The People’s Bus

The success that citizen diplomacy can yield is manifested in the work of John McDonald in this truly remarkable story. One of the most conflict-stricken regions of the world, the Kashmir region on the border of Pakistan and India, has witnessed a variety of diplomatic agreements that have fallen through and have negatively affected the populations there. Through the work of John McDonald and the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, the road to peace in that region is much closer. By moving beyond governmental diplomacy (Track 1 diplomacy), into a more people-oriented diplomacy (Track 2 diplomacy), you recognize and try to curtail the conflict where it has the largest effect, on the ground and with the people.

By bringing people together and allowing for and encouraging dialogue, people begin to develop a mutual understanding and respect for one another. The story describes John's work in South Asia and how he championed citizen diplomacy by started the "People's Bus". Read his story below.

My name is John W. McDonald. I am a lawyer and was a US diplomat for 40 years. In 1985 I wrote the first book on Citizen Diplomacy while still at the State Department, titled "Conflict Resolution: Track Two Diplomacy". Track One Diplomacy is government to government while Track Two is non-government, citizen diplomacy.

I retired in 1987 from the State Department, became a law professor at George Washington University, and in December of 1988 took over my duties as President of the Iowa Peace Institute in Grinnell, Iowa. While in Iowa, I expanded the two tracks into five tracks in 1989, and to nine tracks in 1991, which I call 'Multi-Track Diplomacy'. I returned to Washington, D.C in early 1992 and with Dr. Louis Diamond, founded the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy.

We are a 501 (c) (3) non-governmental, nonprofit organization based in Arlington, VA. We call our 9-track approach a system approach to peace, and our focus is on international ethnic conflict. See our website www.imtd.org.

The People's Bus

In 1995, I was visited by two Lieutenant Generals. One from India and one from Pakistan. They had just re and were visiting the Simpsons Center, and NGO in Washington, D.C. Within two minutes of our meeting, they asked me to solve the Kashmir problem. I laughed and said, "I cannot do that". They were serious men however and said they have fought two wars against each other over Kashmir and did not want to fight a third war. They said that their governments only talked about Kashmir but took no action. They thought maybe we could help.

IMTD first became involved in Kashmir in 1997 and are still involved to this day. The highlight of our involvement is probably about the "People's Bus."

On April 7, 2000, during one of my trips to Azad Kashmir (Pakistan Kashmir), an old friend from Azad Kashmir, Shah Qadir asked me if I would like to visit a refugee camp near the capital city of Muzaffarbad. I did not know there was such a camp and agreed to the visit. There were some one thousand people living in the camp, under miserable conditions, all of whom had fled from the Indian side of the LoC (Line of Control) in fear of their lives. Many were injured and in poor health. I asked why UN agencies such as the UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDP, and WFP were not helping out. I was told that this was a delicate issue for the central government in Islamabad, which considered this an internal problem. I was shocked- and determined to do something about this very bad situation. After my return to the United States I had several conversations with the UNHCR in Geneva, which confirmed that the Government of Pakistan had, so far, turned down its offer of assistance. I have continued to pursue this matter, most recently with the new Minister for Azad Kashmir, and he has agreed to take a fresh look at the problem.

While at the refugee camp, I was asked to speak to the people in the camp. I started talking about IMTD and the small steps we were taking to reduce conflict in Kashmir; but then, as I was about to lose my audience, I had a great idea that immediately got their attention. I asked if they remembered the "Politician's bus" the previous year when the Prime Minister of India took a bus from New Delhi to Lahore, Pakistan, to meet with the Prime Minister of Pakistan. They all said "yes", because out of that meeting came the Lahore Declaration which had positive language in it about the Kashmir situation. The also knew that the Declaration had fallen apart a few months later and that nothing had happened since. I then said " I want to start a 'People's Bus', which will cross the LoC and bring divided families together from both sides of Kashmir for the first time in decades." They all agreed that this was a great idea and cheered me on, recognizing it would be a positive, practical sign of peace building, which would allow many of them to finally see their families again.

With their encouragement to follow up on this idea, I returned to Washington, determined to make that "People's Bus" a reality. I did not approach the U.S Government with this idea. I never wrote a grant proposal. We just got to work at IMTD to find ways to make it happen. The key challenge was to move the idea from Track II (citizen diplomacy) to Track I (government to government diplomacy) because governments were ultimately the only ones capable of taking the political step to open the LoC for this bus exchange.

It was a long three-year campaign, which involved everyone pushing the idea during repeated calls on the Embassies of Pakistan and India in Washington, D.C, meetings with the press from both countries, and many talks with our friends in both countries. It was a hopeful sign when, as a result of my letter campaign, I actually heard back via the Pakistani Embassy from the President of Pakistan that he liked the idea and would raise it with the Indian Prime Minister when they next meet.

The first major breakthrough came from the Indian side, however, when in November 2003 the Indian government proposed half a dozen "Track Two" ideas to the Pakistan government. The third item on the list was the "People's Bus". The Indian government took my exact language and idea for the people's bus. I was delighted because it was essential that this idea moved from Track II to Track I, since I had no power to raise the barriers separating the two countries. The Pakistan Government agreed four days later. I was ecstatic, but nothing happened. The two foreign ministries got stuck on the details. They could not agree on what kind of documentation for identification was needed for the bus passengers to cross the LoC and return.

In September 2004, after my return from Nepal, I got in the act again by writing both sides and telling them that three of our ten Indian Kashmiri came to Nepal with no passport, only an Indian ID card. If Nepal would accept this documentation as proof of Kashmir identity, why not try it for the LoC? I was told, "We will handle this;" but they remained stuck. Finally, in December 2004, when the new Prime Minister of India and the President of Pakistan met, their foreign ministers were ordered to move the bus project forward. On February 15, 2005, the two foreign ministers announced the first bus exchange would take place on April 7, 2005, five years to the day after I had proposed the idea to the people in the refugee camp.

Despite some violence in Indian Kashmir the day before the planned event, the Indian People's Bus did leave on schedule. The high level of visibility given to the new "trust-building measure" between India and Pakistan was further heightened by the fact that the Indian Prime Minister and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the head of the Congress party, the two most powerful people in India, flew to Srinagar, the Indian capital of Kashmir, to wave good-bye to the participants on this historic bus. The Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir in Pakistan, together with huge crowds, welcomed that bus in Muzaffarbad, while the Azad Kashmiri Bus was welcomed on the Indian side with great fanfare.

The high point for me personally was when the mayor of Muzaffarbad telephoned me that same day to thank IMTD and me for our role in making the "People's Bus" a reality.

In April 2005, in the United States, this important action of peace building between groups of people, from countries that are strong allies of the United States, was highlighted by the press. In fact, the front page of the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post carried the same photograph of 20 passengers from Azad Kashmir crossing the recently re-built and re-named "Peace Bridge" and entering Indian Kashmir for a historic first in Indian-Pakistani relation.

The People's Bus was the first confidence-building measure in decades, and changed millions of people's perception of the Kashmir conflict. The buses are still operating today.

~John W. McDonald