Abstract
Prior to independence from European colonialism, there existed little violence between the Tutsi, the Hutu, and the Twa (or pigmies), the three ethnic groups inhabiting the region.4 Although a caste system developed in Rwanda about four hundred years ago, with cattle-owning Tutsi establishing a patron-client relationship with the farming Hutus, the two largest ethnic groups nevertheless shared a common language, culture, and religion. As Tutsi from the central kingdom of Rwanda gradually conquered peripheral Tutsi and Hutu principalities, Rwanda became increasingly consolidated. The two groups were not entirely antagonistic toward each other; Tutsi and Hutus frequently intermarried and a modicum of social mobility was possible.5
Genocides are a modern phenomenon—they require organization—and they are likely to become more frequent in the future.
—Gerard Prunier1
If there is anything worse than the genocide itself, it is the knowledge that it did not have to happen.
—International Panel of Eminent Personalities2
A fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the conflict contributed to false political assumptions and military assessments.
x2014;UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations3
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Notes
Gerard Prunier, Tlie Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 237–238.
International Panel of Eminent Personalities, “Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide,” Report to the Organization of African Unity, 29 May 2000 (www.oau–oua.org) (accessed 23 August 2000), 10.i. The members of the panel were Ketumile Masire, former president of Botswana (chair), Lisbet Palme, chairperson of the Swedish Committee for UNICEF, Stephen Lewis, former Canadian ambassador to the UN, Ellen Johnson–Sirleaf of Liberia, former director of the regional bureau for Africa of the UN Development Program, Hocine Djoudi, former Algerian ambassador to France, P.N. Bhagwati, former chief justice of the supreme court of India.
Prunier, Kwanàa Crisis, 14–15,19–21, 39; Matthew J. Vaccaro, “The Pohtics of Genocide: Peacekeeping and Disaster Relief in Rwanda,” in UN Veace–keeping, American Policy, and Uncivil Wars of the iggos, edited by WiUiam J. Durch (New York: St. Martin’s Press/Henry L. Stimson Center, 1996), 369; Edmond J. Keller, “Transnational Ethnic Conflict in Africa,” in The International Spread of Ethnic Cotflict: Fear, Diffusion, and Escalation, edited by David A. Lake and Donald Rothchild (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 282.
Ibid., E.S. 18; Prunier, Rwanda Crisis, 93–191; also Alain Destexhe, Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (New York: New York University Press, 1995); Pergal Keane, Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey (New York: Penguin Books, 1996); United Nations, The United Nations and Rwanda, 1993–1996, United Nations Blue Books Series, vol. 10 (New York: UN Department of Public Information, 1996); and Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998).
United Nations, The Blue Helmets: A Review of United Nations Peacekeeping, 3rd ed. (New York: Department of Public Information, 1996), 341–344; Prunier, Rwanda Crisis, 191.
Andrea Kathryn Talentino, “Rwanda,” in The Costs of Conflict: Prevention and Cure in the Global Arena, edited by Michael E. Brown and Richard N. Rose–crance (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield/Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, 1999), 59–60.
Philip Gourevitch, “The Genocide Fax,” New Yorker (11 May 1998): 42–46.
A detailed account of the U.S. military debacle in Mogadishu can be found in Mark Bowden, Black Fiawk Down: A Story of Modern War (New York: Penguin Books, 2000).
Ibid.; and Frank Chalk, “Hate Radio in Rwanda,” paper presented at the International Symposium on Contemporary Forms of Genocide, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 15–16 April 1996.
IPEP Rwanda, 10.13, 15.47; Alison Des Forges, “Leave None to Tell the Story”: Genocide in Rwanda (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999), 610–618.
Scott Feil, Preventing Genocide: How the Early Use of Force Might Have Succeeded in Rwanda (New York: Carnegie Corporation, 1998), 26–27 The members of the panel were: Brigadier General Henry K. Anyidoho, Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade, Ghana; Major General Greg Gilè, U.S. Atlantic Command, USA; Major General Romeo Dallaire, Chief of Staff National Defense Headquarters, Canada; Major General James Hill, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, United States Forces Command; General Vigleik Fide, OSCE, Austria; Major General (Ret.) John Arch Maclnnis (Chair), Chief, Mine Clearance and Policy Unit, UN; Brigadier General Bo Wranker, Commander, UNPREDEP, Macedonia; Major General William Nash, U.S. Army, Commander, 1st Armored Division, Germany; Brigadier General Bruce Scott, Deputy Director, Strategy, Plans, and Policy, U.S. Army; Major General Franklin van Kappen, Military Advisor, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UN; Casimir Yost, Director, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University; Jane HoU, Ph.D., Executive Director, Carnegie Commission, USA; Colonel Scott Feil, U.S. Army, Senior Service College Fellow, I SD, Georgetown University.
David Callahan, Unwinnahle Wars: American Power and Ethnic Conflict (New York: Twentieth Century Fund/Hill & Wang, 1997), 144.
Ibid., 144–145; Holly J. Burkhalter, “The Question of Genocide: The Clinton Administration and Rwanda,” World Policy Journal II (winter 1994–95): 44–48; David Aronson, “Congo Games,” New Republic (5 and 12 January 1998): 13; Thomas G. Weiss, Military–Civilian Interactions: Intervening in Humanitarian Crises (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), 148.
Richard N. Haass, “The Squandered Presidency,” Foreign Affairs 79 (May/June 2000): 139.
Brad Knickerbocker, “Grapphng with the Century’s Most Heinous Crimes,” Christian Science Monitor (12 April 1999): 12.
Burkhaker, “The Question of Genocide,” 48; Weiss, Military–Civilian Interactions, 149; the White House, Presidential Decision Directive 2$: The Clinton Administrations Policy on Reforming Multilateral Peace Operations (May 1994).
See President Clinton, “U.S. Holocaust Museum Dedicated,” (address at the dedication ceremony, Washington, D.C., 22 April 1993), US Department of State Dispatch 4 (10 May 1993): 322–324.
Bill Clinton, “Remarks by the President to Genocide Survivors, Assistance Workers, and U.S. and Rwandan Government Officials, Kigali, Rwanda,” the White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 25 March 1998.
Kate Halvorsen, “Protection and Humanitarian Assistance in the Refugee Camps in Zaire: The Problem of Security,” in The Path of a Genocide: The Rwandan Crisis from Uganda to Zaire, edited by Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1999), 309–310.
Ibid., 20.54–20.58, 20.71; Felix Egboo, “Rwanda,” in Africa Review: The Economic and Business Report (London: Walden Publishing, 1997), 171.
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© 2001 Kenneth J. Campbell
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Campbell, K.J. (2001). Genocide in Rwanda. In: Genocide and the Global Village. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312299286_7
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