The story of two courageous protection officers from Nonviolent Peace Force in South Sudan. (Example for question 1)

Derek Oakley and his team leader, Andres Gutierrez, had an average day at the UN camp for war refugees. It was April 2015, Bor State, South Sudan, a region with more than two million internally displaced people. The attack came without warning. First stones, then gunshots; A heavily armed militia broke through the line of protection. The two foreigners wore distinctive khaki vests and the Nonviolent Peaceforce logo, emblems of their training and mission: protecting civilian lives. Derek and Andres started running for cover. Then they remembered what they had learned: you can’t outrun bullets. They herded some women and children into the nearest tent.

Soon the flaps flew open and men armed with axes, AK-47S rifles and sharpened sticks entered. They were briefly shocked to see two non-Sudanese, then quickly recovered and ordered the two men out of the tent. But they were in for a bigger shock. “I’m sorry,” Derek said, showing his badge. “We are international protection officers. We’re not leaving.” Stunned, the would-be assassins looked at each other in consternation and left the tent. Chance? Hardly. Two other groups broke into the tent, and each time Derek and Andres managed to flip the script and leave the tent.

Outside the tent, fifty-nine people were killed and three hundred injured in just twenty minutes. But inside, the women and children were safe. There was a conventional protection system – in this case, UN troops – that proved useless (they are ordered not to fire in these types of situations), while an unarmed nonviolent presence saved the situation. As Andres pointed out, “if we had had a gun, we would have been killed.” And Derek added: “We had a different weapon.” Nonviolent Peaceforce’s motto: “what you can say yes to when you say no to war.” (The thing you can say yes to, when you say no to war.)

Copied with permission from The Third Harmony, by Michael Nagler, 2020.