Swiss ready to talk to Ugandan rebels Mon 6 Oct 2008, 10:22 GMT(Embedded image moved to file: pic20855.jpg) By Emma Thomasson ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland is prepared to talk to groups others may shun, like Islamists and Ugandan rebels, as it plays on its neutrality to develop a more active role in international peace mediation, a senior official said. Switzerland has been quietly building up its involvement as a conflict mediator in recent years including in Sudan, Colombia, Sri Lanka and Nepal, but those efforts came under the spotlight recently when the foreign minister was quoted as condoning dialogue with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Thomas Greminger, who heads up the foreign ministry department responsible for mediation, said in an interview that Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey's remarks were taken out of context and Switzerland ruled out speaking to bin Laden. But he said Switzerland was more prepared than most to venture into "grey areas" to promote peace and stability. "Switzerland tries to explore how far can you go and where can you still get something out of a dialogue and advance a peace process by seeking dialogue with partners where normally you would not be so comfortable," he told Reuters on Friday. The country's involvement in peace talks with Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army -- indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court -- recently stoked controversy, as have efforts to engage with Islamic social charities. "On Islamist groups ... frankly speaking the international community doesn't know much about them. Many just feel terribly uncomfortable in dealing with them." he said. "It is very important that we do not have this self-fulfilling prophecy of a clash of civilisations. This necessitates dialogue, better understanding, building trust.". SOFT POWER, HARD POWER Switzerland is sometimes a direct player in peace talks but also works closely with non-governmental organisations such as the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva and occasionally with independent players like Jean-Pierre Gontard, a Swiss academic who liaised with Colombia's FARC rebels. A neutral country with no colonial past, it has also been an important host of talks, like for Sri Lanka and the Middle East. "The fact we are neutral, that we don't belong to a big regional organisation gives us a certain flexibility that other countries don't have," Greminger said. "It allows us to remain impartial ... We are too small to threaten anybody and this certainly helps in many places." Greminger, who headed up the Swiss aid programme in Africa before joining the ministry's human security division, said conflict prevention is inexpensive compared to aid -- the programme has a budget of up to 60 million Swiss francs and access to about 50 staff at home and abroad. He admits Switzerland sometimes has to pair up with bigger partners to be effective, for example working with the United States to secure a Nuba Mountains ceasefire in Sudan in 2002. "Quite often in the end game of a peace process we are too small -- there we can bring good ideas but we depend on the big actors to pick this up and negotiate," he said. "Beyond our soft power, you also need hard power."
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