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Losing Trust in the World

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Beyond Suffering and Reparation

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Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the cumulative effect of violence and its consequences. In the aftermath of political violence, it is argued that people lack a moral framework to fall back on and emotional support systems to depend on. Having nothing left to lose, and no status to maintain compels people to live without pride or dignity. This creates a world devoid of meaning and outside of what, by those of us who do not have to endure such conditions, is understood as an ordinary life. To better understand the convoluted, unfolding ways in which human suffering is felt the chapter looks at key past traumatic events (including material deprivation, bodily injury, forced confinement and coercion, disappearances, death or injury of loved ones, witnessing violence done to others) and the way in which these continue to impact on the present.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Simon, B. & Klandermans, B., (2001) .

  2. 2.

    Korsgaard, C., (1996: 101) .

  3. 3.

    These include: 1) physical resources such as food, water, shelter, safety; 2) economic resources such as money, material goods, employment opportunities; 3) social resources, including acceptance, a sense of control, social support and a trusting social environment.

  4. 4.

    Markle, G. E., et al. (1992) ; see also Berger, R. J. (2011: 11) .

  5. 5.

    See for example Shamai Davidson who suggested that this approach allows for a perspective that are “denied some individual survivors as they were preoccupied by the bitter drama of their own battle for survival.” Davidson, S., (1992: 24); see also Berger, R. J. (2011: 11)

  6. 6.

    Schreuder, B., Kleijn, W. & Rooijmans, H. (2000) ; Schreuder, B., et all (2001).

  7. 7.

    Weine, S., et al. (1998); Cienfuegos, A. & Monelli, C. (1983) .

  8. 8.

    The five general categories derive from five of the eight general categories used by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) and (HSCL-25).

  9. 9.

    Hinton, D., Ba, Peou, & Um, (2000); Weine, S. M., Becker, D. F., McGlashan, T. H., Laub, D., Lazrove, S., Voivoda, D., Hyman, L., (1995) .

  10. 10.

    Loppie Reading, C., & Wien, F. (2009); Kirk, R.E., (1995); Alcade, M. Cristina, (2010)

  11. 11.

    Wilkinson R. G. (1996: 215) ; Desjarlais, R., Eisenberg, L., Good, B., & Kleinman, A. (1995) .

  12. 12.

    The Ayacucho Emergency Zone (EMZ) was established during the government of President Fernando Belaúnde in January 1983. This covered the whole of the south-central region and was responsible for the counter-insurgency war being handed over to the armed forces. Gonzalez, O. M., (2011: 44ff).

  13. 13.

    La Serna, M., (2012: 198ff) .

  14. 14.

    See Boesten, J., (2014) .

  15. 15.

    Kirk, R., (1995: 354–367) Chaqwa. In Starn, O., Degregori, C. I., Kirk, R., (1995) .

  16. 16.

    See Poole, D. & Renique, G., (1992) .

  17. 17.

    Herman, J. (1992: 34).

  18. 18.

    The local term for the profound exhaustion brought about by the political violence and the suffering of the sasachakuy tiempo is iquyasaqa. This can be literally translated as “weakness”. See Theidon, K., (2013: 47ff) .

  19. 19.

    Sinchis : a special US-trained “counterterrorist” police battalion that became notorious in the 1980s for their human rights violations. The word comes from the Inca term for warrior-chief.

  20. 20.

    For further details see the report: Peru on Health in the Americas (2012 Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)).

  21. 21.

    Murray, C J L., King, G., Lopez, A. D., Tomijima, N., Krug E G (2002) .

  22. 22.

    This is a reference to the early stage of the SL uprising when it made use of land scarcity and dissatisfaction with corrupt officials to appeal to the peasant’s moral code and so win over people from rural highland communities.

  23. 23.

    Ichu is a type of grass that grows throughout the Andean altiplano. It is used as fodder for livestock, like the llama.

  24. 24.

    Comrade Gonzalo is the soubriquet of the leader of Shining Path, Abimael Guzman .

  25. 25.

    Schmid, A., (2011: 700) .

  26. 26.

    Arendt, H., (1970: 63) .

  27. 27.

    Galtung, J., (1996: 196) .

  28. 28.

    See Boesten, J., (2014) ; Alcalde, Cristina, M., (2010).

  29. 29.

    For further details see the Commision of Truth and Reconciliation (Peru) Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación (Perú) which found that although sexual violence was attributed to all involved parties, the majority of acts of rape were perpetrated by the armed forces and the police Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación (Perú) Vol. VI (2003: 263ff)

  30. 30.

    Boesten, J. (2007a; 2007b: 5) .

  31. 31.

    See for example Alcalde, Cristina, M., (2010: 100–104).

  32. 32.

    Boesten, J., (2014: 148).

  33. 33.

    Amery, J., (1980: 40) .

  34. 34.

    terrucos Sp. slang for terrorist.

  35. 35.

    This is what people called a ‘bote’ (can). The ‘bote’ was a small room which could only fit one person in at a stretch and so they were boxed in.

  36. 36.

    Levinas, E., (1998: 78ff) .

  37. 37.

    Byman and Waxman (2000) define coercion as “…the use of threatened force, including the limited use of actual force to back up the threat, to induce an adversary to behave differently than it otherwise would.” See Byman, D. L, & Waxman, M. C. (2000) .

  38. 38.

    APRODEH. (2004) . Violencia Contra Niños y Niñas: Hasta sus Menorcitos ahora Lloran. In Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (Ed.), Selección de textos del Informe Final de la Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación . www.aprodeh.org.pe

  39. 39.

    People from the communities studied said that abductions by Shining Path often led to the victim (often children) being indoctrinated and put to work in production camps or recruited as child soldiers for combat and drug-trafficking activities.

  40. 40.

    On 20 December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. It states that enforced disappearances constitute a crime against humanity and entitle victims’ families the right to seek reparations, and to demand the truth about the disappearance of their loved ones.

  41. 41.

    Starn, O., Degregori, C. I., Kirk, R., (1995: 340) .

  42. 42.

    CVR (2003) .

  43. 43.

    Theidon, K. (2000) .

  44. 44.

    Nuñez-Palomino, G. (1996) ; Starn, O. (1999) ; Fumerton, M. (2001) .

  45. 45.

    Gautier, A., & Sabatini Scalmati, A., (2010: xxii) .

  46. 46.

    Herman, J. L., (1992: 159) .

  47. 47.

    Gautier, A., & Sabatini Scalmati, A., (2010: 6).

  48. 48.

    Blustein, J. (2008: 340) .

  49. 49.

    Blustein, J. (2008: 311); Margalit, A., (2002) .

  50. 50.

    Gautier, A., & Sabatini Scalmati, A., (2010: 34) .

  51. 51.

    Gautier, A., & Sabatini Scalmati, A., (2010: 44).

  52. 52.

    Hoffman. M. L., (2000: 30) .

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  1. Swansea, UK

    Timothy James Bowyer

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Bowyer, T.J. (2019). Losing Trust in the World. In: Beyond Suffering and Reparation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98983-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98983-9_4

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