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are also secondmy parties who have an indirect stake in the conflict. They are allies or
they sympathise with the primary party e.g. the South African Communist Party
sympathized with the ANC. There are also third parties like mediators and
peacekeeping forces.
It is important to identify and involve all actual and potential opponents in a
conflict resolution process so that they feel they were part of the decision-making
process. There must be adequate representation of the parties concerned by
representatives acceptable to them.
These representatives must inform their constituencies ofthe developments and
take information back to the negotiation table. This will lead to the people supporting
the outcomes ofthe decision-making process.
If people feel they were not adequately represented they may impede the
implementation ofthe process either by challenging it in court, or refusing to cooperate,
or even by becoming violent. On the other hand it does not make good sense to include
people in negotiations if their presence will cause more harm than good. Again they
might be included and then persuaded to the opposite direction. Some people become
satisfied when they have been given a platform to state their case and they begin to
cooperate. People who are not constructively engaged may be discredited to tarnish
their credibility so that they are less harmful.
Causes and Consequences
Wehr states that it is not always possible to differentiate between a cause and a
consequence because what might be a consequence of one phase of the conflict might
be a cause of the other phase. Among the causes and consequences he mentions
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