The Politics of State Crime and Resistance - Self-Determination in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The central argument of this chapter is that neither state crime nor resistance to it can be fully understood through reference to the acts of violence themselves (that is, as violations of international or domestic law, on the one hand, or demands for justice or accountability, on the other), or to the self-evident identities of the perpetrators and victims. Rather, we emphasise the content of the subjectivities and social relations that engender state crime and resistance, armed or otherwise, as self-evidently necessary and rightful acts. These relations not only result in destruction, in terms of lives and property, but they are also productive, in the Foucauldian sense of the word, creating new and sometimes hybrid subjectivities that, in turn, engender resistance and counter-resistance anew. We support our argument through an empirical study of the struggle between the Sri Lankan state and the Tamils, particularly the diaspora, using a Foucauldian reading of the power relations and subjectivities that are mutually constitutive with this struggle.

Keywords: War Crimes, State Crime, Resistance, Terrorism, Sri Lanka, Self-Determination, Diaspora, Tamil, Subjectivity