War is a terrible experience, those who do not lived through it knows nothing.Imagine growing in a community that had about 800 people but because of war or conflict, one group killed the other and only 50 people left.Such community has now become a ghost settlement. Also Imagine when the bread of a dog is seen as better than a usual meal as it was in the concentration camp.
Any person or community that has experience any form of violent conflict do experience trauma every single time they remember the incident or if they have been away when they go back to that Area.
The video Petty Village about the killings in Bosnia during the session on Contextualzing the problem by Elizabeth Cole was not only emotional but posed a bigger challenge when we begin to contemplate discussing reconciliation and forgiveness .What kind of dialogue will you have in this situation where victims have suffer cruelty from those I know as brothers or neighbors.
How can one forgive or reconcile when the perpetrators do not acknowledges the crime and continually live in denials?How can a victim in this situation forgive and forget as many Reliigious peace actors will preach .
The process of building trust can be very complicated here .Even children who did not know how it happened but realized that trust was not there when this carnage happened to their parents or relations will continue to have anger whenever the story is told.
When Peace builders have the opportunity to work amongst these people ,elements of reconciliation to be use should includes truth telling ,Justice which can be retributive or restorative .There should also be acknowledgement,apologies,confessions,repentance and forgiveness so that the reconciliation will produce a secured settlement.
