September 4, 2000
A little child leads them as group
denounces evil of ethnic cleansing
___By Robert O'Brien
___Special Correspondent
___GOSTIVAR, Macedonia--Five-year-old Besnika couldn't spell "ethnic cleansing," but her words told its story more eloquently than a document crafted by multi-ethnic adults from around the world.
___"We don't want to be killed. We don't want war. All we want is to live in peace," thetiny Albanian girl told a group gathered in Gostivar, Macedonia, for the first public reading and signing of the Stockholm Accords on Ethnic Cleansing.
Texas-based Global Strategies International wants you to read and then sign the Stockholm Accords on Ethnic Cleansing
___Impressive words of the accords denouncing wholesale murder and dislocation of ethnic and religious groups had earlier moved a roomful of adults, including about 10 Texas Baptists, to a spirited dialogue in several languages of the Stockholm Accords' first written form--English, Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish.
___As Besnika darted forward spontaneously to take her turn at a microphone at the early August gathering, she didn't know the Stockholm Accords will be the focus of a series of international signing events and on the World Wide Web site of Texas-based Global Strategies International (www.gsrf.org) by individuals, governments and organizations.
___She couldn't define "ethnic cleansing" as a global scourge involving the systematic annihilation or forced removal of ethnic, racial or religious groups for political, ethnic, racial or religious purposes.
___She only understood the pain she had absorbed from Albanian family members and classmates who had fled to Macedonia as refugees from the recent bloodbath in nearby Kosovo.
___When Besnika spoke, the Stockholm Accords took on new inspiration for the unlikely mix of American, Albanian, Macedonia and Turkish Muslims, Macedonian Orthodox and Protestant Christians.
___Mesmerized by the glow of Besnika's blonde hair and bright pink outfit and touched by words of wisdom beyond her years, men and women brushed away tears and embraced and comforted the tiny witness.
___Differences and problems gave way, at least for that moment, to a common resolve to change a world in which 170 million children, women and men died in the 20th century at the hands of their own governments via genocide, ethnic cleansing and political mass murder. That's more than were killed in all 20th century wars.
___"I felt the Spirit of the Lord in the room guiding people of all faiths," said Chuck Ehrlund, one of a team of volunteers from Houston's Memorial Drive Baptist Church who came to Macedonia for a mission project. Ehrlund and several other Texas Baptist volunteers attended the Gostivar meeting as guests of their pastor, Robert Newell, a member of the group originating the accords.
___"It's a life-changing experience," added Ehrlund. "It's the fruits of what I've been praying for in America among black, brown and white. People of all backgrounds need to teach and demonstrate appreciation for each other."
___Besnika would add only one word--"children"--to a sentence in the preamble of the four-page, nine-section Stockholm Accords.
___That sentence calls on "women and men of every nation, and particularly representatives of governments throughout the world, to join us by denouncing ethnic cleansing in all its forms and by participating with us in a global movement that will monitor and prevent ethnic cleansing, coordinate relief and support an unqualified reverence for human life."
___"Thanks to Besnika, we will ask our group to add the word 'children' to the accords. Children are a powerful motivation for peace," said Texas Baptist Doug Tipps, president of Global Strategies International and pastor of First Baptist Church of San Marcos. Tipps envisioned and spearheaded the anti-ethnic cleansing movement.
___"Many would say we're naive to think we can initiate a worldwide movement to end ethnic cleansing in the 21st century," said Derek Davis, director of Baylor University's J.M. Dawson Institute for Church-State Studies.
___"People said the same thing about efforts to end slavery," said Davis, who edited the first and succeeding drafts of the accords, based on input from around the world to encompass thinking from East and West. "No one thought slavery could be ended, but it was.
___"We want to do the same thing with genocide and ethnic cleansing in the 21st century. We want to develop a world consciousness, a grassroots movement."
___Texans Arville and Shelia Earle and Darrell and Kathy Smith, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship workers in Macedonia, hosted the meetings.
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