Justice or Peace? War Victims Speak by Suliman Baldo
However, thousands of victims in the eastern Democratic Republic of
Congo have told researchers for a newly-published survey that peace and
justice must go hand in hand.
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The survey of 3,753 Congolese is summarized in the report Living with Fear,
which reveals the extent of suffering in a nation that over the past
decade has suffered one of the deadliest wars since World War II. The
survey was carried out by the Human Rights Center at the University of
California, Berkeley, the Payson Center at Tulane University, and the
International Center for Transitional Justice.
Nearly half the population surveyed in eastern Congo said they had
faced death threats, suffered beatings, or been enslaved by armed
groups. One-third had been abducted and held captive for more than a
week, and fully 80 percent had been forcibly displaced from their homes
either permanently or temporarily during the conflict.
In spite of the horrors they have endured, an overwhelming majority
expects the Congolese government to be able to deliver peace and
security, and believes in a multi-faceted approach to these goals. When
asked what means should be used to achieve peace, the Congolese offered
an array of answers: arresting those responsible for crimes, dialogue
between ethnic groups, dialogue with militias, establishing the truth,
and military victory over armed groups.
In a sharp rebuke to those who portray peace and justice as mutually
exclusive, 85 percent of those surveyed said it was important to hold
perpetrators of war crimes accountable for their actions. Eighty-two
percent said that accountability for war crimes was a necessary step
toward securing peace.
In a country with a desperately weak justice system, who should be
holding perpetrators to account? More than half (51 percent) of the
respondents said the Congolese national court system should be at the
center of pursuing justice. At the same time, there was widespread
recognition of the current weakness of the courts, leading 82 percent
to say the international community should help in national
prosecutions.
Though all of the suspects currently in the custody of the
International Criminal Court (ICC) are Congolese, awareness of the
institution among those polled was low. Just over a quarter of the
populations of both eastern DRC and Kinshasa had heard about the ICC or
its potential first trial, of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga.
Where the ICC is known, however, support is strong: 67 percent of
those who had heard of the court said they would like to participate in
its work, though only 12 percent said they knew how to access it.
The pursuit of justice through the ICC faces many obstacles, as was
clear when the court stopped proceedings against Lubanga earlier this
year, citing errors on the part of the prosecution. And when the ICC
prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir in June, the "peace versus justice" debate that followed
showed that many continue to treat these goals as an either-or.
But if lasting progress is to be achieved in war-torn societies such
as DRC and Sudan, victims' voices must be at the center of the debate,
and their calls for both peace and justice must be heeded. Only then,
with security and judicial reforms and the help of the international
community, can the murderous culture of impunity finally be brought to
an end.
Suliman Baldo is Africa Director for the International Center for
Transitional Justice and one of the co-authors of Living with Fear.
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