scholarly journals Expressive violence and the slow genocide of the Banyamulenge of South Kivu

Ethnicities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146879682110098
Author(s):  
Rukumbuzi Delphin Ntanyoma ◽  
Helen Hintjens
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Slow Moving ◽  
South Kivu ◽  
Violence Against Civilians ◽  
The Military

Recent warfare in Eastern DRC, especially since 2015, is marked by violence inspired by ‘race’ narratives. Identity politics around ‘race’ is used to legitimise ‘expressive’ or reprisal-oriented violence against ‘Hamitic’ or ‘Tutsi’ minorities. The case of the Banyamulenge of South Kivu is examined in this article. Following Autesserre, we show that one-dimensional narratives – in this case of ‘race’ – tend to over-simplify the dynamics of political violence. Anti-Hamitic racism is derived from colonial ideas around race hierarchies, and has resulted in systematic killings of Banyamulenge civilians in what resembles a ‘slow genocide’. Expressive violence has, in turn, produced a lack of concern for the plight of Banyamulenge civilians among the military, humanitarians, media, scholars and NGOs. Given armed alliances between local Maimai forces, Burundian and Rwandan opposition and the DRC army, such ‘race’ narratives cruelly legitimise violence against civilians from ‘Tutsi’ communities, associated by neighbouring communities with Rwanda. Resultant displacement, starvation and killing of Banyamulenge civilians in this context amount to an on-going, slow-moving genocide. As the COVID-19 crisis unrolls, the decolonisation of identity politics in Eastern DRC, and in South Kivu in particular still seems very remote.

Political Development and Conflict Resolution in Pakistan

1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (4II) ◽  
pp. 715-742
Author(s):  
Mohammad Wseem
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
Priority List ◽  
Authority Structure ◽  
The Military

Conflicts in Pakistan emanate from a configuration of factors relating to the state system, the unstable regional setting, and the global system at large. The state system in Pakistan has been characterised by problems of constitutionally underdeveloped provincial set-ups, dysfunctionality of elections for the prevalent system perceived by a privileged migrant leadership, a centralist authority structure, and a domineering role of army. During the last five decades, the state system passed through various phases of centralism, populism, and constitutional engineering by the military-bureaucratic establishment as well as Islamisation, largely at the expense of provincial autonomy and a sense of participation in the business of the state shared by all communities. Non-recognition of electoral mandate as the final source of legitimacy led to the emergence of ethnic movements in East Pakistan, the NWFP, Balochistan, and Sindh. The perceived Punjabisation of the state has created feelings of ethnic hostility among all regions other than Punjab. Social insecurities caused by rapid social change, such as urbanisation in general and in-migration in Karachi in particular, have fuelled ethnic hatred all around. Similarly, the influx of refugees from neighbouring countries, along with arms and drug trafficking, has led to new patterns of identity politics and higher levels of political violence. The state's relative non-performance at the local level has pushed many sectarian groups to exit from the parliamentary framework of politics towards a blatant use of arms. What)s needed is the creation of a third tier of government at the district and sub-district levels. At the top of the priority list should be a policy of decentralisation and continuity in the electoral process to bring the recalcitrant elements into the mainstream, de-weaponisation, and strengthening of political parties as interest-aggregating and policy-bearing institutions.

Arte ConTexto

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Antonio Bellisario ◽  
Leslie Prock
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Pictorial Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Socialist Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Military

The article examines Chilean muralism, looking at its role in articulating political struggles in urban public space through a visual political culture perspective that emphasizes its sociological and ideological context. The analysis characterizes the main themes and functions of left-wing brigade muralism and outlines four subpolitical phases: (i) Chilean mural painting’s beginnings in 1940–1950, especially following the influence of Mexican muralism, (ii) the development of brigade muralism for political persuasion under the context of revolutionary sociopolitical upheaval during the 1960s and in the socialist government of Allende from 1970 to 1973, (iii) the characteristics of muralism during the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1980s as a form of popular protest, and (iv) muralism to express broader social discontent during the return to democracy in the 1990s. How did the progressive popular culture movement represent, through murals, the political hopes during Allende’s government and then the political violence suffered under the military dictatorship? Several online repositories of photographs of left-wing brigade murals provide data for the analysis, which suggests that brigade muralism used murals mostly for political expression and for popular education. Visual art’s inherent political dimension is enmeshed in a field of power constituted by hegemony and confrontation. The muralist brigades executed murals to express their political views and offer them to all spectators because the street wall was within everyone's reach. These murals also suggested ideas that went beyond pictorial representation; thus, muralism was a process of education that invited the audience to decipher its polysemic elements.

Religion, Violence, and the State

2018 ◽  
pp. 226-262
Author(s):  
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Military ◽  
Subsequent Rise

This chapter focuses on religio-political violence, whose widespread incidence—after Pakistan's realignment in the US-led War on Terror in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent rise of a new, Pakistani Taliban—has threatened the very fabric of state and society. It examines the violence in question from two broad and intertwined perspectives, one relating to the state, and the other to Islam and those speaking in its terms. Part of the concern in this chapter is to contribute to an understanding of how the governing elite and the military have often fostered the conditions in which the resort to religiously inflected violence has been justified. It also suggests that the nonstate actors—ideologues and militants—have had an agency of their own, which is not reducible to the machinations of the state. Their resort to relevant facets of the Islamic tradition also needs to be taken seriously in order to properly understand their view of the world and such appeal as they have had in particular circles.

What Changed?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Necati Polat
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
European Union ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
The European Union ◽  
High Courts ◽  
Turkish Politics ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military

This chapter provides an outline of the change that took place in Turkey between 2007 and 2011, signalling a historic shift in the use of power in the country, long controlled by a staunch and virtually autonomous bureaucracy, both military and civilian, and known as ‘the state’, in the face of the chronically fragile democratic politics, forming ‘the government’. The time-honoured identity politics of the very bureaucracy, centred on ‘Westernisation’ as a policy incentive, was deftly appropriated by the ruling AKP via newly tightened links with the European Union to transform the settled centre-periphery relations often considered to be pivotal to Turkish politics, and reconfigure access to power. The chapter details the gradual fall of the bureaucracy—that is, the military, the higher education, and the system of high courts—and recounts the basic developments in foreign policy and on the domestic scene during and immediately after the change.

Brazil’s LGBT Movement and Interest Groups

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob R. Longaker
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
National Level ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Cooperative Relationship ◽  
The Military ◽  
Lgbt Movement ◽  
Hiv Aids

Brazil has boasted a vibrant and creative LGBT movement since the late 1970s. Early organizing focused on consciousness-raising, the formation of a collective identity, and political opposition to the military dictatorship (1964–1985). These years saw transformations in understandings of individual and collective identity, publications in an early homophile press, and successful experiences organizing in homosexual gay and lesbian groups. In the late 1980s, with the advent of HIV/AIDS and re-democratization, the movement began a turn to institutionalized politics and public policy. Strategic engagement with the state as legally registered civil society organizations established a framework for a routine and cooperative relationship in policy and policymaking. This occurred first for HIV/AIDS service provision and later for LGBT citizenship. By the 1990s, the movement embraced identity politics and grappled with an explosion of advocacy on behalf of identity groups that make up the alphabet soup of LGBT politics, particularly lesbian and transgender rights groups that had been less visible in earlier years. Movement successes, such as same-sex partnership recognition, gender-identity recognitions, and policy programs against violence, have been accomplished primarily through engagement with the judiciary and executive, not the legislature (nor electoral politics). The legislature and electoral politics have failed to produce significant gains in LGBT-friendly policy at the national level; however, state and municipal LGBT-friendly policy exists. Moving forward, persistent challenges include divisive partisan [identity] politics within the movement, concerted opposition from conservative evangelical politicians, and volatility of the national political context. These challenges jeopardize policy successes that the movement has made through rather precarious executive and judicial avenues.

scholarly journals Prewar Domestic Conditions and Civilians in War

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 528-541
Author(s):  
H Zeynep Bulutgil
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Organizational Skills ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Civilian Leaders ◽  
Dominant State ◽  
Violence Against Civilians ◽  
Political Party Affiliation ◽  
The Military

Abstract In the past fifteen years, the study of civilians in war (i.e., violence against civilians as well as civilian strategies for survival during wars) has emerged as a research agenda separate from the study of the causes of wars. Up to now, this research agenda has largely been dominated by studies that emphasize the military balance of power or the nature of material resources available to the fighting parties. The books under review in this article push the literature on civilians in war significantly forward by focusing on prewar social, political, and institutional factors. Based on the findings of the books, this review essay identifies three such factors. First, the organizational skills that civilian leaders develop in the prewar period shape resistance against military actors during wars. Second, political party affiliation, revealed through prewar elections, influences the patterns of violence against civilians during wars. Finally, the dominant state ideology that precedes wars can impact both civilian victimization and the extent to which civilians can evade such violence. The article both assesses the books’ contributions and offers ways in which these contributions can be refined by future research.

Wreck/Conciliation? The Politics of Truth Commissions in Thailand

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan McCargo ◽  
Naruemon Thabchumpon
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Way

More than ninety people died in political violence linked to the March–May 2010 “redshirt” protests in Bangkok. The work of the government-appointed Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT) illustrates the potential shortcomings of seeing quasi-judicial commissions as a catch-all solution for societies struggling to deal with the truth about their recent pasts. The 2012 TRCT report was widely criticized for blaming too much of the violence on the actions of rogue elements of the demonstrators and failing to focus tightly on the obvious legal transgressions of the security forces. By failing strongly to criticize the role of the military in most of the fatal shootings, the TRCT arguably helped pave the way for the 2014 coup. Truth commissions that are unable to produce convincing explanations of the facts they examine may actually prove counterproductive. Following Quinn and Wilson, we argue in this article that weak truth commissions are prone to politicization and are likely to produce disappointing outcomes, which may even be counterproductive.

Terrorism in Spain

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-99
Author(s):  
Diego Muro
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
The State ◽  
Terrorist Group ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Violence Against Civilians

Spain has experienced four waves of terrorism during the twentieth century: anarchist, nationalist, left-wing, and religious. This chapter examines the variety and intensity of terrorist incidents of the last two waves, as well as the counter-terrorist efforts since 1975. The argument is structured as follows: First, the chapter accounts for the longevity of the main campaigns of indiscriminate violence against civilians. Second, it evaluates the interaction between the security and intelligence services and the various clandestine groups, and argues that the process of democratization increased the effectiveness of counterterrorism, particularly against ETA. The section further argues that collective security is a relational act that brings two self-interested actors—the state and the terrorist group—into conflict with each other, and that it is not possible to study campaigns of political violence in isolation. Third, the chapter critically assesses the security threat posed by Salafi jihadist cells, which were responsible for the attacks on Madrid (2004) and Barcelona (2017), and examines the ongoing agenda of countering and preventing violent extremism in Spain.

scholarly journals The geopolitics of militarism and humanitarianism

2021 ◽  
pp. 030913252110322
Author(s):  
Killian McCormack ◽  
Emily Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Military Intervention ◽  
Military Deployment ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Geographical Perspective ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Way

In this article, we trace the interconnections between humanitarianism and militarism. We highlight the significance of a geographical perspective in emphasizing the spatial and multiscalar dimensions of this changing relationship, particularly in Western states. In doing so, we reveal the violent geographies produced through militarized humanitarianism and demonstrate the ways political violence can be obscured through invocations of humanitarianism. We look at five overlapping lines of enquiry: the way humanitarianism is used to modulate war; the rationalization of military intervention as humanitarian; military deployment in response to humanitarian crises; the military take-up of humanitarian-style practices; and weapons development and humanitarianism.

scholarly journals El Diario de Francisca: Representaciones infantiles sobre la violencia política en la vida cotidiana durante los 70 / Francisca’s private diary: Childhood representations of political violence in everyday life during the 70s

2018 ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Daniela Jara
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
La Nina ◽  
Sociedad Civil ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Way ◽  
Violencia Politica

En este artículo se propone una lectura del Diario de Francisca, un registro autobiográfico escrito en plenos días de la Unidad Popular y el golpe de Estado por una niña de 11 años, miembro de una familia urbana de clase media alta. Luego de situar brevemente al diario íntimo o de vida como una práctica cultural propia de la modernidad, se analiza la manera en que el texto ilumina las operaciones a través de las cuales la niña va habitando el mundo, entramadas en dinámicas socio-afectivas mediadas, interrumpidas o potenciadas por la clase. Se sugiere que las representaciones infantiles articuladas en la escritura del diario íntimo muestran diversos aspectos de la producción y transmisión de la memoria de la violencia política, y de la relación con los contextos de su producción. El Diario describe una escena de la violencia política en que ésta, lejos de producirse de manera intempestiva, ya estaba instalada en las formas de la vida cotidiana de la Unidad Popular (UP).  Así, la voz de la niña nos permite ver cómo la violencia política está en parte instalada y cómo va instalándose en la sociedad civil durante la UP, ya no sólo entre víctimas y perpetradores, sino también entre los niños, quienes participan de ésta, la negocian y recrean o reproducen. Palabras claves: diario íntimo, violencia política, representaciones infantiles AbstractThis article focuses on Francisca's Diary, an autobiographical record written during the Unidad Popular (UP) period, more specifically in 1973. Francisca, an 11 year old girl, member of an urban middle-class family, witnesses the military coup and produces an intimate account of the events. After briefly situating the personal diary as a cultural practice typical of modernity, I will reflect on the way in which the text illuminates the operations through which the girl inhabits the world, embedded in socio-affective dynamics, interrupted or enhanced by social class. I suggest that Francisca’s Diary sheds light on various aspects of the production and transmission of the memory of political violence, the role of children representations and their relationship with the contexts in which they are produced. Also, I suggest that the Diary portraits a scene in which political violence was already embodied in the everyday life during the UP, no longer as a monopoly of victim and perpetrator agents. Rather I draw attention to the way in which the child negotiates, reproduces, represents and resists violence.Keywords: private diary, political violence, childhood representations

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