Africa: Post-conflict Stabilisation

Lord Bishop of Gloucester Excerpts

Thursday 8th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Gloucester]

My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey, for initiating this debate, and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, on his energising maiden speech.

In March last year, I visited the Mtabila refugee camp in the Kasulu district of north-west Tanzania. The visit was part of a wider visit to Tanzania, to learn about the needs of the Anglican diocese of Western Tanganyika on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, with which my diocese of Gloucester is partnered. I mention this because it is worth remembering that, in the post-colonial era when relations between this country and former colonies can, at an official civil level, sometimes be strained, partnerships that have been developed by the churches often provide a fruitful place of dialogue and relationship-building.

As noble Lords will know, there have been two waves of refugees from Burundi into Tanzania and other east African countries over the past 40 years, and nearly 500,000 have been repatriated in the past eight years. When I visited the Mtabila camp, it was the last remaining camp hosting Burundian refugees in Tanzania. The people we met there—many noble Lords will recognise this as a typically African phenomenon—greeted us with laughter, exuberance, singing and dancing, yet spoke with deep sincerity of their grief and sadness. Their grief was not an uncomplicated sadness at being deprived of their homeland. All the children who rushed to greet us had never known life in Burundi, and the fact that the way was opening for them to return to the homeland they had never known was not necessarily good news. The refugee ends up not knowing where he or she belongs.

I do not have the figures on the Mtabila camp, but in relation to two settlements of Burundian refugees in camps in Rukwa and Tabora in Tanzania, I know that in 2008, faced with the choice of returning home or applying for Tanzanian citizenship, 165,000, which is 75 per cent, decided to stay and apply for Tanzanian citizenship, while 55,000—only 25 per cent—opted to return to Burundi. I share this with noble Lords because it is important to recognise that post-conflict stabilisation does not relate only to countries where there has been conflict and destabilisation. Tanzania has been an extraordinarily stable country through the post-colonial era. That it remains such a poor one, despite peace and stability, is a great sadness. We need to honour countries that have played host to refugees and we need to understand the huge challenge to them of the fact that vast numbers of refugees wish to settle in their adopted homes and to become citizens of their adopted countries. We also need to retain our compassion for those who, after years of exile, have no real sense of who they are and where they belong.

I return to the potential of churches and faith communities for peace-building and reconciliation in countries where there has been conflict. The response of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Division, of which I am a vice-chair, to the 2009 White Paper from the Department for International Development, noted that in many situations of armed conflict where the institutions of government have failed or are failing, churches and faith communities often represent the only coherent and effective means of service delivery nationwide. They represent a durable and reliable presence, which illustrates that they are intrinsically part of the community. They remain embedded in areas affected by conflict and crisis long after others have left. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, up to 60 per cent of healthcare is provided by the church, yet the role of the church as a service provider in the DRC hardly warranted a mention in the relevant DfID strategy papers. A greater appreciation by the department of how religious networks operate in conflict situations could see fundamentally different ways of delivering assistance in fragile and conflict-affected countries. At present, this is crucial in the Sudan, where the Anglican and Catholic churches are able to play a key role because of their networks in both north and south.

The difficulty is that there will often be a tendency to marginalise the contribution of churches and other faith communities for the undeniable reason that religion is sometimes the cause of the conflict. In some instances it really is the source: in others, an oversimplistic understanding has portrayed it as the source. Sometimes humility and repentance are required of religious people for their part in creating dreadful conflicts; but it is equally important that government, and all those working for stabilisation and engaged in state-building, do not overlook the role of religion as a force for reconciliation.

More than any other civil society actor, churches and faith communities provide global networks linking north and south, and local to international, that may be mobilised for social justice and advocacy. Churches and faith communities have a visible and living presence among the poor, the marginalised and the most vulnerable in society. Whether it be Zimbabwe with its repression, Sudan with its conflict or Tanzania with its poverty, it is this rootedness in the local community that gives the faith communities the right and the opportunity to challenge injustice and to work for the restoration of human dignity and flourishing where this has been lost.