In the beginning of June, Massimo Aprile, Pastor of the Baptist Church in Civitavecchia near Rome, Italy, participated in the Peace Conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia Hezegovina, where the World War I broke off 100 years ago. The following is his reflection on the event, its impact, and Christian witness in keeping the peace in the world.

100 years ago, on June the 28th, two shots killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, together with his wife. It happened in Sarajevo and it marked the beginning of World War I, the Great War, the Terrible War as it should be more correctly remembered. More than 10 million died and an unjust peace was the premise of a Second War marked by even more atrocities.

Last week in Sarajevo, Peace Associations and Religious Organisations, of more than 60 countries, gathered to share memories, reflections and make concrete peace porposals for the future.

Sarajevo was chosen also for its more recent war injuries that are still visible in the houses' facades, partially still damaged, but mostly in the faces of the people that in many cases still express the trauma for the ethnic cleansing during the longest siege in human history, 43 months long, from April the 5th 1992 to February the 29th 1996. In that period 12,000, mostly civilians, were killed in the city.

History often keeps the account of poured blood, but the for Peace Movements that gathered in Sarajevo history is also to be told from the view point of the spared blood, starting from truce stories - more than you would expect - that trace back to the Great War.

Well historically attested, for example, is the ceasefire in Christmas 1914. It took place on the Western front between English and German soldiers. It was a truce that soldiers spontaneously established, and some of them met personally on no man's land and shared some gifts. It seems that it started by the tune of Silent Night coming from the English trench that was recognized by the German soldiers.

Before, after and even during the terrible atrocities of the war, there were men and, mostly, women, who acted a sort of life maintenance, trying to spare lives, recognizing the humanity found even in their enemies.

Today in Sarajevo an important task is accomplished by the Centre of Research and Documentation, which published 4 volumes with personal data of 130.000 victims of former Yugoslavia. There can be no future without the memory of the victims. They also published another text of stories of people who acted for peace to spare lives, at Cost to themselves, even during the conflict.

They gathered stories like that of three friends who used to be neighbourS before the war, two Serbs and one Bosnian man. They found themselves tragically divided by the ethnic cleansing. Ratko Mladic ordered the two Serbs to kill their Bosnian friend, and when they refused he sentenced them to death immediately. It was only at the end of the war that the Bosnian man came to know that his life was spared by his faithful Serbian friends.

There are many stories like this that contribute to build hope also today. It is, in fact necessary to learn to live not only side by side, but together, in unity and in peace.

We, Peace people, are confronted with tremendous and powerful economic as well as military lobbies that work against world peace, but should not be discouraged but always remember Jesus’ words: " For the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me." The Peace of Christ is different. It is a gift but also a call. It is the messianic shalom that will overcome because our destiny is interweaved to that of the Risen One.