The Responsibility to Protect

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Responsibility to Protect Thethe responsibilityResponsibility Toto Protectprotect RESEARCH, BIBLIOGRAPHY, BACKGROUND SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME TO THE REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON INTERVENTION AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY The Responsibility To Protect RESEARCH, BIBLIOGRAPHY, BACKGROUND december 2001 SUPPLEMENTARY VOLUME TO THE REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON INTERVENTION AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY II Published by the International Development Research Centre PO Box 8500, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1G 3H9 http://www.idrc.ca © International Development Research Centre 2001 National Library of Canada cataloguing in publication data International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty The Responsibility to Protect: Research, Bibliography, Background Supplementary Volume to the Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty Issued by the International Development Research Centre. ISBN 0-88936-963-1 1. Intervention (International law). 2. Sovereignty. 3. Security, international 4. United Nations. Security Council. 5. Humanitarian assistance. I. International Development Research Centre (Canada) II. Title. JZ6368.I57 2001 327.1’7 C2001-980329-X All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the International Development Research Centre. Mention of a proprietary name does not constitute endorsement of the product and is given only for information. IDRC Books endeavours to produce environmentally friendly publications. All paper used is recycled as well as recyclable. All inks and coatings are vegetable-based products. The full catalogue of IDRC Books is available at http://www.idrc.ca/booktique. III TABLE OF CONTENTS CO-CHAIRS’ FOREWORD ....................................................................................................V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................VII RESEARCHERS’ PREFACE ....................................................................................................X LIST OF ACRONYMS ..........................................................................................................XII LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ......................................................................................XIV PART I RESEARCH ESSAYS ..........................................................................................1 Section A. ELEMENTS OF THE DEBATE ..............................................................................3 1. State Sovereignty..............................................................................................................5 2. Intervention ..................................................................................................................15 3. Prevention......................................................................................................................27 Section B. PAST HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTIONS ......................................................47 4. Interventions Before 1990 ............................................................................................49 5. Interventions After the Cold War ................................................................................79 Section C. MORALITY, LAW, OPERATIONS, AND POLITICS ......................................127 6. Rights and Responsibilities ...................................................................................... 129 7. Legitimacy and Authority ..........................................................................................155 8. Conduct and Capacity ................................................................................................177 9. Domestic and International Will ..............................................................................207 PART II BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................223 1. Humanitarian Intervention ........................................................................................227 2. Sovereignty and Intervention ....................................................................................235 3. Conflict Prevention ....................................................................................................243 4. Ethical Aspects ............................................................................................................249 5. Legal Aspects................................................................................................................257 6. Interest and Will ..........................................................................................................271 7. National and Regional Perspectives ..........................................................................277 8. Nonmilitary Interventions ..........................................................................................291 9. Operational Aspects of Military Interventions ........................................................303 10. Military Interventions and Humanitarian Action ....................................................311 11. Post-Conflict Challenges ..........................................................................................319 12. Country Cases ..........................................................................................................325 IV The Responsibility to Protect: supplementary volume PART III BACKGROUND ..........................................................................................337 1. About the Commission ..............................................................................................341 2. About the Commissioners..........................................................................................345 3. Regional Roundtables and National Consultations ................................................349 INDEX .............................................................................................................................. 399 V CO-CHAIRS’ FOREWORD The Report of the Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty could not have been produced in an intellectual vacuum. There is an enormous literature on the subject, in many languages and going back many years, which the Commission had a responsibility to take into account – and every reason to want to. In order to aid our own work, and as a contribution to future scholarship, we asked our research team to prepare an annotated list – necessarily selective, but as wide-ranging as possible – of the best writing on the subject. The Bibliography thus produced, set out in Part II, is an important component of the present volume. Notwithstanding the wealth of existing literature, the Commission felt the need to generate a good deal of additional research of its own, to fill gaps in that literature, to bring it up to date and to draw together in a more manageable way information and ideas scattered through many primary and secondary sources in many languages. Thus the Research Essays in Part I, which constitute the bulk of this volume. Between them, the nine essays cover, in depth, the full range of issues with which the Commission had to grapple. We were particularly concerned to ensure that we had before us, as an input into our deliberations, a thoroughly balanced analysis of all those issues, with all the major arguments and counter- arguments fully laid out. To the extent that views or conclusions are expressed from time to time in these essays – almost unavoidable in an exercise of this kind – they are, of course, those of the researchers and not the Commission. The primary authors of these essays in their final published form were Thomas G. Weiss and Don Hubert, of the Commission’s research team, to whom the Commission owes an enormous debt of gratitude. Their writing was based, in turn, on substantial contributions from over fifty other scholars and specialists, whose names are listed in the acknowledge- ments which follow, who submitted either specially commissioned research papers, or who made specifically requested contributions to the regional and national roundtables further described below. The Commission’s Report – and in particular its central theme of “The Responsibility to Protect” – goes in a number of ways beyond the discussion in the Research Essays collected here. But those essays were very much the quarry from which the Report was mined. They should also be seen as supplementing, and adding a great deal of detail (for example in its descriptions of past interventions, both before and after 1990) to a Report which was delib- erately limited in length to increase its chances of being read. The Commission very much hopes that the Research Essays will in turn prove to be, for policy makers and commentators of the future, a mine of detailed and useful information and analysis. Access to high quality written research was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the Commission to produce its report. Dealing with subject matter of this kind, involving such sensitive and volatile policy issues, and with many different views evident in different parts of the world, it was absolutely crucial for the Commission to hear directly from those actually or potentially affected by interventions, or in a position to undertake them, or with strong and well-considered views on the issues in
Recommended publications
  • Violence Against Kosovar Albanians, Nato's
    VIOLENCE AGAINST KOSOVAR ALBANIANS, NATO’S INTERVENTION 1998-1999 MSF SPEAKS OUT MSF Speaks Out In the same collection, “MSF Speaking Out”: - “Salvadoran refugee camps in Honduras 1988” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [October 2003 - April 2004 - December 2013] - “Genocide of Rwandan Tutsis 1994” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [October 2003 - April 2004 - April 2014] - “Rwandan refugee camps Zaire and Tanzania 1994-1995” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [October 2003 - April 2004 - April 2014] - “The violence of the new Rwandan regime 1994-1995” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [October 2003 - April 2004 - April 2014] - “Hunting and killings of Rwandan Refugee in Zaire-Congo 1996-1997” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [August 2004 - April 2014] - ‘’Famine and forced relocations in Ethiopia 1984-1986” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [January 2005 - November 2013] - “MSF and North Korea 1995-1998” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [January 2008 - 2014] - “War Crimes and Politics of Terror in Chechnya 1994-2004” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [June 2010 -2014] -”Somalia 1991-1993: Civil war, famine alert and UN ‘military-humanitarian’ intervention” Laurence Binet - Médecins Sans Frontières [October 2013] Editorial Committee: Laurence Binet, Françoise Bouchet-Saulnier, Marine Buissonnière, Katharine Derderian, Rebecca Golden, Michiel Hofman, Theo Kreuzen, Jacqui Tong - Director of Studies (project coordination-research-interviews-editing): Laurence Binet - Assistant: Berengere Cescau - Transcription of interviews: Laurence Binet, Christelle Cabioch, Bérengère Cescau, Jonathan Hull, Mary Sexton - Typing: Cristelle Cabioch - Translation into English: Aaron Bull, Leah Brummer, Nina Friedman, Imogen Forst, Malcom Leader, Caroline Lopez-Serraf, Roger Leverdier, Jan Todd, Karen Tucker - Proof reading: Rebecca Golden, Jacqui Tong - Design/lay out: - Video edit- ing: Sara Mac Leod - Video research: Céline Zigo - Website designer and webmaster: Sean Brokenshire.
    [Show full text]
  • Representation of Liberation War in the Films of 90S
    [Scientific Articles] Shifat S., Ahmed S. Representation of Liberation War in the Films of 90s REPRESENTATION OF LIBERATION WAR IN THE FILMS OF 90s Shifat S. Assistant Professor at Jahangirnagar University Journalism & Media Studies Department (Dhaka, Bangladesh) anniemcjdu@gmail.com Ahmed S. Assistant Professor at Jahangirnagor University Journalism & Media Studies Department (Dhaka, Bangladesh) salma.ahmed79@yahoo.com Abstract: In the history of Bangladesh, the liberation War of 1971 is an unforgettable period. Through the bloody struggle of nine months their independence is achieved, which simultaneously contains the spirit of Bengali spirit, love and patriotism towards the motherland. Bangladeshi people participated in the spirit of love and extreme sacrifice from every sphere of society for the motherland and Bengali language. In addition to other mass media, film is an equally important medium and in films there is a great deal of effort to uncover the vital role of creating ideas and consciousness among people about the liberation War. With this in mind, this study tried to find out, how the films conceptualise the spirit and history of the liberation War in the 90s after two decades of freedom. This study has been conducted taking three feature films of the 90s based on the liberation war. Adopting the content analysis method, the study aimed to answer two questions- ‘How do the films of the 90s represent the liberation War of Bangladesh?’; and, ‘To portray the history of the liberation war, what kind of content and contexts have been used in these films?’ The results showed that the films of the nineties signify the jana-itihas of Bangladesh by attaining the concept of the liberation War in a distinctive way.
    [Show full text]
  • Blood Ties: Religion, Violence, and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878
    BLOOD TIES BLOOD TIES Religion, Violence, and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908 I˙pek Yosmaog˘lu Cornell University Press Ithaca & London Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2014 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2014 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yosmaog˘lu, I˙pek, author. Blood ties : religion, violence,. and the politics of nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908 / Ipek K. Yosmaog˘lu. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8014-5226-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8014-7924-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Macedonia—History—1878–1912. 2. Nationalism—Macedonia—History. 3. Macedonian question. 4. Macedonia—Ethnic relations. 5. Ethnic conflict— Macedonia—History. 6. Political violence—Macedonia—History. I. Title. DR2215.Y67 2013 949.76′01—dc23 2013021661 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Paperback printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Josh Contents Acknowledgments ix Note on Transliteration xiii Introduction 1 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Report Submitted to the African Union by the World Peace Foundation Preface by Thabo Mbeki and Lakhdar Brahimi
    African Politics, African Peace Report submitted to the African Union by the World Peace Foundation Preface by Thabo Mbeki and Lakhdar Brahimi Report on the Future of Peace Missions in Africa 1 © 2016 by The World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. ISBN: 978-0-9801452-4-3 Report on the Future of Peace Missions in Africa i Table of Contents Preface iii Glossary and acronyms x List of charts and figures xii Acknowledgments xiii Executive Summary 1 The Primacy of the Political 1 Emphasizing the African Union’s Norms and Principles 2 African Ownership of the Political Agenda: 3 Enhanced AU Mechanisms and Relationships Africa’s Peace Support Operations: ASF-1 and ASF-2 7 Funding Africa’s Peace Missions: Prioritizing the Political 9 Background and Process of the Report 10 Rationale of the Study: Africa at a Turning Point 10 An Independent Review 12 Scope of the Study 12 Major Findings of the Research 13 Causes of Armed Conflict 13 Underlying Causes 14 Contested Government Transitions 14 Inter-State Contestation 16 Resources and Boundaries 18 Violent Extremism 19 Responses: The African Peace and Security Architecture 20 Capabilities and Norms 20 APSA and APSA Plus 23 Prevention 26 Mediation 28 Political Missions 29 Report on the Future of Peace Missions in Africa i Peace Support Operations 31 Peacekeeping and Enforcement 31 Troop Contributors 32 Mandating Authorities and ‘Rehatting’ 34 Mandates and CONOPS 36 Protection of Civilians 39 Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Peacekeepers 44 The African Standby
    [Show full text]
  • Serbia & Montenegro
    PROFILE OF INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT : SERBIA & MONTENEGRO Compilation of the information available in the Global IDP Database of the Norwegian Refugee Council (as of 27 September, 2005) Also available at http://www.idpproject.org Users of this document are welcome to credit the Global IDP Database for the collection of information. The opinions expressed here are those of the sources and are not necessarily shared by the Global IDP Project or NRC Norwegian Refugee Council/Global IDP Project Chemin de Balexert, 7-9 1219 Geneva - Switzerland Tel: + 41 22 799 07 00 Fax: + 41 22 799 07 01 E-mail : idpproject@nrc.ch CONTENTS CONTENTS 1 PROFILE SUMMARY 8 IDPS FROM KOSOVO: STUCK BETWEEN UNCERTAIN RETURN PROSPECTS AND DENIAL OF LOCAL INTEGRATION 8 CAUSES AND BACKGROUND 12 BACKGROUND 12 THE CONFLICT IN KOSOVO (1981-1999): INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FINALLY IMPOSES AUTONOMY OF THE PROVINCE TO YUGOSLAV AUTHORITIES 12 OUSTING OF PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC OPENS NEW ERA OF DEMOCRACY (2000-2003) 14 DJINDJIC ASSASSINATION THREATENS CONTINUATION OF SERBIA’S REFORMS (2003) 15 KOSOVO UNDER INTERNATIONAL ADMINISTRATION (2003) 16 BACKGROUND TO THE CONFLICT IN SOUTHERN SERBIA (2000-2005) 18 UNCERTAINTY AROUND FINAL STATUS ISSUE HAS A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON DISPLACEMENT AND RETURN (2005) 21 CAUSES OF DISPLACEMENT 23 DISPLACEMENT BEFORE AND DURING NATO INTERVENTION (1998-1999) 23 MASSIVE RETURN OF KOSOVO ALBANIANS SINCE END OF NATO INTERVENTION (FROM JUNE 1999) 26 LARGE SCALE DISPLACEMENT OF ETHNIC MINORITIES FOLLOWING THE NATO INTERVENTION (1999) 26 DISPLACEMENT CAUSED BY
    [Show full text]
  • Unit 10 Dreams
    English One Unit 10 Dreams Objectives After you have studied this unit you should will be able to • participate in conversations and discussions. • understand and narrate problems. • take and give interviews. • Write paragraphs and dialogues Overview Lesson 1: I have a dream Lesson 2: What I dream to be Lesson 3: They had dreams 1 Lesson 4: They had dreams 2 Answer Key Unit-10 Page # 123 SSC Programme Lesson 1: I have a dream Hi, I am Maitri Mutsuddi. My father Hello! I am Mofakkhar Hasan. I live is a freedom fighter and my mother is in a slum with my parents and sisters. a teacher. They both dream for a I know how cruel poverty can be! I golden Bangladesh and inspire me to feel very sorry to the poor people do something significant, something suffering in my slum. After I have positive for the country. Often I think finished my education, I will be a what to do to fulfil their expectations social worker to fight against the in future. Finally I have decided to be social injustice and poverty. ‘Change a politician and work for my is the word I believe in to make motherland. How is it? Bangladesh a golden Bengal.’ I am Amitabh Kar, when I say to my My name is Ruth Antara Chowdhury. friends that I would like to be a space I believe that society cannot be traveler, they laugh. But I really want enlightened without to be that. If people from other education.Education lights the candle countries can win the moon, and roam in people’s heart.
    [Show full text]
  • Balkan Wars Between the Lines: Violence and Civilians in Macedonia, 1912-1918
    ABSTRACT Title of Document: BALKAN WARS BETWEEN THE LINES: VIOLENCE AND CIVILIANS IN MACEDONIA, 1912-1918 Stefan Sotiris Papaioannou, Ph.D., 2012 Directed By: Professor John R. Lampe, Department of History This dissertation challenges the widely held view that there is something morbidly distinctive about violence in the Balkans. It subjects this notion to scrutiny by examining how inhabitants of the embattled region of Macedonia endured a particularly violent set of events: the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and the First World War. Making use of a variety of sources including archives located in the three countries that today share the region of Macedonia, the study reveals that members of this majority-Orthodox Christian civilian population were not inclined to perpetrate wartime violence against one another. Though they often identified with rival national camps, inhabitants of Macedonia were typically willing neither to kill their neighbors nor to die over those differences. They preferred to pursue priorities they considered more important, including economic advancement, education, and security of their properties, all of which were likely to be undermined by internecine violence. National armies from Balkan countries then adjacent to geographic Macedonia (Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia) and their associated paramilitary forces were instead the perpetrators of violence against civilians. In these violent activities they were joined by armies from Western and Central Europe during the First World War. Contrary to existing military and diplomatic histories that emphasize continuities between the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and the First World War, this primarily social history reveals that the nature of abuses committed against civilians changed rapidly during this six-year period.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Studies
    LITERARY 2015 STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH LITERARY STUDIES Key Textbooks 4 Bible & Classical 44 Literary Criticism 11 Theory 45 20th Century 16 Transatlantic Literature 51 War Literature 18 Arabic & Persian Literature 53 Modernism 20 Scottish Literature 54 Gothic 34 Journals 62 19th Century, Romanticism 36 Index 65 Shakespeare & Renaissance 42 Order Form 67 Placing your order Please email our sales department: sales@eup.ed.ac.uk Mailing list Join our mailing list to sign up for catalogues, email bulletins and journal ToC alerts. Create your account and manage your mailing preferences at www.euppublishing.com/action/registration Ebooks Books marked with an ebook are available as ebooks. Our ebooks are available for individuals to buy from the Kindle and Nook stores and are available to libraries from a number of aggregators and platforms. See the full list at: www.euppublishing.com/page/infoZone/librarians/e-books Textbooks Books marked with a textbook are available to lecturers on inspection. Request your copy using the order form at the back, or email marketing@eup.ed.ac.uk with the course and book details. Journals Prices noted below are for individuals. More information, including editors, aims & scope, submission details and the full range of subscription options for individuals and institutions worldwide, is available on our website. If you have any questions, please email journals@eup.ed.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 131 650 4218. Contacts Publisher Marketing Manager Jackie Jones Carla Hepburn 0131 650 4217 0131 651 1286 Cover image: Jackie.Jones@eup.ed.ac.uk carla.hepburn@eup.ed.ac.uk © Augusta Street, São Paulo, Brazil.
    [Show full text]
  • Kosovo 7 July 1998
    RESEARCH PAPER 98/73 KOSOVO 7 JULY 1998 Kosovo, a small land-locked region of the western Balkans, has become the focus of international attention as enmity between the majority ethnic- Albanian population and the Serbian authorities has burst into violence, with potential to threaten wider regional security. This paper analyses the historical background to this conflict and its more recent political origins, before discussing the strengths of the opposing sides. It then examines international diplomatic and regional reactions, including the possibility of some form of international military intervention in the region, and concludes with an overview of possible outcomes to the crisis. Tim Youngs and Tom Dodd INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE SECTION HOUSE OF COMMONS LIBRARY Recent Library Research Papers include: 98/58 Unemployment by Constituency - April 1998 13.05.98 98/59 The local elections of 7 May 1998 and the London Referendum 12.05.98 98/60 Unemployment by Constituency: Welfare-to-Work Groups - April 1998 13.05.98 98/61 Parliamentary Pay and Allowances: Current Rates 18.05.98 98/62 The Registration of Political Parties Bill Bill 188 of 1997-98 01.06.98 98/63 Bovine Tuberculosis 01.06.98 98/64 GDP per capita in OECD countries: the UK's relative position 04.06.98 98/65 Northern Ireland: The Release of Prisoners under the Northern Ireland 15.06.98 (Sentences) Bill Bill 196 of 1997-98 98/66 Council Tax Capping in 1998/99 16.06.98 98/67 Unemployment by Constituency - May 1998 17.06.98 98/68 'Age of Consent' for Male Homosexual Acts 19.06.98 98/69 Rent levels, affordability and housing benefit 22.06.98 98/70 Agriculture and the Environment 24.06.98 98/71 Economic Indicators 01.07.98 98/72 The Millennium Bug 31.06.98 Research Papers are available as PDF files: • to members of the general public on the Parliamentary web site, URL: http://www.parliament.uk • within Parliament to users of the Parliamentary Intranet, URL: http://hcl1.hclibrary.parliament.uk Library Research Papers are compiled for the benefit of Members of Parliament and their personal staff.
    [Show full text]
  • The Equal Application of the Laws Of
    Volume 90 Number 872 December 2008 The equal application of the laws of war: a principle under pressure Adam Roberts* Adam Roberts is Senior Research Fellow,Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University,Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, and President-Elect of the British Academy. He was Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at Oxford University in 1986^2007. Abstract The ‘equal application’ principle is that in international armed conflicts, the laws of war apply equally to all who are entitled to participate directly in hostilities, irrespective of the justice of their causes. The principle, which depends on maintaining separation between jus ad bellum and jus in bello, faces serious challenges in contemporary armed conflicts and discourses. Some variations of the principle may be inevitable. However, it has a firm basis in treaties and in historical experience. It is the strongest practical basis that exists, or is likely to exist, for maintaining certain elements of moderation in war. The rival proposition – that the rights and obligations of combatants under the laws of war should apply in a fundamentally unequal manner, depending on which side is deemed to be the more justified – is unsound in conception, impossible to implement effectively and dangerous in its effects. * This article is a product of research under the auspices of the Oxford Leverhulme Research Programme on ‘The Changing Character of War’. For comments on successive drafts I am grateful to participants in its workshop on Symmetry, Oxford, 23–25 June 2005, and also to Dr Hans-Peter Gasser, former Senior Legal Adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
    [Show full text]
  • Reliving the Partition in Eastern India: Memories of and Memoirs by Women Across the Borders
    Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (ISSN 0975-2935) Indexed by Web of Science, Scopus, DOAJ, ERIHPLUS Vol. 12, No. 1, January-March, 2020. 1-8 Full Text: http://rupkatha.com/V12/n1/v12n123.pdf DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v12n1.23 Reliving the Partition in Eastern India: Memories of and Memoirs by Women across the Borders Sharmistha Chatterjee Sriwastav Associate Professor, Department of English, Aliah University, City Campus, West Bengal, India. ORCID: 0000-0001-6771-0435. Email Id: dr.s.c.sriwastav@gmail.com Abstract Genocide in Bangladesh: 1971 (2015), edited by A.K.M Nasimul Kamal is a well- documented, organised and factual record of newspaper clippings from all over the world. A collective effort, it is an objective, yet horrific account of the brutal atrocities of West Pakistanis on the Bengalis in East Pakistan, carefully interspersed with the international politics behind it. Compared to this unparalleled book and many others like this, memoirs by individual women recording the carnage during the Bangladesh Liberation Struggle are pale, unreliable and flickering comments on the events and the real politick behind the bloodbath. Yet as the paper argues, these memoirs and interviews by various women, from all walks of life, do create an alternative history- a history characterised and problematised by doubts, gaps, lapses, silences, turbulences and half realized truths. Autobiographical accounts by Begum Mushtari Shafi (translated, 2006),cand Farida Huq (2008), former a social activist and latter an educationist coupled with interviews given by several ordinary, poor women across the borders ( recorded in 2009) demand closer attention to themselves by recreating the gruesome days.
    [Show full text]
  • By Emmaculate Asige Liaga and Cori Wielenga
    SOCIAL COHESION FROM THE TOP-DOWN OR BOTTOM-UP?THE CASES OF SOUTH SUDAN AND BURUNDI by Emmaculate Asige Liaga and Cori Wielenga Both Burundi and South Sudan experience intractable conflicts which national and international actors struggle to resolve. Efforts to consolidate the nation-state and foster social cohesion seem to be unsuccessful. As has been well documented in the literature, top-down efforts to facilitate social cohesion by international and national actors are not enough to fos- ter sustainable peace. Yet the dynamics and actors involved in bottom-up interventions for social cohesion are less well understood than elite inter- ventions. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of the bottom- up interventions and explores the vertical integration between top-down and bottom-up efforts at social cohesion that exist along the local, national, and international trajectory in the two cases. Particularly in con- texts such as South Sudan and Burundi, which are characterized by soci- eties that are held together through complex social and relational networks, and in which informal governance and conflict resolution mech- anisms hold high levels of legitimacy, this under-researched aspect of social cohesion may hold critical insights in terms of consolidating nation- states. The article provides an argument for the consideration of bottom- up approaches for more integration of social cohesion mechanisms. INTRODUCTION In the context of increasing intrastate conflict in Africa, there have been questions around how people in a given political society cohere or “stick together.” Our discussion is situated in the growing concern with the limitations of statebuilding as a means of securing sustained peace and social cohesion.1 There is a growing interest in nationbuild- ing as an alternative way to approach rebuilding divided societies, but PEACE & CHANGE, Vol.
    [Show full text]