Justificatory discourse of the perpetrator in TRC testimonies : a discourse-historical analysis

[摘要] This study investigates the ways in which former South African Police (SAP) perpetrators ofhuman rights violations justify their criminal actions in testifying before the AmnestyCommittee (AC) of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Inparticular, attention goes to the testimonies of former Commissioner of Police Johan van derMerwe, and former member of the Security Branch section of the SAP, Jeffrey Benzien. A keyassumption in the study is that the justification of human rights violations is a discursivepractice that is largely language dependent (Reisigl & Wodak 200: xi).The research draws on the theoretical aims and methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).It refers largely to Benke and Wodak's (2003) discourse–historical study on the justificatorydiscourse of ex-Wehrmacht officers of the Austrian army. This study therefore takes adiscourse-historical approach to discourse and the data, an approach which takes intoconsideration the surrounding political and historical context of the selected texts, which are, inthis case, the testimonies of perpetrators at the AC hearings. Besides an analysis of thejustificatory discourses produced by two former police officers, the study reflects on how thediscursive strategies of the apartheid perpetrators compare with one another and with the ex-Wehrmacht officers.CDA and the discourse-historical approach provide interdisciplinary angles on linguisticanalysis of a text. For this reason, a review is given of literature which relates the study topolitical, historical and philosophical insights. The analysis particularly makes use of Foster etal.'s (2005) socio-political study of apartheid perpetrator narratives.The study reveals that perpetrators used a fixed set of justificatory discursive strategies to talkabout human rights violations, and their role in such violations. These linguistic strategies areused for a number of different reasons, including reducing personal responsibility, avoidingtalking about past atrocities, saving face where personal malicious and degenerate behaviour ismade public and diverting feelings of personal guilt. On a discourse theoretical level the studyeventually convinces that there are generic strategies typically used in justificatory discourse,whether it be in response to Wehrmacht atrocities of the Second World War or to security forceexcesses in repressing aspirations of disenfranchised citizens during the last thirty years of theNationalist government in South Africa.Some stories don't want to be told.They walk away, carrying their suitcasesheld together with grey string.Look at their disappearing curved spines.Hunch-backs. Harmed ones. Hold alls.Some stories refuse to be danced or mimed,drop their scuffed canesand clattering tap-shoes,erase their traces in nursery rhymesor ancient games like blind man's bluff.Excerpt from 'Parts of Speechby Ingrid de Kok

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University