STOP THE KILLING CAMPAIGN

IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION

by Stella M. Sabiiti

The Centre for Conflict Resolution (CECORE), based in Kampala (Uganda), has joined five other non-governmental organizations and individuals, including scholars and researchers, to form the coalition Stop the Killing Campaign. The objectives of the campaign are to:

-- strengthen and develop a constituency of support for peaceful resolution of conflicts in the Great Lakes Region;

-- give ordinary people and local NGOs a platform to coordinate their activities and influence and support the regional agenda for establishment of sustainable peace and prosperity; and

-- mobilize public opinion locally, nationally, regionally and internationally to stop the killings and end the culture of impunity in the region.

Other organizations in the coalition include the Pan African Movement (PAM), based in Kampala; the Nairobi Peace Initiative (NPI); the African Studies Center of Kenya; Synergies Africa, based in Switzerland; and MWENGO, an umbrella organization for several African countries based in Zimbabwe. The coalition also has links with other NGOs, networks and individuals in the Great Lakes Region.

Our evolving and shared understanding and commitment has grown out of a series of meetings over a number of years, with recent meetings helping us to clarify our objectives. These include meetings in Kigali (Rwanda) in October 1996, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in November 1996, and in Nairobi (Kenya) in December 1996 and February 1997. The meetings aimed to find a common understanding and shared platform among African NGOs, concerned African citizens and residents, as well as associations of non-African NGOs in the region, to support efforts to stop the killing and resolve the conflicts. As a result of these consultations, we feel it is urgent to engage in a number of public activities to strengthen and further develop a constituency of support for peaceful resolution of the conflicts.

The primary areas of our involvement and activity include a campaign to create a ground swell of public action and opinion to stop the culture of brutality and killings so that programmes of mediation and conflict resolution can succeed. The campaign asks all members of the community, at all levels, to work and create an atmosphere of "zero tolerance" to the killings and impunity, which regrettably have become a widespread and common practice in our region.

In order to create an enabling environment for non-violent resolution of conflict, we are enlisting our combined human and material resources, both as individuals and as organizations. We encourage the support of members of the international community to take appropriate action to provide opportunities for enhancing skills and exchanges of ideas for mediation and peaceful conflict resolution.

We also demand that mass media institutions and individual journalists be aware of the significant and critical role the media plays, and continues to play, in the formulation of analyses, perceptions and causes of various conflicts in the region. We asked that they take the responsibility to act accordingly. Unfortunately there is an hegemony of non-African media in reporting and interpreting the events, which is often clouded with their own agendas.

We believe it is necessary for the general public to have comprehensive and accurate information and knowledge about the situation in the Great Lakes Region, so that informed choices can be made. Therefore we intend to collectively use our shared networks and information from local and international sources to change the popular image of exclusively "humanitarian-horror" portrayal of events in the region. By doing this, we can re-educate ourselves and others about the need for a comprehensive political, economic and social response to the crisis.

Central to this is our overriding operating principle that Africans must take responsibility for their actions and their destinies. Therefore our initiative welcomes the involvement of African religious institutions, universities, the mass media, institutions of higher learning and research centres, community organizations, concerned individuals and governments.

We also welcome collaboration with Northern NGOs and institutions that can support our activities and are willing to complement our work and efforts to stop the killings. We wish to cooperate in the spirit of a proactive and efficient division of labour.

We realize we cannot succeed as long as military arms suppliers are unfettered in shipping weapons of destruction and mercenaries into the region, which further fuels the fire of the conflict. The sources of these weapons are often Europe or America but also South Africa, Israel and the Middle East. We urge and request Northern NGOs and citizens of arms-producing and exporting countries to a show of solidarity and support to stop the killings by taking action that discourages the flow of arms and mercenaries into our region.

Proffering African solutions to African problems also means supporting African initiatives, both by NGOs and our governments, effectively and critically with a view to strengthening them and sustaining their capacity to resolve our conflicts.

In this regard members of the coalition and their organizations have been involved at various levels in the initiatives taken by regional heads of state and leaders to find a common solution to conflicts in the region. We are supportive of these efforts and are encouraged by our leaders, their initiatives, and the responsibilities they have assumed.

Recently we met with the mediator of the Burundi conflict, Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, whose efforts have been endorsed and supported by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the European Union and the United Nations, to explore ways and means that non-governmental actors can collaborate with the regional initiative. The meeting encouraged us to continue to seek a broader understanding of the conflict and take advantage of every point for a long-lasting resolution of the region's problems. This need for a long-lasting solution means that neither African governments, local NGOs, nor concerned foreign NGOs or governments can solve the problems alone and in isolation of each other. There is need for a dynamic interface between these actors at different levels to create and sustain an atmosphere for peaceful resolution of the conflicts. The coalition is an important step in forging the kind of interface we believe is indispensable in the search for peace and solidarity in the region, and in Africa as a whole.

Campaign, Lobbying, Logistics and Communication

The Centre for Conflict Resolution's aim is to, among other things:

-- put all conflicts in the countries of the Great Lakes Region on the agenda;

-- make inputs into the Arusha Summit (on Burundi) meetings;

-- encourage discussion about sanctions on Burundi or any other outcomes of the summits;

-- submit NGO proposals to the summit; and

-- meet with leaders, including presidents and foreign affairs ministers.

Channels of communication used by the campaign include collecting and disseminating information to political elites and the population by targeting the media. This media includes radio stations in our own countries and the printed media, including newspapers and journals. Other forms of communication may include press conferences, press releases, posters, flyers and billboards.

The campaign, which aims to target civil society in general since each player has a vital role to play, will also help carry out research on relevant issues. Members of the campaign plan to keep in constant touch with each other as a coalition, and they will seek logistical support in order to effectively keep the Stop the Killing Campaign active.

CECORE Organization and Background

The Centre for Conflict Resolution focuses on empowering individuals, organizations, institutions and communities to manage conflicts or disputes effectively by applying alternative and creative means. CECORE's objectives include:

-- research and develop the theory and implement the practice of creative conflict resolution;

-- research, document and disseminate information on African traditional methods of conflict resolution;

-- design and share information on early-warning and preventive mechanisms on conflicts; and

-- share knowledge and experience through networking.

CECORE staff, who have been trained in Ecuador, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and Uganda, have been involved in the field of conflict resolution for many years.

The organization's board of directors is made up of seven individuals chosen to represent the main aspects of CECORE's work: research, training, human rights and history and culture. CECORE is a member of the Human Rights Network (HURINET), the Development Network for Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA), Uganda Human Rights Educational and Documentation Centre (UHEDOC), the Uganda Debt Network (UDN), the Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA), African Forum of the Great Lakes Region, the National NGO Forum, and the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC).

CECORE Activities

Uganda

CECORE activities include training women trainers in Uganda in conflict resolution skills. Because we have developed a pool of Ugandan trainers, we do not have to rely on outside trainers. CECORE trainers continuously update their skills through advanced courses, especially in South Africa. Since women are often the most affected in conflict situations, CECORE has helped women's groups in Gulu resolve conflicts, and works with African mediators and NGOS active in the northern part of Uganda on other conflict resolution initiatives.

CECORE is also helping to train refugees, aid workers, and government and community officials in refugee camps for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and has designed a training manual and video for conflict resolution training in the camps for UNHCR staff.

In July 1997 CECORE organized a training workshop on Conflict Handling Skills for Legal Aid Practitioners and Counsellors: Communication, Negotiation and Mediation Skills. CECORE also holds periodic discussion on the situation in the Great Lakes Region with ministers and officials in the Uganda Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It has conducted similar workshops for the media, police, former rebels and other crucial categories.

As a member of a core group of human rights organizations spearheading a campaign against abductions and killings of children in conflict-torn areas, a CECORE-facilitated song composed by children became the theme song at the September 1997 launching of two reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The reports discussed atrocities committed against children in northern Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). And with World Vision, CECORE organized a national Churches Consultative Meeting aimed at identifying ways to deal with killings in northern and western Uganda.

CECORE also joined other NGOs in Uganda in a campaign led by Oxfam to lobby the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Partly as a result of the campaign, which encouraged children to draw and write about the effects of poverty on their lives, Uganda was the first country to qualify for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.

Rwanda and Burundi

In collaboration with women's NGOs in Rwanda and Burundi, CECORE plans to run a radio station for the Great Lakes Region to augment peace efforts. It has contributed to workshops on the media and human rights and has participated in conferences on the situation in Burundi, a post-Fourth World Conference on Women forum in East Africa, Rwandan presidential diplomatic briefings, and briefings by delegations of ethnic groups. In addition CECORE's Youth Engagement Towards Social Integration in Rwanda plans to bring people together to release tensions and help reduce conflict.

CECORE has also conducted a skills training workshop for women from different occupational backgrounds in Rwanda. The workshop, entitled Hands Across the Border: Women Empowerment and Capacity Building, aimed to empower women in capacity building and introduce skills for handling conflict and disputes. The 1997 Pan African Conference for Gender, Peace and Development held in Kigali and several other peace initiatives are a direct result of that workshop.

More recently CECORE, together with other women in the region, visited Burundi to talk with the President and other key leaders in that country and mobilized more than 100 women to come to Kampala to discuss their participation in the peace process. This is part of the initiative of the OAU's Women Committee for Peace and Development.

Internationally, CECORE has joined hands with organizations such as PANOS to work with the media in promoting peace-building, the State of the World Forum in the United States to promote co-existence and community-building, and other organizations to discuss demilitarization. CECORE also works with women in the Asia/Pacific region.