Untold Stories: Ex-Combatant Silences in Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission

ABSTRACT

The transformative promises of truth commissions equate participation with agency. This article empirically thickens understandings of local agency within transitional justice by disentangling the ways in which ex-combatants were silenced by, and chose silence within, Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Illuminating externally enforced silences reveals the theft of agency experienced by ex-combatants within the TRC. Examining TRC silences chosen by ex-combatants exposes the agency of silences deployed by this population and unsettles assumptions that equate participation with agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Transitional justice
• agency
• silence
• ex-combatants
• truth commissions
• Sierra Leone

Acknowledgements

The author confirms that formal ethics approval for this research was obtained at the University of Edinburgh prior to this research and that informed consent protocols were enforced throughout the research.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 RUF ex-combatant interview, Makeni, February 1, 2018.

2 TRC Official interview, Freetown, May 14, 2017.

3 Civil Society interview, Freetown, November 19, 2016.

4 Civil Society Interview, Freetown, October 8, 2017.

5 Civil Society Interview, Freetown, March 8, 2017.

6 Ibid.

7 TRC Official interview, Freetown, May 10, 2017.

8 Civil society interview, Freetown, December 5, 2016.

9 Civil society interview, Freetown, January 24, 2019.

10 RUF Ex-combatant interview, Freetown, May 21, 2018.

11 CDF Ex-combatant interview, Bo, September 29, 2017.

12 RUF Ex-combatant interview, Makeni, August 20, 2018.

13 RUF Ex-combatant interview, Makeni, August 20, 2018.

14 CDF ex-combatant interview, Bo, June 20, 2018.

15 SLA ex-combatant interviews in Freetown in 2017 and 2018.

16 Ibid.

17 SLA ex-combatant interview, Bo, January 16, 2018.

18 SLA ex-combatant interview, Freetown, June 1, 2018.

19 SLA interview, Freetown, November 4, 2017.

20 RUF ex-combatant interviews between 2017 and 2019.

21 Ibid.

22 RUF ex-combatant interview, Makeni, August 20, 2018.

23 RUF ex-combatant interview, Makeni, March 1, 2017.

24 CDF ex-combatant interviews in Bo, between 2017 and 2019.

25 Ibid.

26 CDF ex-combatant interview, Bo, September 29, 2017.

27 CDF ex-combatant interview, Bo, March 12, 2017.

28 CDF/Kamajor ex-combatant interview, Freetown, November 15, 2018.

29 RUF ex-combatant interview, Makeni, October 27, 2018.

30 CDF/Kamajor ex-combatant interview, Bo, June 22, 2018.

31 RUF ex-combatant interview, Freetown, February 21, 2017.

32 RUF ex-combatant interview, Freetown, July 4, 2018.

33 RUF ex-combatant interview, Makeni, August 21, 2018.

34 RUF ex-combatant interview, Makeni, February 28, 2017.

35 RUF ex-combatant interview, February 20, 2017.

36 CDF/Kamajor ex-combatant interview, Bo, March 12, 2017.

37 Civil society interview, Bo, March 15, 2017.

38 RUF ex-combatant interview, Bo, October 2, 2017.

39 RUF ex-combatant interview, Freetown, May 21, 2018.

40 Civil society member interview, Freetown, January 24, 2019.

41 CDF/Kamajor ex-combatant interview, Bo, June 21, 2018.

42 RUF ex-combatant interview, Makeni, August 20, 2018.

43 RUF ex-combatant interview, Freetown, January 5, 2019.

44 Ibid.

45 RUF ex-combatant interview, Bo, October 2, 2017.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported through an ESRC +2 doctoral research grant at the University of Edinburgh.

Notes on contributors

Sayra van den Berg

Sayra van den Berg is a transitional justice and peacebuilding researcher. She is a socio-legal researcher whose interests lie in the politics of recognition within peacebuilding. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield and completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh, with funding from the ESRC.