Displacement, Decentralization and Reparations :
Justice and Development in Post-Conflict Peru
3,500 words, Spring 2008
Since the end of internal conflict in 2000, Peru has witnessed steady economic growth thanks to booming mineral prices and increased stability. The nation has reflected on the dark days of political violence, integrated humanitarian statutes into national law and sought to confront the pervasive levels of poverty that sparked the insurgency in 1980 through regional decentralization. In spite of such progress, there has to date, been little concerted effort to assist those who suffered most during the conflict and who remain the most marginalized of groups in the country, the Internally Displaced. Effective planning through the reparations process can not only restore justice, but can also have tangible benefits that contribute to the nations sustainable development.
Today, with the return of former president Fujimori, to stand trail on charges of corruption and the violations of human rights, tales of torture, rape, kidnapping, arbitrary detention and execution are again within the public consciousness. The overwhelming majority of displaced peoples (IDPs) have returned to their original point of displacement in the interior or resettled in the urban areas of Lima, Huancayo and Ica. Nonetheless, for many of those displaced during the dark days of Peru’s civil conflict such memories are as vivid as ever, affected by lingering trauma, stigmatization and poverty, and without effective mechanisms to facilitate integration within their host communities and for many the provision of basic social services.
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Assisting the Internally Displaced in Colombia:
Humanitarianism and Intrastate Conflict
10,000 words, Autumn 2006
Today, as never before, civilian populations are victims of an increasingly violent world that has witnessed the proliferation of intrastate conflict and the decline of the nation state since the end of the Cold War. Internal conflict invariably causes population movements as people are forced to flee their homes as a consequence of war. As such, the world’s internally displaced population (IDP) has risen concurrently. Today some 23,700,000 people are displaced by violence and persecution within the national borders of some 50 countries throughout the world, (IDMC 2005) the Secretary General of the United Nations concluding that globally there was a “growing problem of internally displaced persons”. (Annan, K, 200, para 209)
Sudan, Colombia and Uganda constitute the lion’s share of displacement hosting 5,355,000, (IDMC, April 2006), 3,662,842 (CODHES, May 2005) and 2,000,000 (OCHA, May 2006) IDPs respectively. The plight of these populations has been given only scant attention by national authorities and the international community, this, in spite of a recent escalation in the violence in Colombia, that has perpetuated displacement over the nation’s 40 year conflict. During 2004 alone some 290,000 people were displaced within the nation’s borders. (Global IDP Project, 2005) For combatants who only rarely confront each other directly; the forced displacement of the civilian population in serves as a means of securing military advantage, to gain access to agricultural land and natural resources, (Azam and Hoefler, 2002) Annually between 4,000 to 8,000 people die as a result of hostilities. (Norwegian Refugee Council, 2005) The plight of civilians caught up in Colombia’s increasingly violent conflict constitutes a humanitarian crisis.
In the search for a durable solution to the conflict, the Colombian government (GoC) has engaged the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerillas and the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitaries in peace talks. To date, the government has successfully demobilised 24,000 of the estimated 27,000 to 29,000 paramilitaries, (ICG, 2006) a process achieved by affording amnesty, to the detriment of human rights. Concurrently, after the failure of negotiations with the main rebel group FARC in 2002, authorities in Bogotá launched the largest military operation in Colombian history against the guerrilla group, stepping up efforts to end the conflict by military means, under a policy of ‘democratic security’. In the search for an outright military victory, President Uribe’s offensive has intensified the levels of displacement whilst furthering the militarization of the nation.
Such side effects may be reasoned as unfortunate consequences or necessary concessions along a path that will lead to the long-term establishment of internal order and a durable peace. However this assumption will nonetheless be drawn against the principles of humanitarianism, where rights remain intrinsically non-negotiable. Where does this leave the internally displaced in Colombia? In spite of undeniable obstacles; the uneasy relationship of politics and humanitarian principles; issues of state sovereignty and international responsibility; a lasting solution to the crisis of internal displacement and the wider conflict and others like it throughout the world will only be achieved through the concerted effort and action of a wide range of humanitarian, developmental and political actors that address the underlying causal factors that drive conflict. Success will be measured against the assistance rendered to those that have the greatest need, the internally displaced.
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UNHCR Beyond the Relief and Development Divide.
5,000 words, Summer 2006
We live in an increasingly violent world. The last century was the most violent humanity has experienced. Nearly three times as many people were victims of conflict in the twentieth century, than in the previous four centuries combined. The geographical pattern of conflict has evolved over this time to increasingly effect poorer nations. From the end of the Second World War to the fall of the iron curtain a third of the world’s conflict zones were found in the developing world. Between 1990 and the signing of the Lome Peace Accord that signaled the cessation of conflict in Sierra Leone in 2002, the figure has risen by more than half. Nearly 40% of all conflict today, and the most protracted, are to be found in Africa. UNDP (HDR 2005)
Although the obvious effect of conflict is loss of life, violent conflict has a wider effect upon society as a whole, hampering the ability of nations to protect and serve the needs of their citizens, effecting food systems, causing hunger and malnutrition, undermining healthcare and education. Such effects are all the more severe for nations in the global south, sidelining development gains that may have been built up over decades. External involvement, weak political and economic institutions, and a divisive social fabric, plague regions or countries from the South (though not exclusively) and are thus particularly susceptible to the instigation and proliferation of violent conflict. Nine of the ten countries ranked at the bottom of the United Nations Development Programs’ ‘Human Development Report’, suffer from the highest rates of infant and child mortality, the lowest primary enrolment and falls in life expectancy and per capita income and have experienced violent conflict over the last 15 years. Conflict, in part, is a consequence of, and means to a perpetual state of under-development. Closer association of the humanitarian relief and development fields has evolved as a consequence of extensive humanitarian relief efforts and post-conflict reconstruction assistance over the last 15 years.
Considering such realities the international community has, it is charged, responded. Understanding the linkages between underdevelopment and conflict rich nations have countered, seeking to secure regional security through the embodiment of moral responsibility. Central to this New Found Humanitarianism is the relief to development paradigm, which seeks to merge short-term relief and the long-term development process as the necessary route to a better world for all. The linking of these fields however is not without controversy. Of particular concern is how such a merger effects those organizations that are engaged in the provision of humanitarian relief. Traditionally, such endeavour is apolitical, based on the premise that aid is directed to where the need is the greatest, achieved through a commitment to the ideal of neutrality and impartiality. Development by contrast is necessarily political, seeking growth through the development of democracy and good governance. The danger, there in, is that relief agencies are forced to defer to such structures if they wish to gain access to those caught up in conflict. These issues are very much embodied in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), a useful case in point being the United Nations intervention in Sierra Leone.
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A Failure of Protection:
Refugee Camps and the Proliferation of Conflict.
5,000 words, Spring 2006
Today it is estimated that violent conflict has caused the displacement of some 25 million people throughout the world. (OCHA) In many cases as people flee violence, the ensuing refugee exoduses can actually perpetuate and expand such conflict, as refugee populations become incorporated into a wider strategy for war. For exiled military forces, civilian populations lend international legitimacy to their cause, provide human shields in case of attack, new recruits, food and medical care. Refugee camps in such circumstances serve as rear bases of operation in attacks across state borders. Support or indifference to such realities within the receiving State, or the support of an external patron, perpetuates the proliferation and escalation of conflict across borders, risking open international conflict that has the potential to envelop additional states and de-stabilize whole regions.
Despite the serious implications of militarized refugee camps for regional peace and security, humanitarian assistance and refugee protection, the topic has received relatively little consideration within international relations, beyond being viewed as one of many security issues concerning refugee flows. Weiner, M (1993) 1-35 Historically, the militarization of refugee populations has been supported as part of a wider power struggle; in the service of some perceived greater good. However, such a position is increasingly untenable today in the wake of cold-war politics, particularly when measured against circumstances in Rwanda, where the motivation serving militarization was the perpetuation of genocide. The scale of the crisis in the Great Lakes Region during the refugee emergency of 1994-6 and subsequent regional conflict that followed provides a useful framework for investigation. During the course of this discussion I will reflect upon the unresolved issue of the international protection of refugees, considering the prescription of international law and the range of actors involved when seeking to address such concerns.
Responding to this issue at an international level is one of the most pressing matters facing the international community. The general paralysis of action in Rwanda sparked the proliferation of conflict in the region. The ensuing conflict in the DRC, dubbed Africa’s World War, as it involved several foreign powers and rebel groups is estimated to have killed 3.8 million, caused the internal displacement some 3.4 million and created a refugee population of around 2 million in neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda by the time a transitional government took power in July 2003. (IRC)
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