Producing the subjects of reconciliation: the making of Sierra Leoneans as victims and perpetrators of past human rights violations

Abstract

Human rights have become a central aspect of global peace-building strategies, and are often pursued through instruments of transitional justice. In this paper I focus on the role of truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) for human rights in post-conflict settings and argue that the global politics of reconciliation, which is supposed to unveil the ‘truth’ about, and help to overcome, past human rights violations, serves as a vehicle that brings the human rights language to post-conflict settings. While this might be expected to be empowering for the local people, the Sierra Leonean case suggests that, here, the particular human rights narrative promoted by the TRC had two potentially depoliticising effects: first, by narrating the past conflict as a series of human rights violations while downplaying the political motives and claims that kept it going; second, by constituting the local people as the victims and perpetrators of past human rights violations who are above all in need of reconciliation and healing. The TRC’s human rights narrative thereby overwrote other subject positions held by the people, such as those of soldier, rebel, or civilian. It also neutralised the political claims held by these subjects and replaced them with the therapeutic need for reconciliation and healing.

Keywords:

• TRC
• reconciliation
• discourse
• subjectivisation
• victim
• perpetrator

Acknowledgements

For insightful comments on earlier versions of this paper, I thank the participants at the workshop on ‘The Power of Rights and/or the Rights of Power’, which took place in the context of the First European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS) in Tartu, 5–8 June 2013. I also thank the participants in the research colloquium at the Geschwister-Scholl-Institute of Political Science, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. Special thanks go to Anna Selmeczi for her constructive comments on the paper and, last but not least, to Louiza Odysseos and Anna Selmeczi for their efforts, which made this volume possible.

Notes

1. Durch and Berkman, “Restoring and Maintaining Peace.”

2. Ibid., 28.

3. Ibid., 5–6.

4. Sriram, “Transitional Justice.”

5. Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation.

6. Humphrey, The Politics of Atrocity, chap. 8; and Rotberg and Thompson, Truth v. Justice.

7. Epstein, The Power of Words, 2; and Howarth and Stavrakakis, “Introducing Discourse Theory.”

8. Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 105.

9. Milliken, “The Study of Discourse,” 229.

10. Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 127–134.

11. Epstein, The Power of Words, 3–4; and Torfing, New Theories of Discourse, 162–163.

12. Milliken, “The Study of Discourse,” 229 (emphasis in the original).

13. Ibid.

14. For example, Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation; and Verdoolaege, Reconciliation Discourse.

15. See Milliken, “The Study of Discourse,” 230.

16. For an overview, see Williams, “The Subject and Subjectivity.”

17. Ibid., 34.

18. Nonhoff, Politischer Diskurs und Hegemonie, 154 (my translation).

19. Epstein, “Who Speaks?”

20. Ibid., 343.

21. Epstein, The Power of Words, 93–95

22. Ibid., 169; and Howarth and Stavrakakis, “Introducing Discourse Theory,” 13–15.

23. Epstein, “Who Speaks?”

24. Ibid., 343.

25. Howarth and Stavrakakis, “Introducing Discourse Theory,” 13.

26. For example, Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation; and Humphrey, The Politics of Atrocity.

27. Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation; Wilson, The Politics of Truth; and Verdoolaege, Reconciliation Discourse.

28. Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation; Verdoolaege, Reconciliation Discourse; and Renner, Discourse.

29. Renner, Discourse, chaps. 2, 3.

30. “Global and Inclusive Agreement,” Article 2; and Government of Liberia, “Comprehensive Peace Agreement,” Preamble.

31. See Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation; and Moon, “Reconciliation as Therapy.”

32. For more detail, see Renner, Discourse, chaps. 2–4.

33. Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation, 142.

34. Renner, Discourse, 100–111.

35. For an overview of the war, see, for example, Conteh-Morgan and Dixon-Fyle, Sierra Leone; and Gberie, A Dirty War.

36. For more detail, see Renner, Discourse. UN delegates, specifically from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), were also fundamentally involved in the planning and implementation of the TRC, with the OHCHR drafting the legal statute of the commission. The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) provided expertise on how to conduct victim and perpetrator hearings, thereby reproducing the central importance of these practices for achieving reconciliation and shaping the Sierra Leonean procedures according to global standards. For more, see Renner, Discourse, 127–131.

37. Government of Sierra Leone, “Peace Agreement,” Preamble.

38. Ibid., Article 26.

39. SLTRC, Witness to Truth, Vol. 1, 2.

40. Ibid., Vol. 1, 87–88.

41. Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation, 102.

42. Conteh-Morgen and Dixon-Fyle, Sierra Leone; Gberie, A Dirty War; and Pham, The Sierra Leonean Tragedy.

43. See, for example, SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 - Part One, 12; SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 - Part Two, 651, 659, 661.

44. SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 – Part One, 34.

45. SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 – Part Two, 651.

46. Ibid.

47. SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 - Part Two, 653.

48. Ibid., 808.

49. Government of Sierra Leone, “Peace Agreement,” Article 26.

50. Parliament of Sierra Leone, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act.”

51. SLTRC, Witness to Truth, Vol. 1, 2, 85.

52. Ibid., 77.

53. Schabas, “Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” 24.

54. SLTRC, Witness to Truth, Vol. 1, 10.

55. See ibid., Vol. 2, 29–33; and Vol. 3A, chap. 4.

56. Ibid., Vol. 1, 86–87.

57. Ibid., 11.

58. The relevance of data analysis for the construction of reconciliation has been emphasised by Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation, 80–85; and Wilson, The Politics of Truth.

59. SLTRC, Witness to Truth, Vol. 2, 10.

60. Ibid., Vol. 3A, 466.

61. Ibid., Vol. 1, 171–175.

62. Ibid., Vol. 1, 8–88.

63. Ibid., Vol. 2, 10, 11, 35.

64. Kelsall, “Truth, Lies, Ritual,” 363; and Schabas, “Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” 25.

65. SLTRC, Witness to Truth, Vol. 1, 194.

66. Ibid., Vol. 1, 200–209.

67. Ibid., 210–216.

68. Ibid., 217–221.

69. Ibid., 222–230.

70. Ibid., 202–209.

71. Ibid., 222.

72. Ibid., 227–228.

73. The Sierra Leonean TRC explicitly acknowledged that individuals could identify with more than one of the subject positions offered in the statement forms. As an example of a ‘multiple identity’, the commission pointed at child soldiers, who suffered from forced recruitment but, once recruited, committed human rights violations against others. See ibid., 165.

74. Ibid., 180–183; and Kelsall, “Truth, Lies, Ritual,” 264.

75. SLTRC, Witness to Truth, Vol. 1, 195.

76. Ibid.

77. SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 – Part Two, 348.

78. Humper, quoted in Kelsall, “Truth, Lies, Ritual,” 375.

79. See, for example, SLTRC, Witness to Truth, Appendix 3, 3, 130–131, 154–155, 178, 291, 302, 327, 334, 336, 348, 380–381

80. Humper, quoted in Kelsall, “Truth, Lies, Ritual,” 376.

81. SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 – Part Two, 530.

82. I thank the two anonymous reviewers for emphasising the importance of this aspect.

83. See, for example, Conteh and Berghs, ‘Mi At Don Poil’.

84. Conteh-Morgan and Dixon-Fyle, Sierra Leone, 127; and Gberie, A Dirty War, 59–61.

85. Conteh-Morgan and Dixon-Fyle, Sierra Leone, 135; and Pham, The Sierra Leonean Tragedy, 86.

86. Conteh-Morgan and Dixon-Fyle, Sierra Leone, 127–128; and Pham, The Sierra Leonean Tragedy, 78, 86.

87. SLTRC, Witness to Truth, Vol. 1, 7.

88. Shaw, Memory Frictions, 196–197.

89. Other examples of direct claims for financial help can be found in SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 – Part One, 51, 54, 126–127, 138.

90. SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 – Part Two, 13.

91. SLTRC, Sltrc Report: Appendix 3 – Part One, 51.

92. Moon, Narrating Political Reconciliation; and Moon, “Reconciliation as Therapy.”

93. Lundy and McGovern, cited in Madlingozi, “On Transitional Justice Entrepreneurs,” 212.

94. See also ibid., 212–213; and Neocosmos, “Can a Human Rights Culture?,” 357.

95. Meister, “Human Rights.”

96. Ibid., 93.

97. Ibid., 96.

98. Svärd, “The International Community.”

99. See, for example, “Wounds of War heal slowly in Sierra Leone.” Accessed December 3, 2013. www.dw.de/wounds-of-war-heal-slowly-in-sierra-leone/a-16379505; and “Sierra Leone: Lack of Aid Funds for Amputees, Rape Survivors, War Widows.” Accessed December 4, 2013. http://www.irinnews.org/report/83100/sierra-leone-lack-of-aid-funds-for-amputees-rape-survivors-war-widows.

100. Ojielo, “Beyond the Trc,” 45.

101. Ibid., 47.

102. Conteh, “The Sierra Leone Judiciary.”