concerned with reconciliation. Because you can't have peace without reconciliation coming first.

Q: What exactly is peace-building?

A: Peace-building indicates coming into a place or a culture that has seen conflict and from within the structures of that place you figure out how to have some reconciliation where all factions are interested in participating in a restructuring. So people come together and then using that culture and using that history they try to build a peace that can withstand time and so forth.

It's different than a mediated peace where someone comes from the outside and tells you you need to do this, this and this. What we see time and time again is that when that happens, it's not ongoing, it's just a temporary peace.

Q: It sounds like this is more teaching people ways they can live together rather than politically drawing lines. Is it learning to cohabitate?

A: Yeah, and that's not to say that people from other cultures aren't useful, but they cannot know as intimately what the structures are and really what the conflict is. I think that's one of the problems we're having in the Middle East is that their structure and their government are so unique to that area that we go in and we want it to be a certain way. Even if we intellectually understand the difference, I still don't think that we really get the human factor which you really need to have.

Q: Where has the strategy of peace-building been used?

A: Actually it's used everywhere. One of my teachers is Ethiopian, and he uses this method all over. Three weeks before we got there, he had met with military leaders on both sides of a conflict in Uganda. He taught me that you cannot reconcile until all parts of the conflict want to reconcile. Then you can figure out who has been hurt and what apologies need to be made. In South Africa it was a part of how they got through the transition from apartheid.

Q: Imagine we had people at this table who were in a conflict like a traffic dispute. Could you tell me how you'd use some of the techniques you've learned to resolve their dispute?

A: The first thing you have to do is before you even sit down, you must meet with both sides and say 'do you want to be part of reconciling this conflict,' and if either side says no, then it's too soon for me to be there.

Supposing they said yes, then they are at the table. You have to lay down the fact that we will hear all sides and we are going to have an exchange. The rules are that we will treat each other respectfully and allow each side to tell its side of the story.

By the time they've come to the table, they have it organized in a way that the story is not fully emotionally charged. They want to get their message across. One side will say, 'we were hurt this way, this way and this way,' ideally they might also say, 'we feel we were responsible for this part.' When they're done, the other side does the same thing.

As the mediator then I will come in and say, 'OK, this is what I hear,' and sum up the dispute, and they can clarify and sometimes when they hear what the outsider perceives, their conversation with me can turn into a dialogue with each other. And a dialogue can include yelling and cursing and a lot of emotion. And that's all fine, but people need to be reminded that we're seeking reconciliation. And sometimes more time needs to elapse before they come back to the table.

Q: How will you use what you've learned at the class when you teach this fall?

A: I've always taught what people listen for is that you've considered both sides or all sides and you still hold the opinion. You need to go into your research willing and expecting to learn anything. And if you do that when you're a student then you're going to learn so much more. And if you do that when you're not a student, just a student of life, then your adventure never ends.