Implementation of Justice in Burundi

Justice in peace and reconciliation efforts is a classical problem. Justice is one of the components of a genuine reconciliation together with truth, mercy and peace. However, in many protracted African conflicts, the tendency of those involved in the resolution of conflict is to direct all the efforts into halting violence at all costs and, in so doing, resort to mechanisms of conflict resolution which favour negative peace instead of taking all the time needed to go deep enough, address the root-causes of the conflict and as a result attain positive peace.In this book, Delphin Nzosaba focuses on the challenges of implementing justice in protracted conflict using the case study of Burundi. The Burundi conflict, like other African conflicts, pitted neighbours against neighbours and produced trauma that is directly lived and linked to the perceived enemy and, as time went by, developed a history of animosity and stereotypes which passed from generation to generation. Nzosaba argues that building genuine peace and reconciliation demands that deep-rooted hatred and fears be addressed by taking into account the subjective perceptions and resentful sentiments.