'To Bless All Mankind' May 7, 2018 Issue

People once at odds don’t try to even the score

The Monitor’s Editorial Board

Adapted from an article published in The Christian Science Monitor, December 13, 2017.

After he declared victory over Islamic State (ISIS) on December 9, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made an important promise to address the wide distrust between Sunnis and Shiites—which was the root cause of ISIS’s rise. “Iraq today is for all Iraqis,” he said, citing the rare unity of military forces during the final push against ISIS.

In Gambia, President Adama Barrow plans to set up a truth commission to shed light on human rights abuses committed during the rule of his dictatorial predecessor. In Colombia in December, President Juan Manuel Santos formed a truth commission that will reveal atrocities committed during a half-century of civil war, and another tribunal will administer justice.

While any of these efforts could serve as hopeful possibilities for other countries currently in conflict—Syria, Myanmar (Burma), Libya, Ukraine, Yemen, and South Sudan—perhaps the best and most recent example of reconciliation is Rwanda, 23 years after a genocide there killed 800,000.

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