"The world is in war and peace trends, if there is one that is ready to make peace, there are many others fighting, or even when the nation is peaceful, they build the military to be ready to fight." That was Jusuf Kalla’s statement delivered at the Seminar on ‘Building Peace through the Improvement of Humanitarian Diplomacy’, October 12, 2011.
Related to the conditions of war and peace, Jusuf Kalla said that the International Red Cross has two functions: to provide humanitarian assistance to the conflict and natural disaster. So far, only the Red Cross has access to enter the conflict area and help the victims. "The most terrible war is a religious war, because they fight to find paradise. It is difficult to correct perceptions that exist about this war, the real harm," he said.
Therefore, a peace mediation effort is necessary to know the actual condition with the previous research. As public knowledge is not always true, so some researches are needed first. For example, the conflict in Ambon and Poso, at a glance it seems a religious conflict, but actually the political interests make them fight. "So, they have to move in neutrality, act as independently as possible, and give priority to humanitarian actions, not political," the former Vice-President said.
Besides Jusuf Kalla, the seminar held by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Indonesia in cooperation with the International Studies of Universitas Gadjah Mada also presented Vincent Nicod, speaker and representative of the ICRC, and Prof. Dr. Mohtar Mas’oed, Professor of International Relations Department of Universitas Gadjah Mada. Overall, the seminar discussed on how a comprehensive understanding of the humanitarian crisis is needed to strengthen the humanitarian diplomacy. Moreover, it aims at how to be more able to contribute to conflict resolution and post-disaster rehabilitation.
The seminar started with the inauguration of Programme on Humanitarian Action the Institute of International Studies, and this activity was part of the series Conference on Humanitarian Action Studies in 2011 which lasted from 10 to 14 October 2011. The conference itself is expected to be able to build an academic framework for humanitarian action. In this conference, academicians from various fields study together with professionals discussed humanitarian actions with different points of view respectively. This conference series included three (3) activities, namely Basic Short Course (10-11 October), Seminar (12 October) and Cluster Discussion (13-14 October).
Vincent Nicod in this seminar discussed more about the role of ICRC in the conflict zones. He said that the humanitarian diplomacy carried out by ICRC makes it a representative of the people who become victims. In such situation this is often required to meet various parties, whether the prisoners, victims, the actors in dispute, the international refugee or not.
Vincent said the ICRC in its role does not persuade actors in conflict to stop the conflict, but tries to persuade them to reduce the impact of any action to no longer commit violence. In addition, the ICRC analyzes the conflict situation in each region and creates a network of the ICRC as well as performs humanitarian mission. "The ICRC is not involved in solving a conflict such as what happened in ASEAN, the UN and so forth, but provides universal assistance to anyone in need," he said.
Meanwhile, Prof. Mohtar Mas’oed, Professor of UGM explained the various humanitarian interventions. That peacekeeping is a form of intervention by third parties in order to control and prevent greater casualties. Realist perspective shows that countries involved in peacekeeping strive to realize their national interests not just because of the goodness. While the perspective of peace studies describes the countries do intervention to avoid bloodshed that is considered contrary to their understanding, although conflicting parties consider it legitimate. "It is different from universalist perspective that analyzes the state to intervene because collective action is in line with the interests of all parties to resolve by involving the conflicting parties and taking into account their interests," Mochtar said.