Good neighbourliness is a virtue. The Lord our God spoke at length on many issues on this subject. The ability to co-exist with others, in peace, is very important. Conflicts are minimised when people respect each other and can amicably resolve any differences that may arise. Respect also entails the honour of and the respect for another person’s belongings, rights, dignity, landmarks and many other things.
sundayword BY PROSPER TINGINI
The issue of boundaries has generated a lot of disagreements and conflicts between people. Whether it’s boundaries of residential lands, of the fields, chieftainship, land demarcations and national boundaries; many wars have been waged because one party to the dispute decides to settle the issue by forceful means. Should the other party decide to fight back, then lives can be lost in efforts to gain or retain ownership of the desired land. The only way to avoid such conflict is to respect the existing set boundaries.
In Deuteronomy 19 verse 14, the Lord our God directed the people, via Moses; “In the inheritance which you will hold in the land that the Lord your God gives you to possess, you shall not remove your neighbour’s landmark, which the men of old set”. Greed is the cancer that drives people to covet other people’s land rights. Given an opportunity, some individuals or even nations would seek to expand the size of their land or territory by any devious means, thus creating conflict. The Lord therefore calls on people to respect the existing boundaries to encourage the spirit of good neighbourliness at all times.
Situations can also arise where an individual can commit a crime in one state, and in an effort to avoid prosecution or capture, can then flee across borders into another state. In such a case, countries requiring the capture and return of the offender may demand that the country in which the offender has sought refuge should then take necessary measures to ensure his capture and repatriation. It is against international law for the pursuing nation to cross into another nation’s border to effect an arrest. For such things to happen, there has to be a special agreement between the two states. Nowadays this kind of agreement is called an extradition treaty. It allows the capture and return of criminals between member states. In the absence of such a treaty, the rights of the criminal to escape prosecution are upheld. Such situations have generated a lot of conflicts between neighboring states. At times some nations have taken it upon themselves to forcefully and unlawfully cross the boundaries of other states to seek the criminal’s capture, many times causing unnecessary wars. Within a state’s boundaries, criminals can flee from one area to another to avoid capture and prosecution. They are only safe if they manage to stay hidden, as they are exposed and liable to capture at any time. It is common knowledge that some nations have even sent their armies across borders into other states for the purpose of overthrowing legitimately elected governments. There should be a respect for other nations too.
The Lord our God does not condone criminals, neither does He want to protect them if they are guilty. However, there is a class of people who unintentionally commit acts viewed as crimes, due to some exterminating circumstances or by accident. The actions of such people are innocent yet to others they would be labelled as criminals deserving appropriate punishment irrespective of the circumstances. God requires that such people should be provided with safe havens where they can flee to in order to escape retribution by the offended victims or the relatives.
In Deuteronomy 19 verse 4-7, the Lord directed Moses to say to the people, “This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbour unintentionally without having been at enmity with him in the past, as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbour to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbour so that he dies — he may flee to one of these cities (safe havens) and save his life; lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and wound him mortally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he was not at enmity with his neighbour in the time past”.
Some accidents may cause death. In every accident there is an innocent party to that accident. Any death arising is therefore not to be blamed on the innocent party. However, the relatives of the dead victims might be aggrieved at the loss of life of their kin. In anger, they might take action to seek to avenge the death of their kin, even though the other person who was part to the accident is innocent. The Lord our God seeks to protect the life of the innocent victim whose life could be in danger from the people seeking retribution. He therefore calls on the authorities of nations to provide safe havens for such “victims”. He calls these places “The Cities of Refuge”.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Nowadays some states do provide such victims with false new identities and even facelifts as a means of protection in special cases. Other individuals can voluntarily go into exile into foreign lands, thus cutting themselves away from their families completely. If such safe havens can be provided within a state, it would limit people’s anguish to the minimum since they would be in closer proximity to their own families. It is therefore a responsibility of any state to provide such places of refuge. However, when such people enter or are provided with such havens, they should not be pursued. The borders of such havens should, at all times, also be respected.
Prosper Tingini is a religious writer. He compiled a book titled, God’s Constitution For Mankind: The laws and commandments. His contact details are: 0771 260 195 or email: [email protected]
