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TRAUMA, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION

TRAUMA, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION. LESSONS FROM RWANDA AND EX-YUGOSLAVIA. WE ARE FORCED TO LIVE TOGETHER..BECAUSE OF THAT WE ARE ALL PRETENDING TO BE NICE AND LOVE EACH OTHER.BUT IT IS KNOWN THAT IHATE THEM AND THEY HATE ME. IT WILL BE THAT FOREVER. MOSTAR RESIDENT, 2001.

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TRAUMA, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION

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  1. TRAUMA, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION LESSONS FROM RWANDA AND EX-YUGOSLAVIA

  2. WE ARE FORCED TO LIVE TOGETHER..BECAUSE OF THAT WE ARE ALL PRETENDING TO BE NICE AND LOVE EACH OTHER.BUT IT IS KNOWN THAT IHATE THEM AND THEY HATE ME. IT WILL BE THAT FOREVER. MOSTAR RESIDENT, 2001

  3. I DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS WORD “RECONCILIATION”. I CAN’T RECONCILE WITH PEOPLE, EVEN IF THEY ARE IN PRISON…IF A PERSON COMES TO ASK MY FORGIVENESS, I WILL PARDON HIM AFTER HE HAS RESUSCITATED THE MEMBERS OF MY FAMILY THAT HE KILLED. GENOCIDE SURVIVOR, RWANDA, 2002

  4. WHAT IS JUSTICE?

  5. ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT TRIALS • UNCOVERING AND PUBLICIZING TRUTH • PUNISHING PERPETRATORS • RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF VICTIMS • PROMOTING RULE OF LAW • PROMOTING RECONCILIATION • “HEALING” INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETIES

  6. RECONCILIATION • WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO REPAIR A COMMUNITY? • DO PEOPLE SEEK JUSTICE AND IF SO, WHAT FORMS DOES IT TAKE? • DO TRIALS EQUAL JUSTICE? • HOW IS TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE RELATED TO RECONCILIATION?

  7. Instead of Prozac - we can substitute “Trials”

  8. ResearchMethods • Surveys • Balkans: 1,600 people surveyed twice 12-24 months apart • Rwanda: 2,100 people • Key Informant Interviews • Focus Groups • Ethnographic Studies

  9. Research Question How do societies torn apart by war, genocide, and ethnic cleansing pursue justice and, at the same time rebuild their divided communities?

  10. Study Sites1999 - 2003 • Former Yugoslavia • Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina • Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina • Vukovar, Croatia • Refugee Settlements, Serbia and Montenegro • Rwanda Varied exposure to genocide • Ngoma (Butare Town) • Mabanza • Buyoga • Mutura

  11. Bosnian Judges and Prosecutors1999-2000 32 participants with primary or appellate jurisdiction for national war crimes trials Bosniak, Croat and Serb Areas In-depth semi-structured interviews

  12. KEY FINDINGS • WAR EXPERIENCES OF PARTICPANTS, SELF-IDENTIFICATION WITH A PARTICULAR NATIONAL GROUP AND EXPOSURE TO DOMINANT NARRATIVES ABOUT THE ROLE OF THEIR GROUP PROFOUNDLY INFLUENCES ATTITUDES TOWARDS TRIALS • THE CLAIM OF VICTIMHOOD OVERRIDES • THOSE WHO ACCEPT INTERNATIONAL CORROBORATION OF ATROCITIES MORE LIKELY TO DEMAND INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

  13. BELIEVE ME THAT I AM TELLING YOU WHAT I FEEL BECAUSE I WAS HERE DURING THE WAR AND I SURVIVED WITH MY FAMILY..AND I AM TELLING YOU NOW AS A HUMAN THAT PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE, ACCOUNTABLE AND GUILTY FOR ALL THOSE CRIMES SHOULD BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THOSE CRIMES BECAUSE PEOPLE NEED THAT. WHEN SOMEONE WANTS TO FORGIVE SOMEBODY, HE’LL DO IT WITHOUT A COURT…IF WE ARE HUMAN, WE DON’T NEED A COURT. PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE TRIBUNAL. BUT IT IS THE ONLY LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. WITHOUT IT, THERE WOULD BE NO JUSTICE AND THIS WOULD BE THE FINAL BETRAYAL.

  14. Community Effects of Trials • Social and political effects • Reification of perpetrators • Collective innocence • Protection of bystanders and beneficiaries • Hardening of nationalist (ethnic or other in-group perspectives)

  15. Setting up an international court was a way of punishing the perpetrators of such crimes and at the same time hopefully establishing a culture of law. However, because the court was inherently foreign to the very society that it was supposed to be helping, international justice has forfeited any impact on Rwandan society. By so doing, it has failed to achieve both its social and educational functions. International Crisis Group ICTR: Justice Delayed, 2001

  16. DEFINING TRAUMAAT POPULATION LEVEL • IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA, A VALIDATED SCALE WEIGHTED FOR EXPOSURE AND INTENSITY • IN RWANDA, THE PCL (C) SCALE

  17. DEFINING RECONCILIATION • COMMUNITY • INTERDEPENDENCE • SOCIAL JUSTICE • COMMITMENT TO NON-VIOLENCE

  18. PTSD SYMPTOMS IN RWANDA WE MEASURED SYMPTOMS OF PTSD AND EXPOSURE TO SEVEN TYPES OF EVENTS 24.8% OF SAMPLE SHOWED SYMPTOMS PREDICTORS OF THE SYMPTOMS WERE AGE AND GENDER TRAUMATIC EXPOSURE PROXIMITY TO CONFLICT ETHNICITY AND ETHNIC DISTANCE

  19. ATTITUDES TO TRIALS IN RWANDA • 87 % OF RESPONDENTS POORLY OR NOT INFORMED • ABOUT ICTR • 52% OF INFORMED SAY IT FUNCTIONS WELL • 54% SAY IT CONTRIBUTES TO RECONCILIATION • 29% SAY ICTR WILL CONTRIBUTE SIGNFICANTLY TO • RECONCILIATION VS 74% WHO SAY RWANDAN TRIALS WILL • HUTU MORE POSITVE ABOUT ICTR • MUCH MORE SUPPORT FOR GACACA

  20. TRAUMA, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION • IN BALKANS • NO DIRECT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN • EXPERIENCE OF TRAUMA AND DESIRE FOR TRIALS • FOR THOSE TRAUMATIZED, PRIOR • NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE WITH “THE OTHER” • LEADS TO RESISTANCE TO RECONCILIATION • FOR THOSE WITH PRIOR POSITIVE EXPERIENCES • WITH “THE OTHER” AND A WILLINGNESS TO • ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEIR GROUP COMMITTED WAR • CRIMES, THERE IS A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRIALS • AND RECONCILIATION

  21. TRAUMA. JUSTICE, AND RECONCILIATION • IN RWANDA PTSD SYMPTOMS INFLUENCE ATTITUDES TO CERTAIN TYPES OF TRIALS AND TO SOME MEASURES OF RECONCILATION E.G. BELIEF IN COMMUNITY AND INTERPDEPENDENCE TRAUMA EXPOSURE SIMILARLY INFLUENCES ATTITUDES TO CERTAIN TYPES OF TRIALS AND TO INTERDEPENDENCE, COMMUNITY AND WILLINGNESS TO USE VIOLENCE

  22. CONCLUSIONS NO DIRECT LINK BETWEEN CRIMINAL TRIALS AND RECONCILIATION 2. FOR SURVIVORS, THE IDEA OF “JUSTICE” IS MUCH MORE BROADLY DEFINED THAN TRIALS 3. NO DIRECT LINK BETWEEN TRAUMA EXPOSURE AND DESIRE FOR TRIALS 4. SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION IS A SLOW PROCESS THAT OCCURS AT MULTIPLE LEVELS. 5. SOCIAL JUSTICE (ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING) IS CRITICAL TO SOCIAL REPAIR

  23. Trials and Public Awareness Education of the population about what trials can do Education of the public about the events that are revealed in the trial record Countering the process of collective innocence Education of the young about the history that led to genocide or ethnic cleansing Truth commissions

  24. ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF RESPONSE TO SOCIAL BREAKDOWN Social Breakdown Breakdown of institutions (legal, political, educational, social, economic) Evidence Collection Exhumations Testimony Crime scene investigation State-level Interventions Restoration of political, legal, economic, social institutions, refugee returns Legal Interventions Criminal trials (international and domestic) Community Interventions Education, reparations to communities, memorials, economic, development, restitution of cultural property, conflict resolution State-level Alternatives To Legal Intervention Truth Commissions Community-Generated Responses Exhumations of mass graves Identification processes Rituals of community mourning Social Reconstruction Justice Democracy Prosperity Reconciliation Psychosocial Interventions Individual/Family

  25. COMPONENTS OF SOCIALRECONSTRUCTION • SECURITY • FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT • RULE OF LAW • ACCESS TO ACCURATE (UNBIASED) INFORM,ATION • JUSTICE • EDUCATION • ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT • CROSS-ETHNIC ENGAGEMENT

  26. COLLECTIVE GUILT, COLLECTIVE INNOCENCE AND THE LIMITATIONS OF TRIALS

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