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Question:
You have each touched on issues of conflict resolution. What practical
steps would you take to resolve the conflicts that plague certain parts of
the country.
Prof. Mills:
Leadership must be interested in resolving these conflicts. The leader must
himself be seen to be a peacemaker. Who is a peacemaker? Somebody
who is impartial; somebody who wants, genuinely, to bring sides together.
If the peacemaker is seen to be an interested party it is difficult to resolve
the confusion.
Many of these conflicts centre on chieftaincy. According to our Constitution,
it’s not for Government to dabble in chieftaincy. We have the proper
institutions.
Connected with this is the element of criminality; if people do not feel that
justice is being done it will be difficult to resolve the conflict. So where
you have problems connected with chieftaincy and crimes have been committed,
separate the two and then punish people for the crimes which have
been committed.
Number three, when you investigate and realise that this is what has happened,
go ahead and make sure that you prosecute. You send a signal that
wrong doers will be punished you are not going to tolerate any breaches
of the law. You know, perception is very, very important. When people
know that your word is your bond, and that you don’t say one thing and do
another they are likely to come to terms. But where indeed you will find
that there are underlying factors where trust is not there, where trust is betrayed,
where people have lost confidence in the ability of the peacemaker
to bring them together, these conflicts will not be resolved. Poverty is one
of the causes but if you look at the conflicts that we currently have, yes
poverty applies to everybody but not all the areas have conflicts. In certain
cases you will find that there are issues which are not coming out clearly
and not been resolved.
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