A Binational Zone
INSPIRATIONAL, 16 Mar 2015
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service
In the peace treaty of Rio de Janeiro of 1942, after a border war in 1941, Peru and Ecuador had failed to draw the border high up in the Andes Mountains. Later, they agreed that the border should run along the watershed in the upper Amazon basin. But depending on rainfall, the watershed shifted back and forth. They then tried a river as border, but it came and went, depending on precipitation and glaciers melting. Since 1942, Ecuador and Peru have fought three wars over this barely inhabited 500 square kilometer territory and were about to engage in another round of war. The Peruvian air force already had made plans to bombard Ecuador’s capital city Quito.
At a peace conference in Guatemala in 1995, Johan Galtung was invited to meet with Ecuador’s chief negotiator in the border talks with Peru, a former President. Galtung patiently listened to him complain about Peru’s inflexibility. But he also always carefully listens to what people do not say. The negotiator never said that each square meter of territory must belong to one and only one country, because he assumed that to be obvious. That was a principle built into the peace treaty of Westphalia in 1648. So Galtung asked him what he thought of the idea of making the disputed border territory into a jointly administered “binational zone with a natural park,” attracting tourists to bring additional income to both countries. The ex‑president said, “In 30 years of negotiations, I have never heard such a proposal. This is very creative‑‑but I am afraid it is too creative, it will take at least 30 years to get used to such an entirely new idea, and another 30 years to implement it. It does not help us now.” But out of curiosity, he proposed it to Peru in the next round of peace negotiations, and to his surprise, Peru accepted it with some minor modifications. This led to the Peace treaty signed in Brasilia on October 27, 1998.
This zone has been implemented, and free trade zones, where merchants from the two countries can exchange goods duty-free, have been added.
Galtung pointed out that this initiative cost only $250 for an extra stopover in Ecuador while he was in Latin America, a night in a hotel, and a dinner for the ex-president and his wife. By comparison, the 1991 Gulf War to expel Iraq from Kuwait cost $100 billion, not counting the destruction it caused. Most of all, peaceful conflict transformation before violence begins can save many lives.
Most governments wait until a conflict erupts in war and then intervene with military force, instead of seeking a peaceful solution long before it leads to violence. Such a policy is comparable to driving a car with closed eyes, waiting until we hit an obstacle and then calling an ambulance, instead of anticipating dangers and avoiding them.
We need a UN Agency for Mediation, with several thousand professionals, who can detect emerging conflicts and help transform them peacefully before they lead to war. That would be an excellent and inexpensive investment for a more peaceful world.
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Dietrich Fischer, born in 1941 in Münsingen, Switzerland, got a Licentiate in Mathematics from the University of Bern 1968 and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University 1976. 1986-88 he was a MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security at Princeton University. He has taught mathematics, computer science, economics and peace studies at various universities and been a consultant to the United Nations.
Excerpted from Dietrich Fischer’s Stories to Inspire You – TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 16 Mar 2015.
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