At a recent NDI forum, central players in the Northern Ireland and South Africa peace negotiations talked about their participation in 2007 and 2008 Helsinki talks on Iraq that resulted in an agreement signed by 37 leaders representing all political factions in the country. Drawing parallels between the conflicts in Iraq and their own countries, the speakers reflected on how their experiences allowed them to engage the Iraqis on constructive frameworks for moving toward peace.

Speaking at the Oct. 8th program were (left to right) Lord John Alderdice, president of Liberal International and former speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly; Jeffrey Donaldson, member of parliament in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the British House of Commons; Padraig O’Malley, John Joseph Moakley chair of peace and reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts; Kenneth Wollack, NDI president; and Roelf Meyer, South Africa’s chief negotiator in the Multiparty Negotiating Forum in 1993 and former cabinet minister in Nelson Mandela’s government and secretary general of the South African National Party.

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Published on October 21, 2008