Between hope and expectation: understanding ordinary ex-combatant agency in Sierra Leone’s TRC

ABSTRACT

This article empirically deepens understandings of the relationship between everyday ex-combatants and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Sierra Leone. It asks, what are the agentic implications of this victim-centred model of justice among its designated perpetrators (everyday or ordinary ex-combatants)? This article advances criticisms against the participatory limitations of the victim-centred model of justice in truth commissions. It applies the concept of friction to analyse the theft of agency produced by Sierra Leone’s TRC among everyday ex-combatants. It analyses the contradictions between everyday ex-combatant hopes for the TRC against institutional expectations set for this population to reveal the agentic effects of this sticky engagement. In so doing, this article exposes the agentic theft produced by compound frictions which interact to deny agency among those designated as perpetrators by the material engagement and frictional travels of transitional justice. It argues that the primacy placed on the restoration of victims’ dignity within truth commissions comes at a particularly heavy cost for the population of everyday ex-combatants, who experience multiple processes of exclusion as a result.

KEYWORDS:

• Agency
• ex-Combatants
• friction
• Sierra Leone
• transitional justice
• truth commissions

Acknowledgements

This study was generously made possible through a research grant provided by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Ethical approval for this research, which involved interviewing ex-combatants, was obtained from the University of Edinburgh, on the 28^th of September 2016, prior to data collection activities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Tsing, ‘Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection’..

2. McEvoy and McConnachie, ‘Victimology in Transitional Justice’, 528.

3. Scott and Alwin, ‘Retrospective versus Prospective Measurement of Life Histories in Longitudinal Research’.

4. See for instance: Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’; Mitton, ‘Where is the War’; Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’; Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’.

5. The Sierra Leone TRC Final Report, volume 1, chapter 3.

6. Author interviews with TRC officials; Civil Society Members, Sierra Leone, 2016–2018.

7. Hayner, ‘The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission’.

8. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’..

9. McEvoy and Shirlow, ‘Re-imagining DDR’.

10. Dwyer, ‘Expanding DDR’.

11. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’, 131.

12. McEvoy and Shirlow, ‘Re-imagining DDR’, 33.

13. Nagy, ‘Transitional Justice as Global Project’, 284.

14. Author interview with TRC Official, Freetown, May 5, 2017.

15. Author interview with TRC Official, Freetown, May 3, 2017.

16. Author interview with TRC Official, Makeni, March 2, 2017.

17. Dube, ‘Transitional Justice Beyond the Normative’, 178.

18. See for instance Brudholm, ‘Resentment’s Virtue’; Dube, ‘Transitional Justice Beyond the Normative’; Lutz, ‘Transitional Justice: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead’.

19. Mutua ‘What Is the Future of Transitional Justice?’, 5.

20. McEvoy and McConnachie, ‘Victimology in transitional justice’.

21. Nwogu, ‘When and Why it Started’.

22. Borer, ‘A Taxonomy of Victims and Perpetrators’, 1116.

23. McEvoy and McConnachie, ‘Victimology in Transitional Justice’, 532.

24. Bernath, ‘”Complex Political Victims”’, 16.

25. Borer, ‘A Taxonomy of Victims and Perpetrators’, 1100.

26. Bernath, ‘”Complex Political Victims”’; Freeman, ‘Truth Commissions and Procedural Fairness’; McEvoy and McConnachie, ‘Victimology in Transitional Justice’; Moffett, ‘Reparations for “Guilty Victims”’; Skaar, ‘Transitional Justice for Human Rights’.

27. Humphrey, ‘From Victim to Victimhood’, 171.

28. McEvoy and McConnachie, ‘Victimology in Transitional Justice’, 527–528.

29. Skaar, ‘Transitional Justice for Human Rights’.

30. Nwogu, ‘When and Why it Started’, 280.

31. Moffett, ‘Reparations for “Guilty Victims”’, 148.

32. Ibid.

33. McEvoy and McConnachie, ‘Victimology in Transitional Justice’, 527.

34. The Lomé Peace Agreement, Article XXVI, 1.

35. All interviews except for one have been anonymised. John Caulker, was the chairperson of the TRC Working Group, director of Forum of Consciousness, and is the founder of Fambul Tok (a well-known alternative grass-roots reconciliation organisation in Sierra Leone). John Caulker consented to the use of his name as part of this research (which would have been difficult to anonymise given his positionality as a key TRC broker specifically and transitional justice expert in Sierra Leone more generally). This consent is part of the recorded interview conducted with him on the 8^th of October in 2017.

36. Author interview with John Caulker, Freetown, October 8, 2017.

37. Sierra Leone TRC Act, Article 6b.

38. TRC Final Report, volume 1, chapter 3, para. 45.

39. Tsing, ‘Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection’..

40. Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’.

41. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’.

42. Tsing, ‘Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection’..

43. Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’, 187.

44. Tsing, ‘Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection’, 6–8.

45. Ibid.

46. Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’, 187.

47. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’.

48. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’, 190.

49. Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’.

50. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’.

51. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’, 190.

52. Author interview with CDF Ex-combatant, Bo, August 2017.

53. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Freetown, February 20, 2017.

54. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Makeni, October, 27, 2018.

55. Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’, 194.

56. Author interview with Kamajor Ex-combatant, Bo, January 15, 2018.

57. Ibid.

58. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Freetown, May 21, 2018.

59. Author interviews with Ex-combatants, Freetown, Bo and Makeni, 2016–2018.

60. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Makeni, February 1, 2018.

61. Ibid.

62. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Freetown, February 22, 2017.

63. Author interview with CDF Ex-combatant, Bo, March 12, 2017.

64. Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’, 194.

65. Author interview with TRC Official, Freetown, May 3, 2017.

66. Author interview with Civil Society Member, Freetown, November 19, 2016.

67. Author interviews with Civil Society Members and TRC Officials, Freetown, 2016–2018.

68. Kelsall, ‘Truth, Lies, Ritual’; Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’.

69. Kelsall, ‘Truth, Lies, Ritual’, 376.

70. Author interview with TRC Official, Freetown, May 5, 2017.

71. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Makeni, January 2018.

72. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Makeni, March 4, 2017.

73. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Freetown, January 2018.

74. Author interview with CDF Ex-combatant, Bo, August 18, 2017.

75. Author interview with AFRC Ex-combatant, Freetown, December 1, 2016.

76. Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions’, 197.

77. Dwyer, ‘Expanding DDR’; Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’;Sriram and Herman, ‘DDR and Transitional Justice’.

78. Patel, ‘Transitional Justice, DDR, and Security Sector Reform’, 2.

79. Sriram, Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding on the Ground; Kilroy, ‘Does a More Participatory Approach to Reintegrating Ex-Combatants Lead to Better Outcomes?’.

80. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’, 112.

81. Sriram and Herman, ‘DDR and Transitional Justice’, 455.

82. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’..

83. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’.

84. Ibid.

85. Humphreys and Weinstein, ‘Demobilisation and Reintegration’, 539.

86. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’..

87. Sesay and Suma, ‘Transitional Justice and DDR’.

88. Ibid., 15.

89. Knight, ‘Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in Africa’.

90. Kilroy, ‘From Conflict to Ownership’, 135.

91. Author interviews with Ex-combatant, Civil Society and TRC Officials. 2016–2018.

92. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’.

93. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’.

94. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’, 195.

95. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’.

96. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’, 198.

97. Millar, ‘Expectations and Experiences of Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone’, 201.

98. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’, 112.

99. Kilroy, ‘From Conflict to Ownership’.

100. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Freetown, February 20, 2017.

101. Author interview with CDF Ex-combatant interview, Bo, March 12, 2017.

102. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Bo, October 2, 2017.

103. Kilroy, ‘From Conflict to Ownership’, 135.

104. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Freetown, July 3, 2018.

105. Ibid.

106. McEvoy and Shirlow, ‘Re-imagining DDR’.

107. McEvoy and Shirlow, ‘Re-imagining DDR’, 31.

108. McEvoy and Shirlow, ‘Re-imagining DDR’,39.

109. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’, 123.

110. Author interview with TRC Official, Freetown, May 14, 2017.

111. Author interview with CDF Ex-combatant, Freetown, November 15, 2018.

112. Dwyer, ‘Expanding DDR’.

113. McEvoy and Shirlow, ‘Re-imagining DDR’.

114. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’..

115. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’, 131.

116. Bisset, ‘Coordinating Truth Commissions and Criminal Courts at the National Level’.

117. Author interview with TRC Official, Freetown, December 2, 2016.

118. Author interview with Civil Society Member, Freetown, April 2017.

119. Author interview with Chief Government Negotiator during the Lome Peace Agreement, December 2018.

120. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Freetown, February 21, 2017.

121. Author interview with CDF Ex-combatant, Bo, March 14, 2017.

122. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Makeni, March 1, 2017.

123. Author interview with AFRC Ex-combatant, Freetown, March 2017.

124. Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Article 1, page 1.

125. Author interviews with Ex-combatants, Civil Society Members and TRC Officials, Bo, Freetown, Makeni. 2016–2018.

126. Author interview with Former SLA Soldier, Makeni, March 1, 2017.

127. Author interview with RUF/AFRC Ex-combatant, Freetown, February 21, 2017.

128. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Bo, January 16, 2018.

129. Nwogu, ‘When and Why it Started’, 284.

130. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Makeni, August 21, 2018.

131. Author interviews with Ex-combatant, Bo, June 25, 2018.

132. Author interviews with Ex-combatants throughout Sierra Leone, between 2017 and 2019.

133. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Makeni, August 23, 2018.

134. Author interview with RUF Ex-combatant, Freetown, October 17, 2018.

135. Nwogu, ‘When and Why it Started’, 282.

136. Shaw, ‘Localising Transitional Justice’, 114.

137. Rios Oyola, ‘Uses of the Concept of Human Dignity and the Signification of Victims in Transitional Justice in Colombia’; Rios Oyola, ‘Dignificationof Victims through Exhumations in Colombia’. And Mwambari, ‘Agaciro, vernacular memory, and the politics of memory in post-genocide Rwanda’.

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Sayra van den Berg

Sayra van den Berg is a post-doctoral research associate within the Civil War Paths Project at the University of Sheffield. She specializes in post-conflict transitional justice in sub-Saharan Africa and her research interrogates the politics of recognition within transitional justice and peacebuilding.