Presence of peace workers can end fighting.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Leslie Brockelbank, Nick Mele and David Hartsough For The Register-Guard

What if there were a nonviolent way to bring peace to an area troubled by war - a way to avoid not only bloodshed, but also the disruption and displacement caused by conflict? A group called Nonviolent Peaceforce is proving that it's possible.

Exit polls on Election Day showed that the majority of Americans are troubled by the war in Iraq. There is cause for concern beyond the toll on our soldiers or on Iraqi civilians, grievous though the cost in human lives is. While U.S. military spending spirals ever higher, our troops return home to find that tax cuts combine with excessive military spending --- the United States now outspends our allies and our enemies combined - to reduce not only veterans' benefits but spending for education, health, housing and other social programs.

The situation is grave, but there are reasons for hope no matter what choices our elected and appointed leaders make. Alternatives are developing and bearing fruit in conflicts that are not covered by headline news stories. Without fanfare, small groups of people around the world are pioneering the use of nonviolent tactics to end conflict - `making peace by peaceful means,' in the words of noted Norwegian scholar Johan Galtung.

One such group, Nonviolent Peaceforce, has been deploying unarmed peace teams in Sri Lanka for the last three years and has succeeded in saving lives, returning refugees safely to their homes and supporting Sri Lankan peace makers.

In recent months, the fighting in Sri Lanka has intensified, but Nonviolent Peaceforce teams continue to work in some of the most volatile areas.

For example, one team provided reassurance and an unarmed deterrent by simply spending several days in a village in northern Sri Lanka that is particularly vulnerable to politically motivated violence. Responding after the massacre of an entire household, the presence of even one member of the international team had a profound impact on the community's sense of safety.

People who had been willing to take the risk of fleeing, and then becoming refugees in their own country, were confident enough to remain in their own homes - a much safer place for civilians than life on the road or in a camp for internally displaced people.

In addition to its work in Sri Lanka, Nonviolent Peaceforce has opened a project in Mindanao in the southern Philippines. Within weeks of its arrival, the Peaceforce advance team had demonstrated to local government officials, community leaders and civil society groups that trained unarmed international teams do support peaceful resolution of incidents, despite a decades-long history of conflict.

As one local leader said, `Some international organizations are investing heavily in development projects. But what is the use of tackling poverty without peace? Your organization's agenda of protection and peace is the most necessary but least addressed.'

Nonviolent Peaceforce is currently training team members for deployment in a second project in the Philippines and has begun preparing for a third project in Colombia. The Colombia project will complement the work of Peace Brigades International, another group with a record of success in applying nonviolent techniques to protect human rights and defend those threatened by violent conflicts.

Linda Sartor, a member of the Nonviolent Peaceforce teams in Sri Lanka since 2003, will join noted photographer Bob Fitch in telling her story and the story of the Sri Lankan conflict in words and pictures at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28, at the Eugene Water & Electric Board Training Room, 500 E. Fourth Ave. in Eugene. David Hartsough, co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce, will also speak. Those unable to attend can visit the Web site, www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org.

The vision of Nonviolent Peaceforce is to create a large-scale nonviolent peacekeeping force through the development of its projects in zones of conflict, and at home through public education, training and advocacy.

Leslie Brockelbank of Eugene is a member of Nonviolent Peaceforce. Nick Mele of Bellingham, Wash., is the group's director of communications, and David Hartsough of San Francisco is the group's co-founder and a lead staff member.