PRESS RELEASE
International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (IIGHRS)
CONTACT: Megan Swan
Tel: 416-250-9807
Email: [email protected]
October 28, 2008
Genocide Studies and Prevention Special Issue on the Aftermath of Genocide
This special issue of Genocide Studies and Prevention focuses on the
aftermath of genocide, a fascinating area within genocide studies which
addresses the reality that genocide continues long after the direct
killing stops. The issue explores the post-genocidal period in terms of
justice in Rwanda, reconciliation in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia,
and the cross-generational impact of denial of the Armenian Genocide.
"The Injustice of Local Justice: Truth, Reconciliation and Revenge in
Rwanda" by Jennie E. Burnet, Assistant Professor in the Department of
Anthropology at the University of Louisville, calls into question the
issue of justice. Based on extensive fieldwork in Rwanda over the past
decade, Burnet finds that the successful functioning of the gacaca
courts varies greatly among communities. The most important variable
appears to be the character of the "persons of integrity" who serve as
both judge and jury in this grassroots court system. It is clear in the
short-term, at least, that this local justice initiative has actually
increased conflict in local communities and intensified ethnic cleavages
now fourteen years after the end of the Rwandan Genocide.
Rupert Brown, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of
Sussex, England, and Sabina Cehajic, Lecturer in the Political Science
Department of the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, authored the second article, "Not in My Name: A Social
Psychological Study of Antecedents and Consequences of Acknowledgement
of In-Group Atrocities." The article explores socio-psychological
factors influencing individuals’ readiness and willingness to
acknowledge Serbian atrocities. Based on in-depth interviews with
eighteen Serbians between 1992 and 1995, this study provides essential
insights into some Serbian attitudes that will be invaluable for a
realistic approach to the rehabilitation of Serbian society and future
reconciliation with victims in the former Yugoslavia-and potentially
other cases.
The article by Maja Catic, a PhD candidate in the Politics Department at
Brandeis University, and former fieldworker in Yugoslavia, delves into
the sobering reality that reconciliation between post-genocide parties
who are attempting to live in the same state and imagine themselves as
part of the same political community is completely different from
post-genocide parties who do not have to attempt to live together again.
"A Tale of Two Reconciliations: Germans and Jews after World War II
and Bosnia after Dayton" argues that the success of German-Jewish
reconciliation relies on the fact that the victims and perpetrators did
not have to live in the same state in the aftermath of genocide. This
challenges the persistent tendency to invoke German-Jewish
reconciliation as a viable model for all other post-genocide societies,
such as Bosnia.
The groundbreaking article "Cycles of Genocide, Stories of Denial: Atom
Egoyan’s Ararat" by Donna-Lee Frieze, Research Fellow in the School of
History, Heritage and Society at Deakin University, Australia, offers
penetrating insights into the denial of genocide and its long-term
impact on victims, perpetrators, and their relationships. This
extensive analysis of Atom Egoyan’s landmark feature film on the
Armenian Genocide broaches the complex challenges of representing
genocide artistically, hinging on whether the artist conceives genocide
to be an isolated historical event or an ongoing reality. Frieze finds
Egoyan revealing that the truth of genocide is much more complex,
fragmented, and unsettled than is typically understood when genocide is
viewed solely in terms of the mass killing. This article is an
essential read and invites a revisit to Egoyan’s Ararat.
Editor Henry Theriault has done a great service by providing a wide
variety of articles illustrating that "the post-genocide period poses a
range of great challenges, and genocide casts its shadow across
generations."
Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal was co-founded
by the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the
International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (A
Division of the Zoryan Institute). The journal’s mission is to
understand the phenomenon of genocide, create an awareness of it as an
ongoing scourge, and promote the necessity of preventing it, for both
pragmatic and moral reasons. It is the official journal of the
International Association of Genocide Scholars and is published three
times a year by the University of Toronto Press. For more information,
contact the IIGHRS at [email protected] or Tel: 416-250-9807.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
