Genocide Ideology Research Articles

Impact of Governance Practice on Unity and Reconciliation among Genocide Survivors and Released Prisoners of Rwandans Post 1994 Genocide in Nyanza District

The objective of this research was to assess the impact of governance practice on unity and reconciliation among genocide survivors and released prisoners of Rwandans post 1994 genocide in Nyanza District. Specifically, the research intended to assess the characteristics of governance practice that influence unity and reconciliation among genocide survivors and released prisoners in Nyanza District; to assess the lessons that can be drawn from the experience of unity and reconciliation due to governance practice among genocide survivors and released prisoners in Nyanza District and to evaluate the relationship between governance practice and Unity and Reconciliation among genocide survivors and released prisoners in Nyanza District. Moreover, the carrying out of this research, concentrating on Good Governance, has motives of current confidence, and there was no recent empirical findings concerning the correlation linking governance practice and Unity and Reconciliation in Nyanza District. Descriptive and correlative research designs were used. Study population size was 21740 while the sample size was 122. Questionnaire was used as data collection instrument. Quantitative approach was used in data analysis by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Findings revealed major characteristics of governance practice such as participation, responsiveness; equity and inclusiveness, accountability, transparency and rule of law have mean (μ) value which is between 1.00-1.50, while the variables with 1.51-2.50 are effectiveness and efficiency as well as consensus orientation. For the lesson, 95.9% of respondents affirmed that unity and Reconciliation are possible; 95.1% of research participants acknowledged that the restorative justice is important in unity and reconciliation; 86.9% of respondents recognized that Genocidists should not be dehumanized; 82.8% of respondents underlined the full cooperation to fight against genocide ideology is essential to unity and reconciliation whilst 75.4% of respondents approved that the only governance is not sufficient for unity and reconciliation. Regarding the relationship, the correlation coefficient is 0.880 meaning that there is a positive higher correlation between governance practice and Unity and reconciliation. Keywords: Governance practice, Governance characteristics, Unity & Reconciliation

Genocid nad Bošnjacima i demografske promjene na području Višegrada 1991-2013.

Commission of individual and mass crimes against values protected by international law, including the crime of genocide, was also directed towards changes in ethnic and demographic structures of population. All these are the features of fascistic, great state ideologies and policies. The most severe and most brutal forms of the implementation of the great state projects took place in the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992-1995. Namely, the great-Serbian genocidal ideology and policy has in continuity for more than two centuries practiced mass crimes against values protected by international law, including the crime of genocide against Bosniacs. Already in 1992, and independent, sovereign and internationally recognised Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was exposed to a brutal armed aggression by the neighbouring Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). The objective of the aggression was fulfilment of several century long great state goal, and/or final completion of the space in which Serbs would dominantly live – the great Serbia. This goal was not possible without execution of grave forms of war crimes, namely in final destruction Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state and society. Impacts of such approach are particularly visible in the aspect of changes in demographic structure of population. Strategically important space for great-Serbian genocidal ideology and policy was and is the space of Bosnian Podrinje. Crime committed against Bosniacs in 1992-1995, including those committed in Višegrad, are essential part of the enforcement of the great-Serbian genocidal plan on making ethnically “clean” territories. According to 1991 census, there were 21,199 residents of Višegrad, of which 13,471 Bosniacs (63.54%) and 6,743 Serbs (31.80%). The Bosniacs of Višegrad were, especially in spring and summer of 1992, subjected to different forms of crimes, including mass murders, setting on fire, incarceration in camps, rapes, and persecution of civilians. Regardless of huge extent of crimes, the genocidal ideology was not given up even after the signing of the Dayton peace agreement. Adapted to peacetime conditions, even today, thirty years since the aggression, different forms of psychological and physical violence against Bosniacs have been used in Višegrad. Frequent attacks and harassment of returnees are followed by, for example line-up of members of the Ravna Gora Chetnic movement, a symbol of crimes against Bosniacs of Podrinje area in the WWII, or celebration of the Day of Russian Volunteers, who took part in the attacks and crimes against Podrinje Bosniacs during the aggression. Open discrimination and dehumanisation of Bosniacs returnees, permanent celebration of crimes and criminals are everyday events. All of this negatively affects continuation of the process of return of Bosniacs to their historic residence. The analysis of the contents of the relevant archives, especially two relevant censuses in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991 and 2013) shall elaborate the demographic changes, which took place in Višegrad in this relevant period. It is the fact that the Bosniacs are today the absolute minority in Višegrad, which is the result of the committed crimes, including the genocide against Bosniacs, which ultimately resulted in the altered ethnic demographic structure of population. Višegrad is also subjected to a fast process of ageing, both due to the reduced number of returnees and due to the emigration of biologically productive population. Even all the other demographic indicators suggest that Višegrad is becoming the town of old people and general societal hopelessness, which shall be also detailed in the paper. This is also one of the ways to fully implement the practice of ethnically clean “Serb” territories. Nowadays, the political leaders of the smaller BiH entity and municipality Višegrad are preoccupied with the policy of denial of Bosniacs identity markers and provision of hopelessness for returnees, which finally brings no good to population in general, regardless of their ethnic background.

Nazi German waste recovery and the vision of a circular economy: The case of waste paper and rags

In Nazi Germany (1933–45), reclaiming waste became an intrinsic component of the regime’s economy as well as its ideological, racial, and expansionist ambitions. National Socialist interventions into waste streams began in 1934 with salvage campaigns. The state then brought urban waste policies and municipal waste services under its control, restructuring and ‘Aryanising’ the waste salvage trade. Moreover, both consumers and producers were prompted to collect and reprocess waste. Over time, the gradual expansion of the Nazi waste recovery policies and campaigns – here referred to as the ‘Nazi waste exploitation regime’ – brought forth a determined vision of a circular economy in which no waste whatsoever should escape its reclamation for the national community or Volksgemeinschaft. This article sketches the actors, structures, and objectives of this waste exploitation regime for the case of rags and paper and uncovers its entanglement with Nazi racist and genocidal ideology and expansionism.

Rwanda's securitisation of genocide denial: A political mechanism for power or to combat ontological insecurity?

ABSTRACT This article examines the concept of genocide denial as a security threat within the case study of Rwanda. Rwanda experienced the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi when an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were butchered by extremists within a one-hundred-day period. Since the ending the genocide the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) continues to dominate the post-genocide nation's political sphere. The remnants of genocide perpetrators initiated Rwanda to militarily and politically intervene in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Since the end of the Second Congo War in 2002, Rwanda's security interests shifted from fearing the destruction of the state to ontological insecurities founded on a threat of genocide ideology. This research examines whether Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the RPF mobilises genocide denial through a securitisation framework as a method to legitimise its control over the nation's political institutions and to deflect criticism. However, by examining the deficits within this discourse, it becomes possible to understand how Rwandans perceive genocide denial as part of a large threat that is a repetition of the genocide.

Gacaca, Genocide, Genocide Ideology: The Violent Aftermaths of Transitional Justice in the New Rwanda

AbstractThis article investigates the violent aftermaths of Rwanda's 1994 Genocide and Liberation war by analyzing its Gacaca Courts, which framed themselves as a “traditional” mechanism of transitional justice. These specialized genocide tribunals, in operation between 2002 and 2012, authorized laypersons to sentence their neighbors to up to life in prison. They passed judgment on almost two million cases, at an official conviction rate of 86 percent. I argue that through their practice, “genocide” came to be constituted as a crime whose contours extended far beyond the boundaries of any international legal definition. It included a wide range of acts, utterances, and inner states, as potentially infinite manifestations of a boundless criminal interiority named “genocide ideology,” the necessary ‘driving force’ behind acts of genocide. Within Gacaca, genocide ideology was constituted as thecontinuingdestructivepotentialof Hutu to menace or even disrespect innocent Tutsi, who were constituted as metonymic of the “new” state. The paranoid hermeneutics of those trials led them to project such an interiority within ‘others,’ imagined as constantly on the verge of erupting into insurrectionary violence, threatening the state's very foundation. The figure of the “Hutu” was transformed into a negative political category operating as a spectral threat haunting the New Rwanda. Gacaca led to a realization throughout the vast population that it marked as “Hutu” that the crime of genocide could potentially inhabit any and perhaps even all of them, thereby producing a generalized fear and pervasive silence.

“They Will Rot the Society, Rot the Party, and Rot the Army”*: Toxification as an Ideology and Motivation for Perpetrating Violence in the Khmer Rouge Genocide?

ABSTRACTThe genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979 appears as one of the most totalitarian manifestations of political violence in the 20th century. This article explores the ideological framework constructed by the Khmer Rouge, and looks into whether and how this influences and motivates individual low-level cadres in their participation. Our findings show that toxification as a genocidal ideology was present in the Khmer Rouge discourse, and provided a lens of legitimacy for individuals to engage in acts of violence. But such a genocidal ideology was not a motivating factor for individual perpetrators in the Cambodian genocide. This research forwards the comparative investigation of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia as an important case of genocide, both at the societal and individual levels, as well as the general study of toxification as a genocidal ideology.

Genocide, the Bible, and Biblical Scholarship

This essay makes the case that the ongoing scholarly conversation around divinely sanctioned violence can be enriched by engaging with the emerging field of comparative genocide studies. The argument proceeds in four parts. Part 1 introduces the term genocide and the scholarly debates that have emerged around it. I posit the existence of two generations of genocide scholarship, with the first focusing on definitional issues and appropriate terminology and the second on the historical-structural conditions that make genocide possible. Regarding the latter, particular attention shall be devoted to the emerging consensus that, far from being an atavistic irruption outside the world of civilized modernity, genocide is made possible by the very structure of modernity itself. Parts 2 and 3 look closely at genocide in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament era, respectively. These parts will examine the extermination campaigns of ancient empires (Assyria, Babylon, Rome) that brought destruction upon the biblical Israelites and will compare these imperial actions with modern settler and colonial genocides. This is one area where biblical scholars could fill in a lacuna in comparative genocide studies, since the topic has received modest attention in that particular field. I pay attention to the ways that the Bible appears complicit in genocide, whether through the command to exterminate the Canaanites or through the Gospels’ tendency to cast blame upon the Jews for the death of Jesus. I also analyze a variety of hermeneutical approaches developed to respond to these thorny issues, paying particular attention to the presumed views of genocide in each hermeneutical position. The final part of the essay explores the issue of genocidal ideology itself, emphasizing that the content of genocidal ideology is much broader than usually assumed by scholarly critiques of anti-Judaism and that genocidal ideology maintains a complex relationship to the actual practice of genocide. This part encourages scholars to reexamine the widely held beliefs on the ways that biblical ideology led to horrific events like the Holocaust and to take seriously the widely held conclusion that ideology alone is an inadequate explanation for genocide. The essay will conclude by suggesting possible future directions that could be taken by scholars who wish to confront the legacy of genocide in the Bible and its interpretation.

Aspects and Consequences of the Rwandan Law of Genocide Ideology: A Comparative Analysis1

A number of countries have experienced genocide in the 20th century. The complexity in terms of the targets and the perpetrators of genocide has generated contradictory narratives and has complicated the interpretation and implementation of the laws of genocide in these countries and internationally. The objective of this paper is to analyse literature on the Rwandan genocide (1994), the Jewish Holocaust (1941-1945) and the Armenian genocide (1915-1917), in order to document circumstances surrounding the decision to implement (or not to implement) the laws of genocide ideology and the consequences for such decisions. One of the main findings of this research is that there are various scenarios for the application of the genocide ideologies, with narratives and their enforcement (or not) being quite different depending on the countries’ circumstances. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p2370

Words That Can Kill: The Mugesera Speech and the 1994 Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda

One of the most significant extant documents attesting to the dissemination of genocide ideology in Rwanda in the early 1990s is the speech delivered on 22 November 1992 by the political figure Léon Mugesera, a member of the incumbent MRND party. It is particularly significant because it constitutes the earliest example of explicit genocidal discourse expressed by a member of the ruling political party in a public forum, and as such it has often been regarded as offering a ‘blueprint’ for the practical implementation of the genocide. In addition, the contents of the speech have been the subject of intense scrutiny and heated debate within the framework of a judicial process in Canada spanning more than a decade to determine whether Mugesera should be deported to Rwanda to face prosecution for genocide.
 
 The original speech was delivered in Kinyarwanda, the national language of Rwanda, which effectively meant it was largely inaccessible to foreign commentators until it was translated into French and English. This article examines key thematic, lexical and stylistic elements within the original speech as it was heard by its target audience, as well as fundamental issues raised by the Canadian hearings relating to the translation process such as accuracy, fidelity, impartiality and subjectivity which were crucial elements in the decision-making process which finally led to Mugesera being deported to Rwanda on 23 January 2012.

Lois Mémoriellesin Post-Genocide Societies: The Rwandan Law on Genocide Ideology under International Human Rights Law Scrutiny

AbstractThis article discusses the Rwandan Law 18/2008 on genocide ideology in the light of international human rights standards. In order to put the genocide ideology law into context, it sketches a brief overview of the post-genocide scenario. Because of the influence that provisions restricting freedom of expression aimed at fighting negationism might exert on testimonies during genocide trials, it pays particular attention to the transitional justice strategies adopted in Rwanda. Finally, it assesses the law on the genocide ideology against the background provided by the measures implemented in some European countries to deal with the phenomenon of negationism.

Navigating the middle ground: The political values of ordinary Hutu in post-genocide Rwanda

Twenty years after the Rwandan genocide, little is known about the political values of non-elite Hutu. The post-genocide regime has emphasized the problem of “divisionism” and “genocide ideology”, suggesting a popular preference for a radical stance on inter-group relations and reconciliation. This argument has been used to defer the question of democracy. This article investigates the attitudes of ordinary Hutu at a rural site, and shows that the respondents staked out a middle ground, emphasizing the shared interests of ordinary Hutu and Tutsi and distancing themselves from the political excesses of both Hutu and Tutsi elites. However, this moderate political space appeared to yield to more radical views when discussing the pressures of transitional justice, when respondents' careful distinction between elite and ordinary people collapsed and a monolithic actor, “the Tutsi”, was imagined in conflict with “the Hutu”. While this slippage appears to be a coping mechanism in the face of stressful situations rather than an inherent political preference, the article concludes that politically convenient assumptions and maladroit public policy risk contributing to the very dangers the regime claims to combat.

The Importance of Language Studies in Conflict Resolution

After the genocide perpetuated against Tutsi, the government of Rwanda took on the path to rebuild the country. Education became Rwanda’s priority in order to recover the lost human resource capacity. The government also focused on unity and reconciliation to create harmony among Rwandans. Science and technology has been advanced as one of the key solutions to Rwanda’s development needs. This promotion of science and technology has led to a lack of appreciation of language studies, arts, and humanities in general. As a result, the importance of language studies in the country’s growth and its role in conflict resolution has been undermined. Right from secondary school to university level, options of language studies have been reduced with some departments being canceled. It is the case of African language department in National University of Rwanda in 2008. However, the history of Rwanda proves the importance of language consideration in conflict transformation and peace building. The language use drives the conflicts from the colonialism to the independence, from dictatorship regime to the genocide perpetuated against Tutsi in 1994. It is improbable to resolve or change those conflicts without language means as stated by Tom Ndahiro (2004:54), “From the face value, one whose knowledge is limited on what happened in Rwanda may tend to think there is no problem with the concept in the language used several times in press releases. It is only through the analysis of the usage of the words and their connotative meanings that their insinuation can be meaningful”. This paper attempts to outline the consideration of language studies in conflict resolution in Rwanda. The genocide perpetuated against Tutsi as result of Rwandan conflict engendered in language semantic distortion and change in colonial period. Genocide ideology has been developed by leaders in independent period and later on used to disseminate hatred among Rwandans through language means.

Watch on the Drina: Genocide, War and Nationalist Ideology

The Drina is a long winding river in the western Balkans, with many prosperous old towns on its banks. It had a central place in the mythologies of both Croatian and Serbian nationalists in the twentieth century. The idea that the river and its environs were unambiguously part of one national territory has led to the violent exclusion of other nationalities. This article looks at the Drina valley with a particular focus on the 1940s and 1990s. History

Reconsidering the slaughter bench of history: genocide, theodicy, and the philosophy of history

This essay examines the philosophy of history in the aftermath of the twentieth century. It argues that the philosophy of history has been both a catalyst and a victim of genocide. On the one hand, theories about the fated course of human development have been used to rationalize and justify imperialist, genocidal actions, especially insofar as they often placed the peoples and nations on the supposed right or wrong side of an imagined world-historical trajectory. On the other hand, the philosophy of history eventually collapsed under–and was delegitimized by–the weight of the last century's mounting catastrophes. The essay opens by briefly outlining the relationship between theodicy, universal history, and empire in the works of Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, and Martin Heidegger before turning to the writings of a number of émigré intellectuals who came to criticize their respective philosophies of history in the wake of the Second World War. Thinkers such as Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Carl G. Hempel, Karl Löwith, Leo Strauss, and Eric Voegelin either abandoned or sought to rewrite the philosophy of history in light of what they viewed not as progress, but as world-historical calamity. For contemporary intellectuals engaged in debates about the meaning and effects of modernization, globalization, and development, these writings remain necessary points of reference. The essay concludes by suggesting that if the philosophy of history is to be of any help in ongoing attempts to understand and confront contemporary genocide, then we must first reconsider its historical complicity with genocidal ideology.

Genocide before the Holocaust

There is an appalling symmetry to the many instances of genocide that the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century world witnessed. In the wake of the breakup of the Hapsburg, Ottoman and Romanov empires, minority populations throughout those lands were persecuted, expelled and eliminated. The reason for the deplorable decimations of communities - Jews in Imperial Russia and Ukraine; Ottoman Assyrians, Armenians and Muslims from the Caucasus and Balkans - was, Cathie Carmichael contends, located in the very roots of the new nation-states arising from the imperial rubble. The question of who should be included in the nation - and which groups were now to be deemed 'suspect' or 'alien' - was one that preoccupied and divided Europe long before the Holocaust. Examining all the major episodes of ethnic cleansing in Europe up until 1941, Carmichael shows how hotbeds of nationalism, racism and developmentalism resulted in devastating manifestations of genocidal ideology. Dramatic, perceptive and poignant, this is the story of disppearing civilizations - precursors to one of humanity's worst atrocities, and part of the legacy of genocide in the modern world. Cathie Carmichael is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of East Anglia. Her previous books include 'Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans', 'Language and Nationalism in Europe', and 'Slovenia and the Slovenes'.

Revisiting Hotel Rwanda: genocide ideology, reconciliation, and rescuers

This article examines the tensions between the Rwandan government's discourse on reconciliation and its fight against negationism. It shows how the government's campaign against negationism has taken shape—from the law against “divisionism” in 2001 to recent accusations of “genocide ideology.” The article also explores the treatment of Hutu rescuers at the national level. It raises concerns that the broad definition and application of genocide ideology may have a negative impact on reconciliation in Rwanda.

Commission nationale de lutte contre le génocide. Contexte et perspectives

Rwanda, post-genocide is rebuilt in a framework characterized by the coexistence of survivors and perpetrators. Thus the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the country is going through struggle with genocidal ideology. The National Commission Against Genocide is specifically involved in various areas with the purpose of creating a future unified Rwandan society. These areas include the identification and preservation of genocidal sites, issues of commemoration, and the politics of memory designed to fight revisionism and genocidal ideology.