Analytical i Unit 4: Rwanda and Genocide

ng: Ethics, Values & Effective CitizenshipUnit 4: Rwanda and GenocideRwanda had an ethnic Genocide in 1994. Read closely Mahmood Mamdanis When VicOms Become Killers:Colonialism, NaOvism and Genocide in Rwanda (2002). Write a book review in which you analyze the followingquesOons: What were the origins of the genocide? What did the United NaOons do to prevent the genocide?What could it have done? How many people were murdered? Who were the murdered and the murderers?What does truth and reconciliaOon mean in the context of a postgenocide Rwanda? Think about how anaOon recovers from genocide. In a podcast intended for teenage listeners, explain lessons learned from theRwandan genocide that are criOcal to human dignity, the rule of law, and tolerance.23seocie? Colonialism, Nativism, Ethnic cleansing,Religious intolerance, Racism, and EconomicsgRwanda and Human RightsRwanda and Poli5csRwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa. And in 1994, as we all know, Rwanda was alsothe site of a horrific genocide, in which over half a million people were killed inless than three months. The conjuncOon of these two observaOons has led someobservers to link these two phenomena directly.Robert Kaplan's arOcle, published in the Washington Post ten days aherthe genocide began, is illustraOve. Having noted that "Rwanda is one of the mostdensely populated countries in the world," that its populaOon "will double in 20years," and that "even the tragic slaughter...will have a minimal staOsOcal effecton the populaOon growth," he then notes that "Rwandas [ie, similar genocides]are endemic, builtin, even to the world we inhabit." These are not primarily poliOcal issues, Kaplan implied, but simply part of the landscape; "We must therefore view these places less ascountries than as crisis regions."What is fundamentally at issue here is the characterizaOon of what he evocaOvely refers to as "newageprimiOvism," where dense populaOon and a high birth rate make such conflict "endemic." PoliOcs, people, andpolicy explicitly do not factor into any explanaOon or understanding of such "crisis regions."PosiOng a determinisOc relaOonship that "overpopulaOon" leads directly to massive and inevitable violenceis a simplisOc approach and frees the observer from having to account for the circumstances giving riseto genocide. More importantly, by implying that no other pathways exist, it also frees the perpetrators frombeing held accountable for their decisions or their acOons.But, the poliOcs of genocide were much more complicated than can be accounted for by a simpleequaOon of overpopulaOon and genocide. As one observer points out: "An apparently Malthusian outcomehas occurred from more than merely Malthusian processes."The Poli5cs of Rwandan GenocideThree factors were involved in the central planning of the genocide. One was the recruitment of largenumbers of youth to the army and to the locally organized miliOas, ohen associated with the radicalized facOons of the government. Surely this was a response to the rural crisis, for these recruits were those withoutland, educaOon, jobs, or hope; the ecological and demographic crisis was criOcally important in creaOng thiscontext. But rural anger was nonetheless channeled through the poliOcs of the day and manipulated by thedecisions of those in power. In a context of growing class differenOaOon, that meant not among the vicOms ofrural crisis. Ecology was surely a factor in this complicated equaOon, but it was not the sole explanaOon ofgenocide.A second element in the poliOcs of genocide was the fact that the country was at war, fighOng againstan army formed mostly of refugees from outside, seen as sons of the monarchy overthrown during decolonizaOon. The members of this force had grown up in Uganda and their poliOcal posiOon had become increasinglyinsecure in the evolving poliOcs of postIdi Amin Uganda. Their leaders had formerly been close associates ofthe President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, in his long struggle for power. But as it became clear that his asso24ciaOon with the Rwandan refugee community had turned from a poliOcal asset to a poliOcal liability, theseleaders, who were principally trained as soldiers, turned their aIenOon to new objecOves.Day 1 Why Genocide?Class AcOvity: Pretest, DefiniOon and discussion of genocide.Why genocide originated: Colonialism, NaOvism, Ethnic cleansing, Religious intolerance, Racism, and EconomicsExamples of historical origins of genocide: Nazi, Biafra, Sudan, Liberia, and RwandaAssignment: research genocide in RwandaDay 2 AnalyOcal Reasoning: The Rwanda Genocide. 1994 The Preamble.The Origins of Rwandan Genocide.Rwanda is a landlocked country in Central Africa with a populaOon of 7.3 million.(Show Map.) Their languageis Rwanda but they also speak English, French and Swahili. They were colonized by Belgium before theygained their independence in 1962. There are three ethnic groups in Rwanda:a) The Hutus who are approximately 85% of the populaOonb) The Tutsis who are approximately 14% of the populaOonc) The Twa who are approximately 1% of the populaOon.The conflict of ciOzenship and indigenousness was really between the Hutus and the Tutsis.Causes of Genocide: 25Colonialism by BelgiumRacism and IndigenousnessPrivileged CiOzenshipThe Plane Crash that killed President HabyarimanaSearch for JusOce as an Act of Revenge, RetribuOon and Ethnic Cleansing.Colonialism: Class test (Take Home) a) What is Colonialism? IdenOfy three countries that were former coloniesin the conOnents of Africa, Asia and the Americas.b)Who are the Hutus and the Tutsis?25Racism and Indigenousness:The country in the Belgian Reform of the thirOes had three levels of populaOon: the naOves/indigenesor the Hutus, the aliens or the Tutsis and the seIlers or the Belgian colonists. Such a divide led to civil strife sothat when the Belgians leh, issues of race and indigenousness rendered governance difficult. There were massacresbut not genocide. Some Tutsis fled to Uganda a neighboring country and there formed the RPF RwandaPatrioOc Front led by Mr.Kagame and conOnued the struggle for a full and parOcipatory ciOzenship.Privileged CiOzenship:The privileged ciOzenship of the Hutu over the Tutsi helped to ignite the RevoluOon of 1959 whose aftermathcaused disaffecOon and unrest in the polity.The Plane Crash that killed the Hutu President Habiyarimana:On April 6th 1994, the plane carrying President Habiyarimana and other dignitaries was shot down. Thecrash was blamed on the Tutsi leader Mr.Kagame then in exile in Uganda. Mr. Kegame denied the charge. TheHutu populaOon sOll held Kegame and the Tutsis accountable.Search for JusOce as an Act of Revenge, RetribuOon and Ethnic Cleansing:26Colonialism sred the socio-cultural links that bound the Rwandanpeople as an entity. The Belgian political rulers, in a bid to maintain aDay 3 Hotel Rwanda Class discussionDay 4 IntervenOon of the United NaOonsWhat is the UN, its purpose, what did it do, and what could it have done during the Rwandan genocide?The United NaOons is an internaOonal organizaOon founded in 1945 by 51 countries. The OrganizaOon can takeacOon on a wide range of issues, and provides a forum for its 192 Member States to express their views,through the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other bodies andcommiIees.The purpose of the UN is to maintain internaOonal peace and security, to take effecOve collecOve measures forthe prevenOon and removal of threats to peace. (www.un.org)To achieve internaOonal cooperaOon in solving internaOonal problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitariannature.er strong-hold on the country, introduced a deep racial divide betweenthe Hutus and the Tutsis. They identified the Hutus as of the Bantu raceaIn March of 1998, President Clinton issued the "Clinton apology": "We come here today partly in recogniOonof the fact that we in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have andshould have done to try to limit what occurred" in Rwanda.This implied that the United States had done a good deal but not quite enough. In reality the United States didmuch more than fail to send troops. It led a successful effort to remove most of the UN peacekeepers whowere already in Rwanda. It aggressively worked to block the subsequent authorizaOon of UN reinforcements. Itrefused to use its technology to jam radio broadcasts that were a crucial instrument in the coordinaOon andperpetuaOon of the genocide.(www.theatlanOc.com/magazine/archive/2001/09/bystanders_to_genocide/4571/)Three of the five permanent members of the UN had reasons not to prevent the genocide. The US had nothingto gain, and France and China were supplying the governmentwith arms.Most other countries had no investments or anything to gainfrom helping Rwanda, so liIle was done.And even as, an average, 8,000 Rwandans were being butcheredeach day, U.S. officials shunned the term "genocide," forfear of being obliged to act. The United States in fact did virtuallynothing to "try to limit what occurred." Indeed, staying outof Rwanda was an explicit U.S. policy objecOve.27 ancestry and so were indigenes and owners of the land while theDay 5 Rwanda and Genocide: What are the staOsOcs, and thecultural implicaOons?Who was murdered?Who were the murderers?The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an esOmated 800,000 people. Over the course of approximately 100 days from the assassinaOon of Juvenal Habyarimanaon April 6 through midJuly, at least 800,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch esOmate. Other esOmates of the death toll have ranged between 500,000 and 1,000,000 (a commonly quotedfigure is 800,000) or as much as 20% of the country's total populaOon. (Des Rorges, A. 1999)Numerous elite Hutu poliOcians have been found guilty for the organizaOon of the genocide. The RwandanMilitary and Hutu miliOa groups, notably the Interahamwe, systemaOcally set out to murder all the Tutsis theycould capture, irrespecOve of their age or sex, as well as the poliOcal moderates. Hutu civilians were forced toparOcipate in the killings or be shot and were instructed to kill their Tutsi neighbors. Most naOons evacuatedtheir naOonals from Kigali and abandoned their embassies in the iniOal stages of the violence.By September 1995, several hundred of the 10,000 inmates in Kelgalis central prison were women. RakiyaOmar of the African rights told an Associated Press journalist that some were acOvely involved, killing withmachetes and guns while others acted in support roles allowing murder squads access to hospitals andhomes, cheering on male killers, stripping the dead and looOng their houses.Ahermath:Approximately two million Hutus, parOcipants in the genocide, and the bystanders, with anOcipaOon of TutsiretaliaOon, fled from Rwanda to Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and for the most part Zaire. Thousands of themdied in epidemics of diseases common to the squalor of refugee camps, such as cholera and dysentery. TheUnited States staged the OperaOon Support Hope airlih from July to September 1994 to stabilize the situaOonin the camps.Day 6 Truth and ReconciliaOonTruth and reconciliaOon as a global paradigm for postgenocide Rwanda Truth and ReconciliaOon CommiIee.Truth and ReconciliaOon CommiIeeIn July,1994, the RPF captured Kigali the capital of Rwanda and the Tutsis took over government. Two millionHutus fled to the Republic of the Congo for fear of retaliaOon. The threat of war and reprisals haunted both theTutsiled government and the fugiOve Hutu. How can lasOng peace be achieved?Truth and ReconciliaOon in PostGenocide RwandaNaOons aher a disjointed governance marked by genocide, apartheid and massacres would insOtute a Truthand ReconciliaOon CommiIee to heal wounds and return the naOon to order and normalcy.28Class Activity: Write aparagraph describing who youthink were the murderers and themurdered.An example is the TRC of South Africa aher the end of the Apartheid regime and the freedom of Nelson Mandela.Test: Research into and name three other naOons that had the TRC (Truth ReconciliaOon CommiIee).With genocide, there are vicOms and vicOmizers. The disOncOons are not clearly made but the glaring point isthat the Hutus are the guilty majority and the Tutsis are the fearful minority.Issues of Truth and ReconciliaOon CommiIee in PostGenocide Rwandaa) The truth in Rwanda genocide is known, there is no need for confession as was the case in South Africa. InRwanda, genocide was public and open. Any living Hutu is presumed guilty of killing because if you did not kill,you were killed by your own.b) What does jusOce and reconciliaOon mean to Hutus and Tutsis?c) The Hutus are the poliOcal majority and the Tutsis the poliOcal minority. While the minority calls for jusOce,the majority calls for democracy.d) How can the minority be safeguarded from a genocidal reoccurrence?e) How can the Hutus no more be marginalized economically?f) Should JusOce be retribuOve, that is puniOve (punish the evildoers) or should it be reconciliatory? What isthe more realisOc and tenable opOon?g) Should the genocide survivors be compensated and rehabilitated? How about the Hutu refugees who fled toCongo Republic, will they also be rehabilitated?Day 7 Class genocideA Reenactment of the Rwandan genocideClass divides into two groups: A)Hutu B)TutsiReconcilers, Panel of judgesClass AcOvity: To be filmedDay 8 ConclusionPost Test (15 minutes)29What is genocide?Where can it occur?Whom does it involve?Name a people who has suffered genocide.Class discussion:How can genocide situaOons be avoided in the future?How does genocide affect naOons globallyutsis were a Hamitic race who migrated from Ethiopia so were aliens.Tcolonialists using racial difference favored the Tutsis who were thusassociated with privilege and power. Colonial divisiveness was thus theinitial cause of conflict and rivalry between two hitherto ethnicities who cohabitedbefore the advent of the colonialists.Class Discussion:Do you consider the genocidal impulse an admissibleform of settling political disputes? In other words, discusswhether the quest for power and control justifies genocide andmans inhumanity to man. Give reasons for your answer.Student Activity:Student panels will be formedto brainstorm possible actionsthat could have beentaken by the United Nations.ins of the Rwandan genocidel Rwanda class discusionhe United NationsCultural implication of genocideTruth & ReconciliationLessons learned