Longest Civil War Research Articles

Myanmar’s Non-State Armed Groups and the Prospects for Peace?

Myanmar has suffered the world’s longest civil war, with continuous combat since shortly before the country’s independence from the UK in 1948. A new National Ceasefire Agreement has raised hopes that peace may finally be in sight. However, optimism should be tempered by a recognition the peace process has not built much trust, reduced the number of non-state armed groups in the country, their total size, or significantly improved their human rights behavior. This is demonstrated through an analysis of original data on the major non-state armed groups active in Myanmar between 1985 and 2017. Peace will require hard political work leading to disarmament, restraining the military, and reassuring the country’s ethnic minority groups that their rights and interests will be respected even without the threat of insurgent violence.

An Overview of the DDR Process Established in the Aftermath of the Revised Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC: Finally on the Right Track?

Abstract The revised peace agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC, officially approved by the Congress on 30 November 2016, covers several crucial issues, including the destiny of the FARC rebels in the aftermath of the world’s longest civil war. The establishment of an effective DDR process is an essential step to ensure that FARC's members will meaningfully transition into civilian life and it represents one of the most controversial aspects amongst those addressed during the four years peace negotiations that led to the signature of the current deal. The present article, after providing an overview of the essential features of DDR programmes and the context-specific factors that can either facilitate or hamper their implementation, will first look at Colombia’s past attempts to reintegrate former FARC combatants and then it will discuss the DDR process outlined in the peace deal under implementation, arguing that, in comparison to the previous efforts and at least on paper, it satisfies many of the key requirements for success, in primis being part of a comprehensive transitional justice process.

Nation-building and Nationalism in Myanmar: The Post-2008 Situation and Prospects for the Future

Myanmar is home to dozens of ethnic groups, languages, and political factions. This diversity coupled with racially and religiously defined political ideologies, has helped to fuel one of the world’s longest civil wars, spanning over half a century. This article explores the nation-building strategies pursued by successive governments since independence and their effects on the current political situation. It then focuses on the 2008 constitution, the return to democracy in 2010, and the transition to a civilian government following the 2015 election, and explores whether significant progress has been made to move the country out of civil war and into ethnically and politically inclusive democracy.

South Sudan: stakeholders’ views of technical and vocational education and training and a framework for action

The Republic of South Sudan, recently emerging from the longest civil war in contemporary African history, has set goals towards post-conflict reconstruction in many areas of social services. However, the educational infrastructure continues to struggle, and many stakeholders in government and international and local organisations are not sufficiently aware of the needs, challenges and opportunities that face the implementation of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the country. Preparing future generations of youth and adults with in-demand technical skills and retraining ex-combatants to enter a peacetime workforce is essential to the development and growth of South Sudan. As a first step towards creating the foundation necessary for post-conflict training, we collected and analysed qualitative data from focus groups, in-depth interviews, field observations, and archival documents and identified three interrelated elements that require attention for the effective development of TVET: political climate, curriculum and delivery options. The resulting findings offer a starting point for addressing some of the key constraining factors for the important job of TVET development in South Sudan.

Assessing the quality of care in a new nation: South Sudan's first national health facility assessment.

We adapted a rapid quality of care monitoring method to a fragile state with two aims: to assess the delivery of child health services in South Sudan at the time of independence and to strengthen local capacity to perform regular rapid health facility assessments. Using a two-stage lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) design, we conducted a national cross-sectional survey among 156 randomly selected health facilities in 10 states. In each of these facilities, we obtained information on a range of access, input, process and performance indicators during structured interviews and observations. Quality of care was poor with all states failing to achieve the 80% target for 14 of 19 indicators. For example, only 12% of facilities were classified as acceptable for their adequate utilisation by the population for sick-child consultations, 16% for staffing, 3% for having infection control supplies available and 0% for having all child care guidelines. Health worker performance was categorised as acceptable in only 6% of cases related to sick-child assessments, 38% related to medical treatment for the given diagnosis and 33% related to patient counselling on how to administer the prescribed drugs. Best performance was recorded for availability of in-service training and supervision, for seven and ten states, respectively. Despite ongoing instability, the Ministry of Health developed capacity to use LQAS for measuring quality of care nationally and state-by-state, which will support efficient and equitable resource allocation. Overall, our data revealed a desperate need for improving the quality of care in all states.

The Violence after “La Violencia”

Arguably the longest civil war in modern Latin American history took place in Guatemala from 1960–1996, a period known as “La Violencia” (“The Violence”). The United Nations successfully intervened to halt the genocide of indigenous peoples resulting from the blatantly racist politics of the national government in a prolonged series of brokered negotiations. Unfortunately, the index of violence in Guatemala has returned to levels similar to those of the worst years of the civil war. While today's violence is no longer officially mandated, the consequences remain basically the same. Guatemalan indigenous peoples and those of primarily indigenous descent, especially women, are bearing the brunt of the violence after “The Violence”.

The Abyei Award: Fitting a Diplomatic Square Peg into a Legal Round Hole

AbstractOn 22 July 2009 a Tribunal of five leading international lawyers rendered their award at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), thereby redrawing the boundaries of Abyei, a small patch of land in the centre of Sudan and source of violent conflict throughout recent years. The arbitration was initiated by the two signatories of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that in 2005 brought an end to the longest civil war in Africa. Both parties, the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, expressed satisfaction with the award, which conceivably saved the CPA from potential collapse. This article examines the legal oddities which accompanied the settlement of the dispute over the Abyei area. It analyses both the referral of the dispute to the PCA through the lens of the Sudanese Constitution and the legal ambiguities of the award itself.

Forgiveness as a Solution to the Northern Uganda Civil War: Opportunities and Challenges

In Northern Uganda, a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony has been fighting the government since the mid-1980s in what has become Africa's longest civil war. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people have died in the civil war while others have had their lips, ears or limbs cut off and thousands of children have been abducted as fighters, laborers, and concubines. This violence, in turn, produced more than 1.8 million Internally Displaced Peoples Camps, throughout Northern Uganda. Many Northerners blame the Ugandan government for forcing them into inhumane camps and for failing to protect them from the marauding LRA.Militaristic attempts by the Government to defeat the rebels has proved futile, as a result, the Government has resorted to peace talks as an alternative solution to the civil war. The Northerners see the peace talks as the only hope and lasting solution to peace in Northern Uganda. The question that remains is; what will be done to the perpetuators of these crimes when the peace talks finally bear fruits? Legal means such as trying the perpetuators in the courts of law has been considered with the Government recently setting up a special division in the high court to try the rebels. Non legal means such as forgiveness has also been considered as a way of dealing with the rebels. The Acholi and other Northern tribes of Uganda do have a longstanding tradition of resolving intra-tribal disputes through apology, negotiation, compensation, and forgiveness. The Acholi people have used mato put - blood atonement - for centuries. They believe that killing a person makes you unstable. By ceremonially cleansing his soul, the former soldier would exorcise the evil spirits.This paper seeks to analyze what is considered to be the cause of the civil war in northern Uganda. It argues that a solution to the civil war cannot be found unless the cause of the civil war is first taken into account.The paper will define and discuss the nature of forgiveness and evaluate the significance of forgiveness as the solution to the long standing civil war in Northern Uganda. The paper argues that the tribal ways of resolving disputes through forgiveness are alive and well, and can serve as a firm foundation for peace. The Acholi tribal chiefs will be able to devise an effective system for mass reconciliation through traditional methods.\The paper also argues that a rule of traditional justice such as the Acholi mato oput, has its weaknesses in that once the case has been addressed through the traditional process, the matter is put to rest and it is forbidden to speak of it again. This is argued that it would significantly hamper any other approach to justice and reconciliation and may inculcate the spirit of revenge in the victims of the civil war against their perpetuators.The paper also discusses the challenges to the option of forgiveness as a means of healing the wounds of the civil war and concludes by making recommendations that can be put in place while applying forgiveness to solve the long standing civil war.

The need to improve the living conditions of women in Nuba Mountains, Southern Kordofan

ABSTRACT The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) not only ended Africa's longest civil war, it aimed to transform Sudanese society. A critical element of this transformation is uplifting the status of women. This article surveys the conditions faced by women in two villages in Nuba Mountains/Southern Kordofan, principally their ability to access land for farming, credit facilities and barriers to education and health services, and whether the implementation of the CPA has resulted in any concrete changes.

The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War

The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War

The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War (review)

For generations the so-called legend of the "Free State of Jones" has circulated throughout Mississippi and, to a lesser extent, beyond the borders of the state. Anti-Confederate elements within this piney-woods county in south Mississippi, so the story goes, actually seceded from the Confederacy and established a small independent republic. As previous historians have discovered, the story is entirely apocryphal. In actuality a band of Confederate deserters led by Newton Knight formed a company in the fall of 1863 that subsequently gained control over much of this predominately nonslaveholding county and engaged in a number of skirmishes with Confederate cavalry units over a period of more than a year. The Knight Company was pretty well decimated during what the author term's an "infamous" Confederate raid into the county in April 1864 led by Col. Robert Lowery, later a two-term governor of Mississippi (115). By the time the skirmishing ended, ten of the Jones County deserters had [End Page 72] been hanged, and most of the remainder had either fled to the swamps, returned to the Confederate army, or joined the Union army in New Orleans.

The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War

The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War

Victoria E. Bynum. <italic>The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War</italic>. (The Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2001. Pp. xvi, 316. $29.95

Victoria E. Bynum. <italic>The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War</italic>. (The Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2001. Pp. xvi, 316. $29.95

Reviews of Books:The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War Victoria E. Bynum

Reviews of Books:The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War Victoria E. Bynum

The free state of Jones: Mississippi's longest civil war

The true story and long legacy of a famous anti-Confederate uprising; Between late 1863 and mid-1864, an armed band of Confederate deserters battled Confederate cavalry in the Piney Woods region of Jones County, Mississippi. Calling themselves the Knight Company after their captain, Newton Knight, they set up headquarters in the swamps of the Leaf River, where, legend has it, they declared the Free State of Jones. The story of the Jones County rebellion is well known among Mississippians and even inspired a novel, Tap Roots, which was made into a Hollywood movie in the 1940s. The debate over whether the county actually seceded from the state during the war continues to smolder. Adding further controversy to the legend is the story of Newt Knight's interracial romance with his wartime accomplice, Rachel, a slave. From their relationship there developed a mixed-race community that endured long after the Civil War had ended, and the ambiguous racial identity of their descendants confounded the rules of segregated Mississippi well into the twentieth century. Victoria Bynum traces the origins and legacy of the Jones County uprising from the American Revolution to the modern civil rights movement. In bridging the gap between the legendary and the real Free State of Jones, she shows how the legend - what was told, what was embellished, and what was left out - reveals a great deal about the South's transition from slavery to segregation; the racial, gender, and class politics of the period; and the contingent nature of history and memory.

G. NORMAN ANDERSON, Sudan in Crisis: The Failure of Democracy (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999). Pp. 294. $49.95 cloth.

If you have ever wondered why the U.S. government has a hands-off approach in its foreign policy toward the African country of Sudan, C. Norman Anderson's Sudan in Crisis will explain this phenomenon. Admittedly, the United States suddenly and unexpectedly torpedoed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, only last year. This event, however, has been the most notable in a decade of increasing disengagement from this country, which today boasts Africa's longest civil war.