Truth and reconciliation in neighbouring countries |16 December 2016
Following two previous articles published in the media recently on this subject readers have asked me to write about how our neighbouring countries have dealt with their truth and reconciliation process.
Out for the 51 countries researched I have chosen Mauritius, Uganda, and Kenya, because of space limitation, to give your readers more information.
It is to be noted that a Truth and Reconciliation process has been used by nearly all countries which have experienced atrocities either during a coup d’état or civil war and the period that followed, as a way of putting the event into their history book. Such a process is intended to bring about social repair and acknowledgement but most importantly to bring closure to the victims whether the perpetrators are punished or not. Most of the time the perpetrators are high ranking government officials or presidents who have influence over the judiciary and they get away with murder literally. Some of them have had the nerve to establish a Truth and Reconciliation process, before they were thrown out of office, so that they could be exonerated from their acts of cruelty to their fellow human beings, as we will see from the examples below.
MAURITIUS – an independent body was set up in 2009 to explore the impact of slavery and indentured servitude (bondage of workers to a landowner) and dispossession of land on behalf of the decedents. It was unique in that it attempted to cover a period of 370 years. It dealt with socio-economic class abuses of the African slaves, Indian immigrant workers and French colonisers, centred at the time around sugar cane plantations. The slaves were brutally treated and a barrier between “Creoleness” and “Indianness” developed. The Indians brought with them their “caste system” prevalent even today in modern day India and that created more problems of equality with the lowest caste being called “untouchables”. Some of the “supervisors” on the plantations managed to acquire some land and they are today in the echelons of the Mauritian society.
There is no mention of mass killings and deportations and Prime Minister Ramgoolam argued that slavery and bondage no longer exist in Mauritius today. However he said the psychological impact still needs to be dealt with because the forcible removal of thousands of people from Africa, Madagascar and Asia is the darkest and most shameful pages in the Mauritian history. He said he hoped the reconciliation process will pave the way to social justice and national unity. To this day many of the recommendations have yet to be acted upon and Afro-Malagasy descendants continue to live in poverty while the plantation class live in comfort as land owners. The process spanned two years during which 400 cases were analysed and 230 hearings were held. A report was submitted on November 25, 2001 and according to Parmaseeven Veerapen, one of the Commissioners, the process is a failure because the recommendations have yet to be implemented.
UGANDA – gained independence from Britain in 1962 and hundreds and thousands of people lost their lives under military dictatorship of Idi Amin between 1971 to 1979 and under the government of Milton Obote from 1980 to 1985. Then came Yoweri Museveni in 1986 who set up a Commission of Enquiry (CIVHR) to investigate human rights abuses committed under Idi Amin and Wilton Oboite. This Commission was under the direct control of the judiciary but kept running out of funds even though the Ford Foundation donated US $90,000 and assistance came from the European Union. No one knows where the money went. The Commission travelled widely across Uganda collecting evidence of torture, rape, disappearances and murder covering a period of 30 years. They discovered 33 mass graves and two army tanks, that took part in Amin’s killing activities lined up along the road at Luwero Triangle region of Uganda as a stark reminder of the past. Amin’s brutality was legendary, he ordered his henchmen to carry out unspeakable atrocities including rituals on dead bodies, disembowelling their organs and Amin was accused of cannibalism and “kakwa” blood rituals on his slain enemies.
The Commission produced a 720-page Final Report which was not widely distributed but a copy can be found in the Uganda Human Rights Office. The report revealed some people had to drink their own urine because they were not given any water to drink. The process was not intended to heal the nation just to find the truth and record the atrocities including mass graves. The report also revealed Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA army seized boys to be soldiers and girls to be his wives. Amin expelled thousands of Asians from Uganda, some have returned while others have built a new life in other countries. He said the Asians were taking over Uganda and he created an Amnesty Commission to hide the atrocities of his henchmen.
The work of the Truth Commission (CIVHR) was hampered by the Ministry of Justice, the Solicitor General, the Attorney General, the Criminal Investigation Department and the Director of Public Prosecutors and very few people were prosecuted. Hence the Truth Commission is deemed a failure. Social capital has not been achieved and the various tribes remain divided. The horrors described in the report remain unattended and copies of the evidence collected lie in a dusty and bug-ridden closet in an unused building in the Makerere University. Members of the Commission have been given high raking jobs such as Members of Parliament, Ministers, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, inter alia, where they are not allowed to discuss the contents of the evidence.
KENYA – is a very long and complicated story and I will try to keep it short. Kenya’s history of violence spans five eras as follows: 1895 to 1963 – British Colonial Era: 1963 to 1978 – Jomo Kenyatta’s Era: 1978 to 2002 – Daniel Arap Moi’s Era: 2002 to 2008 - Mwai Kibaki’s Era and 2013 to date – Uhuru Kenyatta’s Era. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya (TJRC) was set up in 2008. The Coup D’état took place in 1982 and the post-election violence of 2007 shocked the world when it was reported approximately 1,500 deaths, 3,000 rapes and 300,000 people were displaced. The most horrific episode occurred between December 27, 2007 and February 28, 2008.
Kenya has experienced 40 years of conflicts due to its complicated ethnic composition. The Kikuyu with 22% of the population, the Kalenjin with 12% of the population and the rest of the 66% are made up of other tribes. It is said the British who came in 1895 are to be blamed for a great deal of the conflicts. The British are accused of massacres, torture, arbitrary detention and sexual violence when it forced its authority on the Kenyan people. The Mau Mau tribe, under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta challenged their authority and the British retaliated with violence and took away 2 million hectares of rich agricultural land from the local inhabitants and the displacement has caused the long lasting disputes to this day, in Kenya.
To cut a long story short, on December 12, 1963 Kenya gained independence from Britain and Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, was elected President and Daniel Moi, a Kalenjin became the vice-president. Kenyans believed they had been freed and a new nation had been born. This was only a dream. Jomo Kenyatta’s people started to harass, intimidate, detain and assassinate anyone who opposed their regime and many Kenyans fled to neighbouring counties while a war known as the “Shifta War” broke out in Northern Kenya where serous atrocities have been documented. When Jomo Kenyatta died on August 22, 1978 Moi took over the Presidency and human rights abuse continued unabated this time on the Kikuyu tribe. In 1992 pressure from outside brought multi-party politics to Kenya. Moi had control over the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), he appointed members of the Electoral Commission, he exercised intimidation and victimisation over his opposition counterparts and during the 1988 elections losers were declared winners and his KANU party retained power. Then in 1991 his followers attacked other non-Kalenjin and non-Maasai ethnic groups with spears, arrow, pangas (long knife), swords and clubs.
The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) documented clashes between the Kalenjin on one side and the Kikuyu and Kissi tribe on the other side which began in 1992. The Kalenjin became the overwhelming members of the KANU party which Moi was the President and also the President of Kenya. Naturally Moi won the following 1997 elections during which time the Kalenjin turned on the Kikuyu and 34 Kikuyus and 48 Kalenjins are documented killed. Then came the 2007 elections when excessive violence and crimes against humanity were committed mainly in the slums of Nairobi, the capital, but also in many provinces, because Mwai Kibaki of the opposition Party of National Unity (PNU) was declared the winner. Police shot demonstrators in front of the attending media cameras and the killing of 30 unarmed civilians in a church near Eldoret on New Year’s Eve sparked off a global condemnation of human abuses in Kenya. Kofi Anan, the ex-United Nations Secretary General was instrumental in getting the two warring factions of Kibaki and Odinga to sign a peace accord which ended the conflict.
International Criminal Court (ICC) involvement
On March 15, 2005 Kenya ratified the Statute of the International Criminal Court. This gave the ICC jurisdiction over the crimes of genocide committed in Kenya as from an agreed date of July 2002. In February 2008 the Kenyan Government created another Commission called the Commission of Enquiry on Post Election Violence (CIPEV) locally known as the “Waki Commission”. This was an international Commission and it created a special Tribunal of international and national judges which gave its findings to the ICC. In February 2009 the Kenyan Parliament voted against funding this Commission and the case was passed to the ICC together with the names of the people who committed violence. The ICC approved the trial of six prominent names responsible for crimes against humanity.
In August 2009 Hilary Clinton visited Kenya and criticised the use of local courts to trial crimes against humanity because the local courts were so corrupted. Kenya had so many Commissions in progress and none produced any substantial results. On December 15, 2010 well before he was elected President by a marginal 50.07% votes, Uhuru Kenyatta was named as a suspect to crimes against humanity for his involvement in the violence that occurred in Naivasha and Nakuru region during and after the 2007 elections. He has since been trying to convince the African Union to pull out of the ICC Treaty citing that ICC is “picking” on African countries. Yet everyone knows that apart from South America, Africa has had the most number of Coup D’état in the world. It cannot be therefore that the ICC is “picking” on African counties. Furthermore Uhuru is claiming that now he is a President he cannot be tried for his involvement in crimes against humanity.
Contributed by:
Barry Laine FCIM, FInst SMM, MCMI, MBSCH
Seychelles Truth Reconciliation and Peace Platform
P O Box 133, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles
Web site – www.seychellestruthreconciliation.sc
Emails – info@seychellestruthreconciliation.sc