Empirically, I find few cases where that sequence corresponds to how peace unfolds.

Often reconciliation comes first. Truthtelling and justice take political will at the centre. Opportunities for reconciliation, in contrast, arise naturally at the periphery of everyday life.

In an area where Muslims had recently been fighting Christians, a Muslim leader respected in the Christian community dies. For the first time since the war, Christian leaders, followed by ordinary Christian people, attend a Muslim funeral for the first time. Muslims join Christmas celebrations for the first time and allow their children to share a Santa experience. Christians participate in Ramadan. They share joy in a birth or marriage.

A powerful example I often saw in Timor and Indonesia was people from both sides rebuilding something important to both sides in the conflict – like a traditional meeting hall. Or something more important to one side than the other – like a church or a mosque. The Muslim who joins with the Christian work team rebuilding the church does not necessarily make any admission to burning it down.

As an individual citizen, the Muslim churchbuilder feels powerless to secure a collective project of truth or justice. On his own he can extend his hand in a gesture of reconciliation. We all can, however badly truth and justice have fared in our society. If many give generously of ourselves to old enemies, our children might one day enjoy the benefits of truth and justice.

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John Braithwaite

Regulatory Institutions Network
Australian National University
http://www.anu.edu.au/fellows/jbraithwaite/
Peacebuilding Compared Project
http://peacebuilding.anu.edu.au

Professor John Braithwaite

Regulatory Institutions Network