Narratives of Mass Atrocity
Victims and Perpetrators in the Aftermath

Offers a narrative approach to post-conflict intervention, showing how legalism following mass violence encourages dangerous binaries.

Sarah Federman (Edited by), Ronald Niezen (Edited by)

9781009100298, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 September 2022

278 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.7 kg

'In this remarkable book, the authors help us see the high cost we are paying for oversimplifying conflict and post conflict narratives and highlight the unintended consequences of the binary frameworks we use when looking for justice. What does it take to be able to put the past go and heal from conflict trauma: The restoration of complexity. Read the book to find out how.' Donna Hicks, Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University

Individuals can assume—and be assigned—multiple roles throughout a conflict: perpetrators can be victims, and vice versa; heroes can be reassessed as complicit and compromised. However, accepting this more accurate representation of the narrativized identities of violence presents a conundrum for accountability and justice mechanisms premised on clear roles. This book considers these complex, sometimes overlapping roles, as people respond to mass violence in various contexts, from international tribunals to NGO-based social movements. Bringing the literature on perpetration in conversation with the more recent field of victim studies, it suggests a new, more effective, and reflexive approach to engagement in post-conflict contexts. Long-term positive peace requires understanding the narrative dynamics within and between groups, demonstrating that the blurring of victim-perpetrator boundaries, and acknowledging their overlapping roles, is a crucial part of peacebuilding processes. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Introduction: Narrative in the aftermath of mass atrocity Sarah Federman and Ronald Niezen
1. Guilt, responsibility and the limits of identity Diane Enns
2. Victim, perpetrator, hero: The French national railway's idealized war identities Sarah Federman
3. Deconstructing the complexities of violence: Uganda and the case against Dominic Ongwen Ayodele Akenroye and Kamari Maxine Clarke
4. Rehabilitating guerillas in neo-extractivist guatemala Karine Vanthuyne and Marie-Christine Dugal
5. The road to recognition: Afro-Uruguayan activism and the struggle for visibility Debbie Sharnak
6. Justice in translation: Uncle Meng and the trials of the foreign Alex Hinton
7. Memory and victimhoods in post-genocide rwanda: Legal, political and social realities Samantha Lakin
8. Imaging traitors: The raped woman and sexual violence during the Bangladesh war of 1971 Nayanika Mookerjee
9. Open source justice: Digital archives and the criminal state Ronald Niezen
10. Left unsettled: Confessions of armed revolutionaries Leigh Payne
11. Victims and perpetrators in reconciliation systems design Daniel L Shapiro and Vanessa Liu
Afterword Sarah Federman
Index.

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS]