HEALING
It is impossible to overstate the extent to which severe physical, emoÂtional and psychological trauma characterises many post-conflict comÂmunities. In the case of Rwanda, nearly every citizen has been affected individually by violence, whether from direct involvement in perpetÂrating crimes, from personal injury, or from the injury or death of loved ones.[89] Trauma manifests in numerous ways in post-conflict societies, from individuals’ feelings of helplessness and an inability to engage with others, to expressions of mistrust, paranoia, anger and vengefulness, and even to suicide.[90] In the face of such immense and various needs, concepts and processes of healing centre on helping individuals regain a sense of psychological or emotional wholeness that conflict has shatÂtered.
Individuals’ trauma is not, however, necessarily the result only of physically, psychologically or emotionally damaging experiences such as mass violence. Trauma may also stem from material deprivation, resultÂing either from conflict or from later disasters, including famine, which may be natural or a consequence of conflict. For this reason, healing must take a holistic approach. In the context of post-conflict healing, holism refers to the need to rebuild the whole or complete person. If we identify the causes of trauma as a combination of psychological, emotional, material and other factors, then healing must incorporate holistic methods that seek effective responses to this range of causes. Because these causes often compound one another - for example when a lack of food and adequate shelter exacerbates a victim's sense of loss after the murder of a loved one - then methods of healing must respond simultaneously, and in an integrated manner, to all the identifiable causes of trauma.The concept of healing has only recently become associated with the field of transitional justice.
In recent years, greater attention has been paid to issues of psychosocial healing after conflict or periods of repressive rule, largely as a result of the South African TRC, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu in particular emphasised the importance of truth, forgiveness and communal healing in the daily running of the TRC.[91] Where post-conflict reconstruction was once solely the domain of politicians and legal experts, trauma counsellors and other psychoÂlogical experts now play a greater role in helping individuals come to terms with their personal experiences of conflict. Underlying this shift towards a greater consideration of psychosocial issues is a recognition that conflict not only damages entire nations or cultural groups, as emphasised in the use of the term â€?genocide', but crucially also the indiÂviduals within those groups. Post-conflict healing holds that societies require rebuilding from the level of the individual upward, in concert with nationwide pursuits.Reconstruction from the level of the individual is a complicated underÂtaking, because individuals' needs are both highly varied and difficult to assess without evaluating the specific case of every person in the postÂconflict society. As Mahmood Mamdani argues, however, overcoming individuals' feelings of trauma, resentment and victimhood after conflict is vital because these perceptions have long-lasting effects, producing subsequent feelings of victimhood in future generations that plant the seeds of further violence. Mamdani argues that, in the Rwandan case, a Hutu self-view of victimhood, particularly in the twentieth century, provided an emotional and psychological foundation for Hutu violence against Tutsi, as Hutu attempted to overcome their victim status and gain a greater sense of empowerment.[92] The inter-generational effects of trauma remind us of the need to facilitate healing not only to help individuals rebuild their lives but also to protect entire societies from descending into further conflict.
Healing therefore is integral to achievÂing positive peace and ultimately reconciliation.Healing concerns crucial questions of individual identity. Processes of healing comprise important internal and external elements, as healÂing entails what Malvern Lumsden describes as â€?rebuilding a coherent sense of self and sense of community'.[93] Post-conflict healing relates to individuals' regaining a sense of inner wholeness; that is, healing of their own identity, as captured in the phrase â€?to find oneself again'. Re-establishing individuals' sense of inner coherence also often requires rebuilding a sense of how they as individuals relate to their communiÂties, from which they gain much of their sense of self-worth and the meaning of their lives. Lisa Schirch argues that it is often necessary to â€?rehumanize' survivors and perpetrators after violence.[94] These individÂuals have forfeited much of their personal sense of humanity through either perpetrating, or being the victims of, mass crimes. Perpetrators often dehumanise their victims in order to justify their violent actions and, in turn, may suffer forms of dehumanisation themselves by comÂmitting crimes, when they forfeit feelings of common humanity and empathy towards their victims. Thus, healing requires rehumanising survivors and perpetrators to overcome the negative identities that they assumed during conflict.