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ABSTRACT
This contribution suggests how to identify and deal with ex-combatants in (un)peaceful post-war environments from a methodological perspective. While it is obvious that large-N studies or standardized interviews fall too short to depict post-war dynamics and related conflict risks, ethnographic methods face numerous challenges, too. First, the identification of and access to former combatants may prove to be difficult. Often being stigmatized or perceived as outlaws they may not wish to get in touch with ‘outsiders’, like academics. Second, researchers need to be careful not to worsen the status of ex-combatants and at the same time make sure to maintain a trustful relationship with the rest of the community. Moreover, certain ethics apply when addressing sensitive war or contemporary issues (e.g. land grabs), even more, if there is a lack of amnesty. I aim at critically discussing questions of trust, legitimacy, networks, the necessity of ‘going local’, as well as logistics that can exacerbate dealing with ex-combatants or even pose a threat to researchers. Before concluding, I briefly delineate dilemmas related to the researcher’s role and her responsibility for field assistants. The article largely draws on my extensive ethnographic fieldwork experience in Cambodia and ethnographic literature on (post-)war settings.
Acknowledgements
Helpful comments and assistance from the two anonymous reviewers and the editor are gratefully acknowledged. Moreover, the author is particularly grateful to her Cambodian research assistant. Special thanks go to her interlocutors for their hospitality and willingness to share insights as well as to her local friends and numerous supporters who largely contributed to make this research possible. All shortcomings remain author’s own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
About the author
Anne Hennings is a visiting researcher at the Heinrich Boell Foundation Cambodia and a research fellow at the University of Muenster. She researches social movements and contentious politics in post-war societies with special emphasis on land conflicts. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Cambodia and Sierra Leone, Anne explores respective repercussions on conflict transformation and the risks of (renewed) insurgencies. Anne is co-founder and speaker of the working group ‘Nature, Resources, Conflict' and editor of the www.resources-and-conflict.org blog.
Notes
1 Ex-combatants include former rebels, militia, or paramilitary members among others. That said, I am aware that in some cases it may be difficult to distinguish them.
2 Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research”; Brun, “‘I Love My Soldier’”.
3 Mazurana and Gale, “Preparing for Research in Active Conflict Zones”.
4 Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research,” 373.
5 Anderson, Do No Harm.
6 Millar, An Ethnographic Approach to Peacebuilding.
7 Ibid., 61.
8 Wolford et al., “Governing Global Land Deals”; White et al., “The New Enclosures”.
9 Hall et al., “Resistance, Acquiescence or Incorporation?”.
10 Elhawary and Pantuliano, “Land Issues in Post-conflict Return and Recovery”.
11 Edwards, “Counterinsurgency as a Cultural System”.
12 Kubik, “Ethnography of Politics,” 44.
13 Schatz, “Ethnographic Immersion and the Study of Politics,” 11.
14 Kubik, “Ethnography of Politics”; Blee and Currier, “How Local Social Movement Groups Handle”.
15 Marcus, Ethnography Through Thick and Thin, 85.
16 Clarke, “Research for Empowerment in a Divided Cambodia,” 93.
17 However, other warring factions including Vietnam likewise used that strategy. Gottesman, After the Khmer Rouge, 157.
18 However, fighting continued in some places on a smaller scale until the early 2000s.
19 Ibid., 92.
20 Simon Springer, Cambodia's Neoliberal Order, 50.
21 Frings, “Cambodia after Decollectivization 1989–92,” 61.
22 Sedara, “Reciprocity,” 153–4, 168.
23 Baliga and Chheng, “UN Envoy Says Paris Peace Accords”.
24 See also Beban and Schoenberger, “They Turn Us into Criminals”; Brun, “‘I Love My Soldier’,” 13 on creating save spaces in Sri Lanka.
25 However, the ECCC later refused to recognize the Royal Decree that granted high-ranking cadres amnesty, as its scope excluded serious international crimes allegedly committed during the 1970s. See Ciorciari and Heindel, “Experiments in International Criminal Justice,” 388.
26 Hughes et al., “Local Leaders and Big Business in Three Communes,” 254.
27 Most Khmer Rouge soldiers could opt between a small plot of land, educational training, or money.
28 Marten, Enforcing the Peace.
29 Mani, Beyond Retribution, 123.
30 Menzel, Was vom Krieg übrig bleibt, 39.
31 Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research,” 378.
32 Although this changes slowly, as more and more migrants from other parts of Cambodia seek income opportunities and open small businesses in the former strongholds.
33 Susan Thomson, “Academic Integrity and Ethical Responsibilities in Post-Genocide Rwanda,” 148.
34 Ibid.
35 This does not mean, they agreed with all of DC-CAM's research findings.
36 Brun, “‘I Love My Soldier’,” 130.
37 Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research,” 379.
38 See also Norman, “Got Trust?”.
39 Clarke, “Research for Empowerment in a Divided Cambodia,” 102.
40 Interview with Om Chariya (TPO), May 27, 2016.
41 Vorrath, “Challenges of Interviewing Political Elites,” 67.
42 See Brun, “‘I Love My Soldier’,” 137–8 on her experience in Sri Lanka.
43 Yet, traveling with two field assistants goes along with numerous challenges related to age and gender differences, but also varying experiences of war and violence. See Hennings, “A Buddhist, a Christian and a Hindu on the Road.”
44 Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research,” 381.
45 Brun, “‘I Love My Soldier’,” 146.
46 Clarke, “Research for Empowerment in a Divided Cambodia,” 102.
47 Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research,” 381.
48 Schatz uses immersion and participant observation interchangeably. Ibid., 5.
49 Schatz, “Ethnographic Immersion and the Study of Politics,” 10.
50 Brun, “‘I Love My Soldier’,” 136.
51 Millar, An Ethnographic Approach to Peacebuilding, 6.
52 Schatz, “Ethnographic Immersion and the Study of Politics,” 11.
53 Millar, An Ethnographic Approach to Peacebuilding, 124.
54 Schatz, “Ethnographic Immersion and the Study of Politics,” 15.
55 See also Clarke, “Research for Empowerment in a Divided Cambodia,” 97.
56 Vorrath, “Challenges of Interviewing Political Elites,” 68.
57 Although DC-CAM and the Ministry of Education work on it, the Khmer Rouge regime and the following civil war are only about to be integrated into Cambodian school curricula.
58 Mertus, “Maintenance of Personal Security,” 165–6.
59 Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research in Conflict Zones,” 382.
60 Ansoms, “Dislodging Power Structures in Rural Rwanda,” 50.
61 Wood, “The Ethical Challenges of Field Research in Conflict Zones,” 382.