*groundview journalism For citizens
15 Dec, 2011
The end of war did not envelope the country in peace nor is it practical to expect this to happen so soon after the termination of hostilities. Yet the expectation that the termination of hostilities will bring about energized and speedy attempts to bring about conditions that spell normalcy for the people. To make it operative political processes that restore civilian administration has to be revived, new or old institutions have to be set up to help people to rebuild their lives. Focus has to be placed on urgent psychological needs of a disoriented society of dismembered families, on children whose life experience have been only war, youth intoxicated with ethnic based hate and violence, women who have suffered on any basis of reckoning, be it loss of a husband, of children, of security of person as a woman, or just the simple factor of the inability to provide a home to one’s family and more importantly the general fear syndrome of having lived through the war for three decades. To apportion responsibility for the war is of secondary importance although the reconciliation process must necessarily take cognizance of this aspect, objectively, in order to build the necessary bridges for reconciliation through restorative justice and avoid being retributive.Continue reading »
