Violent Atrocities Research Articles

Unspeakable: reflections on relational approaches to research in post-conflict settings

ABSTRACT In this article, I offer reflections on a research project with former combatants who fathered children as the result of conflict-related sexual violence in northern Uganda. The research sought to understand how becoming a father shaped their decision making as soldiers, and reintegration experiences following demobilisation. What roles, if any, do they play in their children’s lives post-conflict, and what futures do they envision for them? I consider the ethical and methodological challenges of the research project through the concept of the unspeakable, what Judith Herman refers to as ‘traumatic events that take place outside socially validated reality.’ How does one come to know beyond what one can imagine, or that which is socially unrecognisable, such as the love of fathers associated with the perpetration of violent atrocities? I foreground a relational approach to the research encounter, one that fostered intimate, steadfast, and mutually giving relationships between the research team and participants, and opening pathways to explore intimacy between a father and child. I then reflect on what this methodology offers in terms of thinking beyond Western-centric conceptualizations of peacebuilding.

Re-traumatization in Saadat Hassan Manto’s Black Borders: A Trauma Study

The research article analyzes the re-traumatization of the victimized and the survivors in the partition violence in Saadat Hassan Manto’s “Black Borders”, portraying the trauma of war and the conflicts of the residents. Its purpose is to show how the victims get traumatized through the literary text of the partition and to evaluate the atrocities in the history of the partition riots and huge holocaust. This vignette describes the unspeakable scales of reports of the riots of a culturally diverse people. They cannot safeguard the culture of that society, their beliefs, perceptions, values, and cultural ideology. These people are compelled to either remain faithful to the legacy of previous generation or choose their own destiny. A number of people formulate the worldviews in the case of the partition violence to accept the incident as an aberration. A valid philosophy of the partition is that it creates the shift in the cultural, political, and economic position of the nations. To interpret the text, the paper writer embraces the perspectives of Trauma and memory devices as a theoretical framework. For this matter, the perspectives of Cathy Caruth, Jennifer Yusin, Gyanendra Pandey, and Stefano Bianchini have been used. Since partition violent atrocities displace and deprive the people of the freedom and a choice, this article examines the experiences of the traumatized characters. The study concludes the significant role of the partition literature in helping the people to resolve their psychological disorder resulted due to the violence.

Flottalázadás a globalizáció és a kolonizáció összefüggéseiben. A brazil haditengerészet lázadása

The study aims to explore the history of the naval revolt that broke out in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, in 1893, keeping in mind the aspects of globalization, immigration, and colonization. The six-month-long conflict was of international significance, some of its effects (for example, on world trade) could be felt in other parts of the world. The case was widely covered by the world press: the news reached England, France, Germany, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, among others. Immigrants were also involved in the civil war, often unwittingly: they were present at the siege of Rio de Janeiro, they were included in military recruitment, and with the rise of Lusophobia, Portuguese immigrants became victims of violent atrocities. The civil war caused many diplomatic problems. The study aims to point out that in historical studies it is worth paying attention to the elements set in motion by the events of a civil war, because due to globalization we can get a momentary view of a country’s network of interests and relationships by looking at the external reactions.

Kurdistan under new attacks

The Turkish November 19, 2022, attack on Rojava dubbed Operation Claw-Sword was reputedly launched in retaliation for the earlier November 13 bomb attack on Istanbul’s sleek shopping district known as Istiklal Street that killed six people and wounded at least 80 more. Although it made no sense for the Kurds to attack Istanbul and thus invite new Turkish wrath, Turkey quickly blamed the PKK and its kin Syrian Democratic Forces/Democratic Union Party/Peoples’ Defense Units (SDF/PYD/YPG) in Rojava for the atrocity despite their quick denial. On November 22, Turkey escalated these air strikes by hitting an SDF/PYD/YPG military base adjacent to the main US military base in northeastern Syria housing some of the approximately 900 remaining few but strategically important troops the United States still maintains in Syria. No U.S. casualties were reported. However, a Pentagon spokesman declared that the Turkish airstrike had “directly threatened” U.S. troops stationed in the area. Thus, there is the danger of disastrous miscalculations that could lead to Turkish clashes with the United States. Although there is no credible evidence about who perpetrated the original bombing in Istanbul, one might speculate that some rogue Turkish intelligence element carried out a false flag operation to win support for Erdogan’s upcoming reelection scheduled for June 18, 2023. The PKK and SDF/PYD/YPG have accused Turkey of having used such attacks as a pretext for invasions in the past. General Mazloum Abdi (aka Mazlum Kobane), the SDF commander, claimed the reputed bomber, Ahlam Al-Bashir, was related to ISIS jihadists via her brothers and past husbands, some of whom were killed in battles against Kurdish forces. Also possible is a reputed rogue PKK element, such as the so-called Kurdistan Falcons/Hawks blamed in the past for similar violent atrocities. A jihadist group might also be responsible. Meanwhile, the midterm elections in the United States paradoxically both strengthened and weakened U.S. president Joseph Biden’s hand in all this.

The Perils of Pro-Government Militias in African Transition Democracy: Case of RSF in the Sudan’s Conflict

Sudan has never experienced peace since it attained its independence from Britain in 1956. Most of the causes of the conflicts in Sudan are related to political domination, economic deprivation, and Islamization. The regime of former President Omar al Bashir since it took power from 1989-2019, it adopted a counter-insurgency strategy of using militias in the peripheral areas to confront alongside its army on the rebellious activities. The review literature on pro-government militias in the context of the unstable Sudan provides debates pertains violent atrocities committed by militias against innocent civilians in the name of counterinsurgency. The 2003 crisis in Darfur region clearly outlines the state strategy of employing the Janjaweed militia who later metamorphosed into Rapid Support Force, a paramilitary group who committed genocide and crime against humanity in the name of fighting the two rebel groups: the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The RSF has grown a powerful paramilitary force that are now battling the State Army for the takeover of the government militarily. The militia group which was once built up by the state now turning a real danger to the transitional democracy. This paper argues that the RSF are the direct beneficiary of the state and are closely linked to its structures, its people, its wealth, and foreign partners. This paper draws a conclusion that amicable solution ought to be sought for the benefit of the marginalized peripheral areas of Darfur, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile or Sudan with this unstoppable conflict risks to fragment into different autonomous states.

The intrusive ‘echoing’ of past violence into the present

The short film Echo shows, through multiple filmic aspects, how violence can resonate from past to present without an instance of glorification. I analyse how the film engages with the indirect representation of violence and how it redirects past violent atrocities back to its perpetrators.

The Apparel Apparatus: Covert Body-Politics and Violence against Women in India

It is an undeniable fact that crime rates against women has increased to an alarming degree in India over the past few decades. With this alarming condition has risen up the question, where the ‘reasons’ behind such situation lie. The increasing number of violent atrocities against women has led to a number of debates in the present day scenario. One very important among them is the responsibility of the women themselves in such cases. Many have blamed the rapid westernization of our country in the past few decades and the changes that entailed them are loosening the moral values of our society. Such changes include the changing roles of the women in our country, such as working outside, having not only a private but also a public life, wearing western clothes etc. Some traditionalist termed these clothes as immoral and provocative to male eyes and should be discarded for they can loosen the moral of the male part of the society. Now the question is how far the women can be responsible for wearing an ‘immoral’ cloth or even crucial, can a ‘cloth’ be termed as ‘immoral’? What is this ‘moral guideline’, if any, that the women should follow? Is it even ‘moral’ to have such a guideline? Or is it another agenda of the hierarchical society to mask the reality colonization behind ‘morality’?

A Conflict Profile On The Rohingya Conflict in Myanmar

‘Rohingya’- world’s most persecuted minority group came to the attention of the international media again in the mid of 2017 due to the brutality they were experiencing in their homeland by the state authority of Myanmar. Now they are being labeled as the ‘perpetual other’ of Myanmar and as the ‘Bengali intruders’ by the society regardless of being the inhabitants in the Rakhine state for centuries (The Diplomat 2017). As a result of this Bangladesh experienced the largest surge of displaced people into its border after its independence. They are ‘culturally discriminated, economically exploited and politically sidelined’ and are being discerned by the Arakan people as a threat to their national identity and an additional competitor for the natural resources (Wolf 2015). It is widely believed that the reason of the violent crackdown of the military against the ‘Rohingya’ community in the Arakan state is either religiously or ethnically motivated. But this is only a splinter part of the entire truth. These violent atrocities against the Rohingya community is more politically and economically motivated than religiously and ethnically. This paper will focus on the causes of the present crisis which started to unveil since 2017 and how these are linked with the interest of the different stakeholders like: the Military junta of Myanmar, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), ASEAN, Bangladesh, Indian government, China, the UN, etc. To understand the causes and the effects of the conflict this paper will use the tool of ‘conflict tree’ and the ‘conflict onion’ will be used as a tool to understand the positions, needs and interests of different actors.

UN Troop Deployment and Preventing Violence Against Civilians in Darfur

ABSTRACTDoes the presence of UN peacekeeping force lower civilian fatalities at the local level? If it does, is it because of their coercive military capacity or for other reasons such as their roles in monitoring and reporting violent atrocities? To explore these questions, I study the deployment of peacekeeping units in Darfur and its impact on violence against civilians. Using original geocoded data of UN deployments before and after the intervention, I examine what aspects of such deployments impact one-sided civilian killings by government and rebel groups. Results indicate that deploying UN peacekeepers in an area restrains belligerent from targeting civilians. However, the military capacity of peacekeepers is not a significant predictor of violence against civilians. While their ability to defend themselves is extremely important for peacekeepers, these findings caution against the militarization trend in UN peacekeeping and seek to reshift focus on other substantive aspects of peacekeeping.

Reconceptualizing Historic and Contemporary Violence Against African Americans as Savage White American Terror (SWAT)

This work seeks to challenge the benign language employed in the discourse surrounding historic and contemporary white violence, particularly against African Americans. In so doing, this work develops language that more adequately captures the genocidal social control mechanisms designed to create terror through the physical and psychological brutality of white violence. Specifically, this work introduces the theoretical construct of Savage White American Terror (SWAT) which we correlate to historic patterns of violent atrocities such as lynching to contemporary police violence against African Americans.

Violence Against Women in the Rwandan Genocide

Throughout history, genocides have proven to be amongst the most violent atrocities committed by the human race. The Rwandan genocide was no different. In 1994, between April and July, approximately 800,000 Rwandans were killed.1Occurring only a couple decades ago, the Rwandan genocide stands out as one of the most notable examples of genocide in recent history. Despite the eyes of the world watching and involvement by the United Nations and other groups, hundreds of thousands of people were killed and sexually assaulted. During the Rwandan genocide, women were sexually assaulted on a scale previously unrecorded in any past genocide (United Nations 2014).2Women in the Rwandan genocide are unique in their roles both as victims and perpetrators. This paper will explore violence against Tutsi women during the Rwandan genocide from April through July, 1994. Specifically, I will analyze the methods of such violence, the perpetrators, and the long-term effects on the female population.

How Violence is Islamized

Interpretation of the history, foundational scriptures of Islam and the cultural practices of Muslims has been a fundamental influence upon the modes of Western explanation of the reasons for the rise of violent extremism involving Muslims. In this regard, one source that factors deeply in the process of making the Western portrait of Islam and the Muslim world is the emphasis of the Salafi reform movement on adherence to a puritanical form of Islam and the appropriation and subsequent perversion of this discourse by transnational jihadi groups. Such an arrogation of epistemological space of Islam by extremist organizations in a bid to glorify their violent atrocities and terror methodologies has spawned distorted negative images of the religion of Islam. This has subsequently led to a widespread propaganda of the phenomenon of Islamophobia, and it is this very notion of Islamic evil demonology that undergirds the Western imagery of Islam and the Muslims. The present article aims at demystifying such clichéd imagery of Islam in general and Salafism in particular that has been engendered by Western critiques.

Rethinking the Role of Ideology in Mass Atrocities

There is a widespread sense amongst theorists of genocide and other violent atrocities that ideology matters. But in spite of this agreement all is not well with actual efforts to theorise ideology's role. Theoretical and empirical coverage has been uneven, and there has been little if any effort to incorporate theories and research from the actual specialist field of contemporary ideology studies. As a result, overarching theoretical accounts of the role ideology plays in violent atrocities remain limited and problematic. This article aims to encourage theorists to think about ideology in a more systematic and productive fashion by analysing four questions: (a) what do we mean by ideology?; (b) who, in cases of atrocity, might be relevantly affected by ideology?; (c) how do these people come to be influenced by atrocity-justifying ideologies?; and (d) how might ideology encourage these people to commit, or permit, mass violence? In discussing these four questions, I aim to clear up a number of misconceptions or vagaries that frequent current analyses of ideology in works on atrocity and political violence. I ultimately offer a suggestive account of six recurring “justificatory mechanisms” which collectively describe some of the common features of ideology's role across cases of mass atrocity.

Micro and macro sociological causes of violent atrocities

One form of cruelty arises from ritually bounded social groups, where altruistic morality does not extend beyond the boundaries of one’s own enclave, and deliberate public cruelty to enemies is a ritual of group solidarity. Ritualized public displays of cruelty upon helpless victims are most strongly institutionalized in societies which combine hierarchic stratification with strongly ritualized group membership. Cruelty returns in its second form, bureaucratic callousness, through the impersonal structure of modern warfare and the exercise of organizational power.

The Importance of Remembering in Relation: Juxtaposing the Air India and Komagata Maru Disasters

In 1914, a ship named the Komagata Maru arrived off the coast of British Columbia carrying 376 would-be immigrants, mostly Sikh men from India desiring to settle permanently in the burgeoning colony of Canada. A public sentiment of concern about “Hindoo Invaders” and a discriminatory immigration policy caused the ship to be anchored for two months in the Vancouver harbour, during which time passengers were occasionally denied food and water. The ship was finally forced back to sea under threat from the weaponry of a Canadian navy vessel. At a first glance, this event seems to have little in common with the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, a terrorist act commonly believed to have been committed by Sikh separatists fighting for an independent Khalistan, or Sikh homeland, in India. Yet in Anita Rau Badami’s novel Can You Hear The Nightbird Call? and Uma Parameswaran’s poem “On the Shores of the Irish Sea,” the Komagata Maru and Air India disasters are explicitly linked. In this paper, I explore the reasons these authors might want to encourage a wider public to remember these two events in relation. How might remembrance of one refract and reframe memories of the other? Ultimately, I turn to recent state-sponsored efforts to memorialize and offer reconciliation for the Air India and Komagata Maru atrocities to demonstrate how failing to remember these events in relation makes it is easier to cloak the overt racism underpinning both and to thus maintain the veneer of “Canada” as a haven for racial diversity. By contrast, if public memorials of one event were designed in such a way as to explicitly make links to the other, I argue, a wider public might come to recognize how the unresolved injustice of the Maru incident is deeply implicated in the cascading torrent of violent atrocities that contributed to the bombing of Air India Flight 182, a connection virtually impossible to draw from current state-sponsored efforts to memorialize either event.

I Say to You: Ethnic Politics and the Kalenjin in Kenya (review)

Gabrielle Lynch, Say to You: Ethnic Politics and in Kenya. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. 283 pp. This account of ongoing importance of ethnic affiliation in contemporary Kenyan political life begins with proposition that ethnic identities are often recent constructs, but nonetheless enjoy a seemingly and natural appeal. Gabrielle Lynch describes how their potential to unite and divide depends on contextually discernable categories of people based on assumed commonalities and differences in histories and cultures. In today's globalized world, ethnic identities enjoy recognition through cultural and peoples' rights and specially designed institutional frameworks. In multi-party electoral politics, ethnic identities can be mobilized by political leaders, educated elites, local elders, and urban and rural residents to promote and defend socioeconomic and political interests. But there is also concern about potential for sense of ethnic difference to activate or endorse violent atrocities against other. Fueled by ethnic-politicking and opportunism, Kenya's post-election violence in 2008 led to death of 1300 people and displaced well over half a million. Say to You offers a meticulously researched, minutely documented history of ethnic group in Kenya. The label Kalenjin, which means I say to you, dates from mid-20th century and refers to linguistic propinquity of peoples subsumed under this designator. In calculus of colonial administration, sub-groups were regarded as separate tribes. A tiny group of politically aware and active members of Nandi and Kipsigis socio-linguistic groups came up with idea of as an inclusive ethnic category as a means to meet needs and interests of their communities. This effort gained some ground and the Kalenjin became a group acknowledged by colonial government, among others, during turbulent decade before independence. Local fears of marginalization and exclusion and assumed benefits of amalgamation initiated construction of this new inclusive identity, but did not foment a popular sense of difference and competition until Mau Mau emergency lent shape, menace, and immediacy to communal fears. Approaching independence opened up political competition and economic production to African citizens, thus creating new opportunities for ownership and control of power, wealth, and geographical space. This in turn raised expectations of development in newly independent country, but also heightened fears of groups that felt potentially threatened by other powerful groups of Kenyans. Lynch's central argument is that while processes of ethnic construction and negotiation are limited by need for ethnicity to be rooted in primordial discourses of cultural similarity and shared pasts, main motivation for construction and politicization of alliance was, and continues to be, a nexus of fear of loss and potential for gain. From outset, ethnic narratives of territoriality, threat, and opportunity were intertwined with a portrait of community's marginality and vulnerability as ethnic others to rising power groups in post-independence Kenya. To this point, narratives made a collective claim to Rift Valley on basis of prior residence and an assumed right of locals to own and control their homelands. Lynch's analysis is most convincing as she traces construction and popularization of inclusive identity and its early and active rejection of Mau Mau. Anti-Kikuyuism discourse came to fore just prior to independence as did an ethnically delineated notion of territorial ownership and control. By independence, popular logic encouraged by colonial experience to think and act ethnically classified regional disparities in economic development, including formal employment, mission influence, and divergent fortunes of agricultural and pastoralist communities. …