Simple soldiers? Blurring the distinction between compulsion and commitment among Rwandan rebels in Eastern Congo

Bibliographic Data

ID2103274
AuthorsAnna Hedlund (0000-0002-3185-125X, Institute for Social Anthropology, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume87
Issue4
Pages720-738
Publication date2017-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000197201700033x
OpenAlexW2766089841
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited26

Media descriptions of the conflicts in the Eastern Congo usually depict violent events as being systematic attacks by rebels and militias (perpetrators) on the civilian population (victims). While much attention has been given to the victims of such violence, less effort has been made to understand the perspectives and underlying motives for violence of those who are actively engaged in fighting the war. Using anthropological arguments, this article argues that the use of the terms 'perpetrator' and 'victim' are scientifically problematic when attempting to explain contemporary conflict(s) in the Eastern Congo and other similar war situations in Africa. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), whose leadership was an orchestrating agent in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, I demonstrate that not only is the victim/perpetrator dichotomy unclear, but also that combatants may frequently regard themselves as being both victims and perpetrators at one and the same time. I argue that the main factor behind this dual identity is that, while combatants in the Congo may be under a compulsion to commit violence, they may simultaneously be fully committed to their armed group and to its collective political ideology. While our conventional understanding of the membership of armed groups tends to make a sharp distinction between compulsory participation and commitment to a cause, I show how, in the context of the Eastern Congo, these categories are not, in fact, mutually exclusive

Commit · Context (archaeology · Criminology · Democracy · Ethnography · Genocide · Identity (music · Ideology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Anthropology · Cambodian History and Society · History · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub