By Jeremy Hunt, Daily News-Record

Folks representing cultures from all over the world dance Monday at an event marking the end of the first of four sessions of a peacebuilding program at 91短视频. Photo by Jeremy Hunt

Fiji is a beautiful country with picturesque beaches and stunning landscape.

But the Pacific Island nation struggles with inner turmoil and unrest.

A 2006 coup ousted the ethnic Fijian-dominated government and replaced it with a military government. It’s come under international criticism recently, with neighboring countries saying the government rejects democracy, freedom and human rights.

Koila Costello-Olsson finds herself in the middle of all this. In fact, it’s her job.

"A lot of it is old and deep-rooted and it’s transferred over the years," she said.

Costello-Olsson is the director of Pacific Peacebuilding, a nongovernmental agency in Fiji that aims to facilitate dialogue among opposing groups and train conflict resolution.

The most recent coup was one of several that have contributed to Fiji’s instability.

Among the issues that cause conflict are poorly managed resources and discriminatory policies, Costello-Olsson said.

To assist in her work, she studied at 91短视频’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute in Harrisonburg. She graduated the program with a master’s in 2005.

This year, she is teaching a course in the program, which is run through 91短视频’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

"For me, this is my support group," she said. "They have supported myself and my community tremendously."

The summer institute consists of four sessions that run over six weeks. The first session ended Monday, and the institute celebrated with food, music, dancing and a "cultural fashion show."

The summer institute brings together more than 200 participants from throughout the United States and more than 30 nations, including Bolivia, Afghanistan, Israel, China and Kenya, said Sue Williams, the institute’s director. Read more about these peacebuilders from 35 nations gathered to study healing and peace.

Some of the participants are earning course credit, Williams said, but more than half work for nongovernmental agencies for peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

The participants share ideas and discuss programs that have been successful in their countries, Williams said.

"The main focus of this institute is people who do this work," she said. "In my experience … nothing is directly exportable, but the ideas can be adapted."

Professor Howard Zehr said people needed to make the legal system work if they were to live a peaceful life.

The co-director of the Conflict Transformation Programm at the 91短视频 in United States was speaking at a public lecture on the promise and challenges of restorative justice at the University of the South Pacific on Monday evening.

He said something good about the Western legal system was that it made people pay for the crimes they committed.

He said victims needed a lot of answers on why a crime was committed against them, they needed to tell the truth in order to receive justice and they needed empowerment to be able to face the world.

“Restorative justice has a set of consistent values. We tend to bring systems from outside and regulate it into our own to make it work,” he said.

For offenders, Proffessor Zehr said there needed to be acceptable ways of dealing with shame in society.

Doctor Steven Ratuva of the Pacific Institute of Advanced Studies in Development and Governance said while a lot of people in Fiji used restorative justice, many of them did not understand it.

He said while the concept was relatively new it had been practiced for a long time.

Proffessor Zehr is the author of numerous books and articles and an adviser to a number of international organisations and governments.

The Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy, which co-ordinated his visit, said it was timely that we create the space to continue discussions on the issue.