Truth and Reconciliation Commission Processes: Learning from the Solomon Islands (Peace and Security in the 21st Century) - Hardcover

Brounéus, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 178660566X ISBN 13: 9781786605665

Verlag: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

After war, does truth telling lead to more peaceful attitudes between former enemies? This book is the first to study the over-time effect of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process on people's attitudes towards peace. Focusing on the Solomon Islands TRC process, one of the least known or studied TRC processes in the world, and using surveys, focus groups and in depth interviews, the book reveals some critical issues for peacebuilding. For example, while support of the TRC was consistently quite strong over the two years of the study, there was a sharp decline in trust in the process as well as a significant increase in distrust and suspicion towards ex-combatants over the two-year period. The book shows that the ex-combatants did not feel safe to tell the truth in the TRC and had therefore decided beforehand what to say in the hearings. A systematic telling of untruths thereby took place, severely undermining relationships and peacebuilding in the country. The book weaves the findings from the Solomon Islands with experiences of other post-conflict truth telling process around the world, and suggests practical guidelines for future TRC processes after war.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Karen Brounéus is Associate Professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden.

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission Processes

Learning from the Solomon Islands

By Karen Brounéus

Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc

Copyright © 2019 Rowman & Littlefield
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78660-566-5

Contents

Acknowledgments, ix, 
Preface, xi, 
1 Introduction, 1, 
2 TRCs, War-Related Trauma, and Attitudes toward Peace, 15, 
3 The Solomon Islanders in This Study, 27, 
4 Respect, Discrimination, and Trust, 45, 
5 The TRC Process: A Drop in Confidence and the Lack of Kastom, 59, 
6 Coexistence and Feelings toward Ex-combatants, 71, 
7 Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead: Designing TRCs for Peace, 85, 
Notes, 103, 
References, 107, 
Index, 117, 
About the Author, 123, 

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Mr. Stone Puia's story:

In June 2000 the sound of guns can be heard everywhere. All the expatriates were evacuated and because my partner was an expat she was also evacuated with our two children on Wednesday and I drove her to the International Airport. I was driving back to my home at White River when men with guns pulled me over and grabbed me out from the car and led me down to a check point at the White River area. I was led down while they shouted "We have caught a live pig." They questioned me in relation to an allegation that I was planning to establish a combatant group from Renbel Province to fight against the MEF.

— (Victim starts crying and could not finish his story) — Solomon Islands TRC Final Report, January 2012, Volume IV.

On March 9, 2010, the first hearings of the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) were held at the Forum Fisheries Agency in Honiara. Twenty victims of the so-called Tensions were heard by the TRC on that first day, five women and fifteen men — one of whom was Mr. Stone Puia, quoted here. Initiated by the Churches of Solomon Islands, the TRC was mandated by a 2008 Act of the Solomon Islands Parliament to promote "national unity and reconciliation through the process of truth seeking" (Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report January 2012). The TRC's duty was to engage victims, perpetrators, and others in public and closed hearings to "discover the causes, details and effects of the country's 'ethnic tension' crisis of 1998–2003, which nearly destroyed the country, killed at least 200 persons, and adversely affected many thousands more" (Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report January 2012).

With the prominent South African TRC in 1995, led by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, TRCs have become exceedingly popular as a post-conflict peacebuilding tool. The South African TRC served as an extraordinary hope and inspiration to many post-conflict countries. Since the first TRC was created in Uganda in 1974, over forty TRCs have been established in post-conflict societies around the world — the vast majority of which have come to light after the South African TRC (Guthrey 2015). Hence, today, TRCs are an important tool in the standard practice transitional justice toolkit, applied in post-conflict peacebuilding worldwide (Subotic 2012).

What effect does a TRC process have on people's attitudes toward peace-building after armed conflict? One of the core underlying assumptions when engaging in a quest for "national unity and peace" through a truth commission is that hearing the truth of the past period of conflict and atrocity will lead to greater understanding between former enemies, and thereby to reconciliation and peace. If we see reconciliation as

a societal process that involves mutual acknowledgment of past suffering, and the changing of destructive attitudes and behaviour into constructive relationships toward sustainable peace (Brounéus 2003)

truth commissions may be a quintessential mechanism for facilitating such a process. That is, if truth telling leads to greater understanding and peaceful relationships, TRCs have a pivotal role to play in the process toward reconciliation and peace. Yet, we know little of their impact on peacebuilding at the micro-level over time. While important contributions have been made in recent years on truth commissions and their effect on, for example, durable peace and human rights at the global level (Lie et al. 2007; Snyder and Vinjamuri 2004; Wiebelhaus-Brahm 2010) and individual well-being and psychological health (Brounéus 2010; Byrne 2004; Guthrey 2015), no previous study has followed a TRC process over time aiming to study people's attitudes toward issues of relevance peace. To what extent does a TRC facilitate "unity and peace" at the grassroots level? By studying a TRC over time, we have the possibility to observe change. If we study such complex processes as a TRC at only one point — as a snapshot — we risk to miss important aspects, such as attitude change. A process of peacebuilding takes time, and will go through phases. Hence, by following a TRC process over time, we gain perspective, and depth.

Also, peacebuilding depends on people at the grassroots level. It is therefore important to know in what ways hearing truths of the past conflict helps or hinders peacebuilding at the grassroots level. Do victim testimonies help heal the wounds of the past, or do they spur feelings of revenge? Is it easier to live together with ex-combatants and perpetrators after hearing their stories? Considering the financial and personal resources invested into TRC processes, it is important that we increase our understanding of how they affect people's experiences of peacebuilding in everyday life and attitudes to peace.

The Solomon Islands TRC process provided an important opportunity to learn more. First and foremost for the Solomon Islands itself — to see how people on the ground experienced the country's own TRC process. Every case of a TRC is unique — the past conflict, culture, and context will always differ — but from unique places, there may also be lessons of potential promises and pitfalls to be gained for other post-conflict countries. Further, the case of the Solomon Islands was of particular interest for a study such as this: compared to other post-conflict countries in the world, it is a relatively small country which experienced a relatively small conflict, and which initiated — from within — a TRC. These factors are quite ideal for a TRC to have the intended effects of truth, reconciliation, and peace. It should therefore, theoretically, be a case where it would be easier to observe change. Considering the enormous complexity of social science research — in that we do not study phenomena in a laboratory but in real life — these are important aspects. If we can learn what went well and what was challenging in a small place, we can bring this learning to test in other places as well. In this way, lessons from different TRCs across the world — large and small — can be accumulated and shared. With studies such as this, our understanding of TRC processes may increase — generating knowledge that can help other peacebuilding processes around the world as well.

THE AIM OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT UNDERLYING THIS BOOK

One of the core underlying assumptions when establishing a TRC in a post-conflict country is that the truth will heal. That is, that hearing the truth of the past period of conflict and atrocity will summon greater understanding between former enemies, and thereby lead to healing, reconciliation, and peace....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Rowman & Littlefield
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 178660566X
• ISBN 13: 9781786605665
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 142
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland