The role of exposure to a human-made disaster and the subsequent development of post-traumatic stress reactions were examined. Subjects included 49 males and 30 females who were variously exposed to the Luby's shooting incident in Killeen, Texas in October of 1991. Post-traumatic stress symptomatology was measured by the SCL-90R. Exposure was operationalized by using a scenario-rating scheme with independent raters estimating each subject's level of exposure. A regression and commonality analysis revealed that exposure is an important predictor in post-traumatic symptomatology. Premorbid functioning and gender were also found to play important roles, with females expressing higher levels of symptomatology.

Africa is home to more than 40% of the world’s population of internally displaced persons (IDPs).4 IDPs, according to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement5, are persons or groups of persons who have been forced to leave their homes or places of habitual residence as a result of – or in order to avoid the effects of – armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights, natural disasters or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised state border. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2010. / A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Law University of Pretoria, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Law (LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa). Prepared under the supervision of Mr. S Tindifa at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Uganda. 2010. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM