ABSTRACT

This article empirically deepens understandings of the relationship between everyday ex-combatants and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Sierra Leone. It asks, what are the agentic implications of this victim-centred model of justice among its designated perpetrators (everyday or ordinary ex-combatants)? This article advances criticisms against the participatory limitations of the victim-centred model of justice in truth commissions. It applies the concept of friction to analyse the theft of agency produced by Sierra Leone’s TRC among everyday ex-combatants. It analyses the contradictions between everyday ex-combatant hopes for the TRC against institutional expectations set for this population to reveal the agentic effects of this sticky engagement. In so doing, this article exposes the agentic theft produced by compound frictions which interact to deny agency among those designated as perpetrators by the material engagement and frictional travels of transitional justice. It argues that the primacy placed on the restoration of victims’ dignity within truth commissions comes at a particularly heavy cost for the population of everyday ex-combatants, who experience multiple processes of exclusion as a result.

摘要

本文从经验上加深了对日常前战斗人员与塞拉利昂真相与和解委员会 (TRC) 之间关系的理解。它问，这种以受害者为中心的正义模式在其指定的肇事者（日常或普通的前战斗人员）中的代理影响是什么？本文对真相委员会中以受害者为中心的司法模式的参与性局限性提出了批评。它运用摩擦的概念来分析塞拉利昂的 TRC 在日常前战斗人员中窃取代理权的行为。它分析了前战斗人员对 TRC 的日常希望与为这一人群设定的机构期望之间的矛盾，以揭示这种粘性参与的代理效应。这样做时，本文揭示了由复合摩擦产生的代理盗窃，这些摩擦相互作用以否认那些通过过渡司法的物质接触和摩擦旅行而被指定为犯罪者的人之间的代理权。它认为，在真相委员会中恢复受害者尊严的首要任务，对于日常的前战斗人员来说付出了特别沉重的代价，他们因此经历了多重排斥过程。