Keynote Address by Dr. Simon Simonse

It is my role and privilege as a Keynote Speaker to give you a preview of the work that lies ahead, of the issues we will discuss, and of the kind of results that we may expect after the work is done.

I am happy to notice that the programme not only includes theoretical discussions but also practical approaches to conflict since tomorrow we will have a theatre presentation by the international Anti-Corruption Theatrical Movement.

I. Introduction

I believe I will best serve you by zooming in on the leading concepts in this meeting:

By giving them concrete content in the context of the conflicts that affect Uganda (the Civil war in North and West Uganda, the ethnic fighting linked to cattle raiding; the war in Sudan. the multiple conflicts in Congo).

The concepts mentioned are the object of intense discussion, not only in Africa and the developing countries, but also in the developed world. Discussions worldwide in the issues are intense on the Internet. Using the Google Search machine, I had:

There are various definitions of the term ‘civil society’ There is a great deal of difference of opinion as to what to include in the concept and what to exclude.

In the anti-statist mood of the former East Block countries in Europe civil society includes everything ‘non-state’ including the private sector. I prefer to define civil society in contrast to both the state and the business sector. The definition by contrast is neater than definitions based on generalising from its internal characteristics.

So, in order to properly define civil society let us first have a look at the state and the business sector and then see how the civil society fits in.

II. Definition of the state

There is a wide consensus in the scholarly world to define the state by its role in providing security to its subjects. The state is defined by its monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force. This monopoly constitutes its sovereignty: the fact that it has ultimate authority over the people living within its borders.

States originate in competition for power.

Government and regimes succeed one another as a result of power struggles: fought militarily or through the ballot box and sometimes both.

The basic relationship between states is that of competition for power with fellow states; each state jealously defending its resources and privileges using violence if needed.

If we look at the historical origins of the state, we note that it mostly a matter of one group bringing an other group under its power using military force.

The process of state formation is well documented in this part of Africa. At the beginning of the colonial period there was a great variety of political systems in the Great Lakes Region and its periphery: There were:

Some like Buganda where we are today were fully-fledged states. They had become so as a result of a gradual process in which the control of the use of force was effectively monopolised by the king

The inner reflex of the state is to extend its powers, and to react prohibitively to any challenge from outside: from its subjects and from enemies. If left to its own dynamics the state degenerates into dictatorship. This was true for the early states of the Great Lakes region. It is still true for the modern states in Africa and world-wide.

Democratic institutions have developed in response to this tendency. They are there for stopping the state from doing so. Democracy is the art of checking state power in the name of various interests of the rest of society. Political parties are an essential institution in the exercise of democracy, they are the interface between society and the state.

Because of their closeness to the competition for power they are not fully included in civil society. Moreover they not only represent civil society interest but also those of the business sector.

The state naturally always minimises the interference with its power by political parties. Uganda is an example.

The security provided by the state is a precondition to the development of the business sector and the civil society. Without the security provided by the state, the rule of law cannot take root, and economic development will be limited. In case of general insecurity business will have to take its own security measures. Only firms that make excessive profits will take such measures. When security becomes a private responsibility the boundary between crime and business becomes blurred, as we see in Russia.

The state in Africa is in disarray. In many parts of the territories it controls it is unable to assure the security of its subjects, especially in the more remote areas of the country. The state has lost its monopoly of legitimate physical force..

It willingly or unwillingly with warlords, militias, rebel groups, or state recruited defence forces (as the LDUs n Uganda). In many areas the local communities are left to their own devices and follow their own security policies. This is the case in many areas of pastoralists in the Greater Horn.

III. Business

The business sector, the market, is defined by the search of profit by companies and entrepreneurs and by the necessity of earning a living by the workers. The dynamic of the market is competition. In the struggle between competing interests there are winners and losers. The law of unbridled competition is ‘the winner takes it all’. There is an inherent tendency for the winners to become wealthier and more powerful and acquire monopolies and for the losers to become poorer, more and more marginalized, and miserable.

Like the state the market has provoked the creation of corrective mechanisms to protect it from running wild and causing its own collapse. It is now generally accepted, even by the staunchest defenders of the free market, that the state has the responsibility to prevent economic crisis. Opinions of course differ as to how far the responsibility of the state should go. In the West we witness a retreat of the responsibility of the state in favour of the mechanisms of the market and the interests of the private sector.

The private sector has its organs to defend and negotiate its interests vis-à-vis the state: through political parties. There are various interfaces between the market and the civil society. Trade unions defend the interests of the workers vis-à-vis their employers. Consumer associations defend the interests of the end users of commodities. Civil society can confront the business directly or influence state policy.

IV. Civil society

How does civil society fit in between the state and the market? What is the core dynamic that distinguishes civil society both from the state and from the economic sphere?.

I believe it is its inspiration by qualitative values and the voluntary character of civil society action, of ‘activism’. People mobilised on a voluntary basis for the realisation of a particular value or set of values have formed ‘a movement’. Most civil society organisations originate in social movements.

a. Values

Values may be distinguished in two broad categories: values of distinction and values of inclusiveness. Values of distinction are shared for example by professional groups protecting the quality of their profession; or groups professing a particular interest: historical heritage (windmills), astronomy, gardening, butterfly collectors, old boys societies; literary and philosophical associations , lodges of freemasons, etc.

Most of the CSOs that are present here find their origin in combating particular forms of exclusion or discrimination or victimhood: victims of war, marginalized groups such as pastoralists, the poor, the handicapped, the tortured, victims of state repression. Churches belong in this category. Did they not originate in persecution by state powers and is the recognition as full human beings of the ostracised and of the poor not a core element in the gospel. I was recently told that the Greek name for the Holy Spirit "parakletos" has the meaning of ‘advocate’, defence lawyer, a person who stands up for those who have been marginalized and condemned by the law.

Values of inclusiveness are manifest in humanitarian organisations. They help disadvantaged groups: war victims (Red Cross), war affected populations (MSF) refugees, children (SCF and many others). They include organisations for handicapped, and sufferers of particular diseases.

Most CBOs (Community Based Organisations) are also motivated by values of inclusiveness. Except for those that promote specific local traditions (=value of distinction) Their objective is to emancipate the particular ethnic or local communities from their marginalized position, to integrate in the wider society.

Here belong for example pastoralist forums active for the emancipation of people with a different economic life style. They are indispensable for development in areas and niches of societies not reaches by state interventions and where the profit margins of the private sector are too low for investments to be made.

b. Voluntarism

Civil society and the business sector share the voluntary character which contrasts them to the state.

This voluntary character also distinguishes civil society from the communities.

Families, clans, lineage, age sets are not voluntary groups, nor are ethnic groups. One is born into them and one depends on them for survival, for a title to land or cattle, for obtaining a wife. This dependence is a fact of life not a voluntary decision. The communities built on kinship and residences are not part of the civil society.

It is important to distinguish between community-based organisations and communities. If members of a particular community come together and decide to form a group that will combat the backwardness of their area (values of inclusiveness), or promote development of particular community-related values (values of distinction) we are dealing with a civil society organisation. Immediate actions by communities for instance in a rebellion should not be considered as belonging to the sphere of civil society.

c. Movements

When a number of people form a group, in the name of value to achieve certain objectives we have a movement.

Many NGOs originate in social movements. Few are purely technical or service providing. Purely technical services are usually accommodated by the private sector.

My own organisation Pax Christi began as a movement inspired by Christian values of inclusiveness to reconcile Germans with French, shortly after the war. Initially they went against the policies of the state and the official churches.

Our host MS originated, I believe, as a movement offering help to victims of disaster. They helped save my relatives’ lives when, in 1953, the sea flooded the part of Holland I come from. Now the dominant concern is economic justice: bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, the North and the South.

I believe it is a loss that many organisations like Pax Christi and MS undergo a transformation from voluntarism to professionalism. There is a danger that values may disappear in the background and the organisation is co-opted by state bodies or the private sector.

We have now defined the role of civil society as a space where values are expressed independently from considerations of power and profit.

Civil society is the birth ground of values that transcend the state and the market. It is the responsibility of civil society to act in such a way that human values are not ignored. Markets and states miss that capacity. But in order to develop they need the social trust that is generated by a shared respect for values. In contemporary analyses of economists and political scientists, there is a renewed emphasis on the necessity of this sphere of trust, of shared norms and values, of civil behaviour. This so-called ‘social capital’ is the precondition for the proper functioning of business community and the state.

V. Conflict

Conflicts no longer come alone. They come interconnected with other conflicts between different protagonists operating on different political levels. In a study I carried out in 1999 in the East Bank of Equatoria in Southern Sudan I was confronted with nine different intertwined conflicts:

At the time of my work there was no noticeable activity of the UPDF.

The different polar conflicts are the basic elements that combine in a complex and rapidly changing military game. Few alignments are in fact excluded. On the basis of the principle that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ we may see communities or faction shifting from one end to the other of the political equation.

In the seven nation war in Congo, the first African world war, unexpected coalitions emerge: we may find the LRA fighting alongside Mai-Mai and Nuer militias from South Sudan alongside former Rwandan interahamwe.

The situation that is actually developing in Ituri Province in North-eastern Congo where warlords are competing for control of natural resources and what is left of the state is likely to develop the same degree of complexity. In fact it is this degree of intricacy that justifies the term: "complex political emergencies".

The point to remember here is the decentralised nature of these conflicts. The communities at the grassroots form the nexus where the different players interconnect and engage in violent battle. The role of the grassroots is not only passive: as the grass that is trampled by the fighting elephants –as the famous cliché wants it. Communities are actively involved not only as proxy forces to the principal combatants but also with the aim to serve their own fragile security interests.

VI. Conflict resolution

There are experts in the field of conflict resolution who hesitate to use the term, because, as they see it, what they are involved in almost never reaches its professed goal: the definitive resolution of the conflict. What is usually achieved is that people agree to stop fighting – fatigue often playing a role - and reach agreement on how some of the issues that caused the fighting will be addressed

For the professional peacemaker resolution of the conflict includes the process of removing or addressing the root causes (or structural causes of the conflict): social inequalities, marginalisation. Modestly and realistically he will claim that he is handling the conflict or managing it. Conflict resolution must be seen as a long process, with different dimensions and different stages:

A first step is the de-escalation and stopping of ongoing military activity: obtaining a cease fire in a particular area and start to build the trust necessary to extend it; talking while the fighting is going on is difficult; we have recently seen this in the Machakos talks. Once a cease-fire is accepted it is important that it is respected; that there is independent observation of the cease-fire by a body trusted by the belligerents.

Community consensus building
To ensure that agreements are honoured not only the leadership should agree, their constituencies should be part of the consensus; especially when the war has involved ethnic or religious communities (as is usually the case).

As long as general consensus is fragile a rapid response is needed on any renewed outbreak of fighting. To give an immediate response a mechanism of early warning and rapid response is desirable that is well anchored in the conflicting communities.

Credible peace dividends
Conflicts are often the result of fundamental economic or political inequalities; if these persist support for peace will be fragile. To resolve the conflict, it is not enough to stop the hostilities and the violence; one often needs to look beyond the immediate issues that are put on the table and address the structural causes; peace stands a better chance when there are new economic opportunities, water-points, an increase in autonomy for groups that have resisted domination by others.

Demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration of the combatants
Combatants need to find a place in society where they can find a respectful living. I will come back to the issue of disarmament.

In many cases the old causes for conflict will go on existing: mechanisms have to be devised and installed to solve future conflicts in a non-violent manner: for example by a planning process in which the conflicting parties participate and come to a compromise over the use of resources; while the conflict continues to exist and may recur it no longer expresses itself in violence; it is transformed.

An essential step in African traditional practices is reconciliation, where both parties after having agreed on a settlement and forgiven any outstanding grievances, affirm their unity. Religion: traditional, Islamic, or Christian plays an important role. Traditionally, sacrifice is key to the procedure. Through the killing of an animal the evil of violence is expelled, and formerly hostile parties unite in sharing the meat of the sacrificial animal. Or they may mix water with the saliva of all the participants and drink it all. Here peace is an event that transforms relationships. Such ceremonies are powerful by the sense of catharsis they produce and by the pressures to compliance the accompanying curses put on the reconciled.

Justice and documenting the truth
In case of large scale and systematic human rights violations by one section of the population on others, inter-communal peacemaking and reconciliation is not enough; where victims have fallen on both sides in comparable numbers in open warfare it is possible to forgive, forget and start afresh; Where the violence was unidirectional, had the blessing of the state, and targeted one particular group, there is a need and necessity to do justice to the victims, and pre-empt repetition and revenge. The crime will need to be spelled out, documented and recognised for what it was: a crime never to be repeated again. S. Africa, Rwanda. A few days ago a number of Congolese civil society organisations expressed the demand for a Justice and Truth Committee. You know that this demand has also been voiced in the context of Northern Uganda.

Healing of trauma
The violence of war may leave mental disabilities in individuals that do not heal without a great deal special attention. Though we witness amazing resilience we also find persons marked for life. Think of what the children abducted by LRA have gone through. We need to give them the best chances possible to come to terms with their past.

VII. The role of civil society with respect to conflict resolution

Advocacy
Civil society organisations expose the conflict to the wider world pointing at the interests involved and the victims caused. They involve the media and appeals to those responsible to stop fuelling the violence and demand non-violent solutions. Coalition building is essential: the more unified the voice the more effective the advocacy.

Facilitation
Civil Society Organisation can contribute to a negotiated solution in different ways. Expert organisations can offer training in negotiation, mediation. They can provide a venue. If the state is one of the parties in the negotiations there is a danger for civil society to overestimate itself and to be carried away by its focus on values and forget about the hard-core security interests that are likely to be the main preoccupation of the state and the rebels. Similarly state actors may underestimate the role of civil society in mobilising war torn communities for peace. The Bigombe-Kony talks are an example of failed communication and co-ordination between the state, particularly the army, and the civil society During this meeting it may be possible to form a clearer picture of the obstacles and opportunities of civil-military co-operation in peace making. This first inventory could as experiences grow become the starting point for the development of a manual for civil-manual co-operation in conflict resolution.

Civil society has a strategic position in connecting the grassroots communities and the state. It is civil society organisations who bring the communities on board of the peace process. As we have noted above, the grassroots communities are the battlefields of the complex political emergencies.

On the other hand the will for peace is often stronger at the grassroots than at the top. Civil society organisations are the intermediary that brings the voice of the grassroots on the national and international levels.

In most conflicts the regime controlling the state is usually one of the main protagonists in the conflict, therefore partisan and therefore disabled to build grassroots consensus for peace. Civil society organisations, especially churches, are closer to the communities to take this task upon themselves,

They may form and train community committees for peace, reintegration, and disarmament. These committees may serve to address issues that may cause renewed conflict (resource allocation) and externally participate in a network of similar committees with the aim of preventing renewed outbreak of inter-communal conflict (early warning rapid response mechanism). Renewed outbreaks should be investigated by joint committees and supervised by commissions of generally respected eminent persons from the civil society. . Besides this early warning and rapid response network NGOs can offer assistance in reviving, rehabilitating or forming judicial procedure to deal with violent dispute.

Tangible peace dividends are of great importance in the consolidation of a peace agreement. To deliver these international developmental NGOs like MS have an important role to play. In a post conflict situation investment in the affected area will still be too risky for the private sector, while the state-apparatus does not have the capacity to give a quick response. NGOs do have the capacity of rapid post conflict action. NGOs could do much better if more attention would be paid to the design of strategies in rapid delivery of peace dividends. While the rehabilitation of physical infrastructures for health services, education, extension work could be contracted by private companies, NGOs should focus on:

In the context of current complex emergencies the demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration of former combatants has become a very complex affair. Reducing the size of a standing army, retrenchment of regularly enrolled soldiers with registered arms in a straightforward affair. Disarming a rebel group is more complex. Questions arise: who will be enrolled in the national army? who will be retired? who will be helped in finding a suitable income generating activity? who will be not be accepted for any compensation in a long process of negotiations?

It is more difficult to demobilise and disarm community based militias or communities? They are not organised in a formalised structure of command. Their names have not been registered with the government or the rebel leaders they have been fighting for. The arms they possess may be their own, or they may have been given by the regime or rebel movement they have been fighting for. They may also be arms captured in battle or they may have been bought privately.

A major obstacle in community disarmament is the fact that communities frequently have very good reasons to keep a vigilante force under arms because of the poor security provided by the state. Demobilisation and disarmament will only find full compliance when the local conflicts have been resolved and security is assured. Responsible community leaders should be expected to say "no" to agents demanding surrender of arms as long as there is a threat of attack.

As Pax Christi we have been monitoring the developments in Karamoja. The fact that in Karamoja during the two months from December 2001 till February 2002 around seven thousand arms were collected in Karamoja must be considered a tremendous success and an impressive show of good will on the side of the Karimajong communities. It must be largely put on the credit of the popularity of the president with the Karimojong. It was all the more a success because it happened under adverse circumstances:

The voluntary disarmament was a success, a success for the President more than for the Karimajong. The subsequent phase of the forced disarmament put the clock back to where we were before the whole disarmament exercise.

The Karamoja experience contains important lessons for future disarmament exercises: for when peace comes to Congo, Sudan and Somalia

In view of the expected scope of the problem when the conflicts in neighbouring countries are resolved disarmament it is justified to demand more opportunities to try out different alternatives in pilot projects. The role of communities should be the focus of these pilot projects.

Comprehensive peace programmes

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) should not just wait to fill the gaps left by the state actors: they have their own role to play in the complex emergencies. Not only by appeals to governments, rebels and warlords to lay down arms, but also by taking action on their own behalf. They can start solving the conflicts from their own end, working from the grassroots up. By mobilising the communities in which they work for peace, making them immune to the divisive tactics of the main protagonists: by arranging peace dividends that give hope that root causes will be addressed. In the current wars in Congo and Sudan, destabilisation of the support of one’s adversary is one of the main tactics followed.

In South Sudan, such a comprehensive process exists under the name of the People-to-People-Peace-Process. It is led by the New Sudan Council of Churches and carried out in collaboration with indigenous and international CSOs. Its main success is the resolution of the conflict between the two largest ethnic groups in South Sudan, the Nuer and the Dinka, a division that was exploited by the government in Khartoum.

It combines:

If this civil society engineered strategy succeeds in stopping the proxy wars and divisions at the grassroots and at the same time mobilises the communities for a common vision of the future, very important obstacles for reaching peace have been removed For peace to be sustainable, it needs to be owned by the people in the communities.

The PPPP strategy envisions meetings in which the grassroots drive for peace is shared with the leadership of the SPLA and exercises pressure. These are the so-called ‘strategic linkages’.

For the Congo peace arrangement to be sustainable, a similar PPPP will be necessary. In Sun City, the Churches and NGOs have been encouraged to launch processes of grassroots reconciliation.

VIII. In conclusion:

We hope this meeting will result in more precise ideas concerning a number of interfaces.

Interface between civil society and communities (in conflict and post-conflict) in conflict resolution, disarmament etc., a better understanding of community leadership. Organisations with a peace agenda go on meeting unexpected surprises. They are not sure they talk to the right people. A methodology should be developed for community conflict resolution and engaging communities on issues of peace and disarmament forming effective grassroots peace constituencies.

Civil-military interface – for co-ordinating activities relating to security. To make or work, respective domains of responsibility of civil society and the army should be clearly defined. Consultation mechanisms should be conceived; expert training is needed on both sides.

Interface between national and international civil society actors and state (local and central) actors in comprehensive peace plans. Such plans may be the best solution for conflict areas such as Acholi and Karamoja.

Between international donors and civil society organisations

International donors should be encouraged to take greater risk in funding pilot projects that are innovative and have the courage to step beside measurability and log frames.

As far as the interface between civil society and the national government is concerned, we should think of forming more effective coalitions to influence government policy.

Finally, civil society should not overlook the private sector as a force in fuelling conflict. We may be over-focussing on the state. The UN report just out points at the responsibility of the international and national business communities. The responsibility of confronting the private sector with its social responsibilities may not be left to the UN. Civil society organisations should develop strategies that promote the responsible behaviour on the part of the business community.

A first step in engaging the business community is to expose the connection between business and conflict and publicly condemn companies that are responsible for prolonging wars. Only by condemning malpractice of some do firms that refrain from meddling in conflict have a bonus. Good business practice is too important to be left to private consciences. In view of the globalised character of the business world partnerships between civil society organisations in the North and in the South are of strategic importance.