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Justificatory Discourse of the Perpetrator in TRC Testimonies: a Discourse-Historical Analysis

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Justificatory Discourse of the Perpetrator in TRC Testimonies: a Discourse-Historical Analysis View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Stellenbosch University SUNScholar Repository Justificatory Discourse of the Perpetrator in TRC Testimonies: A Discourse-historical Analysis. Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment if the requirements for the degree of MA in Linguistics for the Language Professions (General Linguistics 897) Taryn Bernard Student No: 14408317 March 2009 Supervisor: Prof C. Anthonissen. DECLARATION By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the owner of the copyright thereof (unless to the extent explicitly otherwise stated) and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Date: February 2009 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a number of people who supported me during the process of writing this thesis, and to whom I would like to extend acknowledgements. I am grateful to Christine Anthonissen for her advice and guidance, which extended to many areas above and beyond this text. To my friends and colleagues at the Department of General Linguistics at Stellenbosch University for sharing their expertise and providing technical support in many different areas. To my mom, Hillary, my brother Marc, and my gran Rose, for all the love, always. And finally, to Laurence, who was patient and encouraging and allowed me time to put my thesis first, on many occasions. 3 ABSTRACT This study investigates the ways in which former South African Police (SAP) perpetrators of human rights violations justify their criminal actions in testifying before the Amnesty Committee (AC) of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In particular, attention goes to the testimonies of former Commissioner of Police Johan van der Merwe, and former member of the Security Branch section of the SAP, Jeffrey Benzien. A key assumption in the study is that the justification of human rights violations is a discursive practice that is largely language dependent (Reisigl & Wodak 200: xi). The research draws on the theoretical aims and methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It refers largely to Benke and Wodak’s (2003) discourse–historical study on the justificatory discourse of ex-Wehrmacht officers of the Austrian army. This study therefore takes a discourse-historical approach to discourse and the data, an approach which takes into consideration the surrounding political and historical context of the selected texts, which are, in this case, the testimonies of perpetrators at the AC hearings. Besides an analysis of the justificatory discourses produced by two former police officers, the study reflects on how the discursive strategies of the apartheid perpetrators compare with one another and with the ex- Wehrmacht officers. CDA and the discourse-historical approach provide interdisciplinary angles on linguistic analysis of a text. For this reason, a review is given of literature which relates the study to political, historical and philosophical insights. The analysis particularly makes use of Foster et al.’s (2005) socio-political study of apartheid perpetrator narratives. The study reveals that perpetrators used a fixed set of justificatory discursive strategies to talk about human rights violations, and their role in such violations. These linguistic strategies are used for a number of different reasons, including reducing personal responsibility, avoiding talking about past atrocities, saving face where personal malicious and degenerate behaviour is made public and diverting feelings of personal guilt. On a discourse theoretical level the study eventually convinces that there are generic strategies typically used in justificatory discourse, whether it be in response to Wehrmacht atrocities of the Second World War or to security force excesses in repressing aspirations of disenfranchised citizens during the last thirty years of the Nationalist government in South Africa. 4 Some stories don’t want to be told. They walk away, carrying their suitcases held together with grey string. Look at their disappearing curved spines. Hunch-backs. Harmed ones. Hold alls. Some stories refuse to be danced or mimed, drop their scuffed canes and clattering tap-shoes, erase their traces in nursery rhymes or ancient games like blind man’s bluff. Excerpt from “Parts of Speech” by Ingrid de Kok 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction to the Research Problem 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Situational context 2 1.3 The language of the perpetrator 3 1.4 Research aims and questions 5 1.5 Methodology 5 1.6 An interdisciplinary perspective 7 1.7 Chapter outline 8 1.8 Core terminology 9 Chapter Two: Literature review 12 2.1 The perpetrator 13 2.1.1 Police as perpetrators: The role of the police force in human rights violations 18 2.2 The notion of ‘truth’ in TRC discourses 19 2.2.1 A hermeneutic approach to truth 24 2.3 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the discourse historical approach 26 2.3.1 Discourse and CDA 26 2.3.2 The discourse historical approach 30 2.4 Concluding remarks 33 Chapter Three: Research methodology 34 3.1 Parallels between the oppression of black citizens in apartheid South Africa and Jewish citizens in Nazi Germany 34 3.2 Synopsis of Benke and Wodak’s (2003) study 35 6 3.3 Selection of Justificatory Discourses from the TRC files 36 3.4 Linguistic strategies identified in Benke and Wodak’s (2003) study 38 3.5 Concluding remarks 46 Chapter Four: Analysis of data 47 4.1 Testimony of General Johan van der Merwe, former Commissioner of Police 48 4.1.1 Linguistic realisation of strategies used in negating the context 49 (i) Constructing the police as victims 49 (ii) “I am not aware”: claiming ignorance 50 (iii) Reverting to ‘Scientific Rationalisation’ 51 4.1.2 Linguistic realisation of strategies used in acknowledging the context 52 (i) Doing one’s duty as a loyal and dedicated officer 52 (ii) Downplaying the role of the police: “Others forced us” 52 (iii) Assigning blame downwards towards the victims 53 (iv) Assigning blame upwards onto the state 55 (v) Using extreme terms of reference: Relativising 55 4.2 Testimony of Jeffrey Benzien, former member of the Security Branch section of the SAP 57 4.2.1 Linguistic realisation of strategies used in negating the existence of human rights violations 58 (i) Positive self-presentation 58 (ii) Reverting to ‘Scientific Rationalisation’ 61 (iii) Claiming victim-hood 63 (iv) “I cannot remember”: claiming ignorance 63 4.2.2 Linguistic realisation of strategies used in acknowledging the existence of human rights violations 67 (i) Doing one’s duty as a loyal and dedicated officer 67 7 (ii) Downplaying personal culpability: “Others forced me” 67 (iii) Assigning blame downwards towards the victims 68 (iv) Assigning blame upwards onto higher-ranked officials, organisations, and the state 68 (v) Relativising: “Every war is horrible” 69 4.3 Concluding remarks 69 Chapter Five: Comparison of testimonies and conclusion 70 5.1 Structural and linguistic features of justification discourses 71 5.2 Relating justification discourses produced in TRC testimonies to ex-Wehrmacht officer discourses 73 5.3 Summary of research aims and achievements 74 5.4 Suggestions for further research 76 LIST OF REFERENCES 77 APPENDIX 1: TRC TESTIMONY OF JOHAN VAN DER MERWE APPENDIX 2: TRC TESTIMONY OF JEFFREY BENZIEN 8 ABBREVIATIONS AC – Amnesty Commission ANC – African National Congress CDA – Critical Discourse Analysis COSATU – The Congress of South African Trade Unions IFP – Inkatha Freedom Party SACP – South African Communist Party SADF – South African Defence force SAP – South African Police SFL – Systemic Functional Linguistics TRC – Truth and Reconciliation Commission NP – National Party 9 CHAPTER ONE Introduction to the research problem 1.1 Background For at least the past twenty years, scholars within the field of Linguistics have directed attention towards the discourse of abuse and violence, particularly as it relates to countries with turbulent political histories (see, for e.g., Van Djik 1985; Wodak 1989; Martin and Wodak 2003; and Anthonissen and Blommaert 2007). Within the South African context, attention has been focused on the discourses of apartheid and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. Such studies are concerned with how, after a history of brutality and violence, individuals come to terms with the traumatic events of their respective pasts (e.g. Ross 2006). This inevitably includes a strong focus on the narratives of the victims (e.g. Blommaert et al. 2006; and Van der Merwe and Gobodo-Madikizela 2007). However, from a linguistic perspective, there is comparatively little contribution with regards to the testimonies of the apartheid perpetrators, or regarding the ideologies, subjectivities and discourse of the perpetrators themselves 1. The aim of this thesis is to present a discourse analytic study of some of the perpetrator testimonies that were presented during the Amnesty Committee (AC) hearings of the TRC. More specifically, attention will go to how the perpetrators justify their role in particular human rights violations. This study would, however, be incomplete without an investigation into the historical, psychological and sociological aspects of the ‘perpetrator’ and ‘truth’ as well as relevant aspects of the South African TRC process and the Amnesty Committee hearings. These various aspects are addressed below and in Chapter Two. 1.2 Situational context In 1995 the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act assigned the TRC the duty of helping South Africans come to terms with the actual facts of critical events of their apartheid past, events which may be otherwise denied or forgotten, with detrimental effects 1 In fact, Foster et al. (2005:42) bring to light the moral questions and difficulties surrounding studies on the perpetrator, and explain that an attempt to understand the perpetrator may reduce the attention given to the victims, diminish public outrage towards their acts, or potentially draw sympathy - particularly in situations where their actions are not justified.
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