Progress and Pitfalls of “Peace-Building”

in Afghanistan continues .....

Future sources of conflict can be removed by enhancing civil societies

abilities’ to resolve conflicts. Despite differences among elites at the

national level, communal groups have served as vehicles for non-violent

expression of different interests and values.

The media can be used for reconciliation by exposing diverse views instead of dividing groups. Popular culture (music, drama, sports) have being revived in the post-Taleban period as a measure to

achieve some degree of social cohesion.

The activities of the women’s groups also occupy high value, given

their status of being frequent victims of ethnic conflict and civil war.

Empowering people derives from restoring cultural norms and achieving

the well-being of those who were victimized by violence. In contrast to

development and democratisation, reconciliation programmes tend to be

very small and attract less funding in official peace-building projects.

Reconciliation cannot be expected to be a project yielding immediate

results because years or decades may be needed to rebuild broken social

relationships that resulted in genocides, mass killings and repression.

(a) Media Reconstruction: Particularly for the communities that are

conflict-ridden and are in their reconstruction phase, the development of

an independent, pluralistic and responsible media, it is believed, is critical to fostering long-term peace and stability. Media are explored as models to

envision, to design, to formalize and to implement progressive plans of

the community. However, in the process, media tends to be criticized by

skeptics who mistrust the media, because they are accustomed to

platforms that are controlled either by the state or by political groups

looking to further their political agenda. It is generally believed that the

creation of a robust media culture would allow citizens to begin holding

their government accountable for its actions and ensuring itsommitment to democracy. Media can be used for reconciliation by exposing diverse views instead of dividing ethnic groups and to this end, attempts have to be made to avoid partisan coverage with a multi-ethnic approach to report social tensions.

To be continued....