Reunification is the human right of every Korean

Ribbons at DMZ – Powerful messages awaiting family reunions, hoping for country reunification

By Habib Toumi

BAHRAIN: Looking at the invitation I received from the German Ambassador to Bahrain Kai Boeckmann to attend on October 3 a virtual celebration of the German Unity Day, I could not help wondering if I will ever receive an invitation from the Korean embassy in Bahrain to a Korean Reunification Day or a Korean Unity Day.

If 30 years ago, Germany could do it less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall., then Korea can do it too.

I first saw a divided country and nation when I visited Cyprus, the beautiful and historic island country in the Mediterranean.

I have visited both parties of the divided country: North Cyprus and South Cyprus.

In the north, I talked with President Rauf Denktas, government ministers and common people who lamented the division, deplored the separation and yearned for reunification.

In the south, I visited historic and modern places and spoke with intellectuals and common people who had lost their homes in the 1974 partition that forced them to move south.

In both sides of Cyprus, people clearly wanted to assuage their wounded pride because they saw the division of their amazing island as blatant injustice that had to be corrected.

Each side had its own narrative of depicting what happened, analyzing why it happened and sharing their own stories and dreams.

There was a lot of pain mingled with hope that the future will be better and more rewarding.

Another highly emotional time for me was the visit to another divided country, Korea, the southern part of a peninsula has been sliced 70 years ago by a catastrophic war. harmed by an elusive peace, carrying tales of war atrocities, long lists of people missing and dark anniversaries.

To me, the sight of the desperate messages and worn pictures left by Koreans to their northern brethren at Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the world’s most fortified border keeping Korean families apart for seven decades, will always haunt me as how desperate people can be when they are forcibly detached from their families.

Everybody knows that these messages will not be read and that the pictures will not be seen by those for whom they were intended. Yet, the desperate Koreans still do it as it gives them a slight feeling of connection to a past that they do not want to forget despite the passage of years and decades.

For me, that glimpse at the pain inflicted on families separated by the war, the long political divide on the peninsula and the fluctuating tensions between South and North Korea would stay with me for a long time.

DMZ where the peaceful splendor of nature contrasts with the reality of Korea’s division

I could feel the tragic dimension of the division, the poignant pain that has affected people’s lives since the Korean War.

Regardless of all political orientations, a human solution is needed to achieve peace in Korea.

Today, other divided countries have moved forward. Germany achieved breakthroughs thanks to close co-operation with neighbors and partners and the diplomatic masterpieces they made together.

The second pillar for the German reunification was a deep belief that “patient reconciliation and people-to-people contacts between neighbors divided by mistrust can, over the years, create the ground for co-operation between them.”

Similar approaches also happened in Ireland where Irish families overcame the tension between protestants and Catholics and in Cyprus, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots learned to communicate, visit and co-exist peacefully.

The same should happen in Korea. The technical state of war should be ended, the use of deterrents should be dismissed, and a humane solution to ease the plight of divided families should be reached.

While the first generations have been forced to bear the brunt of the terrible war and painful division, the younger generation does not have to go through the same agonizing torment.

Most Koreans are not interested in the big stakes put forward by politicians such as whether lifting sanctions in their entirety should come ahead of full denuclearization or the opposite … Such issues are too weighty to be solved easily, can only create serious diplomatic challenges and grave hostility and inevitably cause negotiations to fail.

Koreans want humanitarian steps that would enable them to reunite with the surviving members of their families before time tragically runs out. Those steps will be positively incremental towards greater peace prospects.

A down to earth approach is the key. Common people expect plans and action with neighbors and powerful countries that will help the peace process move forward, not to make the Korean Peninsula an arena for competition, rivalry and influence.

The reunification of Korea is a human right of every Korean. It is not a concept that they may evoke on occasions. It is at the core of their lives.

I will keep looking forward to attending a reception to celebrate Korea Reunification Day or Korea Unity Day.