Accounting for which violent past? transitional justice, epistemic violence, and colonial durabilities in Burundi

Jamar, Astrid

doi:10.1080/21681392.2022.2039733

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 39 publications

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“…(Translated from French by the author -République du Burundi 2018, Art 6, 1 & 2, e, f ) Th e mandate of the TRC also includes: clarifying major violations of political, civil, economic and social rights; establishing responsibilities, the role of coloniser for violence in Burundi, the causes and scale of violence; qualify crimes; and publish lists of disappeared victims and those who stood up to protect people. Th e mobilisation of the 'right to truth' is present in all their publicity materials (see Jamar 2022).…”

Section: Scaling Up Mass Graves Exhumations Through the Trcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Mass Graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Jamar

Major

2022

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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English Abstract: The governments of Rwanda and Burundi exhume mass graves with the promise of revealing truths about the contested histories of past conflict and genocide. In Rwanda, exhumations recover and conserve the bodies of victims of the genocide against the Tutsi. Since December 2019, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Burundi has also begun mass exhumations; these efforts are motivated by truth-seeking and reconciliation aspirations that articulate a specific narrative of victimhood and state legitimacy. The state employs vernacularised forms of forensic practices and ‘international’ rights-based discourses in both cases. Drawing on our respective ethnographic fieldwork, we describe and analyse exhumation practices in Rwanda and Burundi. The ‘forensic turn’ in post-conflict settings has been the subject of much discussion and debate among scholars since the proliferation of the practice over recent decades. We add to these debates in our consideration of two linked settings in which the exhumations had become powerful political tools, in this case serving as a source of power for specific regimes.French Abstract: Les gouvernements du Rwanda et du Burundi exhument des fosses communes en promettant d’éclaircir les vérités sur les histoires contestées des conflits et des génocides passés. Au Rwanda, les exhumations ont été organisée pour récupérer et conserver les corps des victimes du génocide contre les Tutsis. Depuis décembre 2019, la Commission Vérité et Réconciliation au Burundi a également entamé des exhumations de masse ; ces efforts sont motivés par des ambitions de recherche de la vérité et de réconciliation articulées autour d’un récit spécifique de victimisation et de légitimation de l’État. Dans les deux cas, l’État utilise des formes vernacularisées de pratiques médico-légales et des discours « internationaux » fondés sur les droits. En nous appuyant sur nos travaux ethnographiques de terrain respectifs, nous décrivons et analysons les pratiques d’exhumation au Rwanda et au Burundi. Le tournant médico-légal » dans les contextes post-conflits a fait l’objet de nombreuses discussions et débats parmi les chercheurs depuis la prolifération de ces pratiques au cours des dernières décennies. Nous contribuant à ces débats en examinant deux contextes liés dans lesquels les exhumations sont devenues de puissants outils politiques, servant dans ce cas de source de pouvoir pour des régimes spécifiques.

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Section: Scaling Up Mass Graves Exhumations Through the Trcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Mass Graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Jamar

Major

2022

Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale

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Special edition: chasing truth and (re)conciliation: navigating contexts, tensions, limits and possibilities “Reclaiming truth recovery against the backdrop of ongoing Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine”

Browne

2023

EDI

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PurposeThis article argues that truth recovery practices that take place against the backdrop of ongoing settler colonial erasure, as is the case when considering Zionist colonial violence in Palestine, must focus on combating state-sponsored attempts at erasure, rather than solely providing a platform for the expression of settler guilt.Design/methodology/approachThe article analyses existing literature on truth recovery practices that take place in Palestine, including the work of a variety of local NGOs engaged in such praxis, with a view to considering how this form of transitional justice has germinated incrementally in the space. Critical reflection on the work of a variety of grassroots NGOs is situated alongside other forms of transitional justice intervention.FindingsThe article argues that in the context of enduring settler colonialism, the truth regarding past Zionist atrocities in historic Palestine must avoid being curated in the present day in such a way as to allow for damage limitation rather than the platforming of conversations around meaningful repair. Truth recovery for recovery's sake serves only to reinforce the settler colonial status quo rather than properly agitate for a full decolonisation, one that demands and facilitates indigenous Palestinian return.Originality/valueThe article challenges prevailing notions of the role of truth recovery practices in spaces of enduring settler colonial value. It makes clear that the role of truth recovery interventions in sites where colonial violence endures must be to actively and meaningfully support activities that reinforce native identity, history and presence on the land. Moreover, by reference to existing grassroots attempts at truth recovery in Palestine, the article provides an original and clear argument that states it is simply not enough to platform the revelation of uncomfortable truths or to provide opportunities for settler violence of the past to be “confessed” in public if it is disassociated from challenging the present-day structures of ongoing oppression.

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Reckoning with truth globally: Decolonial possibilities

Barolsky,

Rodriguez Castro,

Paradies

2024

Journal of Sociology

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This Special Issue interrogates the limitations and possibilities of truth within global efforts to address historical injustice. Over the past 30 years truth commissions have become ubiquitous in response to authoritarian regimes and colonial legacies. However, their ability to facilitate meaningful transformation is increasingly contested. In this editorial we explore what a decolonial reckoning, rather than reconciliation, with the past and colonial logics of power, might mean. In doing so, we argue that the liberal, modernist imaginary of justice on which many truth processes have been premised, is constraining our imagination of more radical ‘fugitive’ forms justice. Drawing from contributions from Australia and other global contexts this special issue investigates these limitations and the transformative potential of truth as a decolonial, sovereign, embodied and relational praxis. Contributors engage with the pluriversality of truth in ways that trouble the nation-state and centre the sovereignty and onto-epistemology of racialised and First Nations peoples, often excluded from transitional justice processes, thus offering pathways for radical resistance, resurgence and prefigurative transformation.

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Accounting for which violent past? transitional justice, epistemic violence, and colonial durabilities in Burundi

Cited by 4 publications

References 39 publications

Managing Mass Graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Managing Mass Graves in Rwanda and Burundi

Special edition: chasing truth and (re)conciliation: navigating contexts, tensions, limits and possibilities “Reclaiming truth recovery against the backdrop of ongoing Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine”

Reckoning with truth globally: Decolonial possibilities

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