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RESOLUTION 1325
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How
Can We Sleep?: SCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security
Shqipe Malushi, Executive Director, Albanian American Women's Organization
21 October 2004, Arria Formula Meeting, UN Conference Room 6, 15.30
- 17.30pm
First I would like to thank the UN Security Council for giving me
this opportunity to be here today. Then my gratitude goes to the Permanent
Mission of Benin for organizing this meeting, UNIFEM for their recommendation,
and Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and all
participating NGOs.
My presentation will focus on healing and women’s contribution
to the peace process.
I WAS BORN IN THE LAND OF OPPRESSION AND WARS, the land of mystery
and darkness, the land of passion and love, where bullets protect
honor. I was born in the land of rivers and dancing, delicious food
and colorful flowers; the land where high mountains meet with seas
and the streets are paved with cobblestones. I was born in a land
where houses have faces, and mosques and churches create symphony
from dawn to dusk.
The situation in Kosova is grim. Seventy-five percent are unemployed,
the political situation is still unstable; injustice, poverty and
fear are rising beyond the mountains and the rivers. The war is still
fresh in the eyes of women, children, and the aged men sitting in
front of their doors for hours, smoking in silence. They are waiting
for hope that never comes. The fear and nightmares of war are robbing
them of their future. Women and children suffer the most.
I will read you an excerpt from my memoirs of war.
'
Five years ago, when the war started in Kosovo, I was terrified from
pain and the inability to do anything. I tried to send money, worked
with refugees, picked up the dead bodies, dealt with suicides, rapes,
hunger and devastation. I was there when women cried asking me for
help, and I didn't know how to help; neither could I bear their pain
nor could I change their pain. I spent nights walking beside the new
graves, smelling the blood that had been shed on that land. I was
haunted by the eyes of old people asking so many questions, which
I took in with a feeling of such intense responsibility. I was there
standing in front of the mirror that had been projecting a distorted
picture of what I had known once to be a beautiful life. I saw people
turn vicious toward each other, I saw people losing their minds; I
felt shadows of the dead including some of my family following me,
as I walked over my land where once I was born, and now walked in
the name of a peacemaker.
Five years have passed, and other wars have begun, as I realized that
I couldn't deal with the violence. I had internalized the violence,
and spread myself into a thousand tasks so I wouldn’t feel the
pain. As if I personally were supposed to stop the war, or help people
survive, or protect those who sought protection from us; or at least
be with them during their loss. I suffered because I was in a safer
place than they were. I suffered because I was not in danger of dying.
I suffered because I realized the game of the big powers and felt
the helplessness of my people... All I am trying to say is that war
is a monster, and all wars are the same: they never end.
Only a few days ago I received an e-mail from an Iraqi friend, who
wrote:
“I was in Cyprus attending a non-violence peace consultation.
There, I insisted not to see, read or hear anything, trying to forget.
I do not know what to say! Everybody was demanding peace and non-violence,
yet; nobody knows WHAT the real PEACE is? There, I went to swim. The
sea was very friendly and warm.
It has been ages since I felt warmth and security in Iraq. Simply,
there I felt that I was a human being again. I could smile, dream,
swim and sleep without fear.
“Just few days ago, I was back to my apartment in Haifa Street—in
Baghdad, where the real war was weeks ago. It was very painful to
see my apartment; no windows; no glass, holes and traces of the bullets
and shrapnel everywhere. Really, I missed my apartment, my memories
and (smiles)! How can I be myself outside my little world? If I had
another place to go I would, but what about the poor families in the
poor buildings?
“I do not know if I could write to you another letter or e-mail.
Any moment American friendly fire or a car bomb could kill me. Here
in Iraq, dying is easier than dreaming. Is there any possibility to
survive, without demanding to live?
“I am one of hundreds of thousands of single mothers in Iraq.
What about women who are the bread winners of their families? Who
can help them? Who can help me? Again all I want is to feel that I
am a human being.
“What is going on in Iraq, Who is right and who is wrong?”
Says Nermin Mufti, a journalist from Baghdad.
SO HOW CAN WE SLEEP IN THE MIDST OF GLOBAL WARS? When the wounds of
the past wars, like the one in Kosova, have not healed yet, and the
new ones in Iraq continue?
If we are to follow the Security Council’s recognition of article
1325, on the vital role of women in promoting peace, particularly
in preserving social order and education for peace, we of the Albanian
American Women’s Organization encourage all United Nations Members
today to support us in establishing a plan for a peace conference
in 2005-2006 called “HEAR MY VOICE: WOMEN & GIRLS IN WAR
& PEACE.” We should be able to identify women and girls
who help their communities in the regions afflicted by wars and invite
them to New York, where the healing process would begin.
This regular contact with women’s groups and networks will help
us utilize their knowledge of the impact of armed conflict on women
and girls, and will ensure us that those groups are actively involved
in peace reconstruction processes, particularly at decision-making
levels. This conference would enable us to tackle the issues of global
security in war and peace, help us share our experiences in depth
with one another, alleviate the feeling of seclusion, build trust,
find a better way to make a difference, give support to each other,
and show the victims of war that we care, while shedding light about
the causes and effects surrounding women and girls in time of war.
Albanian American Women’s Organization is committed to peace,
justice, enlightenment, and the education of all Albanian newcomer
women and their families. We want to be the voice for these women
and girls; we want to be the bridge between east and west, we want
to help transform lives from fear to faith and replace nightmares
of war with dreams of color, safety, success. and love, and yes, we
want to be a place called home.
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