Few issues have caused such division in recent times as Saddam Hussein's despotic regime. The Bush and Blair governments argue that such a regime must not be allowed to use weapons of mass destruction. Other governments - and millions of peace marchers - feel that war is too costly a solution. Both sides claim the moral high ground.

Keith and Ruth Neal, retired school teachers from Manchester, recently visited Sierra Leone, where a devastating civil war ended last year. They found people determined to rebuild.

David Swann is a medical doctor who has become known in Canada for sticking his neck out on points of principle. He talked to Gordon Legge at a moment when the debate about war with Iraq was at its height.

The last words of Wim Lindeijer's mother led him to seek reconciliation with the Japanese. He tells his story to Michael Henderson.

Afghanistan is still waiting for freedom from hunger, disease and violence, writes Anila Daulatzai

Syngman Rhee fled his homeland as a 19-year-old in 1950 and found himself at the heart of the American civil rights movement in the Sixties. He spoke in Caux about his work for reconciliation between North and South Korea.

Dr Syeda Hameed is a historian and former member of the National Women's Commission, New Delhi.

Retirement hasn't slowed the pace of Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Andrew Stallybrass discovers.

Dr Cornelio Sommaruga was President of the International Committee of the Red Cross from 1987 to 1999. He is now President of the Swiss Foundation for Moral Re-Armament. This article is extracted from a talk he gave during a visit to Britain last January.

Kemal Kurspahic was editor-in-chief of 'Oslobodjenje' during the siege of Sarajevo and is the author of 'As long as Sarajevo exists', 1997. In 1999-2000 he was a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, working on a new book on the role of the media in the Balkans' war and peace.