'Why amnesty must not fail'

The Nation
27 December 2010

'Why amnesty must not fail

Elias Couson, a United States-based expert in peace and conflict resolution, has given reasons why the amnesty programme of the Federal Government should not fail...

He said: "The amnesty programme was a hurried amnesty. There were no preparations. But for me, even if there were no preparations, after one year we should have worked something out. After one year there should have been a policy framework towards getting a true and just amnesty...

 He said: "There are three basic fundamental reforms in every post-conflict situation. One is economic, two is military and three is political. These basic fundamental reforms are necessary for a lasting peace and justiceable solution in every post-conflict region. In these three, what is going on is a partial implementation of the military reform because even within the military reform there are three components: demobilisation, disarmament and rehabilitation of supposed militants. When you disarm them, you rehabilitate them into the society and that is what the present government is doing. But there is a second wing of that military reform, which is that you train the conventional military on how to deal with civil populace, conflict environment and post-conflict trauma. Now, the government is not doing that and that is dangerous because they have the mentality that repression is the only solution. That is the military mentality. So what the government ought to do is not only to train the militants but also training the conventional military on how to deal with the civil populace, on how to deal with people who are agitating for justice. That is very important. So what we are seeing in Nigeria is just a partial implementation of the military reform.