GENERAL PUBLIC RESPONSE TO CONFLICT

 The
general public are able to response to conflict by speaking about it with the people around them, petitioning
their government, or taking to the streets to demand that attention be given to
a conflict. They may also donate money to humanitarian aid appeals. 

Those who
feel even more strongly may even organise themselves on a more permanent basis,
forming NGOs (this will be dealt with below). For the general public, however,
before speaking of their response to conflict, it is important to gauge their awareness
of foreign conflict, i.e., do they even know that the conflict exists? Simply
maintaining the existence of a conflict in one’s mind and recognising its
relative importance is perhaps the first response that the general public can
offer when responding to distant conflict.

General Public Response to  the Conflicts

Awareness of African conflicts among the general public in the West
appears to be very low. On the whole, opinion polls conducted by Western
companies rarely mention the continent at all, which is a statement in itself.
Domestic issues dominate the public opinion polls conducted by the
Pew Research Centre, and the majority of polls that do deal with foreign issues
cover Iraq and terrorism, with some on crises in Iran, North Korea, Israel and
Lebanon. January 2002 was the last time a poll included African conflicts
(Somalia and Sudan) in its title, and this was regarding the use of American
force in the world. Pew polls such as ‘What the World Thinks in 2002’ and
‘Views of a Changing World’ ask Africans what they think about political changes
in Eastern Europe, American policies and ideas, and suicide bombing (Pew). 

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p style=”line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 7.2pt; margin-right: 7.2pt; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 7.2pt; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;”>Surveys by World Public Opinion ask Congolese and Zimbabweans whether they
think US troops should be withdrawn from Iraq and whether removing Saddam
Hussein was the right thing to do or not (World Public Opinion). But polls do
not ask what those in the West think about conflict in the DRC,
Angola or elsewhere in Africa, with the rare exception of possible intervention
in Darfur.

A small
survey conducted of 37 university students taking a course on war and peace in
Australia found that the majority thought that the conflict in Israel-Palestine
was most in need of resolution. Nine thought that that conflict was the
deadliest in the world (the most common response). Only one could name the DRC
as the deadliest conflict in the world, and 13 could not even name a single
African conflict. Even in Africa, consciousness appears to be skewed’ When
interviewed on BBC radio in 2004, an Angolan writer/poet, when asked what
situation in the world concerned him most, responded that it was Palestine,
because it had great problems that were ignored by the world.

 Recent Western
interventions in Kosovo and Iraq sparked anti-war protests and petitions.
Large-scale protest and petitions for action in conflict situations that do not
directly affect one’s own country are few and far between. Recent
demonstrations in the West calling for action in Darfur are rare exceptions.
There has not been significant public awareness on the Great Lakes region since
the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in eastern Zaire in 1996. 

The general
public can also show its response to conflict through donations to aid
organisations. The following table shows private donations made through OCHA to
^–a number of recent
emergencies. The greatest emergencies (in terms of humanitarian need) are in
Africa, yet they are the least funded.

Private contributions to OCHA appeals: Jan 1999 – Jun 2003 (millions of
US dollars)

Source: OCHA Financial TrackingService