Date: Mon Jul 31 22:18:24 1995
Subject: Kanner Michael       Re: Recent conversations about Bosnia



This is forwarded from the peace list to led a datum to our discussion on 
martyrdom.

Forwarded Information:
>From: Kanner Michael (peace-AT-csf.colorado.edu) on Mon, 31 Jul 1995 11:01:30 -
0600 (MDT)
To: peace-AT-csf.colorado.edu
Subject: Re: Recent conversations about Bosnia

I have also heard of the 'Herodotus' solution on a number of occasions.  
The best argument against is one given by a German friend who reminded me 
that the creation of martyrs only increases passions.  He also provided a 
number of cases from ancient History, his speciallty, where these 
hostages were considered dead individuals as soon as they were 
transferred.  One case he cited was of a hostage whose wife was 
considered a widow and permitted to remarry, although her husband was 
still alive as a hostage.  In a more modern cite, you might remember that 
for years the Israeli position on terrorist hled hostages was that they 
were to be considered KIA as soon as they were seized.  A drastic 
position but one which they maintained for years.

On Fri, 28 Jul 1995, Jeff Finlay, NYU wrote:

> > Finally, I ask - as I did last week - that we focus our expertise on 
> > developing solutions to help those who are killing one another.  While a 
> > certain amount of criticising and lamenting is to be expected, it doesn't 
> > get us anywhere.  And it *is* our responsibility - not just the 
> > responsibility of others - to help create viable solutions to this war.
> > Clearly violence (the war) is not the solution (at least for me).  What is?
> 
> Sometimes in the mid-70s, someone proposed an "Herodotus solution"
> as a way of decreasing nuclear tensions in the Cold War. The idea was
> to send a number of hostages from the US to Moscow, and vice versa,
> a hostage exchange in effect, with the proviso that these people
> would include all classes and categories from society and would
> be educated in their captors' cultural life while serving their
> time as hostages. I thought it was a pretty good idea, but it
> never got adopted. If Saddam had held onto his "foreign guests"
> would the Allies have bombed Iraq into the Stone Age? Supposing
> the warring parties were to exchange their key people as a
> guarantee that they wouldn't kill each other, while peaceable
> negotiations moved forward. That's the best non-violent solution
> I've seen to conflicts. I wonder if the reason it hasn't been
> tried is that it might work?
> 
> Jeff
> 

---
There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.

Tom Blancato
tblancato-AT-envirolink.org
Eyes on Violence (nonviolence and human rights monitoring in Haiti)
Thoughtaction Collective (reparative justice project)




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