UNIT 1: GENOCIDE
Key unit Competence:
Be able to analyze the causes and consequences of Genocide with a special
emphasis on the Genocide against the Tutsi and devise ways of reconstructing
Rwandan society as well as preventing Genocide from happening again.
Introductory activity 1
Many books and movies have been produced on different genocides that have
been committed on this planet including the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in
Rwanda and the Holocaust in Europe. Using them, analyze the causes that led
to these genocides, their course and effects. Afterwards, suggest how genocide
can be prevented from happening again.
1.1 Concept of Genocide
Learning Activity 1.1
Using the Internet, search for United Nations High Commission for Human
Rights and read the whole Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the crime of Genocide of 9th, December 1948. This will help you understand
the international legal framework that deals with genocides. Evaluate how this
convention has been applied in Rwanda then after, describe different steps ofgenocide development.
The term ‘’genocide’’ derives from two words: A Greek word ‘genos’ meaning origin
or species, and a Latin verb ‘caedere’, meaning to kill. It was first, used by Raphael
Lemkin, a Polish born American lawyer who taught law at the University of Yale in
the 1940s. He used this term ‘genocide’ uniquely to make it different from other
crimes of mass killings. Generally, it is the mass extermination of a whole group
of people, an attempt to wipe them out of existence. Scientifically and legally, the
definition of the term «Genocide» on the international level, adopted by the UN
Convention, has remained substantially the same since it was initially formulated on
9th Dec 1948 in article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide defines “genocide” as any of the following acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,
these acts were followed by a series of characteristics of the crime of genocide,
representing serious violations of the right to life and the physical or mental integrity
of members of the group such as:
– Killing members of the group;
– Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
– Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
its physical destruction in whole or in part;
– Imposing measures intended to prevent births with the group;
– Forcibly transferring of the group to another group.
– Involvement of the government that puts in place all necessary mechanisms
to destroy the targeted group;
– Intention of destroying or completely wiping out the targeted group;
– Selection of the group to kill therefore what differs from other mass crimes;
– Innocent people are killed because they belong to the targeted group;
– Cruel forms of killing are employed that involve torturing victims;
– Large-scale killing of the targeted group;– Attacks and killings resulting from genocide are always intentional, not acc
The UN Convention states that it is not just the acts of genocide themselves
that are punishable, but also “conspiracy to commit genocide,” “direct and public
incitement to commit genocide,” the “attempt to commit genocide” and “complicity
in genocide.” It is the specific intention to destroy an identified group, either “in
whole or in part”, that distinguishes the crime of genocide from a crime against
humanity. The Convention also states that any country or state that endorsed
the convention has the rights and legal authority to request any other state that
ratified the convention to prevent against this crime of genocide. Genocide hastwo
phases: one, destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other,
the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor.
Mass Atrocities or other crimes against humanity: According to international
law and Rwandan organic law no01/2012/OL of 02/05/2012 instituting the penal
code article 120, define crimes against humanity as “any of the following acts when
committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian
population because of its national, political, ethnic or religious affiliation: murder,
extermination, enslavement, deportation…., imprisonment in violation of law, torture,
rapeor any other form of sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance of
persons, the crime of apartheid, other inhuman acts of a similar character.”
In contrast with genocide, a crime against humanity do not need to target a specific
group. Instead, the victim of the attack can be any civilian population, regardless of
his/her affiliation or identity. Another important distinction is that in the case of crime
against humanity, it is not necessary to prove that there is an overall specific intent.
It is sufficient to be a simple intent to commit any of the acts aforementioned. Mass
atrocities have been witnessed in China, Cambodia, Tibet, Argentina, El Salvador,
Chile, Guatemala, Colombia, Bosnia and Sudan (Darfur) mass killing began when
the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the justice and Equality (JEM) rebels
took up arms in defense of the non-Arab population in Darfur who were the target
of the Arab-led forces from Sudan however, they are not forms of genocide. The
government responded with a heavy hand and organised ethnic cleansing against
the non-Arab populations in Darfur. Many people lost their lives. The government
got support from a local militia, Janjaweed.
Genocide is the mass extermination of a whole group of people, an attempt to wipe
them out of existence. It is the specific intention to destroy an identified group,
either “in whole or in part”, that distinguishes the crime of genocide from a crime
against humanity. Thus, these acts were perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda in
1994. This is why it is called the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They were
also perpetrated against the Jews by the Nazi (Holocaust/Shoah) in Germany.
Genocide is an international crime. For the Genocide to happen, it must be supported
by the government. The government deliberates intentionally on eliminating part of
its citizens and ensures that the plan is successfully executed. The government
intending to commit genocide puts in place effective plans and measures to achieve
the crime. The victims are killed not because of the crime they have committed,
but because of belonging to a certain group of people meant to be eliminated or
unwanted.
Application Activities 1.1
1. Carry out a research in a library or use internet and explain the tangible
features of genocide.
2. Discuss acts perpetrated on victims of genocide and other mass atrocities
/crimes.
Learning Activity 1.2
1.2 Stages/Steps of Genocide development
1. Explain the factors that lead to the development of genocide
2. In distinct steps, describe how the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
occurred
The Genocidal government starts with classifying its peopleand divides them in“us
versus them”, telling the people that there is a certain group of people within the
country that has different origins and is distinguishable by nationality, ethnicity,
race, or religion. It tries to show to the favored group that the targeted ones are
the problem in the society and constitute an obstacle to the social wellbeing and
development of the nation.
This Stage of classification of people is a primary method of dividing society and
creating a power struggle between groups. This targeted group is then given symbols
and dehumanizing names. The targeted group’s humanity is denied; the victim
group is made subhuman. Words such as “vermin”, “snakes” and “cockroaches” are
used to define the “other”, as well as comparisons to diseases, animals, or beasts.
Hate gatherings are organized for torturing and exterminating the members of the
targeted group in secret and in public, as a hatred campaign in different areas of the
country is led by the people and politicians heading the state in different institutions.
The state usually organizes arms and financially supports the groups that conduct
the genocidal massacres. Often militias are organized to carry out the Genocide,
in order to provide deniability to the state. The government and powerful citizens or
hate groups provide the necessary arms, equipment, and instructions to torture and
perpetrate the Genocide. Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast
and print polarizing propaganda. Full extermination is the aim of the killing, because
the perpetrators do not believe the victims to be truly human.
Finally, after the Genocide or extermination of the targeted group, the perpetrators
and their sympathizers, seek methods to cover up the truth and evidences, denying
that they committed any crimes, intimidating and attacking the Genocide survivors
and many other efforts to block investigations that could reveal those who planned
and executed the Genocide.
Genocide denial is an attempt to deny or minimize statements of the scale and
severity of an incidence of genocide for instance the denial of the 1994 genocide
against Tutsi and the holocaust. Genocide denial is usually considered as a form of
illegitimate historical revisionism. However, in circumstances where the generally
accepted facts do not clearly support the occurrence of genocide, the use of the
term may be an argument by those who argue that genocide occurred. They use
some ways such as minimization of genocide in any behavior exhibited publicly
and intentionally in order to reduce the weight or consequences of the genocide,
minimizing how the genocide was committed. Altering the truth about the genocide
in order to hide the truth from the people etc.
The different genocides recognized by the UN and international institutions have
some differences and similarities. The essential difference of the 1994 Genocide
against the Tutsi in Rwanda is that it is the only Genocide, committed by Rwandans
versus Rwandans themselves and at the same time being stopped by Rwandans.
Next to that, during the Genocide against the Tutsi, over one million of innocent
people vanished within the extremely short period of only three months.
People in Rwanda killed their fellow Rwandans, neighbors, relatives, intimate friends
and people who had intermarried, to mention but a few, in different areas all over
Rwanda in 1994. The Genocide against the Tutsi was planned and committed in
front of the eyes of UN peacekeeping and other international troops, who acted as
mere bystanders instead of stopping or preventing the Genocide. Shockingly, they
decided to withdraw their so called UN peacekeeping troops that were stationed in
Rwanda while the Genocide against Tutsi was being committed.
Genocide never takes place suddenly. It is a culmination of a long process that
usually takes place in distinct steps or stages. Various scholars have explained how
genocide develops. Some of them include Gregory H. Stanton and Ervin Stab who
have conceptualized the development of genocide as a progression. They have
each provided a continuum of steps through which genocide develops.
The 10 stages of genocide according to Gregory H. Stanton
• Classification: is a primary method of dividing society and creating a power
struggle between groups. Distinguishing people into‘us’ and ‘them’ by race,
identity, religion or nationality etc. In Rwanda, these identification cards were
later used to distinguish Tutsi from Hutu in the 1994 Genocide perpetrated
against the Tutsi.
• Symbolization: This involves giving names or symbols to classify the victim
group to distinguish them by religion, race, ethnicity or other identifying factors
may become mandated information for use by the government.
• Discrimination: The ruling class, caste, or ethnic group excludes “inferior”
groups from full rights. Laws are passed segregating and separating disfavored
groups in housing, schools, transportation, hotels, and establishments, as
well as laws against intermarriage. Usually takes a legal, cultural, custom, or
political form used by the perpetrator group. They use power and authority to
deny the rights of the victim group.
• Dehumanization: The perpetrator group treats the victim group as second
class citizens. Dehumanization makes the victim group easily vulnerable
to the dominant group. One group denies the humanity of another group,
and makes the victim group seem subhuman. Words such as “vermin” and
“cockroaches” (in German and Rwanda) are used to define the “other”, as
well as comparisons to disease, animals, or beasts.
• Organization: Genocide is a group crime, so it must be organized. The state
usually organizes arms and financially supports the groups that conduct the
genocidal massacres. Often Militias are organized to carry out the genocide
to provide deniability to the State. The government and powerful citizens
or hate groups provide the necessary arms, equipment, and instructions to
perpetrate genocide. Special army units or militias are usually trained and
supplied with arms in readiness to carry out the nefarious activities
• Polarization: Efforts are made by the dominant group to draw a sharp wedge
between them and the victim group. Hate groups spread propaganda to
reinforce prejudice and hatred between the two groups. Extremists drive the
groups apart. Hate groups broadcast and print polarizing propaganda. Laws
are passed that forbid intermarriage or social interaction.
• Preparation: Meetings are held by perpetrators and plans are drafted for
the impending genocide. Military plans and orders are drafted, and weapons
are stockpiled and distributed. Sometimes former territories are annexed or
invaded, and divisive treaties with neighboring States are developed. This is
done to ensure that everything takes place. Adequate preparations that entail
identification of victims and tools for use are made.
• Persecution: Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying
symbols. Segregation based on ethnic or religious identity, segregation into
ghettoes is imposed; victims are forced into concentration camps. Victims
also deported to famine-struck regions for starvation. This stage begins with
identification and separation of victims due to differences between them and
the perpetrators. Death lists are dressed.
• Extermination: the method of killing because the perpetrators do not believe
the victims to be truly human. Often the genocide results in revenge killings
creating a downward spiral of death. Killing of all the members of the victim
group begins at this stage. With time, the killings take on genocidal proportions.
• Denial:Denial is the surest indicator of further genocidal massacres.
Perpetrators go to great lengths to conceal their acts and deny having
committed any crime. The perpetrators and their sympathizers begin using
the forms of denial to defend their actions. Destruction of evidence, victim
blaming and refusal to relinquish power will ensue the five forms of denial:
deny the evidence, attack the truth tellers, deny genocide intent, blame thevictims and deny that the facts fit the legal definition of genocide.
Violence usually evolves from one stage to another. In most situations, limited
discrimination transforms into progressive discrimination, persecution and violence
against victimized groups. Occurrence of intense violence and discrimination leads
to a higher chance of it progressing to mass killings or genocide.
Lesser acts of discrimination and violence against the victim group, change and
transform the perpetrator group negatively. Actions against the victim group are
based on devaluing them. They are seen as less human hence the need to be
removed from the perpetrators’ ‘world’. All efforts by the perpetrator group are
geared towards committing violence against them.
Consequently, there is a bad change in the behavior of the perpetrator group due to
these efforts. Institutions are also changed or where possible, new ones are created
to help further the goals of the perpetrator group. The attitude of by-standers and
the rest of the population undergoes change too, for the worse. The victim group
is then subjected to high level of intense violence, which culminates in genocide.
Application Activities 1.2
1. After genocide of the targeted group, explain methods used by the
perpetrators to deny it
2. Discuss each of the ten stages in the continuum of violence as developed
by Gregory H. Stanton.
1.3 Holocaust or Shoah (1939-1945)
Learning Activity 1.3
Use internet, textbooks or other available documents in your library and discuss
this assertion:” Is it true that the Jewish Holocaust with the Death Camps and
Modern Mass Murder became a particular case of genocide?”
Genocide has been observed in different parts of the world at various times. Some
of them were the genocide of Jews (Holocaust) in Germany and the genocide
against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Genocide where it happened around the world often
came after or as an advanced form of crimes against humanity which in many
of these cases were crimes organizing, preparing or signaling genocide crime.
The Holocaust between 1940 - 1945, in which 6 million members of the Jewish
community lost their life. During the Holocaust, 2/3 of the Jewish population that
stayed in Europe were murdered, equaling 40% of all Jews living around the world
during World War II. Between 1992 and 1995, there was Genocide against the
Bosniaks (Muslim Bosnians) in Bosnia, committed by the government of Serbia, in
which around 30,000 Bosniaks perished. The Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994,
in which over one million Tutsi perished within only three months, comes as the
third Genocide recognized by the UN in the 20th century.
The Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda happened 45 years after the Holocaust /
Shoah committed by the German Nazis headed by Adolf Hitler. After the Holocaust,
the international community and the UN decided to prevent such crimes and humanmade
catastrophes around the world by creating legal provisions.
1.3.1. What is holocaust?
The term “Holocaust” comes from two Greek words holókaustos: hólos, “whole”
and kaustós, “burnt”, also known as the Shoah (Hebrew: HaShoah, “catastrophe”;
Yiddish: Churben or Hurban, from the Hebrew for “destruction”), hence, Holocaust
was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II.
The term Holocaust is derived from two Greek words holos (whole) and Kaustos
(burnt). It thus literally means ‘burning of the whole’. This term is used today to
describe the Nazi extermination of the Jews and other anti-Jewish activities. This
was done between 1939 and 1945 during the Nazi regime period in Germany under
Adolf Hitler.
It was a program of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi Germany, led by
Adolf Hitler, throughout Nazi occupied territories. The nine million Jews who had
resided in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately two thirds perished. In
particular, over one million Jewish children were killed in the Holocaust, as were
approximately two million Jewish women and three million Jewish men.
1.3.2. Causes of Holocaust
The causes of holocaust can only be understood by referring to the antisemitism.
The hatred against Jews or antisemitism took root in stereotypes and myths that
characterized the History of the European World. Even though the charge that the
Jews were responsible for killing Christ has been refuted by historians, because
crucifixion was a Roman punishment, not a Jewish punishment, the myth that the
Jews were Christ killers (deicides) was impactful, because Christians believed if a
people were capable of killing their god, they were capable of anything.
In the medieval period, the antisemitism went on growing. In the fourteenth Century
in the context of the Black Death, which decimated from 1/3 to 1/2 of the European
population, the Jews were deemed to be poisoning the wells and this was the
source of contagion that led to this mass death.
By the sixteenth century, Jews were now mostly confined to ghettos or Jewish
quarters, areas of cities or villages in which they were forced to live in isolation.
Although Jews were granted the right to live in certain towns in Western Europe in
return for taxes and services, occasionally they were attacked, killed, and expelled
to neighboring countries.
During 18th and 19th centuries, different myths like myths of the Nazi ideology and
the Myth of Aryans developed and contributed to the preparation and explanation
of the Holocaust. This myth of Aryans was believed by a number of theoreticians,
who included Joseph Arthur de Gobineau,who had expressed his ideas in his book
untitled “Essay on the Inequality of Human Races (1853-1855). He stated that the
Aryans or white race was superior to all other races. Other supporters of this myth
were Eduard Drumont and Huston Stewart Chamberlain. Therefore, the Nazis killed
the Jews on the pretext that they wanted to keep the Aryan race pure.
In addition, the Holocaust was used as a means to quietly destroy an undesired
minority. Jews were blamed for every woe of Germany. Nazis blamed the loss of
World War I on the Jews, which made it legitimate to kill that group. In the same
sense, with the World Economic Crisis in 1929, support for the Nazi party in Germany
increased drastically. The party blamed Jews for the crisis, which appealed to the
general public, who were in want of a scapegoat for their condition.1.3.3. Preparation and execution of Holocaust: Genocide ideology
Adolf Hitler used the Gobineau’s theory of race inequality to sustain that the Germanic
race was superior and therefore had to be protected from any contamination
emanating from mixed marriage. According to de Gobineau, the intermarriage
diminishes the proportion of the Aryan blood that they have. A practice that was
consequently forbidden and this targeted the Jews.
Hitler claimed that since the Jews were declared impure, their aim was to intermarry
with the pure Aryan people thereby corrupting the entire group and spread bad and
harmful ideologies such as Marxism, internationalism, individualism and liberalism.
Another myth was the “Myth on Jews” developed in the 19th century was based
on religious beliefs. The Jews were accused by the first Church members not to
recognize Jesus Christ as the son of God and to have killed the son of God (deicide).
Since then, the Anti-Semitism which was political, social and economic agitation
and activities directed against Jews, was supported by the “Church Fathers”; who
included Saints Ambroise, Augustine etc.
After the First World War, between 1914-1918 (WW I), many Germans blamed
the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I, some even claiming that German
Jews had betrayed the nation during the war. In addition, at the end of the war a
Communist group attempted to carry out a Bolshevik type revolution in the German
state of Bavaria. Most of the leaders of that failed attempt were Jews.
As a result, some Germans associated Jews with Bolsheviks and regarded both
groups as dangerous enemies of Germany. After the war, a republic known as
the Weimar Republic was set up in Germany. Jewish politicians and intellectuals
played an important role in German life during the Weimar Republic, and many non-
Jews resented their influence.
Based on his anti-Semitic views, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler attacked the impressive
role Jews played in German society during the Weimar Republic, especially in the
intellectual world and in left-wing politics. He referred to them as a plague and a
cancer.
In his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle, translated 1939), which was published
in 1926, Hitler blamed the plight of Germany at the end of World War I on an
international Jewish plan and used terms such as extirpation and extermination in
relation to the Jews. He claimed that the Jews had achieved economic dominance
and the ability to control and manipulate the mass media to their own advantage.
He wrote on the need to eradicate their powerful economic position, if necessary by
means of their physical removal.
On April 7, 1933, the Reichstag enacted the “Law for the Restoration of the
Professional Civil Service”, the first anti-Semitic law passed in the Third Reich;
the Physicians’ Law; and the Farm Law, forbidding Jews from owning farms or
taking part in agriculture. Jewish lawyers were disbarred, and in Dresden, Jewish
lawyers and judges were dragged out of their offices, courtrooms and beaten. Jews
were excluded from schools and universities (the Law to Prevent Overcrowding in
Schools), from belonging to the Journalists’ Association, and from being owners or
editors of newspapers. In the same year, the books written by Jews were publically
burnt.
In July 1933, the “Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring” calling
for compulsory sterilization of the “inferior” was passed. This major eugenic policy
led to over 200 Hereditary Health Courts being set up, under whose rulings over
400,000 people was sterilized against their will during the Nazi period.
On September 15, 1935, the Reichstag met in Nurnberg and passed two laws, known
as “The Nurnberg laws”. The first, the “Reich Citizenship Law” declared that only
individuals of “German blood” could be citizens of the German Reich (state), thus
depriving German Jews of their citizenship. The second, the “Law for the Protection
of German Blood and German Honor”, formalized barriers between Jews and
Germans, forbidding marriage and sexual relations between Jews and “Aryans.”
Thus, the Nazis deprived German Jews of all civil rights and effectively excluded
them from social and cultural life. Their policy was then aimed at expropriating
Jewish property with a view to compelling Jews to emigrate from Germany.
From Jews physical violence to large pogrom
On November 7, 1938, a young Jewish Herschel Grünspan assassinated Nazi
German diplomat Ernst Vom Rath in Paris. This incident was used by the Nazis
as a pretext to go beyond legal repression to large scale physical violence against
Jewish Germans. What the Nazis claimed to be spontaneous “public outrage”
was in fact a wave of pogroms instigated by the Nazi party, and carried out by
SA (Sturmabteilug or Storm detachment) members and affiliates throughout Nazi
Germany.
These pogroms became known as “the Night of Broken Glass” (literally “Crystal
Night”), or November pogroms. Jews were attacked and Jewish property was
vandalized, over 7,000 Jewish shops and 1,668 synagogues (almost every
synagogue in Germany) were damaged or destroyed. The death toll is assumed
to be much higher than the official number of 91 dead, 30,000 were sent to
concentration camps, including Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, and
Orangeburg concentration camp, where they were kept for several weeks, and
released when they could either prove that they were about to emigrate in the near
future, or transferred their property to the Nazi.
The question of the treatment of the Jews became an urgent one for the Nazis after
September 1939, when they invaded the western half of Poland, home to about
two million Jews. Himmler’s right-hand man, Reinhard Heydrich, recommended
concentrating all the Polish Jews in ghettos in major cities, where they would be
put to work for the German war industry. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest, with
380,000 people, and the Lódz Ghetto the second largest, holding 160,000. About
3 million of Jews were heaped together in those ghettos where they died of hungerand suffered from dreadful deprivations and diseases.
The camps increasingly became places where Jews and Prisoners of War (POWs)
were either killed or made to work as slave laborers, undernourished and tortured.
It is estimated that the Germans established 15,000 camps and sub camps in the
occupied countries, mostly in Eastern Europe. The transportation of prisoners was
often carried out under horrifying conditions using rail freight cars, in which many
died before reaching their destination.
Starting in December 1939, the Nazi introduced new methods of mass murder by
using gas. First, experimental gas vans equipped with gas cylinders and a sealed
trunk compartment, were used to kill mental care clients of sanatoria in Pomerania,
East Prussia, and occupied Poland, as part of an operation termed Action T4.
(T4 Program, also called T4 Euthanasia Program, Nazi German effort to kill the
mentally ill, physically or mentally disabled, emotionally distraught, and elderly).
In the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, larger vans holding up to 100 people
were used from November 1941, using the engine’s exhaust rather than a cylinder.
Action T4 was a program established in 1939 to maintain the genetic purity of the
German population by killing or sterilizing German and Austrian citizens who were
judged to be disabled or suffering from mental disorder.
A need for new mass murder techniques was also expressed by the Nazi leaders.
It was this problem which led the SS (Security Squadron) to experiment with largescale
killings using poison gas. Finally, Christian Wirth seems to have been the
inventor of the gas chamber.
In January 1942, the Nazi leaders organized a conference in Berlin, the Conference
of Wannsee, where they devised the “Final solution of Jews problem”, explicitly
to kill the 11 million of Jews living in Europe. As head of the German SD or
Security service, or Security Service, Reinhard Heydrich was asked by Nazi leader
Hermann Göring to organize a “final solution to the Jewish question.” In addition,
Adolf Eichmann was entrusted by the leaders of Nazi Germany with responsibility
for carrying out and coordinating the “final solution”; the murder of almost 6 million
Jews during World War II (1939-1945). Under Eichmann’s direction, Jews from all
over German occupied Europe were sent to concentration camps to be killed.
About Jews concentration camps
A concentration camp is a place in which large numbers of people, especially
political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities are deliberately imprisoned
in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced
labour or to await mass execution. The term is most strongly associated with the
several hundred camps1945.
Due to the role played by these prominent personalities, the concentration camps
were built mainly in Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor and Belzec
where the majority of the deportees perished.
The crematorium was used to incinerate the bodies of people killed in the camp’s
four gas chambers. Birkenau, along with the nearby Auschwitz complex, was the
site of scientifically planned and executed genocide by Nazi Germany during World
War II (1939-1945). It is estimated that between 1.4 million and 4 million people
were killed at Auschwitz and Birkenau during the war. Although it was the Jews who
were targeted by the “Final Solution”, among the victims were also the Gypsies,
the Communists, Slavic, the Russian prisoners of war, the invalids, homosexuals,
Jehovah’s Witnesses and any other person suspected of not adhering to the Naziideology.
When the WW II ended in 1945, on September 2nd, the entire Jewish secular and
religious culture in Europe had been completely destroyed and near 6 million Jews
and about 11 million of Non-Jewish Europeans were exterminated. The table below
shows the estimated number of Jews killed in different extermination camps.Table 1: Extermination camp and Estimate number of Jews killed
In general, the following table shows us roughly the number of Jews killed Number
of Jews killed during the Holocaust according to years.Table 2: Jews killed by Year
After the war, the Allies established an International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in
Germany to prosecute the surviving Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against
humanity. Later, in 1948, a United Nations Organization resolution established
crime against humanity as a crime under international law with no limitation period
for the prosecution of those accused such crimes.
After the Holocaust, some 250 000 Jewish were survived and in 1947 the UN voted
to partition Palestine into Jews and Arab States. The Israel, a Jewish State, was
established in May 1948 as a homeland for the Holocaust Jewish survivors.
Consequences of holocaust
The genocide against the Jewish people or the ‘Shoah’ ended at the same time with
the Second World War in Europe. Its consequences in terms of the loss of lives are
enormous. It is estimated that six million Jewish people died.
The Nazis also killed other categories of people who were not Jews with the intention
of purification of the race of Aryans. These include half a million Roma gypsies, a
quarter of a million mentally ill and disabled people.
In addition, the Nazis committed other mass crimes by sterilizing deaf people,
imprisoning homosexuals and they considered that Slavic people were sub-human
and they intended to starve up to 30 million Soviet civilians and prisoners of war.
On the other hand, Jewish people reacted in different ways:
– In some places, the Jewish people resisted, for instance the Warsaw Uprising
of 1943;
– Some of them fled from Germany and other countries such as Poland;
– Some put their children on Kinder transport trains, which took them to Great
Britain where they were fostered and others tried to hide;
– In some places, the Jewish people accepted their fate and even cooperated
with the Nazis;
– Some survived the concentration camps, often against all odds, etc.
Many Jewish people were saved by acts of bravery and compassion carried out by
Jewish and non-Jewish people alike, e.g. Oskar Schindler. Schindler was an ethnic
German and credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews, despite being a member
of the Nazi party. His moving story was made into the film, Schindler’s List in 1993.
After the war, Nazi leaders were put on trial at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials
(1945‒1946). Many were sentenced to death. War criminals continued to be found
and put on trial, including high profile cases such as Adolf Eichmann in 1960 and
Klaus Barbie who was put on trial in 1987. It is universally believed that such
genocide must never be allowed to happen again.
Every year, 27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). The date was chosen
as the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Holocaust Memorial Day
is an international day of remembrance – not only for the Jewish Holocaust, but
also for subsequent genocides in places like Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda. All
over the world, people honor the survivors and reflect on the consequences of
the holocaust. In 1948, the nation of Israel was established as a state for Jewishpeople.
Application Activities 1.3
1. Why do you think the Nazi blamed the Jews for all their problems?
2. Describe what happen to the Jews and other targeted groups in
extermination camps.
3. Do you think was the international community in a position to stop the
Holocaust from taking place?
4. Discuss why the international community and other nations took a long
time to stop the Nazi from killing the Jews.
5. Identify actions taken by the Jews to keep the memory of the Holocaust
and promote healing and reconciliation.
1.4. Genocide against the Tutsi
Learning Activity 1.4
Use internet, read available books in your library or watch a documentary film on
the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and answer the following questions:
1. Analyze its causes, its course and its end.
2. Discuss main actors of genocide against the Tutsi
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi was a carefully planned and executed to
annihilate Rwandan Tutsi. It was the fastest and cruelest genocide ever recorded
in human history.
1.4.1.Causes of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
It is so hard to identify the root causes of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
This because all Rwandans were united and shared the elements for national
cohesion like same king, clans, language, values, same religion, culture and same
country etc. However, the mainly among others, factors had contributed to the
disunity of Banyarwanda and led to the genocide:
The loss of cultural identity
The influence of colonial education is responsible for the derision and diminution
of the Rwandan culture. The colonial education made Rwandans adopt Western
culture at the expense of their own. They were conditioned to regard his traditional
as archaic and barbaric. During the colonial period, the colonial masters deliberately
applied a policy of “divide and rule”. The colonialists took the Tutsi and Hutu as
two distinct “groups” instead of looking them as two social categories. The loss of
their common cultural identity and the policy of divide and rule resulted in the first
pogroms and massacres of 1959 and very far to the 1994 genocide against the
Tutsi.
The hatred culture of Rwandans vis-à-vis other Rwandans under the two
Republics
Rooted from colonial period and because of bad leadership under the First and the
Second Republics, the hatred culture was promoted and supported by divisionism
worsened by regionalism and nepotism. This undermined the national unity among
the Rwandans.
Hatred indicators showed through vilification and name calling that Rwandans were
accustomed to using while addressing each other. Such names like “snake, enemy,
malicious, fake, false, robber…” All that fueled hatred against each other.
Institutionalization of untruthfulness and the culture of impunity
Under the two Republics, the crimes were committed with the beliefs that the
culprits will never be apprehended. Indeed, some people who committed big and
atrocious crimes were rewarded by being promoted to important administrative
positions. Corruption, favoritism, cheating, embezzlement and diversion of public
funds, suspicion and mistrust were common.
Persecution and impunity
During the colonial period, the colonizers had favored a group of” Tutsi elites” which
was associated to colonial power as auxiliaries. When their alliance broke up in
the end of 1950s, the colonizers changed alliance from supporting the Tutsi elites
on power because some elite Rwandans member of UNAR spearheaded by King
Mutara III Rudahigwa were advocating for immediate independence that provoke a
break up with the Tutsi. This change is the origin of the political and violence which
happened since November 1959 characterized by mass killings against the Tutsi and
members of UNAR party their houses were burned and destroyed systematically.
The same scenarios of mass killing targeting Tutsi repeated in 1963/64, 1973 and
in 1990-1994 up the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. They were scapegoats of the
failure of the government.
The authors of such massacres were never punished for the crimes committed.
Contrarily, many of them were promoted to the post of responsibility. On the side of
international community, it has always considered the respective governments of
Rwanda as the true representatives of population. It has totally ignored the crimes
committed and the injustices that those governments are responsible for.
The genocidal ideology
After recovering independence, on the 1/7/1962 until July 1994, the leadership of
the PARMEHUTU political party led by KAYIBANDA and MNRD led by Juvenal
HABYARIMANA, instead of correcting the past mistakes left by colonialists, they
were rather encouraged the ideology by cementing hatred and divisionism towards
the Tutsi as they denied them basic human rights including right to their country,
education, job opportunities, etc.
The genocidal ideology identified the two antagonist groups like “Us” and
“Them” or “You” and after proceeded by the nomination or qualification of those
two groups. The genocidal ideology in Rwanda is based on ideas, attitude and
practices of discrimination and hatred against the Tutsi. It has been implemented
and disseminated by the political leaders since 1959. The Tutsi most important
manifestation was persecution, killing, public hatred message, loose of goods and
properties, exclusion from political and administrative functions, discrimination in
many sector like education, forced exile, physical and psychological violence etc….
Since independence, the Tutsi have been identified as “enemies” of the Hutu. In
1960’s, the first president of the Republic, Grégoire Kayibanda, used the hatred
speeches to qualify the danger of the Tutsi to the Hutu due to the attacks of Inyenzi
(groups of refugees) from outside of Rwanda. From 1990 with the attack of RPF –
Inkotanyi, the ideological speeches pointed out again the “double treat presented
by the Tutsi (of internal and of external)”.
Between 1990 and 1994, the Tutsi have been qualified as the “enemy”, “outsiders”
and “suspected” complots. From those qualifications and propaganda, many
Newspapers and Radios, called upon all Hutu, “to kill all Tutsi before being killed”.
Besides the presentation of the threats against the Tutsi, another factor was the
dehumanization or qualification of enemy not as humankind but as an animal like
rats, snakes or cockroaches. The aim was to incite to direct and public reactions
against the Tutsi considered as a “common enemy”. This shows that genocide
crime before being act of physical destruction of enemy, the genocidal ideology
begins by ideas developing the vision of a “group-enemy” to be exterminated.
Discriminatory leadership
Under the two Republics (1962 – 1994), the social inequality was maintained and
encouraged by exclusion, favoritism and regionalism. It was under the Second
Republic that the policy of “division, exclusion” and regionalism balance” was
reinforced. The social promotion was not based on meritocracy; a choice that has
generated negative effects on the development of the country and the relationship
among Rwandans.
The prefectures of Gisenyi and Ruhengeri monopolized more positions of
responsibility in the public administration. The “quotas system” was adopted in
1970’s as solution to social injustice. However, this policy led to the exclusion and
discrimination of the Tutsi from schools and services. It deprived the Tutsi to enjoy
their rights on education and employment.
Finally, the governments of the first and second republic had systematically ignored
the problem of refugees who were roaming around in the neighboring countries
since 1959. The reaction of the government to their request of returning to their
country and recovering their properties and their rights was still the same stating
that the country is overpopulated and could not receive any one other population. It
was this repeated refusal that made the refugees to organize them self in a politicomilitary
structure, named RPF – Inkotanyi and opted return by force.
1.4.2. Course of the genocide against the Tutsi
Genocide had already spread to whole country from 7thApril 1994, the planners of
genocide carry out a general genocide against the Tutsi, following the power vacuum
and incitement from the media and genocidal planners, the presidential guards,
“Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi” militias (created on September 1991) started
a systematic elimination and extermination of Tutsi and key political personalities of
the opposition who were against the genocide against the Tutsi.
Following the meetings held at the High Command of the F.A.R (Rwandese
Army Forces), the interim government has been formed. On April 8th, 1994, the
former president of National Council of Development / CND (Conseil National
de Développement) and member of MRND, Dr SINDIKUBWABO Theodore was
nominated President of Republic and KAMBANDA Jean as Prime Minister from the
extremist wing of MDR known as Hutu power became head of the government that
was exclusively made up of ministers belonging to extremist fractions that were in
favor of the genocide against the Tutsi.
That meeting adopted also the “Hirondelle operation” which consisted of violating
the cease-fire and breaking the fighting against RPF. By this operation, the Kigali
City was “cleaned” using the list of Tutsi to be killed established before. On 9th April,
an official communiqué announced the formation of a new government made up
of extremist leaders from four political parties were represented in the government
because of their “power” element that was favorable to the genocide.
In a meeting held on the 11th April 1994, the interim Prime Minister KAMBANDA
Jean called on leaders at Hôtel des Diplomates in Kigali, apart from Jean Baptiste
HABYALIMANA,(the only one Tutsi) the leader of Butare Province, to apply in
their respective Prefectures “Hirondelle operation”. He also openly called for
“Insecticide operation” and what he called “the final solution” aimed at systematic
extermination of the Tutsi and their accomplices, without “sparing neither babies,
nor women, nor aged people as the insecticide does to cockroaches. It was after
this meeting that genocide spread with a high speed throughout the whole country.
The genocide against the Tutsi was characterized by many forms of extreme
violence. The main tools used during this genocide against the Tutsi are machetes,
grenades, bullets, nailed bludgeons called “ntampongano y’umwanzi”, burning
people alive, throwing living people into pit latrines, ditches forcing family members
to kill each other among others.
At the beginning, the killers in small groups killed the Tutsi victims at their homes,
on the roads or arrested them at the road blockers. However, later on, as the Tutsi
used to escape and to look for asylums at the public offices and churches, the
killers also went to attack and kill them in those places: church offices, commune
offices, hospitals and health centers, school, stadiums, etc... There were no any
safe places to get for protection.
Many victims of the genocide against the Tutsi were killed at their respective
homeland, but a number of others had tried to look for asylum at some special
places where they thought to get protection. The concentration of the Tutsi at such
places was encouraged by the local authorities with the plan of facilitating and
accelerating the mass killings because the assailants found the Tutsi in mass in one
place. These places served as the “death camps”.
Such places included church offices (Kabgayi, Ntarama, Nyarubuye, Saint Famille,
Nyange, Kibeho, Cyahinda, Adventist Church of Ngoma, Nyamasheke, Mosque of
Nyamirambo, Mugina, Mibilizi, etc.
They also comprised commune offices such as Mugina, Musambira, Rwamatamu,
Kamembe, etc. and hospitals and health centres such as Kigali Hospital Center
“CHK”, University Hospital of Butare “CHUB”, Kibuye Hospital, Health Center of
Kaduha, Mugonero, etc.
There were also schools like Collège Saint André Nyamirambo, Petit SéminaireNdera,
Saint AloysRwamagana, Collège Marie Merci Kibeho, Ecole Technique Officielle
“ETO “Kicukiro, etc. and stadiums including Gatwaro in Karongi district today,
Amahoro in City of Kigali and Kamarampaka in Rusizi district today.It was “Apocalypse” promised one day by Colonel Thioester BAGOSORA.
April 12th, 1994, the interim government called also “Abatabazi” fled the capital
of Kigali due to the advance of the RPF – Inkotanyi and settled in Gitarama, at
Murambi. Later on, it will move to Gisenyi and in refugees’ camps located in Goma,
Zaïre today Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Finally, RPF – Inkotanyi soldiers stopped the genocide and scored victory over the
genocidal forces on 4th July 1994 when Kigali City and Butare were liberated.
Main actors of genocide against the Tutsi
The main actors and killers include soldiers of the Rwandese Army Forces (FAR)
and Gendarmerie. In particular, the elite Presidential Guard carried responsibility
to begin killings; another group of actors is made up by civil authorities from the
top to the local authorities: the members of the former PresidentHabyarimana
political party National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND) and the
Interim government, the Préfets of prefectures, the Burgomasters, the communal
councilors who basically mobilized and encouraged people to kill all Tutsi on hills;
There are militias such as “Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi”, respectively formed
as youth wing of National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND) and
Coalition for the Defense of Republic (CDR) political parties and members of Hutu
Power.
The extremist Medias (newspapers and radios) who disseminated the along the day
hate speeches during the genocide and encouraged the population to exterminate
the Tutsi “enemy” namely Kangura, La MedailleNyiramacibiri, RTLM or Radio
Television des Milles Collines...
The large group of killers is composed of extremist Hutu in general over the country.
The targeted group to be exterminated was the Tutsi without any distinction of age,
religion, region, etc. According to the National Service of Gacaca Courts, 1 678 672
persons were guilty of having committed the crime of genocide against the Tutsi in
Rwanda.
Application Activities 1.4
1. Assess the similarities and differences in the occurrence of the Holocaust
and Genocide against the Tutsi.
2. How effective are the testimonies from the survivors, repenting
perpetrators, genocide memorials and reports on the genocide in
educating the people of Rwanda?
3. What ideas, behaviors and actions do you think may lead to a recurrence
of genocidal violence in Rwanda if left to develop further
1.5. Consequences of Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
Learning Activity 1.5
Read different documents or use internet assess the effects of the 1994 genocide
against the Tutsi.
The consequences of the genocide are numerous at all levels of life of Rwandans.
Some of them include the following:
Massive loss of lives
Many lives are lost in the genocide, more than one million women, men and children
Tutsi were killed in this genocide. The Genocide against the Tutsi was carried out
by the perpetrators of genocide, the majority executed it while those in authority
mostly supervised it.
Destruction of property
Destruction of property occurred during the Genocide against the Tutsi, where
anarchy and lawlessness reigned supreme. Private and public properties were
destroyed and looted. Destruction of infrastructures and equipment. Homes were
torched and destroyed and animals killed during the genocide.
Increased insecurity
In 1994, Rwanda was the third highest importer of weapons in Africa. Most of these
weapons had been bought deliberately to perpetrate the genocide against the Tutsi.
Wrong use of arms caused violence and unrest in the country leading to insecurity.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
The genocide had psychological consequences for people who witnessed horrible
scenes. They experienced depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The
trauma experienced by the survivors was deep and those who healed from it were
left with psychological scars. This was caused by the horrific actions the people
were exposed to. These among others included rape, torture, murder, physical
mutilations, psychological trauma due to sexual abuse, excessive degradation ofhuman dignity and high rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence and extreme violence.
High incidence of orphans
Many children lost their parents during the Genocide against the Tutsi. Some of
these children were left to fend for themselves. This led to the increase in the
phenomenon of child-headed households (CHHs). Rise in the number of widows,
orphans, the disabled etc.
Human Rights violation
Violation of Human Rights began prior to the genocide but it reached its peak during
the genocide.
Destruction of the social systems
The traditional protective structures, which held society together for many years,
were destroyed. Family networks, judicial and education systems were severely
affected. Efforts at rebuilding the structures were challenging. All these challenges
made the post-genocide government experience problems in rebuilding the country.
The country was also affected by the spread of HIV and AIDS and poverty. These
issues were serious challenges to the efforts of the new government at rebuilding
the society.
Mistrust among neighbors
Participation in the genocide by people known to the victims spoiled relations
among neighbors. The victims mistrusted their neighbors who had participated in
CITIZENSHIP STUDENT’S BOOK, Senior 5 27
the genocide or had been passive bystanders. Relations between the two groups
were affected.
Decadence of the country’s economy
During the genocide, most of the active population abandoned their economic
activities for looting and killing; other abandoned the country as refugees and
displaced people. The country recovered the development stage after their return
and reinstallation. Disgrace of Rwanda’s international image: after the genocide
against the Tutsi, the country was only seen in negative way by considering almost
the Rwandans as the killers. The Rwanda was also seen as a country destroyed
without any humanity and hope for the future.
Problem of delivering justice
After the genocide, Rwanda faced the problem of delivering justice. At the end of the
1994 genocide against Tutsi, more than one million (1 678 672) were suspected of
having participated in committing genocide had been apprehended and imprisoned.
Considering the big number of these prisoners who waited to be judged, it was
impossible to give justice to both victims and prisoners in a reasonable period.Alternatives solutions, such as Gacaca has been initiated for that purpose.
Similarities and differences between the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi
and other genocides
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and other genocides which have so far taken
place in the world have the following as common features or similarities:
Thorough preparation and execution by the Government using militia or army; Large
mobilization of means and human resources to execute the genocide intention of
destroying or completely wiping out the targeted group;
Involvement of the government in coming up with the necessary measures to
destroy the targeted group; Ruthless killing of the targeted group in masses;
Innocent people belonging to the targeted group were killed. The survivors were
amputated, mutilated and maimed; cruel methods were used to torture victims
before killing them. Some examples of torture methods that have been used are:
burying them alive in mass graves, starving victims to death and fumigating them to
death in gas chambers with poisonous gases.
Trauma has been caused to the survivors of genocides as a result of loss of their
loved ones, loss of property and displacement. Authorities in the involved countries
have strongly denied genocide.
Differences between the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and other
genocides
The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi is different from other genocides due to the
following facts:
It was executed within a short period. Over one million people lost their lives in a
period of one hundred days. People killed their fellow citizens, their relatives and
neighbors. People who shared common culture fought, injured and killed each
other. The government agents, church members, security were all organs actively
involved in the Genocide.
Cruel methods were used in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. For example, torturing
victims before killing them, people were buried alive in mass graves, women were
raped before being killed, babies were crushed in mortars or being smashed on
walls.It came to an end when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) defeated the
genocidal forces in July 1994.
Application Activities 1.5
1. The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi led to both human and environmental
disaster. Explain this statement.
2. The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi had a very bad impact in the sector
of justice. Discuss this assertion.
3. Women are the category of people which deeply suffered during the 1994
genocide against the Tutsi. Write down a text of 200 words to explain
how this happened.
1.6. Consequences of genocide in general
Learning Activity 1.6
1. Discuss the kinds of bodily injuries that the Jews and the Tutsi sustained
during the genocides that befell them.
2. How did the injuries sustained by victims of the Genocide against the
Tutsi affect or change their lives?
The world has witnessed genocide and mass killings in different places. Genocide
has the following consequences:
• Loss of lives: Many lives are lost in the event of a genocide occurring, for
instance, 6million Jews and more than 1,074,017 Tutsi were killed in the
genocides.
• Sustainment of injuries: Many people sustain injuries during genocide
perpetration. Such injuries change the lives of survivors forever.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): The occurrence of a genocide
creates traumatic situations for the victims. Those who manage to survive
do suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The ugly scenes
survivors witness and many troubling conditions they endure during the
genocide bring about PTSD. Victims also experience other psychological
disorders, depression and excessive anger.
• Displacement of people: Some victims flee from areas where genocide is
taking place to look for safety.
• High number of orphans and other vulnerable dependents: The high
number of deaths associated with genocide usually results in a high number
of orphans and other vulnerable dependent. As a result, the society is tasked
to take care of the orphans. In worse cases, such children are left to fend for
themselves and most end up as child headed families.
• Spread of sexually transmitted diseases and infections: Women and girls
are raped and in some cases, contract sexually transmitted infections and
diseases such as HIV and AIDS, gonorrhea, herpes or syphilis.
• Damaged or destroyed relationships: The victim group and the perpetrator
group usually develop mistrust towards one another. This may prevent them
from working together in future. Genocide damaged or destroyed the good
relationships that existed between the victims and perpetrators.
• Destruction of property: During the occurrence of genocide, the victims’
properties are usually targeted too. Some are destroyed while others are
illegally or forcefully acquired by the perpetrators. All the genocides witnessed
in the world have led to negative impacts. This is why the occurrence of
genocide should be avoided by any society. Human beings should not plan
or implement a plan to murder others. Rationality should guide us into solving
any perceived or real problems in a peaceful and an amicable manner.
Application Activities 1.6
Compare and contrast the two genocide situations that we have learnt about in
the form of a table. Below is a format for the table to fill.
1.7. Ways of addressing the consequences of genocide with
special application to Rwanda
Learning Activity 1.8
Using the Internet, answer the following questions:
1. Explain ways in which the post-genocide government, civil society
groups, non-governmental organizations, individuals and the community
have used to address the consequences of Genocide against the Tutsi.
2. Examine ways in which community members can help reduce mistrust
between the survivors and perpetrators of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
3. Talk about the Gacaca Courts that have promoted communal healing
and rebuilding national cohesion.
The government alongside other partners and citizens has actively led in efforts
aimed at addressing the consequences of genocide. Various measures have been
adopted to deal with the consequences of genocide. Some of these measures
include the following:
Gacaca courts
The Gacaca Courts were used to find out what happened during the Genocide
against the Tutsi. Rwandans came together to talk about what happened in 1994.
This laid the foundation for peace and reconciliation. A big number of genociderelated
cases were tried through Gacaca Courts. They helped speed up genocide
trials and strengthened unity and reconciliation by a find out the truth about genocide
and putting an end to the culture of impunity.
Social reconstruction and reconciliation
The Rwandan society was gravely affected by the genocide. Its social structures
were completely destroyed.
Social reconstruction means rebuilding the social structures that were once
destroyed.
Reconciliation refers to the process of making parties in a conflict mend and then
go on improving relations with each other. The two parties, after reconciling, reestablish
friendly relations having put aside their differences.
A third party usually facilitates reconciliation by bringing the two parties in conflict to
an agreement. Through the third party, the aggrieved parties open up for dialogue
to arrive at a peaceful reconciliation. Reconciliation is an interactive process that
requires a cooperative eff ort between the parties involved. Individuals or groups
are encouraged to talk about the painful experiences they went through during the
genocide. This enables healing to
take root among the survivors and perpetrators alike. The government can do this
by making eff orts to improve active bystandership, and promoting positive moral
values and peaceful coexistence through policies and practices.
Reconciliation is usually an interactive process, which demands that parties
involved move together for its attainment. It takes place over time, requires trust
and risk taking. Trudy Govier provides the following 11-step process as being vitalin the reconciliation process. The steps include:
For social reconstruction and reconciliation to be achieved, all parties involved in
conflict should go through the reconciliation process. Redress should take place for
social reconstruction of the Rwandan society to be achieved. This will bring about
restoration of the broken social structures.
At Political level
After stopping the genocide against the Tutsi by the FPR, the immediate strategy
was to rebuild peace and security as well as reconstructing Rwanda especially
infrastructures which was demolished during the time of genocide against Tutsi. In
July 1994, after the liberation of Rwanda, immediately the government of national
unity was implemented and was composed of different political parties headed by
the FPR Inkotanyi. This government implemented major strategies derived from
the pillars: unity and reconciliation among Rwandans, good government, economic
development of the country, security sustainability as well as social welfare of the
Rwandans.
The government also implemented major mechanisms such as government agenda
of not revenge and punish those who try to revenge after genocide, converging the
RPF soldiers and FAR Army and form RDF force, repatriation of refugees who
left from Rwanda before genocide and after genocide in 1994 as well as return all
properties to their owners, sharing the land among Rwandans, remove ethnics from
national identity and remain with one national identity card as a Rwandan, the merit
on education and employments to all young generation in Rwanda.
In 1996, Rwanda force entered into DRC, for the purpose of preventing insecurity to
Rwanda and fight against soldiers and militia who had participated in the genocide
fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as Zaire, and (infiltrators
named abacengezi in Kinyarwanda) back from DRC and attacked Rwanda mostly
in north and northwest and western party of Rwanda and return back the million
civilians refuges, most of them Hutu who had been told that the RPF would kill
them. Thousands died of water-borne diseases. The camps were also used by
former Rwandan government soldiers to re-arm and stage invasions into Rwanda.
The attacks were one of the factors leading to the war between Rwanda and the
Democratic Republic of Congo that took place in 1996. Former Rwandan forces
continue to operate in the DRC alongside Congolese militia and other armed
groups. They continue to target civilian populations and cause deaths, injury and
harm.
Between May 1998 and 1999 in the office of the President “Urugwiro Village” ensued
different meetings had discussion talks called “Urugwiro talks” and it happened
after four years the time of RPF Force stopping the genocide against Tutsi. The
reasons of Urugwiro talks was to find solutions of rebuilding the nation after it ruins
during the time of genocide against Tutsi, this led all Rwandans to rise up and meet
together and design the policy and vision of the country. These dialogue talks took
also most one year and a half and happened every weekend and people meet at
Urugwiro and discuss how the Rwandans can easily be outing from transitional
period and build new peaceful and development Rwanda. Different categories of
Rwandan categories participated in these talks. The included the ministers, heads
of prefectures, advocates, lecturers from university of Rwanda, people who were
representatives of the past political parties such as MDR, MRND, PSD who did not
immerse themselves in the genocide against Tutsi.
These talks or dialogues came up with a lot of strategies and new innovations
such as implementing national constitution voted by the citizens and drafted by the
researches and that’s why its preparations spent almost three and a half years and
citizen be involved to add their ideas and views as well as owning it as their national
constitution.
The led dialogue and discussions built the program of vision 2020, different
institutions including office of the Ombudsman, Office of Audit General (OAG), and
Senate mention but a few.
The establishment of the Government of National Unity after the Genocide against
the Tutsi. Institutional reform:
• Creation of the National Commission for Unity and Reconciliation;
• The National Commission for the Fight against Genocide;
• The National Commission for Human Rights;
• The National Electoral Commission and National Itorero commission as well
as Rwanda Governance Board.
• The abolition of different identity cards with ethnic mention, the annual national
dialogue conference, etc.
In context of preventing and fighting against genocide and its ideology, the
government established national commission for the fight against genocide (CNLG)
as well as FARG to matter of supporting genocide survivors.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the process of letting go feelings of anger and resentment towards an
individual who has done something bad or caused harm. Forgiveness benefits both
parties to a conflict and is crucial in helping to preserve and enhance relationships.
Forgiveness usually takes time and demands patience from the parties involved.
Counselors have a role to play in achieving this process. Forgiveness is usually
voluntary and people should not be forced to forgive. After forgiveness is achieved,
reconciliation can now set in. Forgiveness enables victims and perpetrators of
genocide to achieve reconciliation and sustainable peace.
According to Trudy Govier, forgiveness demands that the wrongdoer acknowledges
his or her misdeeds to pave way for forgiveness. Victims should not take revenge
on the perpetrators. This is because forgiveness is better and healthier in a postgenocide
environment. We should remember that in forgiving the off ender, the
victim acknowledges him or her as a human being worthy of dignity and with the
moral freedom to change his or her ways.
Judicial system.
Implementing the special chambers for genocide perpetrators trials. The aftermath
of genocide against Tutsi, Rwanda faced invasive challenge of trial judging cases
of the genocide perpetrators suspects and those who committed the crimes against
humanity for the purpose of delivering justice for genocide victims as well as
eradicating the culture of impunity. The genocide suspects were imprisoned, the
number was very huge and over the judicial organs capacity, which was actually
ruined and destroyed during the genocide against Tutsi.
To find the solution of the challenge, in 1996, enacted the organic law no 08/96 on
30th/08/1996 dealing with the crimes that constitute the crime of genocide as well
as crimes against humanity.
The major elements included of this law were:
Implement special chambers within the first instance courts for specifically trying and
judging the people who accused crime of genocide and crimes against humanity in
Rwanda from 01 October 1990.
To put those who accused of genocide in different categories depending of tense
of the crimes committed and related sentences in crime categories. Implement
the ways of how the accused perpetrators can have a chance of agree the crime
they committed, repent and ask forgiveness, testify the truth-telling testimonies of
genocide against Tutsi, which based on reducing their penalties.
In 1998, genocide crime and crimes against humanity prisoners was counted to
130.000 and trial cases was only 1.300. This to say that, if trial and judging of this
way of all genocide prisoners continued, it would take over 100 years. That’s why
the government of Rwanda, find the solution of this challenge, which was easier,
genuine and fast of trying and judging the genocide cases. It is the “Rebirth of
Gacaca”.
Benevolence refers to the willingness to help, being generous or performing acts of
kindness. Human beings are usually capable of expressing benevolence regardless
of whether they are victims or perpetrators of violence. It involves development of
empathic/ empathetic feelings, which leads an individual to take responsibility for
assisting victims.
People who have suffered usually care about other peoples’ suffering especially
if they have experienced protective and healing processes. This involves having
been helped by others or acting on other peoples’ behalf at the time of suffering.
Therefore, the victim group reaches out to assist other groups undergoing similar
situations to them. Thomas Vincent Flores developed a continuum of benevolence
which together with relevant ideas from Ervin Staub, served as a basis for an
adaptation that was made by Aegis Trust in the framework of the Rwanda Peace
Education Programme in 2013. This adapted continuum of benevolence by AegisTrust comprises ten steps.
There is a need to have peace to address the consequences of genocide. We
should all feel part of the Rwandan community and appreciate one another. This
can be achieved by living together in harmony without conflict and tension.
The process of benevolence goes through the ten steps above. The 8th step,
community, a feeling of fellowship with others resonates well with “Ndi
Umunyarwanda” which means ‘I am Rwandan’. It enables us to see one another,
regardless of the differences that may exist between us, as one people belonging
to one community. This has the potential of healing the wounds that were inflicted
by the genocide against the Tutsi. We are all brothers and sisters; we belong to one
family, Rwanda.
“NdiUmunyarwanda” means a call for individual and collective responsibility in
rebuilding the broken social structures. It also rekindles the true Rwandan spirit
of oneness, offers a reflection on the painful past and provides the determination
to build a brighter future. It invokes the promotion of patriotism, integrity, selfworth,
solidarity, tolerance, self-reliance, nationalism, social cohesion and shared
language, values, norms and cultural practices.
All citizens of Rwanda need to keep the spirit of “Ndi Umunyarwanda” alive, as
they owe it to themselves and to future generations. This will ensure that the social
reconstruction and reconciliation process is not compromised and brings about
national cohesion.
Application Activities 1.7
1. Explain challenges faced by individuals, the community and the postgenocide
government in Rwanda during the social reconstruction and
reconciliation process.
2. Examine the impact of revenge on an individual and the society at social
and political levels.
3. Examine the importance of apologizing towards the improvement of
relationships destroyed in a conflict.
4. Align the 8th step of the continuum of benevolence with ‘NdiUmunyarwanda’
and show how it can help in healing the wounds inflicted by the Genocide
against the Tutsi.
1.8. Prevention of genocide in general
Learning Activity 1.8
Using the Internet, answer the following questions:
1. Define the concepts of genocide and genocide prevention.
2. Account for any three factors that may lead to genocide.
3. Explain any two practices that can lead to genocide
All efforts should be made to keep the occurrence of genocide at bay. This should
be done at the individual, societal and national as well as international levels. Some
of the ways that promote peace, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence in order
to prevent genocide include the following:
1.8.1. Development of critical thinking
Critical thinking lies at the heart of social cohesion. When people think critically,
they are able to make conscious, responsible and positive decisions. Therefore,
when incited to kill others they fail to honor such calls.
1.8.2. Promotion of empathy
Empathy is critical in achieving social cohesion, which keeps genocide at bay.
Empathy is the ability to sense and understand the feelings of other people as
if they were our own. Developing the feeling of empathy begins from the mind.
We need to process feelings through successive mental activities by thinking,
understanding, learning and remembering to feel the pain of others.
Being empathetic/empathic does not lower ones value in any way. Instead, it makes
us humane and goes a long way in trying to help the victims. Empathy enables us to
understand the perspective and to feel the pain of fellow human beings.
1.8.3. Active bystandership
A bystander is a person who is in a position to know about or see events happening
in his or her environment. However, they are not directly involved in them. There
are two types of bystanders, internal bystanders (members of the population where
violence is occurring) and external bystanders (outside groups, organizations and
nations).
Active bystandership: means that individuals, organizations and nations should
intervene whenever situations that may lead to violence in a country occur. People
should promote morality with responsibility and render both material and nonmaterial
support when called upon or on their own initiative when violence occurs.
Active bystandership should be promoted in all segments of the population. All
leaders should speak against any form of verbal and physical attacks in any section
of the population. To increase acts of active bystandership, it is vital to foster values
such as empathy, love, respect and care for other people’s welfare.
1.8.4. Individual responsibility
It is every individual’s responsibility to prevent any act of violence from taking
place. We should condemn violence through our actions and encourage practices
or activities that promote a culture of peace in our communities. Where possible,
we should pay attention to the following guidelines in an effort to resolve conflicts:
Remain calm after conflict;
Set the tone, do not overreact;
Analyze and understand where the conflict comes from;
Take total responsibility for personal action;
Use messages to communicate and express our needs and feelings;
Attentively and actively listen to the needs of others;
List and evaluate possible solutions. While doing this, be objective and fair;
Agree on a solution. It should not always work for you. It may work against you;
Keep your word and follow the agreement settled on. If you are dissatisfied,
communicate it as soon as possible to clear the air;
Ask for assistance from a trusted friend if the conflict cannot be resolved.
1.8.5. Resistance to manipulation and incitement to violence
In most cases, leaders and those in authority are responsible for manipulating
and inciting people to violence. As individuals and law-abiding citizens, we are
supposed to resist calls to engage in violence. We should be guided by the principle
that a leader is a first among equals. We should not shy away from identifying their
mistakes to enable us live harmoniously in the society. Bringing pressure on our
leaders will make them desist from hate speech and incitement that encourages
violent attacks on other groups.
Application Activities 1.8
1. Discuss interventions that individuals, nations, regional and international
organisations should undertake to prevent the occurrence of genocide.
2. Evaluate the effects of spreading propaganda, stereotyping, and racial
and ethnic profiling in the occurrence of genocide
3. Recommend ways in which individual responsibility can be used to
educate people to prevent the spread of violence?
1.9. Prevention of any future occurrence of genocide in Rwanda
Learning Activity 1.9
Examine measures taken by the post-genocide society in Rwanda to prevent
any or the future recurrence of genocide.
Prevention of genocide demands a concerted effort from all individuals, the
government and its partners alike. It should take a political, economic, social and
psychological approach. Economic development, increased security during postconflict
reconstruction, prevention of new cycles of violence, an effective judicial
system and development of other structural elements are important steps towards
preventing any future occurrence of genocide. Essential to the prevention of
genocide in Rwanda is the promotion of humanistic and national values such as
the following:
Peace building
Genocide begins in the minds of the people; therefore, it is also in the people’s minds
that defenses of peace must be constructed. Peace building involves various efforts
that usually begin with the creation of a culture of peace, which is accompanied by
harmony, cooperation and co-existence among the people.
A peaceful environment gives rise to behavior that respects life and human dignity.
It promotes observance of Human Rights and fundamental freedoms, rejection of
violence and commitment to principles of freedom, justice, solidarity,understanding
between people, observance of open communication, cooperation, harmony and
observance of the rule of law.
Every effort should thus be channeled to the fulfilment of these needs to enable
peace building to be achieved. This requires that we all put our forces together
as individuals and members of the community to help the government and other
partners, both local and international, to promote peace. Some of the peace building
activities may include rebuilding ruined houses, cleaning up neighborhoods,
participating in business projects and sports. Such measures reduce mistrust,
antagonism and hostility between conflicting groups.
Peace building equally requires the administration of justice in post-genocide
society. Punishment of key perpetrators usually helps in reconciliation. In addition,
victims are relieved when public discussions are held and other forms of justice are
set on course, for example, the Gacaca courts and “Ndi Umunyarwanda” talks or
retreats.
Resilience
Resilience refers to a person’s ability to recover easily and quickly from a problem
or illness. The Genocide against the Tutsi was a great misfortune to individuals,
community and the state. People went through horrendous moments during the
100 days of genocide. Survivors recovered at different rates. This is because the
rate of resilience varies from individual to individual.
Survivors need to gain renewed trust with those they interact with in life. This is
cultivated by taking care of other people. This experience leads to strong feelings
of empathy, caring, sympathy and responsibility to help those in need. Generally,
survivors should be exposed to experiences that express love, hope and care. One
also needs moral courage to help those in need. This may only be possible where
the basic and psychological needs of the survivors are adequately catered for.
Benevolence
Benevolence means the desire or inclination to do good to others. We should be
good and generous to those around us regardless of the differences we have. This
enables us to prevent any harm being done to other people. Benevolence should
be expressed in our words and actions to fellow human beings. This demands that
we develop trust, care and love for other people.
Awareness and memory
Awareness and memory about the genocide against the Tutsi should be made
through a variety of ways such as:
– Inclusion of genocide studies in the curriculum;
– Establishing genocide memorials and museums;
– Establishing days for genocide commemorations;
– Coverage of the horrors of the genocide in mass media;
– Recording genocide events in books and other sources.
Through the above measures, awareness and memory of the genocide will remain
in the minds of all people.
Telling the truth
To prevent any future occurrence of genocide, we should be truthful about what
occurred. Telling the truth is one of the ways that enables a society to give room for
reconciliation.
Repentance and forgiveness
All religions stress the importance of repentance and forgiveness in addressing
human conflict. Those culpable of genocide should repent and the survivors should
forgive. As we have already observed, the perpetrators must acknowledge their
culpability of acts of genocide and apologize. This gives room for reconciliation
and peace building efforts in a post-genocide society. Several Genocide survivors
around the country accepted to live peacefully with perpetrators who had asked for
forgiveness for their role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Reconciliation
Any attempts at reconciliation should begin with justice, individual and collective
responsibility, acknowledgement and forgiveness. These factors are vital in the
journey towards reconciliation. In a post-genocide society, the need for reconciliation
can arise at the following levels:
– Individual
– Family
– Small group or community
– Intergroup or intercommunity
– National
– International
For reconciliation to occur, the elements of truth, mercy, peace and justice must be
present. It is vital to repent, forgive and focus our attention on how we can rebuild
our country. Reconciliation demands looking at the past and asking what was done.
In the future, we need to ask how one can move beyond the wrongs of the past,
having understood and acknowledged those wrongs.
Reconciliation leads to positive and constructive relationships. This makes former
enemies see each other as fellow human beings who live and work together. It
brings forth relationships characterized by respect, acceptance and trust. To
enable healing, the survivors and perpetrators should both feel associated with the
experience of commemorating the genocide against the Tutsi.
Dialogue and consensus building
Genocide recurrence finds a fertile ground where people do not talk to each other or
disagree on issues. Everyone should be enabled to freely communicate their ideas.
An open environment and mutual respect gives rise to dialogue and consensus
building. It also demands accommodation of diverse opinions. Any emergence of
controversial views should be handled in an honest manner.
Active listening
Active listening involves effective communication. Freedom of expression should
be allowed for all individuals in a post-genocide society. However, such freedom
comes with restrictions which call for responsibility to refrain from its abuse. Active
listening demands that we shun ignorance and irresponsibility in our day-to-day
lives. It also demands that we avoid being passive listeners. We should know what
other people think and feel and avoid being selfish and equally take responsibility
where we see Human Rights are being violated.
Inclusiveness
All human beings are equal and no one should be discriminated against in any way.
All members of the society, regardless of the differences that may exist, should be
treated equally and fairly. All people should be given all the services they require
and equal opportunities and be subjected to similar laws by the state and its agents.
Exclusivity has been known to engender genocide. Every effort should thus be
made to bring every citizen on board. Fundamental principles, in article 10 for
national constitution all derived from “Urugwiro talks” another principle emanated
from Arusha peace agreements. These fundamental doctrines, 6 of them, in their
article 10 for 2013 national constitution, as it was amended in 2015 are as follows:
– To prevent and punish genocide crime perpetrators, fight against genocide
denials as well as uprooting genocide ideology and its related cases;
– Uprooting discriminations and divisionism stems from ethnicity, district origins
etc. and promoting unity among Rwandans;
– Power-sharing without greed;
– Build the constitutional and democratic government based on different political
opinions, equality of Rwanda as well as gender equality which emphasized
30% of women in different positions in decision making organs;
– Build the government that struggle for social welfare of the citizens as well as
implementing different ways of having the equal social welfare opportunities
– Find the solutions for the government through peace talks and mutual
consensus.
Application Activities 1.9
1. Examine measures taken by the post-genocide society in Rwanda to
prevent any or the future recurrence of genocide.
2. Discuss efforts you can make to promote peace building in a post-conflict
community.
3. Analyze the effects of repentance and forgiveness in post-genocide
Rwanda
4. Research and find out challenges experienced by the post-genocide
society in Rwanda in their efforts to promote reconciliation.
5. Explain the importance of dialogue, consensus building and activelistening in post-genocide Rwanda.
1.10. End Unit assessment
End of unit assessment
1. Explain the concept of genocide.
2. Describe the differences between the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in
Rwanda and other genocides.
3. Describe the common features between genocides that have been
committed all over the world.
4. Identify how genocide develops using the continuum of violence devised
by Gregory H. Stanton.
5. Discuss the consequences of genocide.
6. Examine ways in which genocide can be prevented in any society.
7. Analyze the causes and consequences of the Genocide against the Tutsi.
8. Explain ways of addressing the consequences of genocide with special
application to Rwanda.
9. Discuss ways through which future occurrence of Genocide in Rwanda
can be prevented.
10. Describe Rwandan values and explain how they contribute to preventing
genocide ideology.
11. Examine the way members of your community live with each other. Does
the behavior that individuals display fit into a cohesive society?
12. Describe how you can dissociate from and speak out against evil and
violent actions in society.
13. What are your feelings on the Genocide against the Tutsi and theHolocaust?