The agencies—CARE, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam International, and World Vision—joined together to express alarm at the rising violence and deteriorating humanitarian access since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement on May 5. They warned the increasing insecurity is crippling their ability to reach people in need, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Besides the eight deaths, July saw many other aid workers attacked and intimidated, and there were more than 20 incidents of humanitarian vehicles being hijacked or stolen.
“The targeting of humanitarian workers is completely unacceptable,” said Paul Smith-Lomas, the regional director for Oxfam, one of several organizations to have a staff member killed in recent weeks. “Since the signing of the agreement, Darfur has become increasingly tense and violent, which has led to the tragic deaths of far too many civilians and aid workers. A full and comprehensive ceasefire must be implemented immediately.”
Tensions within many of the camps for the region’s two million displaced people have risen steadily due to opposition to the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA). Violence is increasingly quick to break out, putting at risk aid workers who are delivering vital services. Meanwhile, the under-resourced and poorly supported African Union police and troops who are supposed to be providing security appear to have reduced the scope of their efforts to protect civilians since the DPA’s signing.
The four aid agencies called upon those responsible for protecting civilians and creating a secure environment for humanitarian workers, particularly the African Union, to prioritize having a presence around the clock and regular patrols in areas around the camps.
The humanitarian response in Darfur is the largest in the world and has managed to stabilize the horrific health and nutritional conditions that were seen in the early stages of the conflict. However, the agencies warned this response is now under threat. Some areas of Darfur are seeing levels of malnutrition once again on the rise and outbreaks of acute diarrhea in the vast camps.
“The danger is clear. If we cannot access the people who need assistance then the humanitarian situation is going to rapidly deteriorate,” said Kurt Tjossem, a spokesperson for the International Rescue Committee. “ As usual in Darfur, civilians are the ones to suffer, from being attacked, displaced, and also from being denied access to the assistance that they urgently need.”
In the last month, more than 25,000 people have fled their homes in North Darfur in the face of fighting and attacks on their villages. Three and a half million people throughout Darfur are dependent on humanitarian aid, yet vast areas such as the Jebel Marra mountains and virtually the entire northwestern region are almost completely inaccessible to aid agencies due to the violence and insecurity. Recent fighting has forced many agencies operating in and around Kutum in North Darfur to temporarily suspend their programs.
The agencies called on all parties engaged in the conflict—those who have signed the DPA and those who have not—to immediately adhere to the ceasefire and allow humanitarian operations unhindered access to the people in need. They urged the international community to do more to pressure all sides to end the ongoing violence.
]]>This figure includes:
At a meeting with development organizations on Friday, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said that it would likely move ahead with its proposed Partner Vetting System (PVS). The meeting was called after non-governmental organizations (NGOs) raised serious concerns over the PVS. The screen would require all NGOs receiving funding from USAID to gather personal information on key staff members of all sub-grantees and vendors in developing countries. USAID has said that information gathered will be checked against its existing terrorist database.
“Development professionals at USAID and NGOs who are there to help people living in poverty are being pressured to act as intelligence gathering agents,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America. “That’s not an appropriate role for people providing development and humanitarian assistance and certainly not what they signed up for.”
According to Oxfam, the PVS will hinder poverty relief because aid workers will be perceived as agents of the US government. Aid workers’ primary mission of reducing poverty will be masked with the perception that their role is to safeguard short-term US security interests. Such a perception will undermine their ability to work at the local level and endanger the lives of individual employees being asked to collect the information, and potentially even endanger the lives of beneficiaries receiving assistance.
“No one wants to see US taxpayers’ dollars supporting terrorism, but the PVS won’t actually help the US identify terrorists and stop them. Aid workers would be collecting information to check against a list of suspects the US already has,” said Offenheiser. “If individuals have already been identified as having committed or are planning to commit a terrorist crime, they should be arrested by law enforcement officials.”
The PVS is part of a larger trend, evident in US funding, that favors short-term political goals over US long-term security and development objectives. The percentage of US foreign aid administered by the Department of Defense has grown from 3.5 percent in 1998 to 18 percent in 2006. This trend will diminish US global standing, and in effect, increase long-term insecurity and leave millions of people living in poverty unnecessarily.
“Development is a critical part of our foreign policy. The PVS will not only undermine our ability to help the poor, it will further weaken our already damaged reputation overseas.” concluded Offenheiser. Oxfam proposes that if there are groups that openly and actively support terrorism against the United States, the names of those groups should be made public and NGOs instructed not engage with them or support them in any way as a condition of receiving US government funding.
]]>It is two years since the international community and Afghan government launched the ‘Afghanistan Compact’, in which donors pledged over $10bn of aid to the country. They resolved ‘to overcome the legacy of conflict’ by promoting development, security, governance, the rule of law and human rights.
It must now be acknowledged that many of the Compact’s targets are not being met, and that too many of the commitments made remain unfulfilled.
There has been undoubted social and economic progress in Afghanistan, but it has been slow and is being undermined by increasing insecurity.
Oxfam, which has had operations and supported partners in Afghanistan for nearly twenty years, wants world leaders to support a major change of direction in order to reduce suffering and avert a humanitarian disaster.
Oxfam believes there are five guiding principles which should underpin this change of course.
There is widespread fear in affected communities that this could signal a lapse in the agreement and a return to violence. As negotiations appear to be at an impasse it is vitally important that the parties come together as soon as possible to reaffirm their commitment to the ceasefire. Peace talks must be resumed before it is too late and the apparent deadlock reaches the point of no return.
]]>So, three times a week, and sometimes more, women from the Abu Shouk and Al Salaam camps head out on four-hour treks to scavenge for fuel. If they don't come upon any trees, the women resort to clawing through the hard-packed earth to reach bits of root that they can burn instead.
But hard work is only part of their problem. Looming larger for these women is the constant threat to their safety: By venturing even a short distance outside of the camps they could face harassment, sexual assault, or even death. Since early 2003, conflict has wracked this region, forcing more than 2 million people from their homes. Many of them have sought shelter in camps like Abu Shouk and Al Salaam. But the demands of daily living—the need for wood, for jobs, for food—often require them to leave the safety of those camps.
Now, Oxfam America, together with the Sudanese Agency for Environment and Development Service (SAEDS), has launched a $132,000 program that will help thousands of displaced women stay safer in this volatile place. The agency is providing 4, 200 households with fuel-efficient stoves that, in many cases, will completely remove the need for women to hunt for wood. Two thousand of the stoves are kerosene-fueled; another 2,000 are efficient wood-burning stoves; and 200 of them use gas. The project will benefit about 25,200 people.
Women were excited about getting the stoves, said Sahar Ali, an Oxfam America program officer, who paid a monitoring visit to Abu Shouk in late January.
"Traditionally, the provision of firewood and fuel for cooking has been the responsibility of women," said Ali, in a report she filed after the visit. "There are few other sources of cooking fuel available to them."
But with the introduction of kerosene and gas, they now have other options. And the small round stoves that burn wood efficiently—as opposed to open fires—means women will need to make fewer of the dangerous scavenging trips.
Still, convincing women that gas is a smart way to cook has taken some doing, said Ali. They worried about its hazards.
"This is the first time for them using gas, and most of the houses are made from wood," said Ali. "If it burns, it burns all the camp. They said we prefer kerosene—not the gas."
The hesitancy about gas notwithstanding, the new stoves are bringing another important benefit to the region, too: some relief for the environment.
"North Darfur is mostly desert, and the few trees that provided a nearby source of cooking fuel when the camps were first created more than two years ago are all gone," said Ali in her report.
It's a trend that Ibrahim Suliman, a program coordinator for SAEDS, has watched for the past four decades as it's crept across the region.
"When I was a child, most of Darfur was covered in forest—even North Darfur," said Suliman, a native of Dar el Salaam, a small village about 30 miles south of El Fasher. But in the last 30 years, those trees and grasses have given way to desert. Why?
"Because of overgrazing," said Suliman. "Because there is no planning for animal breeding. And the firewood for cooking. And for houses—people build their houses from wood. And charcoal traders."
But with the introduction of the stoves, some of that degradation can be slowed since less wood will be needed for cooking. Suliman has even convinced his mother to switch to kerosene.
"She's very happy. It's clean," he said.
SAEDS is taking its concern for the environment a step further: It has launched a replanting project in Dar es Salaam and plans to begin a similar effort around the camps.
"Our philosophy is to restock the forest and all these things will be improved," said Suliman. "If we try to stop cutting trees and every year we try to plant many new trees, within four to five years we will be able to restock a big amount of trees. And we'll be able to at least make the environment more attractive than before and people can find grasses for their animals and be able to cultivate again. It might take a long time, but we have to start."
In Dar el Salaam, thanks to SAEDS, about 4,500 new saplings are now growing.
"In five to 10 years, I'm sure it will be green," said Suliman.
Near El Fasher, trees might also grow again. Oxfam's project with SAEDS calls for the planting of 10,000 seedlings around the camps. Families who have recently received the fuel-efficient stoves will be mobilized to do the planting.
]]>MONUC should not scale down its activities until the Congolese security forces--and in particular the army--stop posing a threat to their own populations and instead begin providing security and protection to the Congolese people.
]]>For them, the fact that they were playing soccer together at all was what counted.
A few short years ago, school boys in Moyale—a southern Ethiopian border town where bursts of violence plague the region—would never have joined a game that teamed children from one ethnic group with those from another. The Gabra, the Borena, the Guji, the Gari—they just didn't get along.
But with assistance from Oxfam America, that dynamic has begun to change. The agency helped to plant the seed of peace at the Moyale Primary School, and its roots are now spreading throughout the district.
Through a series of three grants, Oxfam helped the Moyale Primary School, which now serves 3,000 students in grades one through eight, construct three new classroom buildings and equip them with materials, including books and computers. In conjunction with that, school officials launched a massive public education campaign, targeting parents in particular.
The message? Ethnic conflicts coupled with cultural expectations about the limited role of girls had caused enrollment in the school to plummet. A divided administrative system, with different ethnic groups aligned with each of the two divisions, had also left the school severely short of funds. The end result meant a generation of students was at risk of not being able to get the education that is so vital to their future success.
The solution? Improve the school facilities with the understanding that the buildings—and the opportunities they represent—belong to all the students and their families, regardless of their ethnicity. The school would also serve as a place for conflict resolution.
The parents embraced the idea.
"They are beside us today," said Tsegaye Desta, who recently became the coordinator of the school system after serving as the principal of the Moyale Primary School during its transition. "Before the coming of Oxfam America, the enrollment of students was very low. Now it's very high."
Work has helped pull the families together around a common cause. About 25 percent of the new construction on the school grounds has been carried out by community members, including students and their teachers.
"When they do it together, they build not only construction, they build peace," said Desta. "When there is peace and unity, it is possible to do a lot."
A small tree nursery inside the school compound has also served as a place for students to get to know each other.
"They forget about conflict. When they work in the nursery, they discuss things as friends would," added Desta.
With those new friends kicking up clouds of dust on the soccer field behind him, 15-year-old Tegalu Sale, took a break from the game to describe how things have changed since Oxfam began helping the school.
"Before the construction, there was no sitting place and not enough books," he said, sweat beading on his forehead. "We ran to the class to get a bench. The others did it too. Then, things happened."
And now?
"The conflict is minimized—and that's why we're here exercizing together," Sale said.
Besides the new construction, which has allowed class sizes to drop from as high as 120 students down to 50, the school has incorporated discussions about peace-building into its curriculum.
Teacher Aschelew Mokinnin doesn't have to look far for material for his students.
"Mostly we take the surrounding problems as an example, and the solutions—they're always discussing (those) face to face," said Mokinnin.
"There is great improvement," added Mulu Seba, an eighth-grade teacher. "The students' interaction is very nice. It's positive."
And that bodes well for students like Sale: His dreams stand a good chance of becoming true. "In the future, after I complete school, I will help myself and my family," he said. "I'd like to be a teacher or a master of a school."
]]>Onokoko was working at a human rights organization in Bujumbura, Burundi, where an ethnic conflict similar to that which tore apart Rwanda in 1994 was driving a long civil conflict. "I saw in the market Tutsi being chased by Hutu armed with knives and revolvers, they wanted to kill them. I opened the doors to my office to hide them, and people there said to me, "Gaspard, if you do that, they will kill you too," and I said to them, "let them come kill me."
And they tried. "They destroyed my house, they wanted to kill me because I was defending the lives of others," Onokoko said. "Well, they did not kill me. I am here with you."
This was just one incident in his human rights work in central Africa, which eventually led to his imprisonment in Burundi. Thanks to the intervention of foreign human rights organizations, Onokoko, a Congolese citizen, was released and eventually found refuge in Senegal 10 years ago.
He says he was never scared. "If you are fearful you cannot defend human rights. If you are scared you can't build peace and development. It is an act of courage."
A trained teacher, Onokoko turned his attention back to education. "I could hear a lot of talk about resolving conflict, but I could see in the schools there was no program of peace education and human rights," he said. "So I was one of the first to introduce [it] in the schools."
Onokoko concentrated his work in the Casamance region of southern Senegal, the scene of more than 20 years of conflict between the government and separatist rebels. In 2003 he began a collaboration with Oxfam America, and developed a primary school curriculum complete with teacher training guides, student workbooks, and other material to help teach young people about peace, human rights, and citizenship. By 2006 he had convinced the Ministry of Education to allow the curriculum to be introduced in over 200 primary schools, and started expanding the student mediator program, in which students learn to resolve conflicts, into high schools in Casamance.
"Peace education in Casamance is having very positive results," Onokoko said. "Students who used to willingly go into the bush to join the rebellion now are not interested in this—they know that peace is more important than war, and that if there is war, they can't go to school and there will be no development. Their parents are delighted that their children speak of peace, and human rights. This is very satisfying for me personally, and it is thanks to Oxfam."
Onokoko, now 51 years old, lives in less danger in Dakar, Senegal, and travels frequently to the south to promote the peace education curriculum he developed with his organization GRA-REDEP. With the recent peace agreement in Casamance there is less violence, but many challenges to peace remain, including widespread poverty and land mines.
But Onokoko is taking the long view. "To build peace you have to have a lot of patience, it takes time to change people's behavior, and change their hearts."
]]>Mamadou Diedhiou, the school's director, takes the high enrollment as a compliment. "Our school district has one of the highest levels of attendance in the country," he says proudly. "And we are building schools all the time."
Four of Diedhiou's teachers have been using the Oxfam-funded GRA-REDEP peace education curriculum for the last three years, and others are learning about it and integrating it into their classes also. The teachers are seeing a real difference in the behavior of the students at Basembo Diandy: fewer fights, more tolerance, and more engagement with the faculty on school issues. The students understand what it is to be a citizen, says Pathé Diatta, one of the teachers. "When we used to raise the flag here most students weren't interested,"" he said in the school library. "But after we taught them about citizenship, they attend the flag raising every morning."
Citizens enjoy certain rights, and this is a key lesson taught in Professor Djibril Faye's class, held in one of the concrete block buildings, where there is a charcoal outline of the African continent on the back wall. The students, roughly 40 kids between 10 and 15, can name their basic rights: the right to live in peace, the right to medical care, the right to food.
And then the big one comes up: the right to an education. The discussion revolves around why some families don't let their girls go to school, just the boys. Many students don't understand the issue completely. When asked for reasons why a father might not allow a daughter to attend school, some think it might be because there is no money for clothing, transportation, or school fees.
But that is not it. Professor Faye wants them to discover the gender dimension of this human rights issue—a basic injustice based on the roles society imposes on females. "Maybe the father wants his daughter to work around the house, so when she gets married she will know what to do," one boy suggests. The unfairness comes out clearly to the students. Now they see why girls might be more likely to be kept home from school—a violation of their right to an education.
Seynabou Sène, a slim 13-year-old student, took the lesson to heart. "Girls need to go to school," she said after the class. "If my father told me I could not go to school, I would force him to take me so I can have a better future. I want to be a teacher."
]]>As the government of Senegal stepped up its counter-insurgency campaign in Casamance, her family was touched in many ways. They were forced to move away from their home at an agricultural technical school where her father was a teacher because the campus was occupied by the military, making them a target for rebels.
"I also saw one of my cousins killed by the rebels, and another one was badly wounded," Kouka said. "So I had to live through this insecurity as the conflict unfolded." Her experience in Casamance inspired her to work on development and social justice, with peace as the focus of her efforts. "I became more aware of the conflict as I grew up and could see the serious poverty here," she said. "It was a direct impact of the conflict in Casamance."
After joining the staff at Oxfam America's office in Dakar in 2003, Kouka began working on the Control Arms campaign when it kicked off that year. In Senegal, the campaign has three goals: Support the Control Arms goal for an international arms ban treaty, push the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) to convert its temporary moratorium on the trade in illegal arms into a binding permanent convention, and finally, get the government of Senegal to update its 1966 law on the possession of weapons to also include the trade in small arms.
Kouka and Oxfam's allies in the Control Arms campaign, including Amnesty International and the International Action Network on Small Arms, celebrated a victory in West Africa after ECOWAS voted to make the arms trade ban permanent in the region last June. And although a conference at the UN in June failed to create any meaningful progress in a global arms ban, the UN's General Assembly voted 153-1 (with 24 abstentions) in December to take up the issue in 2007, a tremendous victory for the Control Arms campaign.
The next phase of the Control Arms campaign in Senegal will involve pushing the legislature to ratify the ECOWAS convention on the illegal trade in small arms, and become one of the nine countries needed to sign the convention so it can enter into force.
Working with young people in Senegal proved crucial in the campaign to gain support for the ECOWAS ban within the Senegalese government. Pressure from young people who gathered signatures for national petitions helped make Senegal a leader in the arms convention issue in ECOWAS. "We turned our attention to working with youth, as armed conflict touches them directly," Kouka said. "That is how we came to the Senegal Boy Scout Association. In Casamance we contacted the Scout movement as well as other youth associations in Ziguinchor and Kolda."
Kouka spent numerous weekends training scouts and other youth groups in how to gather signatures for the Control Arms campaign, and working with Oxfam's partners and allies on campaign strategy and organizing. "If you work with students, or Boy Scouts, they are not available during the week—they are only available on the weekends," Kouka said.
But her commitment goes beyond just the practical—she wants to see concrete results. "I like to see work done correctly. I don't like to see things done half way. That is why I make a personal commitment, and invest so much time to do this work. I work with a lot of different partner organizations and allies, and I really want to build good relations with all of them. So whenever they need me I want to be ready to help them, so we can get this work done, whether it is on a weekend or whenever."
]]>About a dozen students came from Lycée Djinagbo in the city of Ziguinchor, a vast campus of low buildings scattered around dusty grounds bounded by withered trees and walls. On a windy day, clouds of dust blast between the buildings, obscuring the walls and students walking to class in their khaki uniforms. With nearly 4,700 students and 125 teachers, it is the biggest school in the city.
Keeping a school like this running has its challenges: The Casamance conflict has destabilized the entire region, and Lycée Djinagbo as well. There are fights between students, and problems between students and teachers. Like many high schools in Senegal, students sometimes go on strike to protest funding cuts and other school policies, making it hard to finish studies within the academic year.
Abdoulaye Sidibé, an advisor to the student mediators at Djinagbo says that the school is a bit less chaotic since students underwent the mediation training last January. "Since this program was initiated, there's a lot more stability. Fewer problems between students, between students and teachers, and between Muslims and Christians. It's partly due to the team we have here responsible for the resolution of these conflicts. When they are confronted with a conflict their first reaction is to ask themselves, 'How can I help resolve this in a peaceful manner?'"
Mamadou Lamine Diatta, a 21-year-old literature student and mediator at Djinagbo, explained how his training helped him stop a fight between two students, and teach them a lesson of nonviolence: "One student got a bad grade—and the other was teasing him; they came to blows. I broke it up and took one aside to talk it over, and to allow him to express his frustration. Then I did the same with the other. After that I brought them together—but I did not ask them to repeat their story in front of the other, so as to avoid more anger. Instead we focused on the merits of friendship and the need to tolerate one another."
Maty Thiam, one of Djinagbo's 1,876 female students, is also a trained mediator with a confidence and wisdom well beyond her 17 years. She greets visitors, looking them directly in the eye, with a firm handshake. The mediation training changed her outlook on conflict completely. "Before the training, I understood conflict existed, but I did not know it could be mediated," she explained. Thiam has keen analytical skills, which help her understand the issues and move those in conflict towards peaceful resolutions. The most important thing she has learned from the training? "It is how to listen to people in conflict to get to the heart of the problem. Always avoid telling one or the other he is right. Then create a way to resolve it to show both that they have contributed to the resolution, but also that they have both gained something from the resolution."
High school students see their training resolving school quarrels as important preparation for their professional life. Boubacar Baldé, 18, a trained student mediator at an agricultural technical school outside Ziguinchor, says he wants to create a more peaceful relationship between farmers and livestock herders, two groups who routinely come into conflict all over Africa. "I am a Fulani," he said with pride. "We are known for cattle. But we live near people who grow crops, so we struggle to find grazing lands. And there are many conflicts. My experience will help me negotiate to reserve part of the land for pasture, and the rest for growing crops, and educate villagers in ways of mediating any problems that come up."
]]>"What are some countries now at war?" the teacher asks. The kids explode into a mass of raised hands; they snap their fingers, pleading to be called on, shouting "Monsieur! Monsieur!" Several get their wish, and the countries in conflict come spilling out and onto the blackboard: "Congo!" Then, "Côte d'Ivoire!" and "Bissau!", Senegal's neighbor to the south, Guinea Bissau.
"Any others?" the teacher asks. One student—eager to be called on but unable to think of another country in conflict—blurts out "France!"
Well, no, France is not at war, so the lesson turns to peace. The teacher asks the children to write sentences on the importance of peace, and how it can be achieved. They read them before the class, and they are as noble as any diplomat's address to the United Nations: "We have to forgive each other and be as one." "We have to stop fighting each other and respect one another."
One of the smallest boys in the class walks to the front, tucks in his shirt and hitches up his pants, and most of the class starts laughing. His smile changes to a serious look, and everyone settled down for a moment. He said "In Senegal we need solidarity for peace. We want to live in a region of nonviolence."
This class, taught by Vieux Malang Diedhiou, was based on curriculum developed by a Senegalese organization: Research Group for Education on Children's Rights and Peace (known by its French initials GRA-REDEP). Working closely with Senegal's Ministry of Education, the curriculum was created over three years ago with about $40,000 from Oxfam America. Gaspard Onokoko, a committed Congolese human rights educator and president of GRA-REDEP, has criss-crossed Senegal, traveling in "bush taxi" mini buses and on foot in the heat and dust to work with education officials to introduce the curriculum to 195 elementary schools in the troubled Casamance region alone. GRA-REDEP is expanding to other areas near the capital Dakar and in western Senegal. Since 2003 more than 1,500 elementary school students have studied peace, human rights, and nonviolent conflict resolution, and nearly 300 teachers have been trained in the curriculum, which also covers basic issues of governance and citizenship.
Onokoko has seen first-hand the destruction of war; he was a political prisoner in Burundi for his work promoting human rights. Since his release and exile to Senegal, he founded GRA-REDEP in order to build a more peaceful future. Children lie at the heart of his strategy.
A tall man with a broad smile, Onokoko speaks very formally and deliberately when asked why children are so important. "If their parents engage in violence and crime, children will learn at a young age to do the same," he says. "These children are the future of Senegal, they represent the wealth of Senegal. They must become citizens who can build a country based on peace that respects human rights. Schools are an important place to do this, to create a culture of peace. Otherwise it is a lot harder to teach this later in life."
GRA-REDEP launched the peace education program in Casamance as it was a region at war for more than 20 years. Sandwiched between Gambia to the north and Guinea Bissau to the south, Casamance is a place apart from the rest of Senegal, a lush region of forests and rivers dominated by the Diola people. A separatist movement emerged in the 1980s among those who felt overlooked by economic progress in Senegal since independence. Separatists have used violence to redress their grievances, and the resulting suffering and poverty have plagued the region. Tragically, many young people joined in the fighting rather than pursuing their studies. A lengthy counterinsurgency campaign by the government finally led to a cease fire and, despite a recent flare-up of cross-border violence between guerilla factions and the Bissau-Guinean military, prospects for peace in Casamance look strong.
The students at Faye Coly have taken on their citizenship lessons with great enthusiasm. They created a student government, elected a president and a cabinet of ministers. Claire Sagna, who at 13 has been the minister of human rights for the last two years, says that the teachers have taught the students to learn how to mediate conflicts between themselves and between students and the faculty. "When there are fights between students, or with students and teachers, our government will come together as a group to develop a solution," she says in a very brisk, business-like manner.
]]>Such lingering hard-line attitudes led to widespread political violence during the 2000 and 2002 elections in Zimbabwe. A 2000 human rights report described a typical incident: A truck transporting people to a party meeting was run off the road and attacked by members of another political group armed with AK-47s and iron bars. While most of the victims of the attack fled, two were trapped in the truck when it was firebombed, and died on the road moments later.
Thankfully, today there is considerably less political violence, and one of the groups that has made change possible is the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET). According to director David Chimhini, the organization, founded in 2000, helped eliminate much of the violence in just a couple of years. With funds from Oxfam America, ZIMCET established a network of local "peace committees" that have brought political opponents together to learn about nonviolent conflict resolution.
These peace committees are led both by members of the ruling ZANU-PF political party and their opponents in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). ZIMCET overcame the climate of distrust by keeping the focus on peace—something neither side could oppose. ZIMCET also cultivated strong relationships with local leaders, who encouraged the new peace committees.
One peace committee created a sports league for youth, many of whom were out of school and lacked employment, which made it easy to get caught up in violence. Another committee concentrated on cultural events. But ZIMCET's main accomplishment has been to help people acknowledge their mistakes and learn to forgive one another. "Our peace committees help people change their attitude towards each other," Chimhini says. "They now say 'Never again'! We will never beat or kill just for an election."
The process has not been easy. Tina Malowa was a much-feared political operative, but after attending training sessions with ZIMCET, her perspective changed. "Sometimes I sit down and think about all the violence and at times I find myself sobbing because I know I did some evil things. Things that I really regret to this day." Her transformation has been both personal and political: "I realized that my thinking was all wrong. In democratic societies, there is bound to be an opposition party."
Beside her, at a meeting in ZIMCET's Harare office, sits Simon Mapuvire, MDC district secretary for Manicaland. Mapuvire has also come a long way. "I was beating ZANU-PF people and I was directing people to beat others," he said candidly. "Then ZIMCET taught me that I was just beating my brothers and sisters. Now Tina is my friend and we work together, and I have thrown away that evil element in my head."
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