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Mr Emmanuel Bombande of the West African Network for Peace, in a recent interview on UNIIQ FM, said something which must arouse all well-meaning Ghanaians to rise up from any stupor, whether imposed or self-inflicted, and charge our government to act decisively to resolve the Bawku conflict. In his forthrightness, Mr Bombande noted that those who continue in the brazen impunity in the use of firearms in the fratricidal killings without any fear of arrest or prosecution are not only daring and challenging the security personnel in the area, but that they are threatening the national capacity for law and order to guarantee the safety and security of the citizens. Thus, if indeed, politics feeds into the escalation of the conflict, then the politicians are encouraging some deviants and bestials to undermine our collective resolve to deal with criminals. And the deviants appear to be winning. Indeed, that a team from the Regional Security Council, led by the Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, had to take cover to escape being fired at, is not only dangerous, but also pathetic and pitiable. At a recent workshop organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), one of the resource persons, Mr K. B. Quantson, a former National Security Advisor and Director of the Bureau of National Investigations, noted that justice and fairness must prevail to stem conflict, otherwise it would never end, noting that �those who attempt to resolve conflict without understanding or knowledge escalate rather than resolve matters�. Mr Quantson further noted that the efforts required to deal decisively with conflicts depended on whether the parties involved were committed to peace or want the conflict to escalate into violence, and stressed that insensitivity and impunity could fuel the conflict, reminding all that in the case of Bawku and Dagbon, such tendencies had been manifested while the law enforcement agencies appeared to be biased. Moreover, he noted that it seemed the criminal justice system was either suspect or unwilling to act, especially where ethnic, political and other interests had diabolically joined and there was plain partiality. He warned that �although force can protect in an emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and co-operation would give man peace�. In another presentation, Dr Lydia Apori Nkansah, a lecturer at Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, noted that politics in its true essence must reflect �the wise, sagacious and prudent pursuit of policy for the public interest�, and noted that �politicians who use politics to pursue their selfish interests are pretenders to the public good�. She noted further that the true politician had to work for the good of the people and that it was only the petty politicians who sowed the seeds of confusion. The Bawku conflict has persisted because we have failed to demonstrate the political will to genuinely promote peace and reconciliation. For as long as we remain partisan, whether on the basis of political or ethnic considerations, we fail to appreciate the trauma that innocent victims, particularly women and children endure. What happens to women and children born out of marriages between Kusasis and Mamprusis. Do they carry out the killings or stand and stare as their brothers are butchered and mauled. The fact is that between the ethnic groups, there have been so many inter-marriages that the ethnicity moves forwards and backwards. All this while, we have taken the easiest option, imposition of an unending curfew and stationing of security personnel. We have not counted the loss of the freedom of the majority of the people who do not want the conflict to continue, but are victims of the minority predisposed to bestiality. More important, the psychology of frustrated peacekeepers may not have been costed. Anytime that known suspects are allowed the freedom to continue their impunity, whether due to political or ethnic patronage, the resolve of the security personnel is battered and mauled. When that happens, they visit their frustration on innocent others within their reach, whenever the opportunity comes their way. We need to demonstrate meaningfully and unequivocally that our security mechanism is beyond reproach and superior to any individual or gangsters. We must do it as it manifests in Hollywood films on encounters with the American establishment. In such films, let the heroes do whatever they want to do and employ all the tricks at their disposal, but in the end, the arms of the state, the law will catch up with them, dead or alive. There is thus no possibility of a criminal or fugitive against the interest of the state escaping the appropriate justice. In dealing with such matters, we should not be sentimental. There is a need for all of us to be level-headed, rather than generating uncanny passion, because if we do not react purposively and in a mature manner, there would be no justice and resolution of the problem. We are in a modern world, not under feudalism, but mutual respect is crucial if we want to come to an understanding of the human relations involved. The reprisal killings may be assuaging phantoms, not reality, because no matter how many Kusasis or Mamprusis are killed, that cannot atone for any of the lives lost on both sides. As Dr Martin Luther King notes and germane to our situation, "Violence never solves problems. It only creates new and more complicated ones. If we succumb to the temptation of using violence in our struggle for justice, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos�, and further that �the way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But the way of non-violence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community�.