BRIDGE BUILDERS
PROJECTS - Peace Process
PEACE PROCESS is an umbrella for two projects organised by Bridge Builders in and around Newham – PEACE IN OUR BOROUGH and MEET THE MET – AND HAVE YOUR SAY.
The first, PEACE IN OUR BOROUGH, is a series of occasional public forums. Panels of community and faith leaders, educationalists, politicians and senior police officers discuss issues that threaten peace in our community. The meetings always involve the audience with question-and-answer sessions. Young people are encouraged to participate.
PEACE IN OUR BOROUGH resembles a local version of TV’s Question Time. Meetings spark lively discussion and impassioned questioning.
Panelists have included headteacher Vanessa Wiseman, black youth leader Ray Lewis, refugee activist Canon Ann Easter, hospital multi-faith manager Yunis Dudhwala and Met police office Chief Inspector Carl Lindley.
Councillor Unmesh Desai with some Peace In Our Borough participants.
At a particularly poignant meeting, following a spate of knife-crime, two close relatives of murdered teenagers told their stories. Ayub Dabur, the father of 17-year-old A-level student Rizwan Dabur, spoke of his son’s encounter on a Sunday afternoon in West Ham Park. Rizwan was knifed as he tried to stop three youths stealing a mobile phone from his friend. Nobody has been arrested for the murder.
While acknowledging the difficulties faced by police in penetrating walls of silence in communities sheltering assailants, Mr Dabur, a launderette owner of Forest Gate, said that not an hour passed without him grieving for Rizwan whom he described as courageous, respectful and working towards a university course in economics – "an ideal son".
In a second interview outreach worker Brother Kamal Krishnasamy spoke of the murder of his younger brother Praba, a refugee from civil war in Sri Lanka. Praba was stabbed by a fellow Tamil, a former friend, in a confrontation at a filling station in Ilford.
Brother Kamal, of the Emmanual Christian Fellowship in Manor Park, told how Praba’s killer was picked up by Belgium police and returned to London where he was sentenced to 15 years for the murder to which he had pleaded not guilty.
Later, in his pastoral work at Belmarsh Prison, Brother Kamal told how he inadvertently shook hands with his brother’s killer, not realising his identity. At a subsequent encounter, the prisoner apologised to Brother Kamal in tacit acknowledgment of the crime. "But I had already forgiven him," said Brother Kamal.
PEACE IN OUR BOROUGH meetings have been held at Newham Town Hall thanks to the good offices of Councillor Unmesh Desai..
The second strand of PEACE PROCESS is MEET THE MET – AND HAVE YOUR SAY, a series of conversations between young people and the borough police. With troubling issues like knife crime, gang culture, drugs and radicalisation touching the lives of so many in Newham – as elsewhere in London – Bridge Builders runs these informal gatherings to break down suspicions and foster understanding.
So far, there have been three MEET THE MET sessions – at a mosque, a gurdwara and a Catholic church. Youngsters have aired concerns and grievances. The police have listened, learned and explained. In general the sessions have worked well with both the youngsters and police benefiting from the exchanges.
More sessions are planned. Greater effort will be made to involve the difficult, disdainful and disaffected – such as gang members, whether past or present, and former perpetrators of crime.
MEET THE MET organiser from Bridge Builders is project director Gowri Pillai. The Met’s key representitive is Deputy Borough Commander Superintendent Gary Buttercase.
Deputy Borough Commander Gary Buttercase.