Kings of Peace, Pawns of War: The Untold Story of Peace-making

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Published: 12:00am, 3 Sep 2006

by Harriet Martin, foreword by Kofi Annan

Continuum, HK$234

'Every conflict is amenable to peace,' Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last month on the first anniversary of the Aceh agreement signed on August 15 last year in Helsinki that brought an end to a 30-year separatist war in the northeastern province. Then he added: 'The world is full of potential peace plans spoiled by imperfect players.'

Kings of Peace, Pawns of War is about six conflict mediators and their attempts to resolve conflicts in Asia, Africa and Europe. There are chapters on Iraq and Afghanistan, Cyprus, Aceh in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Sudan, and a concluding section on lessons to be learned from the experiences of mediators.

Written by British journalist and United Nations analyst Harriet Martin and sponsored by the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Kings of Peace is a straightforward account of the experiences of those engaged in conflict resolution, some as agents for the UN, others as independent parties.

It lays out the stratagems of negotiators to get parties to the table, and keep them there, in the hope of ending conflicts that in many cases have lasted for decades and claimed thousands of lives.