Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch BlogPeacemakers Trust posts news, reports or announcements of interest to people studying or working in the field of dispute resolution, conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Inclusion of an item on the media watch blog does not imply endorsement or agreement of Peacemakers Trust with views expressed by authors of posted items.
As far as schools go, there was nothing remarkable about Tuol Sleng. The building stood unobtrusively along an avenue in Phnom Penh. But it was in its ordinariness, in the way it became part of Cambodia’s urban landscape, by not drawing any attention, that the school gave meaning to Hannah Arendt’s chilling phrase, the banality of evil.
(...more)l Res-ti-tu-tion: the act of returning something lost or stolen to its owner, or of paying for damage.
lRe-pri-sal: an act of punishing others for harm done to oneself, especially of a political or military kind.
l Re-demp-tion: the act of making free from blame or bringing back into favour
l Ret-ri-bu-tion: severe, deserved punishment.
l Re-sto-ra-tive: something which brings back to a healthy condition or back to its original state.
l Re-dun-dant: not needed; more than is necessary.
You may wonder why anyone would think all the words (loosely) defined above should be part of any discussion on national healing and reconciliation.
It’s not because I opened my dictionary at “r” and stopped there! But oddly enough all these “r” words are relevant to Zimbabwe’s discourse on the matter.
(...more)On Tuesday 19th May 2009 – the day after the death of Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka, declared victory over the Tamil Tigers, bringing to a close 26 years of conflict. With the routing of the LTTE, and the reclamation of all occupied territory, it was announced that the conflict in Sri Lanka had come to an end.
The cost of this declared victory was immense…
Though the conflict with the LTTE is over, the root causes which in part were responsible for giving that entity its birth have yet to be addressed…
(...more)The communiqué from the Presidential Media Unit announcing a probe into the violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct has incorporated several new words and phrases which are not yet familiar terms in the political discourse in Sri Lanka. A few such words and phrases are: the need for restorative justice; a probe of violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct; no recurrence of such tragic conflict in the future; institutional, administrative and welfare measures already taken in the post conflict phase and which should be further taken in order to effect reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation; legislative and administrative measures that may be necessary to prevent such situations in the future; assessing the lessons learned from the recent conflict phase; identification of any persons or groups responsible for such acts, (and) payment of compensation for victims.
(...more)The issue of restitution, especially the questions of reparations of the collective damage caused in Darfur and financial compensation to individuals for their personal losses when restitution in kind is not possible, was one of the contentious issues addressed during the process that led to the signing of the DPA between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A)-led by Mr. Minni Minawi… The deep rooted socio-cultural importance of the right to remedy in Darfur’s societal set-ups would, perhaps, explain why the demand for reparations and financial compensation to individuals has been among the major concerns of the direct victims of the armed conflict, especially the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees.
(...more)…or don’t mention it at all, if you are Gordon Brown.
A big speech today on “crime and anti-social behaviour” but not so much as a hint at anything in the restorative justice field.
In many ways it was predictable. Despite a 75-page Government strategy in 2003, it has been featured in none of Labour’s manifestos since 1997, without so much as a name check. The tabloids still see anything restorative as ‘soft’ and Brown’s words need to appear ‘tough’.
(...more)Ontario recently joined B.C., Manitoba and Saskatchewan — as well as some jurisdictions outside of Canada — in enacting apology legislation. Like the others, Ontario’s version provides that an apology does not constitute an express or implied admission of fault or liability, and does not nullify or otherwise affect liability insurance coverage regardless of wording to the contrary in a policy.
(...more)Canadian lawyer Cynthia Morel, who was born in Sept Iles, Quebec, grew up in Fredericton and studied at the University of Ottawa, is involved in some potential landmark international law cases in defence of minority rights around the world.
Africa’s top human rights body, relying partly on a Canadian precedent, issued a landmark ruling Thursday in favour of an indigenous group that has been fighting for justice since the Kenyan government forced them off their land in the 1970s to create a tourist-drawing game reserve.
The decision by the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights establishes two key international law precedents, according to the London-based Canadian lawyer who argued on behalf of the impoverished Endorois community.
(...more)Philip Zimbardo’s 2007 book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, provides an in-depth description and evaluation of his 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. To study the dynamics of prison, this famous experiment randomly assigned college student to be guards or inmates in a mock prison. Within a very short time the project had to be terminated because it had become too real: “guards†were becoming abusive and “prisoners†were experiencing the traumas of real-life prison. However, Zimbardo’s book goes far beyond the Stanford experiment. He extends his data to include the abuses and torture that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison – he was an expert witness in one of the resulting legal cases – and explores the dynamics that shape human behavior in extreme circumstances generally.
(...more)Rawya Hamam was watching her son deteriorate. Hisham wouldn’t sleep, clung to her incessantly, and said he wanted to go back into her belly so he’d be safe. “Grandma is lucky she died so she doesn’t have to live here now,” the boy told his mother.
It’s not a normal statement to expect from a five-year-old child, but neither were these normal times. A year ago, at the outbreak of war between the militant Palestinian group Hamas and Israel, anything resembling a normal life disappeared into a violent maelstrom that wreaked unprecedented destruction on the Gaza Strip…
… Estimates from several organizations hold that between 30 and 40 percent of the Gaza population is suffering from signs of PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A study by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme in June found that two-thirds of Gaza’s children have exhibited abnormal levels of anxiety, and 61.5 percent of Gaza’s parents reported the emergence of unusual behaviors among their children.
Ms. Hamam considers herself one of the fortunate ones, in that she’s recently been trained in the use of new tools to help others she works with professionally – as well as her own children. Last week, she completed a second, advanced training program in Gaza that is part of the Healing the Wounds of War (HWW) program, launched by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, based in Washington.
(...more)Another book on Rwanda? As Gerard Prunier, author of The Rwanda Crisis: History of a genocide (1995) says: this one is “for the mature individual only. It shows the many facets of having to live in an impossibly complex social and human situation.”…
What’s perhaps of special appeal in this book is the detailed, yet interesting and accessible, study of trauma healing, reconciliation and justice in the context of the genocide by two World Vision staffers: Solomon Nsabiyera Gasana, and John Steward.
(...more)Only July 16, 2009 I attended a day in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the former commander of S-21, the infamous Khmer Rouge torture and execution center…
I have been a supporter of the idea of the tribunals, thinking in line with the arguments of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) that to search for the truth, to lay bare the details of what happened, is the best way to prevent such violence from occurring again. But from one day watching Duch – I admit I had gone there primarily to stare at him – I came away appalled at the process…. (full article)
President Barack Obama’s willingness to acknowledge that he had chosen his words badly in his response to the incident involving Harvard professor Henry Gates jnr and a Massachusetts police sergeant – and his suggestion that all three of them meet up at the White House for a “beer summit” – marks him out yet again as a man who is able to act in a way which is different to that which we often expect of politicians.
(...more)Khmer Rouge tribunal officials met with local rights organizations Friday in a bid to strengthen cooperation between the court and civil society and to improve outreach to victims of the regime.
(...more)Restorative justice programs in Lacombe and Hobbema are among 11 projects around Alberta sharing $306,000 in provincial grants.
(...more)When Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested on July 16th at his house in an apparently over-zealous and possibly racially charged police decision, everyone involved quickly fell into the usual pattern of conflict for these kinds of incidents. Statements were released, lawyers were hired, accusations and implications were flung, and everyone prepared for to defend themselves in battle…
But then something curious and possibly amazing happened…
Someone suggested that maybe if the parties involved in this escalating conflict sat down together and talked in person, a better outcome could prevail. ..
(...more)It was just over a year ago – on June 11, 2008 – that the Canadian government apologized for its residential school experiment towards Aboriginal peoples.
While long overdue, that momentous occasion, which took place in the House of Commons, marked what I believe to have been a sincere and honest turning point between Aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canada, offering a glimmer of hope that things will change after what has been a century of shame for all Canadians…
Now that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is finally back on track, Canadians can be hopeful that this legacy will finally be addressed and made public. No more sanitizing history. The Commission’s purpose – and what I hope is everyone’s sincere desire – is the reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-aboriginal citizens.
(...more)Soccer often meant the outbreak of violence among youth gangs in Lima’s district of El Augustino, in Peru. Being radical soccer fans, ‘wearing the team shirt’ as they call it, whether of the Alianza Lima or the Universitario Deportes often resulted in bloody confrontations among youths, as well as crimes and drug abuse.
It was precisely soccer however, that served to bring peace to these same youths, 12 years ago. It all began when one of the gang leaders that rooted for Allianza Lima befriended ‘padre Chiqui’ as Father José Ignacio Mantecón is known. Mantecón is a Jesuit priest at the head of the parish of El Augustino, and it was his experience as team chaplain that helped him to establish the necessary trust with his unlikely peacemakers.
(...more)There’s not a person alive who hasn’t experienced some form of brokenness – from failed marriages to alienated siblings to political chaos. Trying to heal these rifts, especially when long-standing grievances held by sworn enemies get in the way, might seem impossible.
Missionary Laura Ward enjoys playing with children in Rwanda: Africa is not only difficult to understand but also difficult to address.
But for Christians, “reconciliation is an obligation within the Gospel,†declares Michael Cassidy, founder of African Enterprise. “It’s a ministry that God has uniquely committed to us His people, not to the military, government, academia or any other sector. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul talks about reconciliation – vertically with God and horizontally with each other.â€
(...more)Zimbabwe’s Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration has written to the three leaders of the country’s main political parties – who are also the principals in the national unity government installed in February – urging them to preach nonviolence to their supporters.
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