“Can fighting every really stop?”

“The Day After Peace” is a documentary produced by the Peace One Day movement. It is being shown on Monday the 21st of September 2009 at the A/V Centre at Maru a Pula at 7 pm. The event is open to all and is free.  It asks the question “What will you do to make peace on 21 September 2009?” The full-length, one hour and 21 minutes feature is a tribute to Jeremy Gilley, his ten-year journey and his dedication, first to establish the 21st of September as International Day of Peace, then to achieve a cease fire on that day so that it had a positive impact on people’s lives and demonstrated that peace was possible.

In 1981 the United Nations established an International Day of Peace for “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace within and among all nations and people”. In 2001 the United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously that one day, the 21st of September “would be observed annually as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence and invited all Member States, organizations and individuals to commemorate the day and to cooperate with the United Nations in the establishment of a global ceasefire”.

Jeremy Gilley, having campaigned for the one-day—instead of a floating day—was painfully ware that the world was far from achieving peace on that day, or any other day, as conflagrations flamed across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. What begins as an apparent Quixotic “ego trip” by the flamboyant Gilley suddenly is transformed by other people, nations and international organizations that embrace the cause and make it a reality. The documentary suddenly changes gear and the quest for a true ceasefire on the 21 of September 2008 becomes all engrossing. A day of non-violence and creative actions during the ceasefire will and does happen. Gilley’s quest becomes far greater than a loner’s obsession with a day of peace.

Some surprising people come on board in the crusade to make the 21st of September a true day of peace. They include Kofi Annan, The Dalai Lama, Angelina Jolie, Jude Law, Annie Lennox and others. Also joining the bandwagon is Coca-Cola International, as a sponsor and creator of a special bottle for peace day. Gilley had to travel to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to meet with the Coca-Cola world corporate leadership for all its countries to seek their support.
Gilley began his campaigning for peace day in 1999 and it took him two years of lobbying to win the support of the United Nations for the 21st of September. Now it took another seven years to have a genuine ceasefire on the 21st of September in an area of intense conflict.

Out of trouble places in Africa and Asia they chose Afghanistan as the hottest spot and the greatest challenge. Unicef and WHO agreed to cooperate in preparing for an intensive polio immunization campaign for young children on the one day, to reach nearly the equivalent of the population of Botswana. They targeted places in south and eastern Afghanistan that were Taliban strongholds that so far had been inaccessible to them. If all parties could accept a ceasefire, then they would mobilize a massive inoculation campaign. Could the Taliban agree to stop fighting on that day? Was peace possible in the most volatile place on earth? Could the guns be silenced across all 192-member states of the United Nations? “Can the fighting ever really stop?” asks a twelve-year-old girl in Afghanistan. Can the inoculation teams move into areas they could never enter before?

In Kabul the British and European Union envoys endorse the campaign. It is recommended that they work outside formal networks and explore interlacing patterns of mutual obligations to get things to happen. “The Day After Peace” is transformed into a fast moving documentary, bordering on a thriller, as the efforts to achieve their objectives in Afghanistan take off. Gilley is joined in the campaign there by Jude Law to achieve a “total cessation of violence across Afghanistan on the 21st of September”.

The United Nations (see www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/2009/ www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/2009/> ) is fully behind this event. There is also a petition there for people to sign. Not in this documentary is the fact that “On 13 June 2009, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a multiplatform campaign under the slogan WMD – We Must Disarm to mark the 100-day countdown leading up to the International Day of Peace on 21 September”. The sponsors of this showing of the Peace One Day film, “The Day After Peace” are the Gaborone Film Society, Servas, and the Botswana Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.