Netherlands- Thursday's conclusion of The Hague Appeal for Peace Peacebuilders 2000 Goodwill Basketball Exhibition Series has signaled the winding down of the conference. With the responsibility of playing basketball now over, our delegation is focusing on getting down to the serious business of our conference participation.

It was stated in the opening press conference on Tuesday by Cora Weiss that this conference is primarily for and about young people. After months of planning, organizing, coordinating and participating in this project, the time for the implementation of our Peace in Our Cities workshop had finally arrived. I felt pretty good about our final preparations, because we got a chance earlier in the week to meet with the two of the main organizations joining us for the workshop. On several occasions this week, organizers had told me that this would be a key workshop for the conference's youth program.

Friday morning, we conducted the workshop with Global Kids (New York), Peace Links (Sierra Leone ) and The Children's Youth Movement (Colombia). AUP's Tanya Dennis served as moderator for the standing-room only audience, which included mayors from seven major cities around the world. The delegation from Global Kids gave testimonials about the impact of their organization's programs on peace gathering and cultural exchange projects throughout the world.
Dr. Phillip Shinnick, Founder and Chairman of AUP, presented an overview of our organization's history dating back to the early 1980's, when AUP focused on improving relations between the United States and the U.S.S.R. in 1984.

Peacebuilders 2000 delegate Mohammed Alarbesh, a student at Castlemont High, delivered a touching presentation on his life and the problems he and his peers face every day in his East Oakland community. Alarbesh asked the audience to try and visualize a life of total peace in their respective communities for the 21st century. "The kind of peaceful environment I visualize can only come about through the respect of everyone's human rights," he said.

Delegates from the Children's Youth Movement gave detailed accounts of how the long standing civil war in their country between the government, revolutionary factions and the drug lords has killed off a high population of men. Kids in Colombia are not exposed to the traditional family structure where both parents are present in the household. Women have to work extremely long hours, and their children are basically left to fend for themselves. Often times they have to resort to the criminal activities of drugs and prostitution as a means for survival. Colombia has been in this state of war for many decades.

I spent my afternoon at the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities worshop/forum with the organization's vice president, Alfred Marder. The most interesting part of the worshop came when several mayors refused to sign a prepared resolution calling for the stopping of NATO bombings of Kosovo. The opposition of the resolution was initialed by host Den Haag (The Hague) Mayor William Deetman. He argued that if NATO were to cease air attacks, that would not guarantee a stop to the ethnic cleansing atrocities in the war-torn Balkans.

At the conclusion of the gathering of mayors, Alfred Marder said that the bombings were not the appropriate way to handle such a delicate situation, adding that if the bombings continued, we would certainly look for World War III on the near horizon. It was Marder who originally introduced me and Dr. Phillip Shinnick to this Hague Appeal for Peace international event.

"I'm really impressed with the contributions AUP has made to this conference," said conference organizer Karina Wood. "They've exceeded all our expectations and have made a lasting impression on the conference."