PROFESSOR LOOKS AT POST-WAR CONFLICT

Professor Jenny Pearce, of the Department of Peace Studies, has been studying post-conflict reconstruction in one of the regions most affected by the Guatemalan civil war.

Professor Pearce recently took part in a research project in Huehuetenango, in Guatemala, where there were 88 massacres of indigenous peoples by the army and a mass exodus to refugee camps in Mexico.

The project, which is funded by IDRC, in Canada, Oxfam Guatemala and the Project Counselling Services, considered the general dynamics of the post-conflict situation and how it was played out in particular localities and contexts.

Professor Pearce studied the final phase of the "mapping" of the area in the wake of the Guatemalan Peace Accords which ended 36 years of civil war in that country.

The project chose 16 of the 31 municipalities in the area and conducted over 400 interviews.

Professor Pearce said: "An emerging theme of the research was the presence of ongoing conflicts of all kinds in the area.

"Despite the formal end of war, there are a number of forms of conflict in Huehuetenango, many of which are violent or potentially violent."



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