These are some of the hard questions that confronted the participants from a broad cross-section of society who attended the annual philosophical conference held at Arrupe College recently under the theme Beyond the Reign of Terror: Religion and State as agents of Justice and Reconciliation.
Fr Rampe Hlobo, S.J, spoke on the need to go far back as people are willing to in terms of the history of violence and start the healing from there. Whether perpetrators are dead or not, descendents of victims would want to know the truth to be healed. The floor had many questions on the model of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa. How do you avoid the victors history? Hlobo said it was essential to have a credible team handing the TRC, someone as credible and respectable as Desmond Tutu proved to be when the ANC wanted to hide Winnie Mandela from appearing before his commission.
Other thought provoking questions included: Is restorative justice not better than amnesty – like in Zimbabwe where there is amnesty to the same people after every election? And to what extent are poverty and xenophobia in South Africa today a result of the unfinished business of the TRC?
Fr Nigel Johnson spoke on his concerns aboutThe Complexity and Gravity of National Healing and Reconciliation in Zimbabwe. With the government proving to be insincere in the healing and reconciliation business, he endorsed the view that politicians should not have led the process. He cited Rwanda as an example of what happens when politicians take the leading role.
The conference battled with the question: How far can we go towards healing and reconciliation when the government/ruling party is the major sponsor of violence?
Abel Chikomo, Director of Human Rights Forum, spoke on Constructing Justice for the common good and wondered why and how we could work for the common good when our natural inclination as human beings is to think of ourselves only? To him justice means fairness. And he introduced participants to the reality of laws that bring justice but are not fair.
Graig Linnington, a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, discussed The Role of the State in Reconciliation and Justice delivery systems. He cited the major disadvantage of our justice system which is that all the high court and supreme court judges are more or less direct appointees of the president, therefore they remain beholden to him and his party for the favour.
Post published in: Opinions