Victims Of Political Violence Research Articles

The (non-)reconciliatory effect of reparations for victims of political violence: a cross-sectional study of the Colombian transitional context (El efecto (no)reconciliatorio de la reparación a las víctimas de violencia política: un estudio transversal en el contexto transicional colombiano)

ABSTRACT According to the needs-based reconciliation model, transitional mechanisms can lead to reconciliation when they meet the victims’ need for agency/status. This study evaluated the reconciliatory impact of the transitional policy of reparations for victims of the armed conflict implemented in Colombia. A sample of 135 victims of political violence participated in a transversal study which evaluated the effect of the reparations on the reconciliation sentiment, using the scales of mere coexistence and rebuilding trust. Counter to the intention of the policy, the victims given reparations showed lower levels of reconciliation than those who had not received reparations, regardless of their exposure to violence, understanding of justice and social attitudes. The results suggest that the limitations in the process of implementing the reparations may be thwarting the victims’ need for agency/status and thus hindering the reconciliation process.

Posttraumatic growth and psychosocial variables among victims of political violence

Antecedentes: la dictadura militar chilena (1973-1990) dejó miles de víctimas entre afectados directos y familiares, quienes pudieron desarrollar diversas secuelas en su salud mental. Objetivos: el presente estudio buscó evaluar un modelo predictivo de crecimiento postraumático (CPT) que incluía la ideología política, el afrontamiento religioso y la rumiación, en víctimas de la violencia política durante la dictadura. Método: participaron 200 personas adultas reconocidas en el Programa de Reparación y Atención Integral de Salud (PRAIS), encargada de brindar apoyo a las víctimas directas de violaciones a los derechos humanos durante la dictadura, y a sus familiares. De ellos 104 son mujeres (52%) y 96 hombres (48%), en un rango de edad entre los 30 y 91 años. Se utilizaron como instrumentos el Inventario de Crecimiento Postraumático, la Escala Breve de Afrontamiento Religioso, la Escala de Rumiación relacionada con el Evento y la Escala de Ideología Política. Resultados: los principales resultados indicaron que el afrontamiento religioso positivo y la rumiación deliberada predijeron el CPT. La rumiación deliberada media parcialmente entre el afrontamiento religioso positivo y el CPT. Conclusión: se concluye que el afrontamiento religioso positivo y el procesamiento cognitivo deliberado favorecen los cambios positivos en víctimas directas de la violencia política y sus familiares. Ante esto, se refuerza la idea que las víctimas de estas violaciones logran crecer después de estas experiencias dolorosas.

Soldiers, Masculinities, and Violence

In this paper I examine how male soldiers perpetrate political violence against civilian men and women, at home in Zimbabwe and at the war front in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Zimbabwe it is widely believed that men are generally more aggressive than women, and that when trained as soldiers, men become more violent, particularly in the context of political violence and war. In this paper I assert that the “making” of soldiers is deliberately aimed at enhancing their masculine ability and skills to be violent against perceived enemies and also civilians. I raise the question whether political violence and war make men more violent or unleash a “natural” male violence. The paper argues that when soldiers are deployed to do the work of political violence and armed conflict, they develop a sense of pleasure when killing, a practice that is ingrained, promoted, and perpetuated by “military ideology” and “military mentality.” I assert that soldiers practice and consequently become imbued with a killer mindset at home, which they subsequently use or employ to the war front. I use ethnographic material: I was a soldier in the military, at home and in war. Data were drawn from former Zimbabwean soldiers and civilians, victims of political violence.

Peru’s living dead: Spectrality, untimeliness, and the internal armed conflict

In this article I examine the use of spectral figures in two works related to the Peruvian internal armed conflict, Julio Ortega’s novella Adiós Ayacucho (1986) and theater troupe Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani’s play Santiago (2000), as representations of the untimely, a notion that, according to Giorgio Agamben, defines the contemporary. I contend that by employing ghostly images, as well as those of undead beings and hauntings, both pieces not only bring to the fore the underlying tensions that gave rise to the conflict and gesture toward the victims of political violence, but they also reveal official narratives of healing, national reconciliation, and the overcoming of trauma as essentially fractured. By countering these current discourses, the text and the play offer the possibility of rethinking the period of violence in order to see it not as a dark chapter to grapple with, but as the condition of possibility of Peruvian national history. Finally, I argue that these texts constitute an intervention into the current discourse of memory—one that is officially sanctioned by the state—to offer a glimpse of the past that uncovers the myriad ways in which it is still at work in the present.

Healing history, healing a nation: A prophetic practical pastoral ministry of care

In the late 19th century, colonial powers sought to destroy the Mthwakazi or Ndebele state in what is now Matabeleland in the south west region of Zimbabwe, to subdue and dominate its people. The people of Matabeleland suffered heavy losses of cattle and land. Paradoxically, these injustices did not end with the collapse of colonialism. Since independence in 1980, the people of Matabeleland have been victims of political violence, which has left thousands dead and many without a livelihood. Nothing came of the promised reconciliation, justice, peace, national cohesion, progress and prosperity in the post-colonial Zimbabwe. To date the region of Matabeleland still suffers from political, cultural and socio-economic disadvantages that call for a prophetic practical pastoral ministry of care. A critical exploration of the way in which the history of the region was documented exposes it as a victim of the legacy of injustice and political violence. This has had the effect of undermining progress and peace not only in Matabeleland, but also in the entire country. There is a lack of national cohesion, and the consequence is the absence of a common national vision. Notwithstanding the general prevalence of political and socio-economic dire straits affecting the whole country, Matabeleland presents a unique case study. The Roman Catholic Church which has been present in the country since colonial times has been actively engaged in the political and socio-economic realities of the country. In view of this, this article investigates the role the Church can play in the healing of a broken nation, with a preferential focus on Matabeleland. It proposes a prophetic practical pastoral ministry of care in order not only to heal the afflicted but also that they may find solidarity and fellowship as citizens. Such a role should further encompass reconciliation, rebuilding the people’s confidence and advocacy for their political, cultural and socio-economic development and progress.

Who Undermines the Peace at the Ballot Box? The Case of Colombia

ABSTRACT Electoral politics and violent civil conflict often coexist. Citizens exposed and unexposed to violence bear the costs of conflict unevenly and, thus, conceive of militant vs. accommodationist state response to the perpetrators of violence differently. The literature has found that victims of political violence tend to endorse militant state response against nonstate actors seen as responsible. This result is mostly based on secessionist conflicts in which victims of violence are often shielded from the costs of state counterinsurgency or counterterrorism campaigns. By contrast, we argue, in non-secessionist conflicts, individuals exposed to violence tend to also experience the state militant anti-guerrilla operations, which often lead to state abuses of civilians. We expect that civilians exposed to nonstate and state attacks will be more likely to support pro-peace policies. We find support for this argument analyzing Colombia’s 2014 presidential election and 2016 peace agreement referendum. In addition, we use original data on local candidates’ pro- and anti-peace process positions in Colombia’s 2014 congressional election to test the underlying logic of the argument that local communities exposed to both nonstate and state violence are more likely to demand pro-peace policies.

Malestar ético y desgaste emocional en profesionales que trabajan en proyectos de atención psicosocial a víctimas de violencia política en Medellín y Antioquia

Objetivo: Este artículo se enmarca en una investigación sobre procesos de reparación e intervención psicosocial, con víctimas de violencia política y el conflicto armado en la ciudad de Medellín y otros municipios del departamento de Antioquia, ejecutados bajo la Ley 1448 de 2011. Se pretende comprender las experiencias subjetivas de malestar ético y desgaste emocional en profesionales vinculados a estos proyectos de reparación que han tenido consecuencias negativas en la población y en los profesionales.
 Método: Se realizó una investigación cualitativa, con enfoque fenomenológico-hermenéutico, a través de 32 entrevistas semiestructuradas y en profundidad a igual número de profesionales que laboraron en estos proyectos y manifestaron sentirse “quemados” en su trabajo con muestreo tipológico, intencional y en bola de nieve. La interpretación de resultados se realizó a partir de un análisis categorial de discurso, procediendo con un análisis de coherencia e intratextual de cada entrevista para pasar al proceso intertextual, que cruzaba el relato de todos los participantes, según categorías (Desgaste emocional/Malestar ético).
 Resultados: Se hizo una codificación teórica que evidenció significados compartidos y representaciones construidas, donde se identificaron dilemas éticos ante el ordenamiento tecno-burocrático, deficiencias en la calidad de la atención y acciones poco transformadoras, que generan daño, lo cual produjo malestar subjetivo y desgaste emocional en los profesionales.
 Conclusiones: Se hace necesario sortear las vicisitudes burocráticas de los proyectos y abrir espacios para un trabajo coherente y restaurador por parte de los profesionales, que a su vez permita el cuidado y mejores condiciones laborales.

The Political Lives of the ‘Disappeared’ in the Transition from Conflict to Peace in Colombia

ABSTRACTIn Colombia’s transition between conflict and peace the ‘disappeared’ have emerged as a potent symbol of the history of impunity and exclusion and their exhumation a sign of progress towards peace and reconciliation. As elsewhere in Latin America the families of the disappeared have been at the core of a ‘human rights forensics’ seeking to exhume the disappeared as victims of political violence and to hold perpetrators accountable. However, in Colombia the state’s attitude towards human rights is ambiguous. It has introduced transitional justice laws building upon strong Colombian constitutional traditions to project a strong human rights commitment. In doing so it has manipulated Colombians’ faith in ‘magical legalism’, the belief in the transformative capacity of law as an alternative to the chronic failure of democratic politics. However, the state has turned human rights accountability into an enormous legal bureaucratic registration exercise. They have de-politicized the ‘disappeared’ through a ‘humanitarian forensics’ which collectivizes all victims as ‘suffering’ victims of the 50 year conflict and places them in long human rights queues for reparations. Impunity also persists in the transition between conflict and peace because of the corporate state strategy of relying on partnerships with business and armed actors to extend its territorial sovereignty. The franchising of sovereignty as a strategy to extend governance only perpetuates the conditions for further disappearance and displacement.

Recognizing Victims of Political Violence: Basque Literary Narratives as an Ethical Tool

ABSTRACTAdopting an ethical approach to education that focuses on the perspective of victims, this article analyzes some of the difficulties of acknowledging the victims of political violence in the Basque Country. It conceptualizes these difficulties as pathologies of recognition and argues that works of literary fiction have humanizing and educational value insofar as they reflect the victim's perspective and foster the reader's ethical education through narrative imagination. As a critical example, the article provides an analysis of four Basque literary works of fiction that respond to the pathologies of recognition as they narrate various acts of victimization. The transformative potential of working with literature that tells stories of victimization for politically violent conflicts in the Basque Country and elsewhere is highlighted.

0151 Historische Rahmenbedingungen für den Bau von Kriegsgräberstätten in Deutschland und Europa im 20. Jahrhundert

State obligation to guarantee both individual burial and upkeep of graves of fallen soldiers and victims of political violence has become a respected principle in international relations during the course of the 20th century. Much academic attention has been paid to responses of societies to western front wartime experiences and the subsequent creation of vast interwar period cemeteries, which established a common notion of the war grave as a symbol for the destructive outcome of modern warfare. In Germany, however, where most war cemeteries were built after 1945, war graves are less entangled with the history of trench warfare. Since maintenance of war graves can be understood as an international practice since WW I, this nevertheless allowed Germany to build war cemeteries in various countries in the decades after the Second World War. This article examines the international preconditions under which war cemeteries were built after both World Wars and how this affected access to gravesites, maintaining war graves, and even cemetery design.

Vicisitudes de los proyectos institucionales de atención psicosocial a víctimas del conflicto armado colombiano

Comprender las experiencias subjetivas de los profesionales vinculados a proyectos de intervención con víctimas de violencia política en el ámbito psicosocial en la ciudad de Medellín y otros municipios del departamento de Antioquia, en relación con sus vivencias de malestar ético y desgaste emocional por su participación en estos proyectos, nos ha permitido identificar la forma como los proyectos están construidos, sus lógicas tecnocráticas y burocráticas, los problemas en los tiempos de ejecución y contratación, además de su escasa contextualización y sensibilidad a la realidad de las comunidades afectadas, realidad que termina convirtiéndose en generador de daño y revictimización, además de lesionar la integridad psíquica y ética de estos profesionales.

Effects of a Writing Intervention for Palestinian Adolescents Victims of Political Violence in Gaza Strip

Effects of a Writing Intervention for Palestinian Adolescents Victims of Political Violence in Gaza Strip

The Unbearable Lightness of Bones: Memory, Emotion, and Pedagogy in Patricio Guzmán’s Chile, La Memoria Obstinada and Nostalgia De La Luz

Focusing on two documentary films by Patricio Guzmán, Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997) and, especially, Nostalgia of the Light (2010), this paper examines some of the relations between neoliberal violence (during and after the Pinochet dictatorship), memory, knowledge and emotionality, both historical and personal. It does so by reading and reviewing the actions, narratives and experiences of a group of astronomers, archaeologists and geologists who work in the Atacama desert of northern Chile and a group of women who search for the remains of their loved ones, victims of political violence, in the same desert within the shifting contexts of cinematic spectatorship. Attentive to the possibilities and pitfalls of empathic identifications and connections, it also considers the ethical and political implications of the interplay of cinema (Guzmán), photography (Paula Allen) and poetry, sky writing and "land art" (Raúl Zurita).

Between Remembering and Forgetting the Years of Political Violence: Psychosocial Impact of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru

This article analyzes the association between knowledge of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), evaluation of TRC's achievements, experience of victimization, attitudes toward remembering and forgetting past political violence, perceptions of socioemotional climate (SEC), belief in forgiveness and attitudes toward violence in Peru based on a study conducted in three Peruvian cities with different rates of victimization due to political violence during 1980–2000 (n = 1200). Results showed that a positive attitude toward remembering the past of political violence was predominant and related to a positive evaluation of TRC's achievements. Attitude toward remembering also has an ambivalent collective effect increasing both positive and negative SECs, and it is less accepted by victims of political violence. On the other hand, attitude toward forgetting is less accepted by participants, and it also has an ambivalent effect by increasing positive and negative SECs. Attitude toward forgetting has more societal costs, since it is related to attitudes toward violence and decreased knowledge and a positive evaluation of TRC. In general, findings suggest that remembering traumatic events has an emotional cost, but also it is shown that remembering seems to be more beneficial for society in the long‐term than forgetting.

Psychosocial Sequels of Syrian Conflict

Background: Victims of political violence and genocide survivors are highly vulnerable to mental and psychological distress. The aim of this study is to explore the level of psychological distress and mental health disorders including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) amongst Syrian Refugees in South Turkey and to investigate their association with socio-demographic variables. Methods: A cross-sectional survey wherein three hundred questionnaires were distributed in four Syrian Refugee Camps located in South Turkey. Surveys included demographic data, Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Snowball sampling method was utilized. Surveys missing any item were excluded. Data were processed and analyzed using SPSS v.16. Results: Surveys were returned by 178 (59.3%) respondents of which 83 were incomplete. Therefore 95 (31.6%) of total responded questionnaires were analyzed. Mean age of respondents was 34.2 ± 11.9 years and 85.3% of them were males. IES-R concluded PTSD among 58 (61.1%). Moreover HADS estimated pathologic anxiety among 50 (52.6%) and borderline anxiety among 18 (18.9%), whereas pathologic depression 26 (27.4%) and borderline depression 37 (37.9%) were the other disorders. HADS anxiety was strongly associated with PTSD (p<0.001), while PTSD and Depression did not bear significant difference. Anxiety, depression, and PTSD were not significantly associated with age, gender or marital status. Conclusions: The political violence in Syria resulted in a high level of psychological distress and traumatization within civilians. This is characterized by the high level of PTSD amongst Syrian refugees. This requires a prompt crisis intervention campaign and urgent psychological support. Further research is required to explore the issue on a larger scale.

Les femmes et le confit politique nord-irlandais à l’écran : images d’une population exclue ou victime dans le film Maeve ?

As changes in Northern Ireland have been reflected in films dealing with the political conflict over the last three decades, women still mostly appear as victims of political violence. While it is very rare to see women’s political involvement in the Northern Irish conflict on screen, Maeve (Pat Murphy, 1981) projects specific images of the Troubles through a feminist meditation on the status of Catholic women coming from a Republican background in Northern Ireland. As the film explores the myth of Mother Ireland, this article analyses the images that tackle the political question linking it to the gendered nature of power and historical discourse.

Consecuencias psicosociales de la participación en escenarios de justicia transicional en un contexto de conflicto, impunidad y no-transición

El siguiente artículo recoge las voces de víctimas de violencia política en tres escenarios geográficos y sociopolíticos: el Oriente Antioqueño, el sur de Córdoba y la ciudad de Medellín (Madres de la Candelaria). A través de relatos de vida y grupos focales, los y las participantes expresaron sus significaciones y experiencias en torno a su participación en escenarios de reparación, verdad y justicia propiciados por el Estado Colombiano (hasta junio de 2012) en el marco de las normas de transición que se han aplicado en un contexto donde no ha finalizado el conflicto armado y se mantienen altos índices de impunidad y coerción de la población civil. Se discuten, a partir de los testimonios, las consecuencias psicosociales que se generan en las personas, desde una mirada compleja, cuando acuden a estos mecanismos propiciados por las normas colombianas. Abordando tanto los efectos de transformación y reparación, como aquellos que producen revictimización. Se concluye con una propuesta de justicia anamnética (Reyes Mate, 2003) que posibilite escenarios que respeten los derechos de las víctimas sin que esto implique revictimización ni obstáculos al logro de la paz.

Impactos del paramilitarismo en la región Urabá/Chocó 1998-2006. Claves para la lectura de las afectaciones colectivas

Este informe de investigación recoge los resultados de una exploración sobre la naturaleza de las afectaciones de un grupo armado, lo paramilitares, en una región colombiana; este ejercicio ha sido la antesala para planteamiento de una investigación que, recientemente aprobada, se propone ofrecer pautas para dar cuenta de aquellos impactos de la guerra que puedan ser definidos como “daño colectivo”. En este orden de ideas, este artículo se propone exponer de la los resultados de esta aproximación preliminar que, a la manera de un estudio de caso, permiten establecer los alcances y limites analíticos de las aproximaciones de este carácter para dar cuenta de la dimensión de los daños colectivos a partir de la inspección de los tipos y naturaleza de las acciones paramilitares en el Chocó y Urabá antioqueños, durante el periodo 1998-2006.

Lamentations and the Poetic Politics of Prayer

The first half of this paper seeks to make explicit the political dimensions of the text of Lamentations. The poetry vividly depicts the political use of violence in the destruction of a society. Judah is ruined politically, economically, socially, and religiously by the Babylonians for political ends. In the second half of the paper I argue that Lamentations contributes to our theo-political reflections not so much in its provision of new conceptual categories, nor even in its sharpening of categories already in place but rather in its power for shaping the emotional, ethical-political response of its audiences (human and divine). The readers are invited to bring political calamity into God’s presence and to seek salvation; they are encouraged to look with merciful eyes at victims of political violence even if those victims are not ‘innocent’; they are encouraged to see political evil for what it is and to speak its name; they are guided towards becoming honest-to-God lamenters and God-dependent pray-ers who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Proactive versus defensive ethics: Re-humanizing psychology.

This article calls for the re-humanization of research guidelines and practices in psychology, so that researchers remain aware of themselves as both human beings and researchers. Through the author's experience conducting research with victims of political violence in South Africa, this article addresses practical, logistical, methodological, and ethical concerns that researchers should consider before engaging in fieldwork. This article also emphasizes researchers' ethical responsibilities to participants and the research team and calls for a restructuring of the discipline's ethical codes from the current defensive (do no harm) ethics to more proactive (do some good) ethics.