Conciliation Resources Annual Review for 2005 - now online

Dear Colleague,

We are pleased to inform you that Conciliation Resources’ Annual
Review for 2005 is now available on our website as a downloadable PDF
file at: http://www.c-r.org/pubs/annreps/annreps.shtml

Despite many challenges, this has been another year of important
achievements for CR. Whether helping our partners in Sierra Leone
mediate in a chieftaincy dispute or facilitating the ‘Schlaining
Process’ of unofficial and confidential dialogue between Georgian and
Abkhaz officials, politicians and civil leaders, CR staff overcome
enormous obstacles to find creative ways of influencing the course of
violent conflicts in places far from our London offices. Our enclosed
annual review gives a colourful account of these.

Communicating our work effectively requires us to struggle with the
complexities. Global foreign policy agendas are crowded, vast and
sometimes contradictory. The simple rhetoric of ‘good’ and ‘bad
guys’, victims and perpetrators ­ often makes it difficult to explain
what is going on and harder to resolve conflicts.

One of our staff currently visiting southern Sudan sent an email this
week about the capture of two members of the Ugandan rebel group, the
Lord’s Resistance Army. “One, aged 13 years, was shot in the leg and
is in hospital. He was held with another 15- year-old boy who could
not follow the other LRA escaping because of a swollen left thigh.”
The important distinction between victim and perpetrator gets blurred
but the suffering of children is easy to understand.

I believe that by grappling with these and other complexities CR is
making a real difference. But we could not do this work without the
help, funds and trust of our partners, friends and colleagues around
the world. I hope we can continue to count on your confidence and
cooperation over the coming year.

Yours sincerely,
Andy Carl
Executive Director

Conciliation Resources
173 Upper Street, Islington
London N1 1RG UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 73597728
Fax: +44 (0) 20 73594081
Email: cr@c-r.org
Website: http://www.c-r.org