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

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

WHAT IS JUSTICE?

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

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?

Instead of Prozac - we can substitute “Trials”

Research Methods Surveys –Balkans: 1,600 people surveyed twice months apart –Rwanda: 2,100 people Key Informant Interviews Focus Groups Ethnographic Studies

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

Study Sites 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

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

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

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.

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)

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

DEFINING TRAUMA AT POPULATION LEVEL IN EX-YUGOSLAVIA, A VALIDATED SCALE WEIGHTED FOR EXPOSURE AND INTENSITY IN RWANDA, THE PCL (C) SCALE

DEFINING RECONCILIATION COMMUNITY INTERDEPENDENCE SOCIAL JUSTICE COMMITMENT TO NON-VIOLENCE

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

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

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

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

CONCLUSIONS 1.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

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

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

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

COLLECTIVE GUILT, COLLECTIVE INNOCENCE AND THE LIMITATIONS OF TRIALS