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Book Review… Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment For The Protection Of Human Rights by Liam Mahoney and Luis Enrique Eguren. Reviewed by Val Liveoak. For anyone who is interested in civilian peacekeeping work, or in�nonviolent intervention, this book is essential. It is a careful,�in-depth study of the work of Peace Brigades International (PBI), founded�in 1981. PBI developed international accompaniment of peace activists and�human rights workers and groups as a way of preventing the murders of�people working nonviolently for change in their countries, enabling them�to continue their work. The first part of the book examines PBI�s work�in Guatemala, where family members of people who were killed or�disappeared by death squads or the security forces, including Nobel Peace�Prize winner, Rigoberta Mench�, were a major pressure group for human�rights in one of Central America�s longest civil wars. Mayan human rights�worker Amilcar Mendez said, �Without accompaniment, I would not be alive�today.� General and former�President Mejia Victores (After a military coup, President from 1983-86)�made the case for the official view of human rights groups: �Human rights policies�had softened [the El Salvadoran] army and its resolve. We decided we�couldn�t repeat that mistake. We couldn�t allow human rights to get in�the way of our essential military strategy.� [Pp. 32-33] PBI�s presence helped impede the progress of the�strategy to eliminate the �subversive� activities of such groups. As�labor organizer Sergio Guzman said, �It�s not that the threats stop when�you have accompaniment. Accompaniment questions the threat .� [P. 56] Former President Vinicio Cerezo (1986-92), the first elected President�since 1954 and successor to General Mejia, claimed to have some�appreciation of PBI�s offsetting the power of the hard-liners: �Human�rights pressure actually enabled me to put more pressure on the security�forces. The army was committing human rights abuses because they believed�this was part of their job and they thought the human rights groups were�aligned with the guerrillas. You have to realize that the civilian�government is always between two fires: the conservative sectors on one�side and the human rights groups on the other. I was in the middle of the�sandwich .� [P. 74] Mahoney and Eguren�s analysis of the factors involved in PBI�s work is an important contribution to understanding the role of international intervention in similar situations. As an international organization it was effective in marshalling world-wide response, even on the governmental level, to human rights violations. The authors�see PBI�s work as increasing the space for local activists to work,�while decreasing the impunity with which local authorities can repress�the activists work. When discussing the issues that confront PBI in the future, the authors�analyze the possibility of providing real protection in situations where�international opinion is of even less importance than it was to the�Guatemalan army. Non-state groups, guerrillas, rebels, and so on, have�less to lose than standing governments and have likely not become�signatories to any international agreements which could be brought into�play to stop their attacks on their opponents. Another obstacle is the�need to balance the obvious presence of a (usually white) international�volunteer with the need of locals to work unobtrusively�although the�leaders may receive protection from their accompaniment volunteers, does�the attention drawn by the volunteer interfere with the leaders' making quiet�connections with grassroots, even uninvolved, people? And how does�outsiders� presence reinforce stereotypes of (white) privilege and of�outside manipulation of the groups with whom they work? What other sort�of work beyond accompaniment (peace education, nonviolence training,�democratic organizing, international law, reconciliation) would be�appropriate for PBI�s volunteers? Currently PBI receives many more�requests for work than it can fulfill. How are these needs to be assessed,�prioritized, and projects developed? The authors discuss these issues and�many others in the last part of the book. Peacemakers will benefit greatly from consideration of this thought-provoking book. Kumarian Press, 14 Oakwood Ave., West Hartford, CT 06119-2127, USA,�tel: 800-289-2664. For orders or inquiries tel: 860-233-5895, fax: 860-233-6072, e-mail: kpbooks@aol. TOP
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