The White House: From Fear to a Handshake - Softcover

Peter Pelz; Donald Reeves

9781846941412: The White House: From Fear to a Handshake

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846941415 ISBN 13: 9781846941412

Publisher: O Books, 2008

the white house tells the story of the possibilities of reconciliation in a universal culture saturated with images of war. It shows how it is possible, against all the odds, to bring together former enemies - survivors of a killing camp, and representatives of those who ordered and perpetrated the atrocities and killing. the white house shows how it is possible to dismantle nationalism. This book is a narrative. It starts with something ghastly and ends with a handshake. Over a thousand men and boys, mostly Muslim, were murdered and many more tortured in the killing camp in the Serb administered iron-ore mine of Omarska between May and August 1992 during the Bosnia War. Ten years after the war ended Mittal Steel bought the mine. Survivors and relatives of the victims demanded a memorial. The Serb administrators refused. The Soul of Europe was called in to mediate between Muslims and Serbs.This book tells the story of this process, talking to victims and perpetrators and achieving the first steps towards acknowledgement of crimes committed and agreement to cooperate on a memorial which is still to be built.

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Review:

Stunning. An extraordinary account of engagement with intractable and murderous hostilities, of the energy generated by hope. A thrilling narrative of those who learn to overcome the injuries done to them and those embittered beyond grief. --Jeremy Seabrook, Guardian & BBC Journalist

This account of the initiative by the Soul of Europe to bring some light into a dark corner of the Balkan war deserves to be widely read and absorbed.I hope that this honest account by Donald Reeves and Peter Pelz of the hard and painstaking work of mediation will encourage and inspire many. --The Archbishop of Canterbury

This book is a wonderful story of the courage of compassion and tenacity of dialogue in the face of fear and polarization. I highly recommend it to scholars and practitioners alike. --John Paul Lederach, Professor of International Peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana

About the Author:

Peter Pelz is a director of The Soul of Europe, an organization which promotes collaboration between faiths and communities and which he established with Donald Reeves in 2000. He is also an artist and writer.DONALD REEVES: Author of several books including Church and State (Hodder 1981), Down To Earth (Mowbray 1996) and For God's Sake (Fount Paperbacks 1988), Donald Reeves is also a director of The Soul of Europe. After being ordained in 1963 he served as Chaplain to the Bishop of Southwark where he learnt about the problems for the church in an urban area and how important it was for a priest to understand what makes our cities work. He is a well known broadcaster, making a series of films for the BBC in 1989, Making Sense of Religion.

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