Legitimacy of conflict management and resolution mechanisms is critical, especially in situations of diversity such as in multi-ethnic societies

TO BE NOTED: From Chris Blattman's Blog:

"The best civil war study you've never read

Today I'm teaching, among other things, one of my favorite papers: Amos Sawyer's "Violent conflicts and governance challenges in West Africa" (ungated draft version here). ( NB DON )

Sawyer weaves together the history of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea--together the Mano River Basin--and their two shared decades of despotism and bloody conflict. He does several things most do not: he recognizes the regional, geopolitical nature of so-called "internal wars"; he describes intimately the institutional structures that led to breakdown; and he provides a convincing direction for change.

Sawyer, a political scientist at Indiana U-Bloomington, has a slight edge over his academic peers: he was head of state in Liberia for four years. A Liberian activist for decades, he was nominated Interim President in a period that warlord Charles Taylor controlled the hinterland.

Sawyer's work also has a little more impact than the average scholar's; today he leads the nation's Governance Commission, lobbying to rewrite the Constitution to decentralize power and neutralize opportunities for future warlords.

This is a painting in Liberia's national gallery (courtesy of Scarlett Lion):

Amos is front and center, stitching together the flag torn asunder by (correct me if I'm wrong) Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor.

The book version, if you're keen, is here.

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Posted by Chris Blattman

About a half-million people were victims of killings, systematic mutilation and other atrocities during Sierra Leone' 11-year civil war

TO BE NOTED: From the Washington Post:

"Sierra Leone rebel leaders guilty of war crimes

By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 25, 2009; 5:28 PM

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- The rebels were known for asking their victims if they preferred "long sleeves" or "short sleeves." They then cut off the hands of those who chose the first option and the full arm of those that picked the second.

On Wednesday, an international court modeled after the Nuremberg tribunal convicted three top Sierra Leone rebel leaders of crimes against humanity _ the closest thing to justice in this West African nation of amputees, orphans and widows.

Revolutionary United Front leader Issa Sesay and one of his battlefield commanders Morris Kallon were found guilty on 16 of 18 counts, including mutilation, terrorism, rape, forced marriage, sexual slavery and the enlistment of child soldiers. Another commander, Augustine Gbao, was found guilty on 14 of the 18 counts.

All three had pleaded not guilty and shook their heads as the verdict was read.

About a half-million people were victims of killings, systematic mutilation and other atrocities during Sierra Leone' 11-year civil war, which ended in 2002. Illicit diamond sales fueled the conflict, dramatized by the 2006 film "Blood Diamond," starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Rebels controlled the diamond fields and used the sale of the gem to buy guns. The rebels were allegedly trained and backed by Charles Taylor, the warlord of neighboring Liberia.

For over a decade, the rebels roamed Sierra Leone's jungles, raiding villages, vying for control of the nation's diamond fields.

Amputations became their hallmark and field commanders were known by names like "Captain Two Hands" and "Dr. Blood." They used machetes, axes and knives and sat three astride their victims, who were forced to place their hands on concrete slabs or tree trunks. New conscripts _ especially children _ were given bags and told not to return until they had filled them with severed limbs.

Sesay, Kallon and Gbao are the last three rebel leaders to be convicted. The court was set up in 2003 after the end of the 11-year war that began in 1992. Five other masterminds of the conflict have already been convicted.

"The greatest significance of this is that it recognizes that the people of Sierra Leone were victims of these horrendous crimes and it holds individuals accountable," said the Special Court's chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp. "Beyond that we are also sending a message to this country, across the region and across the world that these crimes will not be tolerated."

So gruesome were the crimes committed in Sierra Leone during the civil war that a new body of law needed to be drafted in order to address them.

Prior to the establishment of the war crimes court in Freetown, mutilation _ like the systematic amputations witnessed here _ had not been considered a crime against humanity. Other new charges as a result of the horrors perpetrated here include the charge of enlisting child soldiers and sexual slavery, said Rapp.

All three charges have already been handed down during the 2007 conviction of a different set of rebel leaders.

Wednesday's trial marked the first time a perpetrator was found guilty of forced marriage, which countless women suffered when they were forced to "marry" a rebel. The women faced deep humiliation and were often not taken back into their communities, forcing some of them to stay with the men who victimized them even after the war ended.

Another first was the conviction of all three for attacking peacekeepers. U.N. peacekeepers were targeted by the rebels in 2000 and four were killed. In a technicality, although the judges agreed that the three had attacked peacekeepers, they found them not guilty of murdering them as a crime against humanity, indicating the attacks were not part of a systematic assault on peacekeepers.

In all, the special court has convicted eight rebel and government leaders _ a fraction of those who took part in the violence.

"The approach of the Special Court was to go for highest level commanders _ the ones who were the choreographers of the violence," said Corinne Dufka, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch and an expert on Sierra Leone.

In a blow to the court, the RUF's founder and longtime leader _ Foday Sankoh, known as 'Pa' to his often drugged and drunken child fighters _ died of natural causes in U.N. custody in 2003. But Dufka and Rapp say that doesn't diminish the conviction of the other eight.

"Nuremberg is of enormous historical significance _ and yet Hitler wasn't there," says Rapp.

While the verdicts Wednesday marked the end of the special tribunal in Freetown, the court still has unfinished business with Taylor, who is being tried in a special session of the Sierra Leonean court in The Hague, Netherlands, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Taylor's trial is being held outside of Freetown because of fears the case could trigger fresh violence and that he might escape from the court jail in Sierra Leone."

The mother and surviving daughter of Yerie Marah, who died in childbirth ©Amnesty International

TO BE NOTED:

"Countless women dying needlessly and in great pain

Elana Dallas has returned from Sierra Leone, where she was part of an Amnesty International team researching maternal mortality

The mother and surviving daughter of Yerie Marah, who died in childbirth ©Amnesty International

Back in the UK, trying to make sense of my photos, my notes, and all that we learned about maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. The urgency is indisputable – countless women are dying needlessly and in great pain – but is there the political will in the government and among donors to take immediate, decisive action?

Pregnant women at a maternity waiting house, northern Sierra Leone

A ward in Sierra Leone’s main maternity hospital ©Amnesty International

The village of Mannah, Koinadugu, northern Sierra Leone ©Amnesty International

Published

by

elana.dallas

on 12 February 2009

in Sierra Leone

.

"consumers in the west do have the power to limit their funds."

Caroline Sourt in the Guardian about the East Congo, and what we can do about it ( which isn't much ):

"Caroline Sourt

• 
  
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 December 2008 17.00 GMT
• Article history

As Simon Tisdall has pointed out on Comment is Free, the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo looks intractable – and there is little appetite, in Britain or elsewhere, to send more troops there. But while the fighting is not going to stop as long as militias control the region's natural resources, consumers in the west do have the power to limit their funds( GOOD ).

One of the precious metals mined in eastern Congo is coltan. It is used in many common products: mobiles, computers, digital cameras, GPS equipment, airbags, hearing aids and even pacemakers. While 80% of the world's known coltan reserves are in eastern Congo, only about 1% of the metal sold on the open market is Congolese.

The reality is that most of Congo's coltan is sold illegally and the revenue, instead of going towards the country's development, is helping to fund the ongoing violence. The coltan mines in the east are controlled by various armed groups. One of the consequences is that civilians, including children, are recruited as forced labour. The mortality rate in these mines is high.

In a UN report discussed yesterday by the security council, the Congolese and Rwandan governments are accused of backing militias to fight a "war by proxy". All the groups, including the Congolese army, are accused of human rights violations that range from massacres and torture to widespread rape of women and children. In this on-off war, it's estimated that 45,000 people die each month( 45,000 ); since August, 250,000( 250,000 ) have been displaced.

The UN's force in Congo, Monuc, has so far failed to stop the fighting, despite being the largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission in the world( COME ON ). Democratic Republic of the Congo is the size of western Europe: 17,000 troops, or even the proposed increase to 20,000-strong force, are insufficient. The EU recently refused to send in soldiers, preferring to try political negotiations. What it should be doing is to regulate the international sales of Congolese minerals more efficiently( TRUE ).

Just as blood diamonds fuelled the civil war in Sierra Leone, the illegal trade fuels the DRC conflict. As long as militias and politicians continue to make money from minerals, there is no real incentive to find a lasting peace( I SUPPOSE THAT'S TRUE ). The companies involved in buying Sierra Leone's diamonds only located their consciences when consumers started asking questions about where their gems were coming from, and profits were threatened.

A certificate systemis supposed to detail the origins of any coltan, but it is not strictly adhered to. Many companies don't ask and if they do, they settle for vague answers and fraudulent papers because Congo's coltan is abundant and much cheaper than that of rival exporters.

Now, a break. From Reuters:

"By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo hopes to set up a scheme to certify columbite-tantalite produced within its borders in 2009, the country's Deputy Mines Minister Victor Kasongo said on Tuesday.

The illegal traffic of the rare metal, used in mobile phone chips and commonly referred to as coltan, helped fuel a 1998-2003 war and resulting humanitarian crisis in the central African country that killed an estimated 5.4 million people.

But a new G8-backed and German-financed pilot initiative aimed at creating a mineral fingerprint for coltan could soon help developing countries trace ore that is illegally exported and boost their profits from legal exports.

Kasongo said he hoped a global certification process aimed at ethically-minded consumers would follow.

"All the large companies are fighting for this. They'll be able to display a certificate to prove fair trade. You'll begin seeing many machines, many iPods, that are certified," he said.

Congo plans to use the data to set up its own certification process within the next eight months, which should help the creation of a global system similar to the Kimberley Process set up to end the trade in "blood diamonds" from war zones.

"We believe that in 2009 we should be able to enforce certification ... early next year," Kasongo told Reuters in an interview. "Licences. Centralised control. Certification. More revenues to Congo. More peace and stability. Those are the things we are aiming for."

A team from Germany's Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources is due to arrive in Congo on April 2.

Researchers will map the country's coltan producing areas and isolate unique characteristics of local ore samples to create mechanisms for tracing ore to its origin.

"BLOOD COLTAN"

Congo, believed by many experts to possess the world's largest coltan reserves, was one of the principal suppliers of the ore as demand from the mobile phone and electronics industries spiked in the late 1990s.

Much of the so-called "blood coltan" originating in Congo was illegally smuggled into Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi during a five-year war that saw the plunder of its natural resources by neighbours and foreign-backed militias.

Congo's coltan-rich eastern borderlands remain a patchwork of militia-controlled zones and rebel fiefdoms, where a United Nations Security Council-commissioned report recently said illegal armed groups still buy weapons with mining revenues.

Ethical concerns and more efficient industrialised mining have now made Australia the world's leading producer and exporter of coltan.

Congo hopes the certification process will rehabilitate the image of its coltan and help to stabilise its eastern reaches.

"We'll make sure that the coltan is not linked to any military activities. We understand that once we have control of the coltan itself, we'll have some control over the stability of the area," Kasongo said."

Back to our post:

The vast majority of those who donate to charitable appeals for Congo are unaware that their Christmas present purchases are probably feeding the conflict as fast as charities can alleviate it. Asking a few more questions about the gifts we buy would force the suppliers to come clean about their origins."

It's the least that we can do.