Never Again: Struggling for Humanness in Postconflict Rwanda and Guatemala

What kind of situations do people face in postconflict countries? What is the impact of structural violence? What is the role of the state in facilitating violence and in redressing such violence? What are the mechanisms of justice and how are they used and abused by individuals and groups? Is reconciliation merely a procedural ploy to mask the continuation of physical and structural violence? What roles do power and legitimacy play in selecting and implementing various transitional strategies? Through a secondary source study of post-genocide Rwanda and post-civil war Guatemala, this work provides one set of answers to these questions. Different groups struggle over which strategies to use to navigate the postconflict world. Many strategies are used to mask underlying class, racial, and ethnic inequalities as well as to provide for the continued impunity of one or more of the parties responsible for both acute and structural violence.

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