Saturday, July 19, 2014

Idea for Peace

Could a peace agreement be reached in the Ukraine? Could the restive area that has more loyalty to Moscow than Kiev be given a semi-autonomous status? Could Kiev and Moscow agree that the area be demilitarized with police there being drawn with proportional representation of ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Russians and their focus be on policing only in their own ethnic communities? Would declaring an amnesty for past crimes, even the Malaysia jet massacre, secure a peace if the aforementioned circumstances are met? I know it bridles any sense of justice to let nearly three hundred murders go unpunished, but if doing so brought lasting peace and ultimately saved thousands of lives, it could not be said that the airline passengers died in vain. Swiss, despite having Italian, French, and German ethnic groups, have lived peacefully for generations despite differences in language and ethnicity through a cantonment system that respects the rights of all three collective groups. Perhaps, the two groups in the Ukraine will see this great human tragedy as a reason to cease fire and use the Swiss example to settle differences with no more blood being shed.

No comments: