Making government impunity and criminals
Peace meetings were used by the hakuma to explicitly criminalise those who supported MABIORDIT and other violence not sanctioned by government. This ignored the reality that many young men had been mobilised to arms by members of the hakuma, instead seeking to punish only those who implemented the violence. The lack of accountability for government violence and its seemingly arbitrary nature was affirmed in peace meetings and used to assert the hakuma’s divine-like authority. For example, in 2018 in Gogrial East County, a soldier in the county for disarmament, had apparently raped a 14-year-old girl. The chief organised the detention of the soldier and proposed to try the soldier in the chiefs’ court to cool the situation. However, the army commander then came and released him. This was discussed at the Ajiep Peace Conference but the army general did not commit to any accountability.