Talking to Groups that Use Terror.pdf - United States Institute of Peace

Step 5: Facilitate Negotiationsduring a peace process. In democratic societies, although governmentsusually have the upper hand over terrorist groups in terms of theorchestration of domestic propaganda, independent television, radio,and press outlets can play major roles in shaping public opinion. Innondemocratic societies, where a government will usually be able to controlcoverage of the conflict and the peace process by domestic media, it usuallyfalls to the international media to report violations of human rights by thesecurity forces and to uncover or publicize failures by the government tohonor the terms of agreements reached at the negotiating table.For these reasons, the mediator should establish and maintain goodrelations with both the domestic and the international media. Toward thisend, the mediator should make himself or herself accessible to journalistslooking for interviews, ensure that his or her team regularly briefs themedia on the progress of talks, and arrange photo-ops and other eventsthat spotlight key figures, events, and developments in the peace process.Use Deadlines Adroitly When Pressing forAgreementThere are no hard and fast rules about if, when, and how to use deadlinesto pressure the parties to come to an agreement. Deadlines can certainlybe helpful in developing among the parties a sense of purpose andurgency—in creating the image of a peace process as a train that is aboutto depart from the station whether or not all parties are aboard. In theabsence of a deadline, the parties might continue talking indefinitely,conscious that ongoing talks are less risky (in terms of political standingand personal safety) than reaching an agreement that one’s own hardlinersmight violently reject or that exposes one’s side to domination bythe other.Unsurprisingly, a deadline is most likely to work when all sides havebeen consulted about it in advance and buy into it. In Northern Ireland,Mitchell had spent weeks discussing a deadline of Good Friday with all theparticipants and working to get their support. Before he presented the revisedplan for their approval he knew it would be agreed to unanimously. Theheadlines in the newspapers said that he had imposed a deadline, but inreality he had not imposed anything; the parties had accepted the deadlinebecause they were as eager as Mitchell to get an agreement. 3779