War Conflicts - Damage and Victims
Independent War Photographer and Journalist
On 13.6 Late Night Diplomacy had the final twelfth session of the project with Mr. Antonio Cossa, an independent war photographer and journalist from Mozambique. Mr. Cossa made his career by creating a shock-content from war zones. His message is to tell stories of people, the victims, who lost nearly everything to war conflicts or climate disasters. Mr. Cossa worked in Syria, Mozambique, Ukraine, and various other countries which face international or internal conflicts. The speech had rather a format of an open discussion, where Mr. Cossa showed his works, some of the photos were completely unseen before and depicted the cruel face of war-torn apart destinies and lives of people, who lost nearly everything due to violence. Debates were very hot and involved a lot of emotions, as it is not easy to see the death and listen to the story of people who got killed after the photos were taken. The session had a pacifist message, that violence is not a solution to global issues. On contrary, it is a gate to new, sometimes greater problems that might not be solved for years, if not decades.

The followed-up simulation was inspired by the insurgency in the Northern part of Nigeria in the Niger delta. Two groups, the government, and the insurgents were in an open conflict, which had to be resolved by force. The game presented risk-strategy mechanics, which involved a lot of tactical decisions to be made, due to the limited number of resources, militarily in the first place. The game has shown how hard that can be to send the manpower to the meat grinder of war, as these resources were not always replaceable. The goal was to show that when it comes to the most radical solutions, it is necessary to remain a human being and not risk lives for the sake of political points.