The International
Center on Nonviolent
Conflict, of which I'm a part, convened a panel during the IACC on the nexus of
corruption and violence. Authoritarian regimes aren't the only systems in which
people can live under extreme repression. In post-conflict states, often
fledgling democracies, citizens are often subjected to violence perpetrated by paramilitary
groups, gangs, narco-cartels, organized crime, insurgents, and state security
forces, enduring the tyranny of multiple "authoritarian" forces.
Endemic corruption functions as an enabler of violent groups, which engage in illicit activities
to make money and acquire weapons, or a by-product of their efforts to capture
local and national state institutions and security forces such as the police.
Violent insurgents use poverty and injustice to justify their actions which
only sustains the cycle of violence.
But are people powerless in such situations? Two
on-the-ground activists reported on their efforts to break this cycle. Claudia
Samayoa, Co-founder of the Unit of Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala, presented two cases of innovative grass roots campaigns engaging in civil
resistance to break up the corruption-violence nexus, resist violent
repression, and foster social and economic development.
Dressed in traditional local dress, Kingsley Bangwell, Founder
of Youngstars Foundation International and an Ashoka Fellow,
spoke passionately about the role of youth in fighting corruption and
"restiveness" in the Niger-Delta. He offered many ideas of how to engage youth
in the fight against the insurgent groups multiplying in the Niger-Delta.
