My Neighbor, My Enemy : Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity

Book Description
Tackling the crucial issue of our day--the rebuilding of countries following ethnic cleansing and genocide, this book evaluates the role of trials and tribunals with regard to social reconstruction and reconciliation. The voices of the people of Rwanda and Yugoslavia are heard through the results of extensive surveys and recorded conversations. Their thoughts of past and future controversially conclude that international and local trials have little relevance to reconciliation. The contributors find that communities interpret justice far more broadly than defined by the international community and the relationship of trauma to a desire for trials is not clear-cut. An ecological model of social reconstruction is proposed, suggesting that coordinated multi-systematic strategies must be implemented if social repair is to occur. Finally, the contributors suggest that, while trials are essential to combat impunity and punish the guilty, their strengths and limitations must be acknowledged. Eric Stover is Director of the Human Rights Center and Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) until December 1995. He has served on several investigations as an "Expert on Mission" to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague. He is author of (with photographer Gilles Peress) The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar (Scalo Verlag Ac, 1998), War Crimes in the Balkans: Medicine Under Siege in the former Yugoslavia 1991-1995 (Physicians for Human Rights, 1996), Landmines: A Deadly Legacy (Physicians for Human Rights, 1993) and co-author (with Christopher Joyce) of Witnesses from the Grave (Little Brown, 1992) and The Breaking of Bodies and Minds: Torture, Psychiatric Abuse, and the Health Professions (W.H. Freeman & Co., 1985) Harvey M. Weinstein is Clinical Professor in the Joint Medical Program at the University of California, Berkeley. He has done research in and taught health and human rights, refugee health and mass violence and social reconstruction. Weinstein is a member of the Advisory Council of the State Refugee Health Program, and the International Human Rights Committee and the Caucus on Refugees and Immigrants of the American Public Health Association.


About the Author
Eric Stover is Director of the Human Rights Center and Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) until December 1995. He has served on several investigations as an "Expert on Mission" to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague. He is author of (with photographer Gilles Peress) The Graves: Srebrenica and Vukovar (Scalo Verlag Ac, 1998), War Crimes in the Balkans: Medicine Under Siege in the former Yugoslavia 1991-1995 (Physicians for Human Rights, 1996), Landmines: A Deadly Legacy (Physicians for Human Rights, 1993) and co-author (with Christopher Joyce) of Witnesses from the Grave (Little Brown, 1992) and The Breaking of Bodies and Minds: Torture, Psychiatric Abuse, and the Health Professions (W.H. Freeman & Co., 1985) Harvey Weinstein is Associate Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley and Clinical Professor in the School of Public Health. He has worked in the area of human rights in Indonesia, Albania, South Africa, Kosovo and extensively in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. He was Co-Principal Investigator on the project on which this book is based "Communities in Crisis: Justice, Accountability, and Social Reconstruction in Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia." He has also been Co-Principal Investigator on a project funded by the Hewlett Foundation "Intrastate Conflict and Social Reconstruction" that examined the role of schools in rebuilding societies post-conflict. He was Principal Investigator and directed the Forced Migration and Health Project of the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center funded by the Refugee Health program of the State of California. Currently, he is Co-Principal Investigator on a project funded by the United States Institute of Peace to assist in the development of a curriculum in history for Rwanda. He has consulted with the International Commission on Missing Persons in ex-Yugoslavia and for the ICRC around the issue of civilians who go missing in war. Dr. Weinstein is the author of "Psychiatry and the CIA: Victims of Mind Control", an examination of the coercive interrogation techniques developed by the US military and intelligence services after World War II.


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My Neighbour, My Enemy tackles the crucial issue of the day￯﾿ﾽthe rebuilding of countries following ethnic cleansing and genocide. The role of trials and tribunals are evaluated with regards to social reconstruction and reconciliation. The voices of the people of Rwanda and Yugoslavia are heard through the results of extensive surveys and recorded conversations. Their thoughts of past and future are explored with conclusions that controversially suggest that international and local trials have little relevance to reconciliation. The contributors find that communities interpret justice far more broadly than defined by the international community and the relationship of trauma to a desire for trials is not clear-cut. An ecological model of social reconstruction is proposed, suggesting that coordinated multi-systematic strategies must be implemented if social repair is to occur. Finally, the contributors suggest that while trials are essential to combat impunity and punish the guilty, their strengths and limitations must be acknowledged.


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