Narratives Of Mass Atrocity: Victims And Perpetrators In The Aftermath

376 Pages·2022·4.935 MB·English

by  Sarah Federman, Ronald Niezen

NARRATIVES OF MASS ATROCITY
Individualscanassume–andbeassigned–multiplerolesthroughouta
conflict: Perpetrators can be victims and, vice versa, heroes can be
reassessedascomplicitandcompromised.However,acceptingthismore
accuraterepresentationofthenarrativizedidentitiesofviolencepresentsa
conundrumforaccountabilityandjusticemechanismspremisedonclear
roles.Thisbookconsidersthesecomplex,sometimesoverlappingroles,as
people respond to mass violence in various contexts, from international
tribunals to NGO-based social movements. Bringing the literature on
perpetrationinconversationwiththemorerecentfieldofvictimstudies,
itsuggestsanew,moreeffective,andreflexiveapproachtoengagementin
post-conflict contexts. Long-term positive peace requires understanding
the narrative dynamics within and between groups, demonstrating that
the blurring of victim–perpetrator boundaries, and acknowledging their
overlappingroles,isacrucialpartofpeacebuildingprocesses.Thistitleis
alsoavailableasOpenAccessonCambridgeCore.
  is Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution in the
JoanB.KrocSchoolofPeaceStudies attheUniversityofSanDiego,an
instructor at the Foreign Service Institute, and a Fulbright Peace and
Conflict Specialist. She is the co-editor of Introduction to Conflict
Resolution: Discourses and Dynamics (2019) and the author of Last
Train to Auschwitz: The French National Railways and the Journey to
Accountability(2021).
  is Distinguished James McGill Professor of
Anthropology and Associate Member of the Faculty of Law at McGill
University. He has researched an Islamic reform movement in West
AfricaandjusticecampaignsinindigenouscommunitiesinCanadaand
inavarietyofinternationalorganizations.Hehasheldvisitingpositions
atÅboAkademi UniversityinFinlandand theWeatherheadCenterfor
InternationalAffairsatHarvardUniversity.HismanybooksincludeThe
Origins of Indigenism (2003), Truth and Indignation (2017), and
#HumanRights(2020).

NARRATIVES OF MASS
ATROCITY
Victims and Perpetrators in the Aftermath
Edited by
SARAH FEDERMAN
UniversityofSanDiego
RONALD NIEZEN
McGillUniversity
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Names:Federman,Sarah,editor.|Niezen,Ronald,editor.
Title:Narrativesofmassatrocity:victimsandperpetratorsintheaftermath/editedby
SarahFedermanandRonaldNiezen.
Description:[NewYork]:CambridgeUniversityPress,[2022]|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2022007086(print)|LCCN2022007087(ebook)|ISBN9781009100298(paperback)|
ISBN9781009114837(paperback)|ISBN9781009110693(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Massmurder.|Massacres.|Murdervictims’families.|Violence–Social
aspects.|BISAC:LAW/International
Classification:LCCHV6515.N372022(print)|LCCHV6515(ebook)|DDC364.152/34–dc23/eng/20220525
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CONTENTS
List of Figures vii
List of Contributors viii
Preface xv
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction: Narrative in the Aftermath of Mass
Atrocity 1
    
1 Guilt, Responsibility, and the Limits of Identity 34
 
2 Victim, Perpetrator, Hero: The French National Railways’
Idealized War Identities 52
 
3 Deconstructing the Complexities of Violence: Uganda
and the Case against Dominic Ongwen 78
     
4 Rehabilitating Guerillas in Neo-Extractivist
Guatemala 113
   - 
5 The Road to Recognition: Afro-Uruguayan Activism
and the Struggle for Visibility 140
 
6 Justice in Translation: Uncle Meng and the Trials of
the Foreign 170
 
v
vi 
7 Memory and Victimhood in Post-Genocide Rwanda:
Legal, Political, and Social Realities 201
 
8 Imaging “Traitors”: The Raped Woman and Sexual Violence
during the Bangladesh War of 1971 222
 
9 Open-Source Justice: Digital Archives and the
Criminal State 247
 
10 Left Unsettled:Confessionsof Armed Revolutionaries 279
 . 
11 NegotiatingtheSymbolic:ASystematicApproachtoReconcile
Symbolic Divides 305
 .    
12 Afterword 323
 
Index 335
FIGURES
6.1 BouMengandhiswifeblindfoldedbeforethegatesofS-21 173
6.2 PaintersandsculptorsintheS-21artisanworkshop 176
6.3 BouMengattendingtheSupremeCourtChamber’sfinaldecisioninCase
001,whenDuchwassentencedtolifeimprisonment,ECCCcourtroom,
February3,2012 178
8.1 BirangonaFerdousyPriyobhashini 237
8.2 BirangonaChayaRaniDatta 240
8.3 BirangonaMorjinaKhatoon 241
vii
CONTRIBUTORS
  is a postdoctoral research and teaching fellow
with the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the
University of Toronto, Canada. He holds a law degree from Obafemi
Awolowo University, Nigeria, and a master’s degree in law from the
UniversityofManitoba,Canada.Heearnedhisdoctorateininternational
criminal law from McGill University, Canada, where his thesis critically
examined the theoretical foundations of victimhood in international
criminal law. He previously worked as a visiting professional with the
Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court where he
provided subject matter expertise in the prosecution of Dominic
Ongwen – a former child soldier – for seventy counts of crimes against
humanity and war crimes committed in northern Uganda. He has
published mainly in the fields of international criminal law, Canadian
criminal law, international peacekeeping, and human security.
   is the Distinguished Professor of
Transnational Justice and Sociolegal Studies at the University of
Toronto at the Centre for Criminology and the Centre for Diaspora
and Transnational Studies. For more than twenty years, Professor
Clarke has conducted research on issues related to legal institutions,
international legal domains, religious nationalism, and the politics of
globalization and race. She has spent her career exploring theoretical
questionsofcultureandpowerand,inthefieldoflawandanthropology,
detailing the relationship between new transnational formations and
contemporary problems. She is the author of nine books and more than
fifty peer reviewed articles and book chapters, including her 2009 publi-
cation of Fictions of Justice: The International Criminal Court and the
Challenge of Legal Pluralism in Sub-Saharan Africa (Cambridge
University Press, 2009) and Affective Justice (Duke University Press,
2019), which won the finalist prize for the American Anthropological
Association’s 2020 Elliot P. Skinner Book Award for the Association for
viii