39th PEN Writers for Peace Conference at Bled, Slovenia, March 28-April 1, 2007

The setting at Bled, Slovenia, is ideal for a conference on peace. The lake waters are calm and tranquil, and the only sounds are those of ducks and swans and the occasional swishing of oars from small rowboats.

The talks at this conference focused on minority languages and post-totalitarian resistance. PEN representatives from 30 different countries, and several speakers, makes it impossible to cover them all, but the ones that stood out for me were Mamtimin Ala (Uyghur PEN in preparation); the Uyghur are a people in China, and Mamtimin spoke passionately for the existence of these people to be known first of all in the outside world. He said that several of his people had been detained at Guantanamo, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But even after they were released their problems were not over, for if they returned to China they would assuredly have been prosecuted there. The only European country to give some of them asylum was Albania.

A heartfelt plea was made by Siarhei Smatrychenka (Belarusian PEN) on behalf of the Belarusian language, for even in their own country, it is not the language of most people, as Russian has almost entirely supplanted it.

There was much discussion around the idea of totalitarianism, in many places disappeared in name, but still there in actuality. In Putin’s Russia for example, ‘sovereign democracy’ is now being talked about. What does this mean apart from something far removed from what we understand as democracy?

Norwegian PEN representative Kjell Olaf Jensen spoke with authority about the setting up of ICORN, international cities of refuge, where writers would be given a safe place to live. But he stressed that giving them physical safety did not guarantee their capacity to write, to create, in a foreign place, separated from their homelands and people and most of all, their own language. He admitted that helping a few writers was just a drop in the ocean but concluded – what would the ocean be without its drops?

Basim Mardan, (Norwegian PEN) an Iraqi writer who was given refuge in Norway, pointed out that had it not been for Norwegian PEN, he would have been on the list of those killed in Iraq. He told us that the war in Iraq is not a simple war, with soldiers fighting each other, but described it as ‘a war within the personality’, where Sunni and Shia are fighting each other. Many writers and journalists have been assassinated or have lost their jobs and many too have had to seek refuge in other countries, mainly Syria and Jordan. We must, he said, put pressure on governments, to stop this war.

Zeki Ergas (Suisse Romand PEN) when talking about the great poverty of so many people in the world, described it as ‘genocide by omission’. We have to create a new and better world he said, incorporating ideas of peace, frugality and human dignity. Some of his essays can be found on www.peacejournalism.com www.globalmarshallplan.org and www.stwr.net

Sami Michael (Israeli PEN) was nominated for the Nobel prize. He was born in Iraq in a Jewish community. Arabic was his first language but he later moved to Haifa, which he describes as a wonderful place where Jews and Arabs live peacefully together. But he had to change his language, from Arabic to Hebrew. He has both Arab and Israeli friends. At 80 years old he’s going to live in a tent, to demonstrate for peace.

Elizabeth Csicsery Ronay (Writers in Exile – American Branch) originally from Hungary, spoke about the current situation in Hungary. The Hungarian Socialist party, who are in power, are former apparachiks and have admitted that they lied and robbed the state coffers. When the people demonstrated in October of last year young and old were attacked by riot police and beaten. Hospitals are being closed, doctors and teachers are being dismissed. The situation she says is truly Orwellian, the socialists are neo-cons, and yet they are still in power.

The Writers for Peace Committee has drafted a letter to Russia protesting about the death of Anna Politkovskaya, who is one among many other journalists who have died in the past few years. Sasha Tkachenko (Russian PEN) pointed out that it should be strongly worded; previous letters of protest to Putin got no reply, so this should be sent to the Minister of Justice and a copy to the press as an open letter. Why are so many journalists being killed he asked, we are not at war. Nobody knows who they were killed by and who will be next.

The Writers for Peace Committee will organize a Middle East Conference in Istanbul on the 8^th - 10^th December 2007 in co-operation with Turkish PEN. It will be open to all WfP members and to all the regional PEN centres of the Middle East.

As well as being involved in lectures, meetings and discussions, the delegates were also received by the Vice President of Slovenia’s National Assembly. This special reception took place in the Villa Bled, a magnificent building adorned with Socialist Realist murals, on the shores of the lake.

For the cultural evening, we were divided into groups and I was one of the party that visited the town of Grosuplje, near Ljubljana. We were given a tour of their new library, a lovely building full of light, then introduced to the mayor. This was followed by a reading which we gave to a full house, in a beautiful room decorated with wooden carvings, in the old part of the building. I was struck by the fact that the works of local writers were prominently displayed, and wondered if we could encourage this kind of support in our own libraries.

We also attended receptions given by the mayors of Bled and Ljubljana, and enjoyed a reading by the Bosnian writer Dzevad Karahasan, who read from his latest novel, Eastern Divan. It was a thoroughly enjoyable conference, with superb hospitality and a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow PEN members from all over the world.

Morelle Smith