Contributions Towards the Resolution of Conflict Guyana

From 1955 onwards, when the anti-colonial movement split into competing ethnic sections, conflict between African and Indian Guyanese has held Guyana in a deadlock that has undermined all attempts at social and economic development. At its height exploding into civil war in the 1960s, the constant state of tension has led to rigged elections, authoritarian government, economic collapse and driven hundreds of thousands of Guyanese to emigrate. Even in the present, when for the first time for decades, free and fair elections can be held, winning and losing further divides the nation. Judaman Seecoomar's book offers an analysis of how Guyana has arrived at this impasse and suggests a process that could lead out of it. The book looks to the developing practice of conflict resolution through strategies of collaborative problem solving. It argues that such a process would offer Guyana the means of finding constitutional and institutional arrangements acceptable to all ethnic groups. It provides both an account of the theoretical frameworks for such an approach and case studies of conflict resolution in action in Northern Ireland and in the Oslo talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
It documents the initial attempts by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to broker talks between the main Guyanese political parties. In a world where internal conflict in multi-ethnic states is the major source of regional instability, this is a timely book.