Reconciliation Focus Group Week

this week the group has split up by interest to focus on certain elements of society. Predictably, I took the reconciliation focus group. It has so far been an interesting time in which we discuss the meaning of reconciliation and how it can be paired with other initiatives like amnesty and truth commissions.  We have talked about the evolution of justice since WWII and the Neuremberg Trials to the UN declaring 2009 as an international year of reconciliation.  

Today we went on a fieldtrip to a place where a 'massacre' took place, 11 people were killed.  the fighting in this region on SA was based on political parties but the 'third force' was the government secretly stoking the fire of these conflicts.  we went to the place of the massacre and building that was in the midst of unfinished construction in honor of those who died. It was interesting and confusing and showed how complex reconciliation really is, anyway I have to go home now.

have a good one, 

Adina