“To reach Reconciliation, one must start by recognizing the common ground between the parties and working outward; instead of starting with the differences and working inward.  It is from this mindset that Forgiveness and Tolerance are born.”thus we can go further in maintainance of cooperation.

Some Terminologies to help us define Cooperation & Reconcillation:

• Reconciliation: the restoration of friendly relations:

Reconciliation can also mean the re-establishment of civil relations after a conflict. If you and your friend got into an argument over what to do Friday night, you’d need to have a reconciliation before you go hang out.

 

• Rapprochement: is the reestablishment of a happy relationship or arrangement. A peace treaty between warring nations is a kind of rapprochement.

 

People who usually get along sometimes come into conflict: formerly allied nations go to war, friends feud, and spouses divorce. If a conflict ends and the parties go back to being on good terms, they achieve rapprochement. This term is most often used in international politics — for example, when two countries make peace after a long war, that’s rapprochement.

 

• Cooperation: When you practice cooperation you are working together on a job or project. Cooperation can sometimes be hard to come by, which is why when someone does a lot of it, it’s nice to say thank you.

 

• Confrontation with history.

Confronting history and coming to terms with the truth is an essential component of any reconciliation effort. The re-examination of historical narratives and the re-evaluation of national myths—on both sides of a conflict—

are valuable contributions to such an effort. Here again, however, we take the view that it is

unrealistic to aim for the establishment of a single, objective truth and that one has to

accept the need to negotiate the historical truth to a certain degree.

 

 

Why then Conflicts among Eritrean Political groups and when is the need for a reconciling their differences:

 

Our diversity is not the reason why we have more than 30 political groups who cannot even sit and agree on a common strategy to proceed with our struggle against the Dictator for the last 23 solid years.History does not repeat itself, but repeated mistakes have been hindering our unity and lack of  solidarity that has given ample time for the Dictator to destroy the country, of which we have paid our dearest souls.

 

What went wrong then  all the way since the start of the armed struggle? Is that because we were not able to have a common strategy and the means to bring our people together or is that we lack the decission to make things work the way forward.

 

What kind of legacy are we leaving behind? Could it be that we miss, the mechanism of practical negotiations.

 

Negotiations to solve the differences:

 

Negotiating Agreement without Giving In, contrast two different bargaining concepts, positional negotiation and principled negotiation.

POSITIONAL NEGOTIATION

a. Positional negotiation is essentially adversarial. The negotiators see the process as “win-lose,” in which any gains by the opponent are losses by the home team. When neither side yields on the issue, a strike ensues and persists until some agreement is reached or one side collapses under the cost of the strike. There are definite winners and losers in this type of negotiation.

 

b.PRINCIPLED NEGOTIATION REQUIREMENTS

Principled negotiation has a great deal in common with the process of Consensus Team Decision Making.

First of all there are four conditions which are essential if a principled negotiation is to have a successful outcome.

Mutual trust.

A positive relationship.

Shared interests (goals or objectives).

Satisfactory zone(environment) of possible agreement.

Principled Negotiation Requirements

People: Separate the people from the problem

Interests: Focus on interests, not positions

Options: Generate several before deciding what to do

 

The way Forward

 

How to proceed with dismantling the PFDJ’s destructive policy is the most difficult process  confronting us, but we need to seriously consider our past strategies and if they were not enough,we might even ask ourselves why?

The longest struggle for Eritrean Independence was a good example to avoid differences that we still encounter today,  if and only we decide to the right plan and strategy towards solving the acute situation in the country by any available means at hand.

 

One thing we should not entertain with is, the situation of the thousands of Eritrean youth,who are forcibly leaving their home and families, that  can be a sign to the destruction of the basics of our society, that is very hard to solve in the near future, unless we mobilize ourselves and keep the  cooperation and unity to win the hearts & minds of our fellow Eritreans inside the country, so that we can continue with the struggle for democracy and rule of law.

 

 

Cooperatative activities

 

It can, however, help increase openness to the search for political solutions and it can play an important role in peacebuilding in the wake of a political solution. “By establishing crosscutting ties, common interests, and personal relations,” cooperative activities “can help stabilize and cement a new peaceful relationship and create commitments, habits, and expectations”  conducive to reconciliation (Kelman, 1999a, p. 201).

 

There is at least one common denominator to all these approaches to reconciliation. They all are designed to lead individual men and women to change the way they think about their historical adversaries. As a result, reconciliation occurs one person at a time and is normally a long and laborious process.(by A Cuccia).

 

CONCLUSSION:

 

Do we need to reconcile with those individuals, who are close to the Dictator?

Reconcillation with those working together with the regime and who have committed a lot of human right abuses, is possible through war crimes prosecutions, truth commissions, purges of perpetrators, reparations, and memorials, transitional justice practices work under the assumptions that truth telling leads to reconciliation, prosecutions bring closure, and justice prevents the recurrence of violence;

however , when local responses to transitional justice destabilize these assumptions, the result can be a troubling disconnection between international norms and survivors’ priorities.

 

T.Yitbarek