After a genocide, leaders compete to fill the postwar power vacuum and establish their preferred story of the past. Memorialisation, including through building memorials, provides a cornerstone of political power. The dominant public narrative determines the plotline; it labels victims and perpetrators, interprets history, assigns meaning to suffering, and sets the post-atrocity political agenda. Therefore, ownership of the past, in terms of the public account, is deeply contested. Although many factors affect the emergence of a dominant atrocity narrative, this article highlights the role of international interactions with genocide memorials, particularly how Western visitors, funders, and consultants influence the government's narrative. Western consumption of memorials often reinforces aspects of dark tourism that dehumanise victims and discourage adequate context for the uninformed visitor. Funding and consultation provided by Western states and organisations – while offering distinct benefits – tends to encourage a homogenised atrocity narrative, which reflects the values of the global human rights regime and existing standards of memorial design rather than privileging the local particularities of the atrocity experience. As shown in the cases of Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia, Western involvement in public memory projects often strengthens the power of government narratives, which control the present by controlling the past.

中文翻译：

---

讲述暴行：种族灭绝纪念馆、黑暗旅游和记忆政治

种族灭绝之后，领导人竞相填补战后权力真空，并建立他们喜欢的过去故事。纪念活动，包括通过建立纪念馆，提供了政治权力的基石。占主导地位的公共叙事决定了情节；它给受害者和肇事者贴上标签，解释历史，赋予苦难以意义，并制定暴行后的政治议程。因此，就公共账户而言，过去的所有权受到了激烈的争论。尽管许多因素影响了主导暴行叙事的出现，但本文强调了国际互动与种族灭绝纪念馆的作用，特别是西方游客、资助者和顾问如何影响政府的叙事。西方对纪念馆的消费通常会强化黑暗旅游的某些方面，这些方面使受害者失去人性，并阻碍不知情的游客获得足够的背景。西方国家和组织提供的资金和咨询——在提供明显好处的同时——倾向于鼓励同质化的暴行叙事，这反映了全球人权制度的价值观和现有的纪念馆设计标准，而不是优先考虑暴行经历的当地特殊性。正如卢旺达、柬埔寨和波斯尼亚的案例所示，西方参与公共记忆项目通常会增强政府叙事的力量，政府通过控制过去来控制现在。西方国家和组织提供的资金和咨询——在提供明显好处的同时——倾向于鼓励同质化的暴行叙事，这反映了全球人权制度的价值观和现有的纪念馆设计标准，而不是优先考虑暴行经历的当地特殊性。正如卢旺达、柬埔寨和波斯尼亚的案例所示，西方参与公共记忆项目通常会增强政府叙事的力量，政府通过控制过去来控制现在。西方国家和组织提供的资金和咨询——在提供明显好处的同时——倾向于鼓励同质化的暴行叙事，这反映了全球人权制度的价值观和现有的纪念馆设计标准，而不是优先考虑暴行经历的当地特殊性。正如卢旺达、柬埔寨和波斯尼亚的案例所示，西方参与公共记忆项目通常会增强政府叙事的力量，政府通过控制过去来控制现在。