GENOCIDE STUDIES AND PREVENTION SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE AFTERMATH OF GENOCIDE

AZG Armenian Daily
04/11/2008

Armenian 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
visit