Rwandan Genocide: Role of superpowers and UN.

What Was the Rwanda Genocide?

In the genocide that began on April 6, 1994, the Hutus began slaughtering the Tutsis (who were in minority) in the African country of Rwanda. Lasting 100 days, thais genocide left approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers dead.

Who Are the Hutu and Tutsi?

The Hutu and Tutsi share a common past. When Rwanda was first settled, the people lived there and raised cattle. Soon, the people who owned the most cattle were called "Tutsi" and everyone else was called "Hutu." At this time, a person could easily change categories through marriage or cattle acquisition.

Germans started discriminating the Hutus.

The racial differences began after Rwanda was colonised. The Germans were the first to colonize Rwanda in 1894. They considered that Tutsi had more European characteristics, such as lighter skin and a taller build. Thus they put Tutsis in roles of responsibility.

Belgian control after World War-I and Discrimination against Hutus.

When the Germans lost their colonies following World War I, the Belgians took control over Rwanda. In 1933, the Belgians solidified the categories of "Tutsi" and "Hutu" and mandated the identity card that labelled them either Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa (Twa are a very small group of hunter-gatherers who also live in Rwanda).

Although the Tutsi constituted only about ten percent of Rwanda's population and the Hutu nearly 90 percent, the Belgians gave the Tutsi all the leadership positions. This upset the Hutu.

Subsequent discrimination against Tutsis.

Since 1959, the Rwanda was struggling for independence from Belgium. In 1962, facing a revolution instigated by the Hutu, the Belgians let the Hutus, who constituted the majority of Rwanda's population, be in charge of the new government. This upset the Tutsi. In 1990, the Tutsi led the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) group initiated civil war.

The Event That Sparked the Genocide.

The triggering cause of genocide can be traced back to the signing of Arusha Accords by President Habyarimana, which weakened the Hutu hold on Rwanda and allowed Tutsis to participate in the government.

Since 1973, President Habyarimana, a Hutu, had run a totalitarian regime in Rwanda, which had excluded all Tutsis from participating. That changed on August 3, 1993 when Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accord. This greatly upset Hutu extremists.

At 8:30 p.m. on April 6, 1994, President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda was returning from a summit in Tanzania when a surface-to-air missile shot his plane out of the sky over Rwanda's capital city of Kigali. All on board were killed in the crash.

Although it has never been determined who was truly responsible for the assassination, Hutu extremists profited the most from Habyarimana's death. Within 24 hours after the crash, Hutu extremists had taken over the government, blamed the Tutsis for the assassination, and begun the slaughter.

100 Days of Slaughter.

The killings began in Rwanda's capital city of Kigali. The Interahamwe ("those who strike as one"), an anti-Tutsi youth organization established by Hutu extremists, set up road blocks. They checked identification cards and killed all who were Tutsi. Most of the killing was done with machetes, clubs, or knives. Over the next few days and weeks, road blocks were set up around Rwanda.

On April 7, Hutu extremists began purging the government of their political opponents, which meant both Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed. This included the prime minister. When ten Belgian U.N. peacekeepers tried to protect the prime minister, they too were killed. This caused Belgium to start withdrawing its troops from Rwanda.

Over the next several days and weeks, the violence spread. Since the government had the names and addresses of nearly all Tutsis living in Rwanda (remember, each Rwandan had an identity card that labeled them Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa) the killers could go door to door, slaughtering the Tutsis.

Men, women, and children were murdered. Since bullets were expensive, most Tutsis were killed by hand weapons, often machetes or clubs. Many were often tortured before being killed. Some of the victims were given the option of paying for a bullet so that they'd have a quicker death.

Also during the violence, thousands of Tutsi women were raped. Some were raped and then killed, others were kept as sex slaves for weeks. Some Tutsi women and girls were also tortured before being killed, such as having their breasts cut off or had sharp objects shoved up their vagina.

Corpses.

To further degrade the Tutsi, Hutu extremists would not allow the Tutsi dead to be buried. Their bodies were left where they were slaughtered, exposed to the elements, eaten by rats and dogs.

Many Tutsi bodies were thrown into rivers, lakes, and streams in order to send the Tutsis "back to Ethiopia" - a reference to the myth that the Tutsi were foreigners and originally came from Ethiopia.

Media provoked the Genocide.

For years, the Kangura newspaper, controlled by Hutu extremists, had been spouting hate. As early as December 1990, the paper published "The Ten Commandments for the Hutu." The commandments declared that any Hutu who married a Tutsi was a traitor. Also, any Hutu who did business with a Tutsi was a traitor. The commandments also insisted that all strategic positions and the entire military must be Hutu. In order to isolate the Tutsis even further, the commandments also told the Hutu to stand by other Hutu and to stop pitying the Tutsi.

When RTLM (Radio Télévison des Milles Collines) began broadcasting on July 8, 1993, it also spread hate. However, this time it was packaged to appeal to the masses by offering popular music and broadcasts conducted in a very informal, conversational tones.

Once the killings started, RTLM went beyond just espousing hate; they took an active role in the slaughter. The RTLM called for the Tutsi to "cut down the tall trees," a code phrase which meant for the Hutu to start killing the Tutsi. During broadcasts, RTLM often used the terminyenzi ("cockroach") when referring to Tutsis and then told Hutu to "crush the cockroaches."

Many RTLM broadcasts announced names of specific individuals who should be killed; RTLM even included information about where to find them, such as home and work addresses or known hangouts. Once these individuals had been killed, RTLM then announced their murders over the radio.

The RTLM was used to incite the average Hutu to kill. However, if a Hutu refused to participate in the slaughter, then members of the Interahamwe would give them a choice -- either kill or be killed.

The international powers as mere bystanders.

Following World War II and the Holocaust, the United Nations adopted a resolution on December 9, 1948, which stated that "The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish."

Clearly, the massacres in Rwanda constituted genocide, so why didn't the world step in to stop it?

There has been a lot of research on this exact question. Some people have said that since Hutu moderates were killed in the early stages then some countries believed the conflict to be more of a civil war rather than genocide. Other research has shown that the world powers realized it was genocide but that they didn't want to pay for the needed supplies and personnel to stop it. No matter what the reason, the world should have stepped in. They should have stopped the slaughter.

Three of the five permanent members of the UN had reasons not to prevent the genocide.  The US had nothing to gain, (also its act is directly inspired by their defeat that they underwent during their intervention in Somalia in 1993) and France and China were supplying the government with arms.  If the UN had expressed more concern for the atrocities going on, had decided early on that what was happening was indeed a genocide, action could have been taken much sooner.

How did the Rwanda Genocide end?

The Rwanda Genocide ended only when the RPF took over the country. The RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) were a trained military group consisting of Tutsis who had been exiled in earlier years, many of whom lived in Uganda.

The RPF were able to enter Rwanda and slowly take over the country. In mid July 1994, when the RPF had full control, the genocide stopped.

The Great Lakes refugee crisis. 

It is the common name for the situation beginning with the exodus in April 1994 of over two million Rwandans to neighboring countries of the Great Lakes region of Africa in the aftermath of the Rwandan Genocide. Many of the refugees were Hutu ethnics fleeing the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which had gained control of the country at the end of the genocide.

Role of the UN.

The United Nations Assistance Mission For Rwanda was a mission instituted by theUnited Nations to aid the implementation of the Arusha Accords, signed August 4, 1993, which were meant to end the Rwandan Civil War. The mission lasted from October 1993 to March 1996. Its activities were meant to aid the peace process between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front(RPF).

The UNAMIR has received much attention for its role, or lack thereof due to the limitations of its rules of engagement, in the Rwandan Genocide and outbreak of fighting. Its mandate extended past the RPF overthrow of the government and into the Great Lakes refugee crisis. The mission is thus regarded as a major failure.

Establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The international response to the Rwandan Genocide was poor. For weeks, the major power nations denied that the a genocide was taking place in Rwanda. Even, the United States refused to call the incident "genocide," because using the term would make an obligation for the United States to send troops. 

Finally in July 1994, long after the genocide was over, the UN Security Council called for an investigation of the events, and acted to establish an international criminal tribunal to prosecute those individuals most responsible for the genocide. Adopting Resolution 955, the Security Council created the ICTR on November 8, 1994 and the ICTR would also deal with other crimes against international humanitarian law committed on the territory of Rwanda and neighboring states between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994.

The Tribunal has stated that it must close by December 2014, when all further cases will be transferred to local courts in Kigali. Since its creation in 1994, the ICTR has resolved 71 cases, resulting in 92 indictments, ten acquittals, and 32 convicted Rawandans who are currently serving prison sentences in Mali and Benin. 

Human Rights in Sri Lanka: Role of LTTE and Sri Lankan forces.

In the last post on Lexengine, I mentioned that the birth of LTTE is credited to the policies of the Sri Lankan Government. This led to a huge tussle between the armed forces of Sri Lanka and LTTE, in which the IPKF of India was also a party. However, this tussle spanning over two decades (1983 to 2009) was at the cost of huge human losses that even engulfed the head of the states of both India and Sri Lanka (assassination of our ex-PM Mr. Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and the President of Sri Lanka Premdasa in 1993).

Suicide Bombers.

If the Sri Lankan government is held responsible for the violations of rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the responsibility of LTTE can't be discarded. It was the LTTE that introduced suicide bombing to the world and prided itself on targeting innocent civilians in order to get the Sri Lankan government’s attention. The USA and other countries banned the LTTE and cited the major reason being its abhorrent human rights violations. According to the US State Department’s report on the LTTE’s Human Rights practices it states that,

“The LTTE continue to commit serious human rights abuses. The LTTE was responsible for politically motivated killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, harassment, abduction, disappearances, extortion, and detention. The LTTE continued to use and recruit child soldiers. Through a campaign of intimidation, the LTTE continued to undermine the work of elected local government bodies in Jaffna and the east. On occasion, the LTTE prevented political and governmental activities from occurring in the north and east. There were instances of intimidation of Muslims by the LTTE during the reporting period. The LTTE continued to control large sections of the north and east. The LTTE permitted journalists some access to the areas of the country it controlled. Some LTTE-imposed restrictions remained on freedom of movement of citizens. The LTTE denied those under its control the right to change their government, killed candidates standing for office, did not provide for fair trials, infringed on privacy rights, and discriminated against ethnic and religious minorities.”

Recruitment of child soldiers.

There are many examples of the human rights violations that have occurred within the LTTE but a very significant example would be the recruitment of child soldiers. Already at a disadvantage as a result of living through the war, Tamil children are susceptible to LTTE recruitment beginning at the age of eleven or twelve. As Human Rights Watch states,

“The LTTE routinely visits Tamil homes to inform parents that they must provide a child for the "movement." Families that resist are harassed and threatened. Parents are told that their child may be taken by force if they do not comply, that other children in the household or the parents will be taken in their stead, or that the family will be forced to leave their home. The LTTE makes good on these threats: children are frequently abducted from their homes at night, or picked up by LTTE cadres while walking to school or attending a temple festival. Parents who resist the abduction of their children face violent LTTE retribution.
Once recruited, most children are allowed no contact with their families. The LTTE subjects them to rigorous and sometimes brutal training. They learn to handle weapons, including landmines and bombs, and are taught military tactics. Children who make mistakes are frequently beaten. The LTTE harshly punishes soldiers who attempt to escape. Children who try to run away are typically beaten in front of their entire unit, a public punishment that serves to dissuade other children who might be tempted to run away."

Conflict in Sri Lanka: How it grew and what was the role of India?

In the year 2009, the conflict between Sri Lankan government and LTTE forces ended. Five years after the island's 26-year-long civil war ended, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has voted in favour of a US and UK-led resolution mandating the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to undertake "a comprehensive independent investigation. For the understanding of the human rights violations, we need to go through the timeline of the entire conflict:

Timeline of Conflict:

The historical facts also play an important role for the emergence of the conflict in Sri Lanka. 

Pre-LTTE.

• 5 BC – Indo – Aryan migrants from Northern India settle on the island known as Ceylon; the Sinhalese emerge as the most powerful of the clans.
• 3 BC – Beginning of Tamil migration from India.
• 1815 - The British become first European power to win control over the whole island, known as Ceylon. Start bringing in Tamil labourers from southern India to work tea, coffee and coconut plantations.
• 1919 - Major Sinhalese and Tamil political organisations united to form the Ceylon National Congress, under the leadership of  Ponnambalam Arunachalam, a Tamil, to press the colonial masters for more constitutional reforms. However, the British Governor William Manning actively encouraged the concept of "communal representation" and created the Colombo town seat in 1920, which dangled between the Tamils and the Sinhales
• February 4th 1948 - Ceylon gains full independence.
• 1956 - Solomon Bandaranaike starts Sinhalese nationalism. Sinhala is declared official language. More than 100 Tamils killed in widespread violence after Tamil parliamentarians protest at new laws. Prime Minister passed the "Sinhala Only Act", an Act which replaced English with Sinhala as the only official language of the country. This was seen as a deliberate attempt to discourage the Sri Lankan Tamils from working in the Ceylon Civil Service and other public services. TheTamil speaking minorities of the Ceylon (Sri Lankan Tamils, Indian Tamils and Sri Lankan Moors) viewed the Act as linguistic, cultural and economic discrimination against them.
• 1960s - documents relating to a separate Tamil state of 'Tamil Eelam' began to circulate. At this time, Anton Balasingham, an employee of the British High Commission in Colombo, began to participate in separatist activities. He later migrated to Britain, where he would become the chief theoretician of the LTTE. In the late 1960s, several Tamil youth, among them Velupillai Prabhakaran also became involved in these activities. They carried out several hit-and-run operations against pro-government Tamil politicians, Sri Lanka Police and civil administration.
• 1970s - The infamous Policy of standardization an act of Institutional racism was initiated. Under this policy, University admissions were standardized to correct the disproportionately higher number of Sri Lankan Tamil students entering universities. Officially the policy was meant to discriminate in favour of students from rural areas but in reality the policy discriminated against Sri Lankan Tamil students who were in effect required gain more marks than Sinhalese students to gain admission to universities. For instance, The qualifying mark for admission to the medical faculties was 250 (out of 400) for Tamil students, whereas it was only 229 for the Sinhalese. As a result, the number of Sri Lankan Tamil students entering universities fell dramatically. The policy was abandoned in 1977.
• 1972 - Section 29(c) of the Soulbury constitution of 1946 provided the basis for independence in 1948 and prohibited parliament from introducing discriminatory legislation. But laws that discriminated against Tamils were nonetheless introduced and implemented. In any case this constitutional safeguard was abolished in the new constitution of 1972. 
• 1978 - In the new Constitution, precedence was given to the religion of the Sinhalese Buddhists.

Formation of LTTE.

• 1972: Formation of Tamil New Tigers (TNT) by the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran After four years TNT becomes the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This was formed around an ideology which looked back to the 1st Millennium Chola Empire – the Tiger was the emblem of that empire.
• 1983:A fifteen-man Sri Lankan Army patrol (Four Four Bravo) was deployed in the Jaffna Peninsula on July 23, 1983. The patrol was ambushed and thirteen of its members were killed by the LTTE. This incident sparked the Black July riots and is considered to be the start of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Intervention by India.

• 1980s: India became involved in the conflict in the 1980s for a number of reasons, including its leaders' desire to project India as the regional power in the area and worries about India's own Tamils seeking independence. The latter was particularly strong in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where ethnic kinship led to strong support for independence for Sri Lankan Tamils. Throughout the conflict, the Indian central and state governments have supported both sides in different ways. Beginning in August 1983, until May 1987, the Indian government, through its intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), provided arms, training and monetary support to 6 Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups including LTTE. LTTE's rise is widely attributed to the initial backing it received from RAW. It is believed that by supporting different militant groups, the Indian government hoped to keep the Tamil independence movement divided and be able to exert overt control over it.
• 8 July 1985: First attempt at peace talks between the government and the LTTE in Bhutan fails.
• 29 July 1987: Negotiations were held, and the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed on 29 July 1987, by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Jayewardene. Under this accord, the Sri Lankan Government made a number of concessions to Tamil demands, including devolution of power to the provinces, a merger—subject to later referendum—of the Northern and the Eastern provinces into thesingle province, and official status for the Tamil language (this was enacted as the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka). India agreed to establish order in the North and East through a force dubbed the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), and to cease assisting Tamil insurgents. Militant groups including the LTTE, although initially reluctant, agreed to surrender their arms to the IPKF, which initially oversaw a cease-fire and a modest disarmament of the militant groups.
• The signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord, so soon after JR Jayawardene's declaration that he would fight the Indians to the last bullet, led to unrest in south. While most Tamil militant groups laid down their weapons and agreed to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict, the LTTE refused to disarm its fighters.
• Keen to ensure the success of the accord, the IPKF then tried to demobilise the LTTE by force and ended up in full-scale conflict with them. The three-year long conflict was also marked by the IPKF being accused of committing various abuses of human rights by many human rights groups as well as some within the Indian media. The IPKF also soon met stiff opposition from the Tamils.
• Simultaneously, nationalist sentiment led many Sinhalese to oppose the continued Indian presence in Sri Lanka. These led to the Sri Lankan government's call for India to quit the island, and they allegedly entered into a secret deal with the LTTE that culminated in a ceasefire. But the LTTE and IPKF continued to have frequent hostilities. 
• April 1989 - the Ranasinghe Premadasa government ordered the Sri Lanka Army to clandestinely hand over arms consignments to the LTTE to fight the IPKF and its proxy Tamil National Army (TNA). Although casualties among the IPKF mounted, and calls for the withdrawal of the IPKF grew, Gandhi refused to remove the IPKF from Sri Lanka. However, following his defeat in Indian parliamentary elections in December 1989, the new prime Minister V. P. Singh ordered the withdrawal of the IPKF.