Most conflicts arise out of fear rather than inherent wickedness, and we must seek to remove this fear not intensify it. Finding understanding will involve listening to the reasons why people are behaving as they do, and helping those organisations who are working to allow such listening to take place. Nonviolence never humiliates. By adopting such an aggressive stance in this crisis both sides in the conflict will find it almost impossible to emerge without loss of face and dignity. The only way to achieve peace is to allow some dignity in the final solution.
Nonviolence acts out of truth.
The old cliche that truth is the first casualty of war has never been more apparent. Sanity and humanity are flattened by lies and it is our duty to attempt to find the real story behind the myths and look for alternative sources of information. Nonviolence seeks the creative alternative and does practical work. It is too late to go back over all the lost opportunities for supporting nonviolent alternatives, but it is still not too late to start. NGO s in the Balkans working hard at mediation and negotiation and are now under huge strain.