ABSTRACT
Accounts of human conflict, violence and the quest for survival are never far away in the era of the 24-hour news cycle. At any moment we are drawn in to witness these struggles. As one part of the motive for violence, ethnic difference and subsequent hatred fuel a vast number of conflict situations. Conflicts, many historically motivated, erupt over disputed territories; land, sea and resource rights; political and ideological discord. Seen operating in public are tensions that seep into the private realms of personal lives, making their presence felt within familial environments, homes and villages, townships and local communities. We see ethnic conflict and violence occurring in the context of the state, across international borders, at the regional and local level and most intimately in the hearts of those who suffer abuses.
