Today is the last day of the institute in residence at Northern Illinois University. Tomorrow we travel to Washington DC for a week of meetings with Genocide Prevention/Awareness organizations, lobbyists, and a few international ambassadors.
We close this session of the institute looking at Genocide in Africa.
Rwanda
The problems that led to the genocide in Rwanda stem back to the days of Colonialism.
The Hamitic Hypothesis
In Rwanda, the Hamitic hypothesis was a racialist hypothesis created by John Hanning Speke in the 19th century which stated that the supposedly "Hamitic" Tutsi people were superior to the "Bantu" Hutus because they were deemed to be more "White" in their facial features, and thus destined to rule over the Hutus.
Because of the tribalism in the area, and this imposed European belief that the Tutsis were superior to the Hutus (and favored as superior), the Hutus began to see the Tutsis as an outside invader to their land.
Berlin Conference 1885
At the request of Portugal, German chancellor Otto von Bismarck called together the major western powers of the world to negotiate questions and end confusion over the control of Africa. The conference re-mapped Africa. The new countries lacked rhyme or reason and divided coherent groups of people and merged together disparate groups who really did not get along.
Many political events of the 20th century heightened the tensions in the region:
1957 - The "Hutu Manifesto" began the Hutu "emancipation" movement (PARMEHUTU.) The group quickly became militarized.
1961 Monarchy ends
1962 Rwanda full independence – 1st Republic
• Tutsi marginalized and periodically massacred.
1973 – Coup d’état - Juvénal Habyarimana
• Discrimination against Tutsi was institutionalized
Development of Political Groups/Factions
Akazu – Hutu Power was an informal organization of Hutus (founded by Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and his wife Agathe Habyarimana) whose members are generally understood to be responsible for the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) – The RPF was formed in 1987 by the Tutsi refugee diaspora in Uganda. The first Tutsi refugees fled to Uganda to escape ethnic purges beginning 1959.
Interahamwe – The Interahamwe (meaning "Those who stand together") is a Hutu paramilitary organization that actively participated in the genocide with support from the Hutu-led government.
Impuzamugambi – The Impuzamugambi (meaning "Those who have the same goal") was a Hutu militia in Rwanda formed in 1992. Together with the Interahamwe militia, which formed earlier and had more members, the Impuzamugambi was responsible for many of the deaths of Tutsis and moderate Hutus during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.
Both the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi was trained and equipped by the Rwandan Government Forces (RGF) and the Presidential Guard. When the genocide started in April 1994, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi acted in close collaboration and largely merged their structures and activities.
Political Situation
August 4, 1993 - The Arusha Accords were a set of five accords (or protocols) signed in Arusha, Tanzania by the government of Rwanda and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), under mediation, to end a three-year civil war. The Accords negotiated points considered necessary for lasting peace: the rule of law, repatriation of refugees both from fighting and from power sharing agreements, and the merging of government and insurgent armies.
Hutu Power perceived these accords as a threat to their power.
October 5, 1993 - The United Nations Security Council commissioned Resolution 872 (1993) which established the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) - Force Commander was Canadian Major-General Roméo Dallaire. Its objective was assistance in and supervision of implementation of the Arusha Accords.
Canadian Major-General Roméo Dallaire
The Genocide
April 6, 1994 - The airplane of President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira (also a Hutu) was shot down. Responsibility for the attack is a matter of contention, with both the Hutu extremists and the RPF under suspicion. The assassination was ultimately the trigger for the Rwandan Genocide.
Hutu Power utilized mass media (Radio) to direct the extermination of Tutsis
Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, under protection of UNAMIR personnel, was assassinated by the presidential guard. The ten Belgian UNAMIR soldiers sent to protect her were later found killed.
Rwandan Government Forces (RGF) and Hutu militia groups systematically set out to murder all the Tutsis they could capture, irrespective of their age or gender. Political moderates were also targeted.
The militia members typically murdered their victims by hacking them with machetes, although some army units used rifles. The victims were often found hiding in churches and school buildings, where Hutu gangs massacred them. Ordinary citizens were called on by local officials and government-sponsored radio to kill their neighbors, and those who refused to kill were often killed themselves.
The victory of the RPF rebels and overthrow of the Hutu regime ended the genocide in July 1994, 100 days after it started.
Statistics
• 800,000 killed in 100 days
• 77% of Rwandan Tutsi killed
• 100,000 orphaned by genocide
• 3,000,000 refugees
• 77,000 still live in exile
Aftermath and Justice
Following the genocide, approximately two million Hutus, participants in the genocide, and the bystanders, with anticipation of Tutsi retaliation, fled from Rwanda, to Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and for the most part Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC).
November 8, 1994 - The Security Council passes Resolution 955 creating the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The ICTR was established for the prosecution of persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda between January 1, 1994 and December 31, 1994. The first trials began in 1997.
The Trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu - ICTR found him guilty of 9 counts of genocide and crimes against humanity. His trial established the precedent that rape is a crime of genocide. The Trial Chamber held that "sexual assault formed an integral part of the process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group and that the rape was systematic and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific intent required for those acts to constitute genocide." On October 2, 1998, Akayesu was sentenced to life imprisonment.
By August 1998, 135,000 genocidaires are in prison (out of an estimated 750,000 genocide participants.) ICTR is overwhelmed. To ease strain Rwanda developed Gacaca Courts
Established in 2001, the Gacaca (pronounced "gachacha") court was developed as part of a system of community justice inspired by tradition in Rwanda.
The "mission" of this system is to achieve "truth, justice, [and] reconciliation." It aims to promote community healing by making the punishment of perpetrators faster and less expensive to the state.
According to the official Rwandan government website of the National Service of Gacaca Jurisdictions, the "Gacaca Courts" system has the following objectives:
• The reconstruction of what happened during the genocide
• The speeding up of the legal proceedings by using as many courts as possible
• The reconciliation of all Rwandans and building their unity
Genocide-related trials started on March 10, 2005 in Gacaca Courts.
• Sentences range from community service to life imprisonment
• 818,000 prosecutions by 2008
Darfur
Sudan is the largest country in Africa covering 2.5 million sq miles and with a population of 39 million (32% urban, 68% rural, 7% nomads.)
Darfur is in the western section of Sudan, Darfur covers an area of some 190,420 sq mi)— approximately the size of Texas or Spain. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur.
The combination of decades of drought, desertification, and overpopulation are among the causes of the Darfur conflict, because the Baggara nomads searching for water have to take their livestock further south, to land mainly occupied by Black African farming communities.
A rebellion started in 2003 against the Sudanese government, with two local rebel groups - the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) - accusing the government of oppressing non-Arabs in favor of Arabs. The government was also accused of neglecting the Darfur region of Sudan. In response, the government mounted a campaign of aerial bombardment supporting ground attacks by an Arab militia, the Janjaweed. Literally translated, Janjaweed means 'devils on horseback'. The government-supported Janjaweed were accused of committing major human rights violations, including mass killing, looting, and systematic rape of the non-Arab population of Darfur.
The Janjaweed
The Sudanese government, while publicly denying that it supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance to the militia and has participated in joint attacks targeting the tribes from which the rebels draw support.
As the conflict in Darfur enters its sixth year, conditions continue to deteriorate for civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, even by the most conservative estimates. The United Nations puts the death toll at roughly 300,000, while the former U.N. undersecretary-general puts the number at no less than 400,000. Up to 2.5 million Darfuris have fled their homes and continue to live in camps throughout Darfur, or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic.
Darfur Refugee Camp in Chad
The Genocide Olympics
Due to China’s huge investment in and profit from Sudan’s Oil Industry, there is an international movement to use the 2008 Olympics to embarrass China into working to stop the genocide in Darfur.
Dream for Darfur
No country has done more to support the regime in Khartoum than the People’s Republic of China: no country has offered more diplomatic support, nor done more to provide money to buy the weaponry that fuels the engine of genocidal destruction. And no country has done more to insulate Khartoum from economic pressure or human rights accountability. As Beijing prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, join Dream for Darfur in urging China to use its leverage to persuade the Sudanese government to allow into Darfur the full protection force outlined by UN Resolution 1769.
Congo
GENOCIDE WATCH
THE INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO END GENOCIDE
GENOCIDE EMERGENCY: ITURI, EASTERN CONGOUnion of the Congolese Patriots (UPC) soldiers fight Lendus near the United Nations compound June 7, 2003 in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Genocidal massacres have cost thousands of lives in Ituri, Eastern Congo in the past three years. Genocide Watch, Coordinator of the International Campaign to End Genocide, a coalition of twenty human rights and religious organizations in nine countries, declared a Genocide Alert for Ituri province in February, 2000. Since then, the genocidal massacres have only gotten worse. With the withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the province under the Congolese peace accords, a power vacuum has been created. Ethnic militias organized by extremists from both the Hema and Lendu groups have committed genocidal massacres during the past month that have taken at least a thousand lives.
The United Nations Observer Mission in the Congo (MONUC) lacks a mandate and the personnel and resources to intervene to stop the killings. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for a “coalition of the willing” to send heavily armed infantry to the province to intervene, to be authorized by U.N. Security Council Chapter VII mandate. France has agreed to lead the intervention and the European Union and African Union are also considering whether to send troops. The operation will require both financial and military resources.
All the warning signs for genocide that were present in Rwanda in 1994 are present in Ituri. In fact the Hema and Lendu are groups that have similar antipathies that the Tutsi and Hutu had in Rwanda. Genocide Watch sees all eight stages of the genocidal process now underway in Ituri. The population is classified into rival groups. Their identities are symbolized through local knowledge of who belongs to which group. Each group dehumanizes the other and expresses that in the hate speech they use and the destruction of the bodies of those slain. Both are organized into armed militias. The militias have polarized the society, driving other groups to ally with one side or the other. Genocidal massacres have prepared the way for larger killings, because they have been carried out with complete impunity. Extermination of part of the other group is already under way. Those supporting the militias, including Uganda and Rwanda, deny their involvement.
The Genocide Convention defines genocide as “the intentional destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.” The killings in Ituri are genocidal because the victims are targeted solely because of their ethnic identity.
Genocide Watch calls upon France, members of the European Union and the African Union, and the United States, as well as other members of the world community to contribute troops, airlift, communications and logistical support, and financing for an immediate intervention to establish peace in Ituri province, under a Chapter VII United Nations Security Council mandate.
http://www.genocidewatch.org/GenocideEmergencyIturi.htm
A new survey from International Rescue Committee has found that 5,400,000 people have died from war-related causes in Congo since 1998 – the world’s deadliest documented conflict since WW II.
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