Chapter 3 the Missing and Needs of Families
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. Addressing the needs of families of the Missing: A test of contemporary approaches to transitional justice Simon Robins PhD Post-war Recovery Studies University of York Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit (PRDU), Department of Politics June 2011 Abstract This thesis aims to interrogate the current practice of transitional justice from the viewpoint of the victims of the violations that it seeks to address. The study challenges approaches to legacies of violence that are rooted solely in the human rights discourse and that emerge from national and international elites, remote from those most impacted by conflict. The needs of victims of one of the most serious and intractable violations, disappearance, are investigated in two contexts emerging from conflict, Nepal and Timor-Leste, and the impact of ongoing transitional justice process on those needs evaluated. The aim is to understand how a victim-centred transitional justice process can be constructed. Victims of conflict in both Nepal and Timor-Leste have little understanding of rights, articulating the needs, often the most basic, with which they are confronted on a daily basis. Whilst rights are the product of a discourse that claims to be global and universal, needs are necessarily local and particular, the product of culture and context. This drives the methodology of the study which is ethnographic, using qualitative research methods with families of the Missing. The research was conducted in a participatory way with Associations of Families of the Missing, with the aim of empowering victims‟ organisations, and the results published in relevant languages in both contexts with the aim of impacting policy. The result of this engagement with more than 300 families of the Missing in the two states was a comprehensive understanding of the impact of disappearance. In contrast to the legalist orientation of the global transitional justice project victims do not see judicial process as a priority. Rather, they urgently seek an answer concerning the fate of the Missing and to retrieve human remains. The latter is motivated partly by traditional spiritual beliefs, particularly in Timor where the impact of malign spirits of the Missing is severe. As important are livelihood issues where families are struggling to cope with the loss of breadwinners and seek support to ensure economic security. In Nepal the social impact on wives of the Missing was extreme, with women stigmatised in family and community as a result of traditional patriarchy. In both contexts families sought recognition for both the Missing and themselves as victims, demanding a place in collective memory through memorials and other reparative process. The gap seen between the needs of victims and what transitional justice process has delivered is a result of the institutionalised and prescriptive approach the international community advances in all contexts, dominated by trials and truth commissions, that fail to resonate with the needs of victims remote from such institutions. Victims of violations require process that is rooted in the social and symbolic worlds in which they live and that accounts for the complex dynamics of post-conflict societies. They seek a transformative transitional justice that challenges the narrow agenda of political and ethnic elites and that resonates with the everyday experience of those most impacted by conflict. The study draws a map for the empowerment and mobilisation of victims of conflict to become actors in an emancipatory approach to legacies of violence. 4 Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 3 Contents .......................................................................................................................... 5 List of tables ......................................................................................................................... 9 List of figures ...................................................................................................................... 11 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 17 Declaration ........................................................................................................................ 19 Chapter 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 21 1.1 Defining the problem ............................................................................................. 21 1.2 Transitional justice: an introduction ........................................................................ 26 1.3 Aims and objectives of the study ........................................................................... 35 1.4 Research design.................................................................................................... 39 1.5 Thesis structure ..................................................................................................... 44 Chapter 2 Emphasising the local and the particular: Needs after conflict ......................... 47 2.1 Post-conflict recovery and the needs of victims ..................................................... 47 2.2 Needs and rights, the local and the universal ........................................................ 50 2.2.1 The global rights discourse and the local victim ................................................ 50 2.2.2 Needs, rights and victim agency ....................................................................... 53 2.2.3 Needs versus rights? ........................................................................................ 56 2.2.4 Theories of need .............................................................................................. 60 2.3 Families of the Missing as victims and their needs ................................................ 65 2.4 Summary and conclusions ..................................................................................... 76 Chapter 3 Transitional justice and the Missing ................................................................. 79 3.1 Transitional justice mechanisms as a means to address the needs of families of the Missing ................................................................................................................ 79 3.2 Conceptualising a victim-centred transitional justice .............................................. 91 3.3 Summary ............................................................................................................... 97 Chapter 4 Nepal and Timor-Leste: The politics of transition .............................................. 99 4.1 Low income states in transition ............................................................................... 99 4.2 Nepal.................................................................................................................... 100 4.2.1 Conflict analysis: the People‟s War ................................................................. 100 4.2.2 Cultural aspects: a history of poverty and exclusion ........................................ 105 4.2.3 Nepal‟s still-born transition and the Missing .................................................... 109 4.2.4 A review of literature on Nepal‟s transition ...................................................... 114 4.3 Timor-Leste .......................................................................................................... 115 4.3.1 Conflict analysis .............................................................................................. 115 4.3.2 Cultural aspects: Families, communities and spirits ........................................ 119 4.3.3 Transitional justice in Timor-Leste: Looking forward or looking back? ............. 123 4.3.4 A review of the literature on Timor-Leste‟s transition ....................................... 126 4.4 Nepal and Timor-Leste: Comparing the two contexts ........................................... 128 Chapter 5 Research methodology: A critically engaged research ................................... 133 5.1 Participatory ethnography as a tool for change ..................................................... 133 5.2 Research methods and implementation ............................................................... 140 5.2.1 Research methods .......................................................................................... 140 5.2.2 Sampling and representation .......................................................................... 144 5.2.3 Implementation ............................................................................................... 145 5.3 Ethical issues ....................................................................................................... 148 5.4 Summary .............................................................................................................. 152 Chapter 6 Needs of families of the Missing in Nepal: Still seeking a process .................. 155 6.1 A profile of the victims .......................................................................................... 155 6.2 Needs of families of the Missing ........................................................................... 159 6.2.1 Need to know the fate of the Missing .............................................................. 161 6.2.2 Need for human remains ................................................................................