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Accountability and Reintegration of Child Soldiers via Baraza

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Child Soldiers and Restorative Justice

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Abstract

The task of reintegrating former child soldiers can involve enormous challenges in a context where justice and security are endangered by ongoing conflict. The dual identity of child soldiers as victims and as perpetrators means that they need to both be adequately held accountable and reintegrated into society. Two main approaches have evolved to assist ex-combatants account for their alleged involvement in atrocities and be reinserted into the community, namely transitional justice mechanisms (truth and reconciliation commissions and special/hybrid criminal courts/tribunals) and traditionally-based approaches.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Personal interview with the President of the Provincial Baraza, Goma, 15 December 2014.

  2. 2.

    Personal interview with Ngandu, Goma, 7 June 2014. Mr. Ngandu was one of the main informants who had good knowledge of various Baraza activities in North Kivu. He participated in this inquiry in his capacity a Baraza Official or elder.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    Personal interview with Mzee Lega, Goma, 19 June 2014.

  5. 5.

    Ibid.

  6. 6.

    Personal interview with the President of the Provincial Baraza, Goma, 15 November 2014.

  7. 7.

    Gen. Laurent Nkunda was an Official of the DRC forces and the leader of the Tutsi-dominated rebel group known as the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a Tutsi-dominated armed group that operated in the district of Masisi and Rutshuru in North Kivu before being put under house arrest in Rwanda in January 2009.

  8. 8.

    Focus groups with Self-demobilised Child soldiers of Rwandan descent, Masisi Centre, 10 June 2014

  9. 9.

    Personal interview, Ngandu, Goma, 7 June 2014.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Ibid.

  12. 12.

    Personal interview with Mzee S., Goma, 20 June 2014.

  13. 13.

    Ibid.

  14. 14.

    Personal interview with Mr Ngandu, a member of the local Baraza from Walikale, Goma, 7 June 2014.

  15. 15.

    Ibid.

  16. 16.

    Raia Motomboki, from the Kiswahili language means Community uprising, is one of the Mai-Mai group found in Walikale District. The

  17. 17.

    Kimbirikiti is a spiritual figure used in rituals among the Barega people. He embodies ancestral spirits and plays the role of instilling ancestral norms in initiation to manhood, marital life, adulthood, jobs, and hunting. He operates in conjunction with the spirits of the ancestors, and also a traditional healer whose enjoys ancestral power. He educates children under 15 years not to becomes fighters. He reprimands society for unruly behaviour or violations of ancestral norms. In the Baraza context, he is the character who could prevent recruiters from enlisting children.

  18. 18.

    Personal interview with Mr Gilba, Goma, 15 May 2014.

  19. 19.

    Personal interview with Ngandu, Goma, 7 June 2014.

  20. 20.

    Personal interview with Patient, Leander of CTO in Rutshuru, Nyahanga, 26 May 2014.

  21. 21.

    Personal interview with Gilba, Goma, 15 May 2014.

  22. 22.

    Personal interview with JPK Lot, a senior member of the BWI, Kitchanga, 7 December 2014. He is a survivor of the Kitchanga massacre during which all his family was killed and his house burnt. He miraculously escaped with his wounds and a broken hand. He has committed himself to non-violent conflict resolution in the region.

  23. 23.

    Personal interview with JPK Lot, Kitchanga, 7 December 2014.

  24. 24.

    Explanation of the conflict from the perspective of a senior members of the provincial Baraza . Personal interview with JPK Lot, Kitchanga, 7 December 2014.

  25. 25.

    Personal interview with a local traditional leader in Kitchanga, 8 December 2014. He also remarked that local people don’t have sufficient power to convince militia commanders not to recruit children. Local leaders can only try to negotiate that militias do not recruit children nor attack communities. He also expressed the view that they have limited power over militiamen of their own ethnic group. He suggested that the Government should initiate frank talks and respond to the rebels’ demands so that there could be peace. Traditional leaders may assist in that process

  26. 26.

    Personal interview with GB, Goma, 13 June 2014.

  27. 27.

    Personal interview with Mzee Lega, Goma, 19 June 2014.

  28. 28.

    Ibid.

  29. 29.

    Focus groups with teachers and ex-combatant learners in Mutiri village (10 June 2014); interview with Ngandu, Goma, 7 June 2014; Personal interview, Alpha Delta, Rutshuru, 26 May 2014.

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  1. International Centre of Nonviolence, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa

    Jean Chrysostome K. Kiyala

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Kiyala, J.C.K. (2019). Accountability and Reintegration of Child Soldiers via Baraza. In: Child Soldiers and Restorative Justice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90071-1_11

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