In the midst of a conflict, it seems ambitious to bring conflicting parties to the table. To use words instead of weapons. Andrei Gomez-Suarez, General Director of Rodeemos el Diálogo and expert for the Colombian peace process on transitional justice and accountability for human rights violations, says that it starts right there, with words, and names the three most important takeaways from the peace process in Colombia with the FARC:

1. Linguistic Ceasefire: The peace-oriented Colombian government stopped using the term “war on terror” against the FARC rebels, rather they saw them as a political actor, framing them with more legitimacy. “Linguistic ceasefire” is a term developed by the academic Sophie Haspeslagh.
   ‍
2. Define rules of engagement: Nothing is agreed, if not everything is agreed.
   ‍
3. Crisis of legitimacy: The Referendum on the Peace-Agreement 2016 was rejected by Colombians. With digital disinformation campaigns it is not enough to rely on digital or traditional communication channels, “on the ground work” with civil society is essential.

How is this comparable to Afghanistan?

The 2021 takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban had a massive impact on Afghans. But nevertheless, it just continued the ongoing cycle of violence with a shift in frames in narratives, says Theresa Breitmaier, Senior Project Manager Afghanistan and Central/South Asia Unit, Berghof Foundation. With an ongoing violence in Afghanistan for decades, every “winner” in each round of conflict imposes his views, narratives, and rules on everybody else. This history must be worked through and processed.

She adds that the peace talks that started prior to 2021 took several steps back and started anew with everyone being willing to engage, but despite being not successful, “at least there were talks”. Referring to the concept of linguistic ceasefire, that Andrei brought up: “People stopped calling each other enemies. They were willing to sit which each other and consider an alternative to a military solution but those intents did not last long, because they did not represent all Afghans”.

Reconciliation on the ground is essential, says Andrei: It is not a steady process but a perpetual peace building effort. When local communities rely on peace building, they rely on intuition, they do it every day, every smallest step in daily life is therefore part of peacebuilding. So, the smallest peace-building mechanisms are part of the solution: Local people have a role to play and even could be protagonists of a new narrative which enhances a country-wide transformation.

Listen to the Episode:

‍