Conflict is an inevitable part of our daily lives, resulting from complex and often litigious society. In urban area like Kigali, where people struggle for the fulfilment of their basic interests conflicts are likely to erupt. Effective alternative are highly needed to deal with conflicts. This study was designed to seek how to establish a conflict resolution and mediation centre in Kigali with the aim of contributing to the search of peaceful and durable solutions to conflicts occurring between individual and community members in Kigali. The study examined the nature, causes, extent and consequences of conflicts in Kigali and the ways to deal with them. The research approach taken in this study was qualitative relying on structured interview, reviewing literature and documentary analysis around the subject. The researcher spent one month in Rwanda and got opportunity to engage a sample of participants to get their views. Twenty participants were selected in Kigali city and a ‘purposive sampling’ was adopted when recruiting them. Through interviews, participants responded to the objectives of the study. Informal discussions were also conducted with key informants to assess the relevance and the contribution of a conflict resolution and mediation centre. The findings revealed that there are a growing number of conflicts in Kigali with the pressures of urban expansion, their consequences are severe and their extent is considerable. The study showed a strong support of the initiative to establish a conflict resolution and mediation centre as way of handling conflicts in constructive manner. Finally the study suggested a variety of recommendations towards the Rwandan governments, to NGOs and Churches, globally requesting them to invest in the field of conflict resolution and especially to support the setting up of a conflict resolution centre as an office that can play a role of settling conflicts peacefully and effectively. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management Sciences: Public Management, specialising in Peacebuilding, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Post-conflict countries have a range of needs of interventions in the reconstruction efforts. These efforts require immediate, medium and long term interventions. DDR process require the immediate restoration of security which requires demobilization in the both the regular army and armed groups. Demobilized combatants need to be economically and socially re-integrated in their local communities. Therefore governments through demobilization commissions or programmes ensure that ex-combatant is re-integrated as matter of governments’ responsibility. In the specific case of this research, former members of armed groups from DRC and former RDF soldiers all members of an Agricultural cooperative based in Jabana (Kigali City) have been participants to this research which is by nature an action research project aiming most importantly on participation outputs oriented to learning. Before this project, economic, political, social and psychological dimensions among the ex-combatants were frustrating. However, after this project, the following were discovered: Economically, the approaches that have been used allowed ex-combatants to learn basic and necessary skills of creative entrepreneurship while working in corporate setting. Socially, this research discovered that the nature of research requires working in group settings in addition to personal and collective participation toward the attainment of the project’s objectives. Working in group settings is the social cohesion that originates from sharing common goals, interests, successes and failures if any. In addition, group members became best friends among themselves and relied on each other in time of need. At psychological level, ex-combatants have gained self-confidence, self-trust, and removal of past negative clichés that they used to hold against each other. Finally, in the implementation of this research, aspects of peace-building, together with unity and reconciliation and peace-building in its broad term has been witnessed from its outset to the concluding phase of the research. Recommendations were devised; some are formulated towards ex-combatants at individual level and others for RDRP. / D

This study is an evaluation of the Rwandan unity and reconciliation process and was undertaken to assess whether it possesses the potential for building sustainable peace in the country. The study used an analytical method to measure the key activities of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, the national body that oversees the efforts aimed at promoting unity and reconciliation among Rwandans. Before properly analysing the process, the study outlined a number of conditions that are necessary for true reconciliation and sustainable peace to be achieved. The analysis allowed a comparison of these conditions to the context in which the unity and reconciliation process is being conducted in Rwanda. This required the exploration of the entire situation at political, economic and social levels. Particular attention has been paid to the situation after the 1994 genocide to examine developments from then until to the present. It became evident during the study that decisive structural changes have been undertaken to prepare a supportive environment for unity, reconciliation and peace. Appropriate structures' reform occurs in the domains of good governance, economic planning and justice. It also became evident, however, that some important obstacles to unity and peace persist, specifically poverty, reluctance to cooperate with 'Gacaca' traditional courts, corruption and opportunistic political leaders. Appropriate measures have to be taken in addressing these issues for sustainable peace to be a new way of life for all Rwandans. Generally, the study showed that the process of unity and reconciliation in Rwanda has the potential to succeed since high governing leaders are engaged to restore unity and reconciliation in the country. Political will, the study revea led, is an essential ingredient for sustainable peace. The study also listed a number of encouraging results of the process and proposed some measures to strengthen unity, reconciliation and peace. / Thesis (M. Com.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Thesis (MA) -- Stellenbosch University, 2006. / Includes bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The nature of conflict in Africa has changed from the Cold War to the post-cold War era. This is evident in the internal and external factors and actors involved within the conflict dynamics. During the Cold War era politics and the quest for control of the state formed the basis for conflicts in Africa, from anti-colonial wars of independence and liberation struggles to secessionist attempts. In the post-Cold War era with the loss of external superpower support, this has changed with the growing significance of identity politics, and conflicts based on the differences of ethnicity, religion and the quest for the control of resources and land, characterised by extreme violence and the rise of actors other than the state, within failed and collapsed states. These conflicts have thus presented challenges to the United Nations (UN) in relation to its traditional means of maintaining international peace and security, and the internal dynamics of the decision-making processes, political will and accompanying resources and financial factors within the organisation. The challenges faced by the UN in Africa therefore lie not only within the nature of conflict and the nature of the African state but also within the internal constraints inherent within the organisation itself. The conflicts in Mozambique and Rwanda respectively represent how the nature of conflict has changed in Africa from the Cold War to the post-Cold War era and both illustrate the challenges the UN has faced in light of the changing nature of African conflict. While Mozambique offers an example of a typical Cold War conflict, based on the quest for control of the state and exacerbated by superpower support, Rwanda represents an example of a typical post-Cold War internal conflict based on identity politics and extreme violence manifest as genocide. By comparing and contrasting these two conflicts, and the subsequent involvement of UN peace maintenance operations in these conflicts, this thesis offers a comparative study of "old" and "new" wars in Africa in order that a better understanding of the nature of conflict in Africa can be reached and to illustrate the challenges faced by the UN in light of this changing nature of conflict. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die aard van konflik in Afrika het vanaf die tydperk van die Koue Oorlog tot die na-Koue Oorlog tydperk aansienlik verander. Dit is in die innerlike en uiterlike faktore en akteurs wat by die konflik betrokke is waarneembaar. Gedurende die Koue Oorlog tydperk was interstaatlike konflik 'n hoofkenmerk. Dit was ook die fase van antikoloniale oorloë wat dikwels met eksterne steun geveg is. In die na-Koue Oorlog tydperk met die verlies van uiterlike supermoondheid ondersteuning, het interne konflik binne swak state dikwels oor die beheer van skaars hulpbronne, of oor identiteit en griewe gegaan. Die konflik het uitdagings aan die Verenigde Nasies (VN) gestel wie se vredesregime kwalik vir rebelle en kindersoldate voorsiening gemaak het. Dit het ook eise gestel aan die politieke wilskrag van lede van die Veiligheidsraad om in dergelike konflikte betrokke te raak. Die uitdaging vir die VN in Afrika lê dus nie net in die aard van konflik en die aard van die staat in Afrika wat verander het nie, maar ook in nuwe eise vir vrede. Die twee gevallestudies van die konflik in Mosambiek en Rwanda demonstreer hoe hierdie aard van konflik verander het, en hoe moeilik dit is om vrede te maak waar akteurs (rolspelers) kwalik binne konvensionele raamwerke hanteer kan word. Waar Mosambiek 'n voorbeeld van 'n tipiese Koue Oorlogse konflik was - stryd vir die beheer oor die staat en aangevuur deur supermoonhede, is Ruanda weer 'n meer eietydse voorbeeld van 'n tipiese na-Koue Oorlogse interne konflik, gebaseer op identiteitspolitiek wat met ekstreme geweld en volksmoord gepaard gegaan het. Hierdie tesis bied 'n vergelykende studie van sulke "ou" en "nuwe" oorloë in Afrika en bied moontlik 'n beter begrip van die aard en oplossing van sulke konflikte wat by uitstek nuwe uitdagings aan die tradisionele opvattings van die VN stel.