Is reconciliation feasible for the people of Ethiopia?

By Yaadasaa Dafa

February 21, 2009 — It is through reconciliation and compromises that the differing Nations/parties (who generated the dispute) explore and overcome the pain brought on during the conflict and find ways to build trust and live cooperatively with each other in harmony. Every society has its own means/ways and manners of resolving the conflict that happen to consume considerable human and material recourses of that Nation. History had proved numerous times that no one benefits from a continued conflict. But different sorts of conflicts necessitate corresponding resolutions. Furthermore, it is a public secret to know that the current Ethiopian conflicts are designed and perpetuated by the previous generations. This could be as a result of so many factors, including that it could be “the only way they knew how” at that time to create the country known as “Ethiopia”. Therefore, the new Ethiopian generations need to find their own resolutions in conjunctions with other World Nations accepted principles to end the source of the conflict imposed by the old generation, or continue inheriting all the anger, the hate, and the animosity that keeps on crippling all the progress that the people of Ethiopia are more likely to accomplish. On the other hand, the new generation without any visionary leader may end up being the prisoner of their old generation, by prescribing to their past ancestors’ pseudo supremacy which will absolutely add fuel to their Nation’s existing conflicts making resolution of the conflict impossible, meanwhile breading abhorrence, and suspicion of each other among all the people living in Ethiopia with no end insight.

At this information age, it is not such easy task to keep the other party ignorant of the intentions for certain policies, strategies, and even back door shenanigans. Therefore, coming together so as to resolve the burning conflict in an honest manner will not only be beneficiary to the grieving side, but also the grieved party. There are many examples we can look at in understanding African conflicts resolution techniques including: ………..”Conflict resolution professionals use a number of techniques to try to foster reconciliation. By far the most famous of them is South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that held hearings into the human rights abuses during the apartheid era and held out the possibility of amnesty to people who showed genuine remorse for their actions. Since the TRC was created in 1995, as many as 20 other such commissions have been created in other countries, which experienced intense domestic strife. These projects bring people on both sides of a conflict together to explore their mutual fear and anger and, more importantly, to begin building bridges of trust between them. Despite the violence in the region since 2000, some of the most promising examples of this kind of reconciliation have occurred between Israelis and Palestinians. For more than a decade, Oases of Peace (Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salaam) have been bringing together students and teachers from both sides of the divide. Similarly, the Seeds of Peace summer camp in Otisfield, Maine (U.S.) has served as a “safe place” for Israeli and Palestinian teenagers to spend extended periods of time together. Yet others have tried more unusual strategies. At Search for Common Ground, we make soap operas with conflict resolution themes for teenagers aired on radio in Africa and on television in Macedonia. Similarly, Benetton sponsored a summer camp for teenage basketball players from the former Yugoslavia, one of many examples in which people have tried to use sports to build bridges, ironically, in part through competition. Last but by no means least, it should be obvious from the above that many people have used religion as a vehicle to help forge reconciliation. Thus, the Rev. John Dawson has made reconciliation between blacks and whites the heart of his 20-year ministry in South Central Los Angeles. Similarly, Corrymeela is an interfaith religious retreat center, which has spent the last 25 years facilitating meetings between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

There is at least one common denominator to all these approaches to reconciliation. They all are designed to lead individual men and women to change the way they think about their historical adversaries. As a result, reconciliation occurs one person at a time and is normally a long and laborious process……”Source: Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict
It is far beyond the line for dispute to envision how far this process could benefit the war torn, impoverished, and the land of prison for nations and nationalities of the North Eastern African nation, Ethiopia. Enough is enough, it time to think with a new frame of mind. Line of thought proved to be dragging the people on the old and unproductive path for the highly needed improvement of the standard of living for millions of Ethiopians, while magnifying and promoting the difference and hostility among the people need to come to end. Change of mind and soul for all Ethiopians remains in the hands of its young and vibrant generations.

The author is based in the USA. He can be reached at [email protected]