Reflections on the London Bombings from Conciliation Resources and International Alert

Dear Colleagues and Friends

As London-based organizations dedicated to conflict transformation and peacebuilding, we wish to add our voice to the condemnations from the city, country and the wider world to yesterday's attacks on the people of London.

We write both as people who, like everybody else in this city, have been affected by yesterday's violence, and as people professionally engaged with finding constructive and principled responses to acts of violence and armed conflict around the world. Our daily work involves supporting people for whom the impacts of inexcusable atrocities are a regular experience. We therefore send our deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones in the attacks, and at the same time we want to look beyond the bombings to the problems that they grow from.

There is no justification for indiscriminate attacks on innocent people. At the same time it is essential that the investigation of these crimes is handled in a way that respects the law, human rights and the diversity of London's communities.

An effective response to the atrocities of the 7th of July, one that both upholds human rights and promotes peace, would not only investigate these specific crimes and attempt to guard against them in the future. It would also ask about the causes of the crimes and seek to address these with equal commitment.

Our work in situations of armed conflict around the world reminds us of the human face of violence. However difficult, it is essential to connect with that humanity and to understand the complex reasons behind extreme choices. Only then can we find responses that are capable of breaking the cycles of violence and hatred.

More specifically, we have to understand the connections between the criminal acts of a very few people, and the deep anger and sense of injustice felt by millions of people, not least in the Middle East. To prevent acts of terrorism, we need to understand the ground from which it grows.

In a week that began with international society contemplating the necessity and possibility of making poverty history, we wish to suggest that part of creating a just world is making peace possible.

For this we need to redress deficiencies in basic living conditions, in security and in respect for human rights that mar much of the world. Prosperous western societies are too often actively complicit in perpetuating those injustices or passive and silent.

A new global consensus is growing based on the following principles:

- Respect for people and the rule of law, including human rights and international humanitarian standards;
- Just relationships between our nations, such as are embodied by the demand for fair terms of international trade;
- Constructive and creative political engagement with marginalized and radicalized groups within our global community;
- An improved capacity for peacebuilding and conflict transformation to bring an end to the violent internal conflicts that bedevil the world.

London is a microcosm where people of strikingly different backgrounds, cultures and beliefs live side by side in peace. As we grieve with those who are suffering, let us draw upon the richness of our diverse society to find new ways of dealing with old conflicts.

Yours sincerely

Dan Smith, Secretary General
International Alert