By Sioum Gebeyehou
There is no one-size-fits-all global reconciliation program
The end goal of the various reconciliation programs is the promotion of national unity and transformation, and the healing of a traumatized, divided, wounded and polarized people by searching the truth, accountability, justice, forgiveness and healing.
However. the implementation strategy, tactic and process is not a one-size-fits-all that is easily understood across cultures, identities, nations and societies. Hence, different people, from different parts of the globe, having been affected in distinct ways, by different conflicts, have a different and peculiar understanding of the concept of reconciliation and how the process should be engaged to influence the outcome.
This is aptly captured by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who noted that: “As our experience has taught us, each society must discover its own route to reconciliation. Reconciliation cannot be imposed from outside, nor can someone else’s map get us to our destination: it must be our own solution. This involves a very long and painful journey, addressing the pain and suffering of the victims, understanding the motivation of the offenders, bringing together estranged communities, trying to find a path to justice, truth and ultimately peace. Faced with each new instance of violent conflict, new solutions must be devised that are appropriate to the particular context, history and culture in question.”
Reconciliation is, therefore, always a dynamic and adaptive process aimed at building and healing interpersonal and community lives and relationships.
While the overall theoretical overview shown below is similar to the reconciliation programs of the victims of the genocide in Rwanda; persistent violent conflict in Darfur, Sudan; of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia; of apartheid in South Africa; of the civil wars in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nepal, Chad, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, The Balkans… the implementation strategies, tactics, processes and action plans need to be specific to local conditions.
The slideshow below show the Overview – Understanding and Reconciliation: (Click on slide below and full screen icon on the page.)
(The author can be reached at [email protected])
3 thoughts on “Overview – Understanding and Reconciliation”
I do believe in the theory above! If both of the different oppositions have the will to work as a team and have the same goal which is creating a good society (including prosperity and peace) then, there is a chance for understanding and reconciliation to take place.
One cannot repair harm through dialogue; harm is repaired through harm; pain through pain; damage through damage; and wound through wound if one wants to reconcile with Meles Seitanawi (Zenawi). Without appropriate punishment against the offender, there will be no reconciliation (እርቅ) between the killer and the victim’s family. After blood is paid for blood, then one can start reconstruction (ግንብ, መገንባት) on the surviving victim’s family; the killer who killed another human being purposely must be killed with out delay.
When Samuel saw Agag who had killed many innocent people, Samuel said to him: ‘As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.’ “And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal.” (1st Samuel 15:32)
Samuel did not want any dialogue with the king of the Amalekites (in Geez language, Amalekites are Muslims) Agag, and knowing what King Agag had done to many Israelites, the prophet Samuel without any hesitation or question destroyed the king. It is this kind of justice the Ethiopian people are asking to be done upon Meles and his gang squad. There will be no reconciliation between Meles Seitanawi and the Ethiopian people, between Mengistu Haile Mariam and the people of Ethiopia and between Aba Paulos and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church abroad and at home, and between the Ethiopian Christians and the Ethiopian Arab Muslims.
Without demining the teaching of Christ, the concept of reconciliation becomes clearer to most of the Ethiopian people when one follows the teaching of the Old Testament – “eye for an eye” – but it becomes more complicated when one follows the teachings of the New Testament: “If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Luke 6:29)
Most of us Ethiopians want revenge, after words reconciliation; we may reconcile with Meles’ 7th generation but not with his immediate family or his children’s children because Meles has shed too much Ethiopian blood, and that blood makes it difficult for us to seek reconciliation with anyone that looks like Meles, that smells like Meles and that talks like Meles.
One, in his right mind, never says to Meles “እንደምን አለህ?” (how are you?) And to his wife Jezebel (Azeb) “እንደምን አለሽ? (how do you do?) after one has seen the atrocities Meles and his wife have committed throughout the years. I hope this coming election will end the dark history of the Ethiopian people when Meles is defeated and fled the country or caught and sent to Kaliti Jail.
Getu,
you are so emotional and unrealistic. I doubt whether you are an Ethiopian or not. I do hope you will reconcile with youself and have peace of mind and heart.