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<FONT SIZE="2" POINTSIZE="10" DEFAULT="SIZE">Dear Gil,<BR>
there is something striking about your mail: you make a strong case for the limits of open space while at the same time reporting of the enormous training in and use of ost in your country. My feeling is that focusing on the actual practice and use of ost is what will be of value in the long run. Lets dwell less on where it might not be possible to use it. <BR>
>From Berlin I send best wishes for your work!<BR>
michael <BR>
<BR>
--Original Message Text---<BR>
<B>From:</B> Gilbert Brenson-Lazan<BR>
<B>Date:</B> Sat, 27 Apr 2002 11:01:16 -0500<BR>
<BR>
Good Morning all:<BR>
<BR>
Until now I have remained silent regarding the use of OST in the case of civil conflict and violence, specifically in the case of treaty negociations en Colombia where there are a multiplicity of factors and actors, both armed and unarmed. At this time, however, I feel both the need to share our learnings and the authority to do so, as I have lived and worked in Colombia for over thirty years, the last ten years of which I have taught OST to hundreds of grad students and have opened spaces in over one hundred social systems in Latin America, most of which involved serious conflict. We are also currently training and mentoring several teams of facilitators in community development and refugee management in the Colombian war zones.<BR>
<BR>
First and foremost, I can only agree in part with Harrison´s statement that OS is pretty much the same in conflict-violence situations as it is in "normal" situations. We have very successfully used OST in many conflict situations in companies, NGOs, communities and governmental agencias. Our learning, however, is that there is a point in the process of escalation of a conflict (Glasl, Gnass and Brenson, 1998) in which OST ceases to be a viable option, simply because there is no shared need to be agreed upon or met, only the "need" to destroy one another. This has also been borne out by the excellent work of ICA-Canada in the development of strategies of facilitating conciliation. <BR>
<BR>
In our experience in violent conflict situations, when there does not exist an awareness or recognition of a common need shared by a critical mass of participants, the space rapidly degenerates into a launching pad for mutual attacks, retaliations and even greater polarization, because, from the beginning, that was the hidden agenda of so many of the participants. Even in the Incan Empire, where open space techniques were successfully used by the Mitimaes "facilitators" over 1500 years ago, the "Minga" and the "Tequio" were never used when the conflicts reached a certain "temperature" (translation of the Quechua word used).<BR>
<BR>
It might be thought that this would not be a problem if the sponsors arrived at an agreement beforehand and that has, in fact, been the case in some situations. However, in others, the "agreement" is "De dientes pa´fuera" (From the teeth out) and it behooves us to remember that "agreement" has different meanings in different cultures. Just last weekend, two dear friends and clients of ours, the Governor of the Antioquia Province and his Advisor on Peace (a former a Colombian Defense Minister) were on a peaceful citizens march for non-violence. As they approched the last town on their schedule, a messenger from one of the guerrilla groups approached the almost 1000 marchers and informed them that the FARC Guerrilla Movement would not allow the march to continue unless the Governor agreed to sit down and negociate with the local Guerrilla leader in a nearby village. The Governor, his Advisor and a half dozen clergy and leaders of the social pastorate willingly went with the messenger with the best intentions to negociate. Once they arrived, they were immediately informed that by order of the National Guerrilla Headquarters they were to be held prisoners of the FARC. All but one of the priests were released and the last one, the Provincial Chaplain, was released the following day to tell the tale and to carry demands for capitulation to the Colombian President. No word has been received in the last week on the condition of the Governor or his Advisor, who now are a part of the list of thousands of kidnapped citizens in Colombia.<BR>
<BR>
Regarding the specific case of the Colombian situation, there is no black and white and not even a couple of shades of gray. There are dozens and dozens of conflicting social, political, commercial, international and criminal interests simultaneously at work, some intent on physically annihilating some of the others for a variety of reasons: power, revenge, money, drug trading, arms dealing, etc. The rest of Colombia is in the middle of this multiple crossfire. <BR>
<BR>
I can certainly see an effective use of OST with the GOs, International and National NGOs and Civil Society to bring them together to generate effective estrategies. I can certainly see an effective use of OST to bring concerned citizens together. I cannot see OST as a useful intervention in the communities in the war zone, since any gathering of even a small group of citizens can and does easily provoke a guerrilla, paramilitary or military attack. Nor can I see its usefulness in conversations in another country between leaders of the different armed camps whose only declared intent and reason for existence is to kill one another. That has been going on for years now, with some of the best negotiators from around the world, but with no results. <BR>
<BR>
I hope I am wrong.<BR>
<BR>
Warm regards,<BR>
<BR>
Gil<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
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Gilbert Brenson-Lazan - Socio-Gerente<BR>
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