by Ndung'u Wainaina
Executive Director, International Center for Policy and Conflict
Can Transitional Justice be a key or catalyst to instill a culture of democracy, human rights and social justice in the Great Lakes region? The majority of the countries in this region are either in the middle of wobbling transition, persistent conflict or political uncertainty.
The handling of the Burundi peace process and its elaborate transitional justice mechanisms will determine a lot about the future of that country and also to a larger extent its neighbours considering the various factors that create connectivity of the conflict between the neighbouring countries. The final outcome of the ICTR and Gacaca processes will have impact on the peace and democracy not just in Rwanda-- but the lessons learnt out of these two processes will inform the future transitional justice agenda in the region.
The ICC referral cases for Uganda and Sudan perhaps generate single biggest challenge to judicial and parliamentary institutions to devise ways of domesticating the ICC treaty [as] a strategy of advancing transitional justice and human security in the region's countries. Also the success of these two cases will open a new avenue of dealing with impunity. The International Court of Justice ruling on the reparations to DRC by Uganda over exploitation of its natural resources must have set a new jurisprudence on matters of reparation involving countries’ aggression. The enactment of a new constitution in DRC sets in motion the first step on the future of pursuing accountability for the past atrocities. However, the debate on this matter needs to be ignited in order to provide more insights to avoid legal limitations and obscuring of the wider picture.
Ethiopia is currently witnessing the re-emergence of state repression contrary to the Ethiopian government's promise when it took power that it would give human rights and democracy a chance to thrive. The country’s unaccounted past atrocities continue to haunt the present.. Sudan, though attempting to rise from war, has a human rights record that remains uninterrogated. The Darfur massacres and accounting for past SPLM’s and Khartoum government’s atrocities are still food for thought. Somalia is yet to attain peace. However, this does not stop documentation and investigation for human rights violations to ensure securing the evidence fro possible future action on perpetrators of human rights.
In Kenya, revitalizing the transitional justice and accountability agenda beginning with the releasing and acting upon the multi-billion corruption Goldenberg report; taking tangible actions to implement the recommendations of Public Land Commission report on Illegally/Allocated acquired public land released on 2004; establishing the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission in accordance with the recommendations of the Prof. Makau Mutua Task force’s report of 2003; and putting in place valid and legitimate mechanisms for auditing and vetting all Public institutions and appointments to public offices are the milestones and challenges facing Kenya.
Dealing with these issues in the Great Lakes form part of the wider struggle to address poverty and human insecurity that people this region are stack in. This will also address the tragedies of social inequality and glaring injustices in the labour relations, gender based exploitation, intergenerational disparities and good governance deficit.
Transitional justice is contingent on a number of other factors. And one thing that very few people are talking about in the Ugandan context is the upcoming elections, which will take place in March. More than two months in advance of polling day, the election is already fraught with real problems: Kizza Besigye, leader of the FDC party, and seen as the strongest opponent to President Museveni and the ruling NRM, spent a month in jail on suspicious charges including rape upon his return from exile in South Africa, and may or may not be allowed to stand for election.
Democracy is one of the pillars upon which the potential success of transitional justice is supported. And without it, the future of places like Uganda is grim.
Posted by: Joanna Quinn at January 16, 2006 10:30 AMThis issue is too important to ignore. I've just discovered a terrific organization, the Uganda Conflict Action Network -- Uganda-CAN. The group's website has a number of really good initiatives, including a blog and links to petitions. Check it out at http://www.ugandacan.org/
Posted by: Joanna Quinn at January 18, 2006 11:51 AMIs there nexus between politics and transitional justice policy success?
Joanna Quinn responded to one of my previous article on the challenges facing the Great lakes region transitional justice agenda by asserting that manipulation of political processes, more so elections, has an implication on the very route that transitional justice policy will take. Quinn gave the example of Uganda. Building on her assertion, I remember a question posed to Transitional Justice Fellows in a seminar by Marieka Weird, Senior Associate, ICTJ, that how comes there is very little progress made in prosecution front of past atrocities in Africa? I think she was making this observation considering what have happened in other continents particularly Latin America and Central Europe.
I would argue that the contents of the democratic change and peace agreements made determine a lot the final dimension and policy statement that a country adopts in dealing with past human rights atrocities. For instance, the success or failure of gacaca courts in Rwanda has political component in it as so far as the Rwandese government commitment to independent due process and impartial accountability. In Uganda case, President Museveni demonstrated his willingness to work with international community in pursuing justice by referring the Lord’s Resistance Army leaders to ICC but to him justice must be outside making himself accountable for his own atrocities.
Taking that line, we have increasing seeing Presidents and their loyalists refusing to leave office as a strategy of hiding from the justice. The other strategy is putting in place sufficient mechanisms to ensure that even if they leave office they are well covered as such for any truth and accountability to emerge it will be such an expensive venture both politically and economically.
When Kenyan government established the Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry into the multi-billion corruption involving the former regime in which the country lost over US$ 1.5Billion, the former President Daniel Arap Moi refused to appear before the commission and testify. This is despite the evidence adduced to the commission implicating him directly. He has consistently pledged innocence and portrayed himself as a vilified victim by the new government. The evidence produced before the commission was very clear on connection between politics and corruption yet the principal players refused to appear before the commission. Worse is that the current regime has opted to treating Moi with velvet gloves making the whole process of truth and accountability a speculation process with no incriminating evidence. Equally, the current government stands to do a trade off with the former rulers since they enjoy considerable political influence within their communities to let them off the hook in return for political support. Impunity will be condoned. The same complicated the establishment of truth and justice commission.
It is evident that where the political groupings involved in political transitions or conflicts are determining and negotiating the content of that transition, compromise are likely to be enormous with impunity emerging triumphant. Secondly, the level of involvement of civil society in shaping political negotiations has remained minimal and even where there is significant participation; the gains are quickly eroded by the new rulers once in the office. This explains why majority of African leaders are currently preoccupied with amending constitutions to allow them continuous stay in office for fear of accountability. The same fear is what is making most transitional governments fail to implement transitional justice policy that they are not in control.
I wish to join this debate centering on the challenges within the great lakes region and the horn of Africa. I am optimistic that there is need for an internal mechanism to assess these challenges before inviting the outside world. The very unfortunate thing is that we condone our brothers who have a cancer of dictatorship and want to spread it over. That is talk for another day
jeff
Posted by: Geoffrey Birundu at May 25, 2007 03:21 AM
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