Participation In Genocide Research Articles

Assessing the well-being of partners of people found guilty of perpetrating genocide in Rwanda.

This article draws upon 89 in-person surveys with Rwandan women (ages 26-75) whose partners were incarcerated for genocide and examines how these women explain participation in the violence. We first engage in exploratory factor analysis of reasons cited for perpetrating genocide, which reveals (1) a factor comprised of internal reasons for participation, including greed and hatred; (2) a factor of external reasons, such as peer pressure or coercion, and (3) a factor driven by alcohol use. Next, we analyze how these factors are associated with the women's psychosocial wellbeing as measured by the World Health Organization's Self-Reporting Questionnaire. This quantitative analysis finds that, net of relevant control variables, accounts of participation in genocide that emphasize external reasons for participation are associated with better psychosocial wellbeing, while accounts of participation that emphasize internal reasons are associated with worse psychosocial wellbeing. We conclude by addressing the link between explanations for actions and wellbeing.

Professional Women as Perpetrators: A Conversation with Valérie, “Rwanda’s Voice of Death”

ABSTRACT The literature on women’s participation in genocide and related violence focuses on the actions of women who are either at the very top or at the very bottom of social hierarchies. Exceptional roles played by a select few elite women prosecuted at international criminal tribunals have been recognized. Scholars have also examined the motivations of ordinary women who are swayed by ethnocentric scapegoating or commit violence out of fear and coercion, including social and economic incentives. In-depth analyses of female perpetrators in the professionals category who, along with men in that category, serve as bridgemakers between commoners and leaders are scarce. With the exception of nurses, teachers, and secretaries involved in the Holocaust, the professionals category is gravely understudied in scholarship on perpetrators. This article begins to rectify this gap by examining the case of Valérie Bemeriki who, as a journalist for the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), promoted the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Valérie is a perpetrator who was intimately close to many Rwandans, including her victims, through the radio, yet she is simultaneously unfamiliar as her motivations have not been widely disclosed. The article provides an interpretive analysis of my interview with Valérie, radio transcripts of Valérie’s hate speech obtained by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and Rwandan and international newspapers and secondary source materials concerning Valérie. The findings suggest that perpetrators in the professionals category convey a contradictory experience in their motivations during the violence and their grievances in the aftermath. While Valérie minimized her agency in the genocidal machine, emphasizing structural constraints, she actively distinguished herself from powerless commoners, including Rwandan women living in a deeply patriarchal society. The article portrays Valérie as a strategic professional who hoped to excel by catering to powerful political figures.

Gendered Blame: Narratives of Participation in Genocide

This article draws upon interviews with 74 Rwandans to analyze how they explain civilian participation in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Specifically, we assess how Rwandans describe why men and women perpetrated genocide. We find that respondents commonly attribute men’s participation in the genocide to structural, external factors, such as government orders. However, respondents regularly attribute women’s participation to jealousy and other factors tied to their personalities. We also assess how the attribution of blame may impact the treatment of formerly incarcerated individuals, suggesting that gendered views of the women who committed genocide may hinder their reentry and reintegration.

Three Stories and Three Questions about Participation in Genocide

This essay articulates the importance of focusing on behavioral actions in research on genocide rather than on categories of people. Then, through a brief review of research on dehumanization, it demonstrates how a focus on actions over actors helps explain behavioral variation in genocide. It also highlights the need for researchers to consider their own positionality when studying participation in genocide, as research on genocide is always fraught with complex questions of moral right and wrong.

Van Voren, Robert Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania Woolfson, Shivaun Holocaust Legacy in Post-Soviet Lithuania: People, Places and Objects (review)

REVIEWS 381 van Voren, Robert. Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania. On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics, 31. Rodopi, Amsterdam and New York, 2011. 195 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. €20.00 (paperback). Woolfson, Shivaun. Holocaust Legacy in Post-Soviet Lithuania: People, Places and Objects. Bloomsbury Academic, London and New York, 2016. xiii + 250 pp. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £24.99 (paperback). Robert van Voren has written an unusual, compact study of probably the worst period of twentieth-century European history. The title (Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania) alludes to the fact that the country in question has had a hard time accommodating these difficult years into its national narrative — and the struggle goes on today. Nonetheless, the most unusual aspect of the book is its attempt to put Lithuanian difficulties into a comparative context. To do this, the author displays comparatively how very hard it was for the population of The Netherlands to ‘digest’ the full story of its own reactions to Nazi occupation and genocide. So if the Lithuanian population has to face criticism for only slow progress in coming to terms with ‘the skeletons in its closet’, then it should not be singled out as the only group found wanting. This text might only be 182 pages long, but it has big ambitions. It provides a discussion of the historical background to the place of Jews on Lithuanian soil, the origins of antisemitism among the Lithuanian population, Jewish life during the interwar period, the perpetration of the Holocaust, popular collaboration, motives for participation in genocide and, finally, two chapters examining why the dreadful events happened and the difficulties encountered in their finding adequate recognition. Without doubt Undigested Past is a thoughtful piece of work, but potential readers should probably be made aware that it is founded on secondary literature. As such it provides a useful guide to a large amount of work, but at times the study can seem quite familiar. Historically, about 5 million Jews lived in the Russian Empire, mostly in the Pale of Settlement where they carried out their existence quite separately from the Gentile population. They experienced pogroms in the 1880s, then again in 1905 before some 200,000 of them were deported to the Russian interior during the First World War, a time when that community was stigmatized as unreliable and potentially pro-German (pp. 15–16). Regarding the origins of race-hatred, van Voren deploys some depressing information against the Catholic Church. A catechism from 1908, for instance, read, ‘priests and elderly Jews hated Christ the Lord. His enemies agreed to destroy him’ (p. 36). The interwar period started out promisingly for the Jews living in the newly independent Lithuanian state. The Paris Peace Treaty created the preconditions for extensive Jewish autonomy and the terms were incorporated SEER, 95, 2, APRIL 2017 382 into the Lithuanian constitution of 6 August 1919. Initial good fortune, however, soon began to wane and from the mid 1920s on the state experienced a growing policy of Lithuanianization (p. 42). By 1923 about 7.6 per cent of the population of Lithuania was Jewish. Most of the Jews were urban and many were proletarian. It was, perhaps, more or less predictable that by 1 January 1941, at which point the Soviet Union had occupied Lithuania, Jews were overrepresented in the Communist Party, comprising 16.6 per cent of members (p. 53). Van Voren notes, however, that the Communist authorities didn’t just persecute Lithuanians, they persecuted Jews too (p. 59). Across his text van Voren deploys some truly unforgettable statements. One of the more eccentric comes from Lithuanian émigré author, Tomas Venclova: ‘What happened during the first days of the war was a catastrophe for the Jews, but was a far worse catastrophe for the Lithuanians’ (p. 67). Really? Thereafter follows a predictably depressing cataloguing of atrocity. That said, van Voren is to be commended for noting that some 800 Lithuanians have been honoured by Yad Vashem as belonging to the ‘Righteous Among Nations’ and the author makes clear that at least some Lithuanians paid with their lives for assisting Jews (p. 106). Nevertheless, he concludes that...

Genocide as Contentious Politics

AbstractDespite a recent turn towards the study of political violence within the field of contentious politics, scholars have yet to focus their lens on genocide. This is puzzling, as the field of collective action and social movements was originally developed in reaction to fascism (Nazism in particular), while research on collective action and research on genocide has long shown parallel findings and shared insights. This paper reviews the history of this scholarly convergence and divergence, and suggests that recent findings of research on genocide can be improved by the consideration of concepts from social movements and collective action. It then details three theories of the micro‐mechanisms that mobilize individuals for contention – framing, diffusion, and networks – and specifies how they refine existing explanations of civilian participation in genocide. In the conclusion, I suggest that a contentious politics approach to genocide would consider it one form of collective action among others, analyzable within the existing framework of collective action and social movement theory.

Beorn, Waitman Wade. Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus (review)

SEER, 93, 3, JULY 2015 580 Voionmaa was not quite expecting an exploitation of the full trip, however, in the confusion of the Kalotti and Northern Russia in 1918 he published two tracts advising his fellow-countrymen to look carefully at the Northern shores, its islands and its seas. Most curiously, this stalwart Social Democrat asked Mannerheim in one of the tracts to forget the victory parades of the civil war and to get up North and seize a piece of the Varanger Fjord so as to bolster the position of Finland in these hitherto neglected lands. Was he before his time? University of Turku George Maude Beorn, Waitman Wade. Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and London, 2014. iii + 314 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Graphs. Notes. Index. $39.95: £29.95: €35.95. Eastern Europe was where Nazi Germany went from persecuting Jews to killing them, first by mass shootings, then by industrialized mass murder in gas chambers. While Hitler’s ideological soldiers in the SS were the foremost perpetrators of the mass shootings, many regular army men also became accomplices. Waitman Wade Beorn’s book deepens our knowledge of this phenomenon by studying how German Wehrmacht soldiers became active participants in the mass murder of Jews in occupied Belarus. Wehrmacht collaboration in Nazi crimes has long been documented, but Beorn’s well-written book is among the first to explore its concrete manifestations on the ground. Based on German sources, mostly soldiers’ post-war testimony and wartime military documents, the book takes a micro-historical approach, concentrating on a handful of individual Wehrmacht units and their evolving entanglement with Nazi genocidal policy. Beorn makes three principal arguments. First, unit culture and leadership largely decided who became a perpetrator. Second, the identification of Jews with partisans and Bolsheviks justified Wehrmacht participation in the murder of Jews. Finally, such participation in itself had a radicalizing effect and led to ever deeper complicity in the Holocaust. How do the main contentions in the book hold up? Let us begin with Beorn’s third, chronological argument, which structures the main chapters of the book. In the beginning, Beorn finds, complicity was improvised and mostly limited to guard duties rather than direct participation in the killings. Many men were reluctant and hesitant to participate. Yet most did what was ordered or expected of them when push came to shove. They pulled victims from their homes and stood guard around killing sites. During the next stage, complicity became less complicated: ‘in less than a month, army units in Belarus had gone from somewhat hesitant collaborators to clumsy but brutal killers’ (p. 134). Next, REVIEWS 581 genocide became ‘routine’. Soldiers now participated extensively in large-scale killing operations, including plunder and sexual exploitation, which reflected a deepening and more routinized form of collaboration. Finally, by the end of 1941, ‘most soldiers and units appear to have internalized the necessity of their role in assisting in the murder of Jews’ (p. 183). Beorn refers to a particular Wehrmacht unit which engaged, on its own initiative, in sadistic ‘Jew hunts’ toward the end of 1941 and into 1942. While the detailed narrative is well-crafted and valuable in its own right, the argument that Wehrmacht complicity evolved in stages leaves something to be desired. To prove it, one would have to demonstrate that most Wehrmacht units involved in the Holocaust followed this same path over time. Beorn, however, looks at different units at different points in time. Since we do not get to follow the units from beginning to end (and into the second and third year of the war), we do not know whether they became more or less radical in the longer run. The book’s second main argument — that the conflation of Jews with partisans and Bolsheviks justified Wehrmacht participation in genocide — is well backed up by the evidence. Beorn concentrates in particular on the Mogilev Conference, convened in late September 1941, where Wehrmacht personnel met with chief SS killers, ostensibly to discuss experiences relating to anti-partisan warfare. Beorn convincingly argues that the conference served to ‘more fully incorporate the army in killings of Jews...

Individual Criminal Responsibility

The paper analyses the case-law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) with regard to individual criminal responsibility. After some brief considerations on Article 6 (1) of the ICTR Statute (which lists several modes of individual criminal liability), we assess the Tribunal’s approaches towards direct commission and participation in a joint criminal enterprise. Further, forms of secondary participation, that is, causing someone to commit a crime (planning, instigating, ordering) and forms of assistance (aiding and abetting) are analysed. A particular focus is laid on the special forms of participation in genocide, namely conspiracy, direct and public incitement and complicity. Last, but not least the highly relevant concept of superior responsibility is explained.

A Macro-Micro Integrated Theoretical Model of Mass Participation in Genocide

A Macro-Micro Integrated Theoretical Model of Mass Participation in Genocide

What Does ‘Intent to Destroy’ in Genocide Mean?

Genocide is a crime with a double mental element, i.e. a general intent as to the underlying acts, and an ulterior intent with regard to the ultimate aim of the destruction of the group. The prevailing view in the case-law interprets the respective ‘intent to destroy’ requirement as a special or specific intent (dolus specialis) stressing its volitional or purpose-based tendency. While this view has been followed for a long time in legal doctrine without further ado, it has recently been challenged by knowledge- and structure-based approaches, which have not received sufficient attention. A historical, literal, systematic and teleological interpretation of the ‘intent to destroy’ requirement, taking into account the particular structure of the genocide offence and the meaning of ‘intent’ in comparative law, reveals that the traditional view can no longer be maintained. It should be replaced by a combined structure- and knowledge-based approach that distinguishes according to the status and role of the (low-, mid- and top-level) perpetrators. Thus, the purpose-based intent should be upheld only with regard to the top- and mid-level perpetrators, whereas for the lowlevelperpetrators knowledge of the genocidal context should suffice. Lastly, this new approach requires a fresh look at the ‘intent to destroy’ requirement in cases of participation in genocide.

What does ‘intent to destroy’ in genocide mean?

AbstractGenocide is a crime with a double mental element, i.e. a general intent as to the underlying acts, and an ulterior intent with regard to the ultimate aim of the destruction of the group. The prevailing view in the case-law interprets the respective ‘intent to destroy’ requirement as a special or specific intent (dolus specialis) stressing its volitional or purpose-based tendency. While this view has been followed for a long time in legal doctrine without further ado, it has recently been challenged by knowledge- and structure-based approaches, which have not received sufficient attention. A historical, literal, systematic and teleological interpretation of the ‘intent to destroy’ requirement, taking into account the particular structure of the genocide offence and the meaning of ‘intent’ in comparative law, reveals that the traditional view can no longer be maintained. It should be replaced by a combined structure- and knowledge-based approach that distinguishes according to the status and role of the (low-, mid- and top-level) perpetrators. Thus, the purpose-based intent should be upheld only with regard to the top- and mid-level perpetrators, whereas for the low-level perpetrators knowledge of the genocidal context should suffice. Lastly, this new approach requires a fresh look at the ‘intent to destroy’ requirement in cases of participation in genocide.

Why Men Participate: A Review of Perpetrator Research on the Rwandan Genocide

In “Why Men Participate: A Review of Perpetrator Research on the Rwandan Genocide,” Cyanne E. Loyle provides a thought-provoking analysis of the existing state of the genocide perpetrator literature. Relying on fieldwork conducted in Rwanda over the past several years, her research contributes to the development of a unified theory of participation in genocide (that is, who participates and why) that can be examined and applied across case.

Genocide Trials and Gacaca Courts

After many decades of impunity, Rwanda has embarked upon a course of transitional justice committed to prosecuting all who are suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide. The first phase, which began in 1997 and is still continuing, targets the most serious offenders. Some 10,000 have been tried under the system. Confronted with its limitations, Rwanda has devised a second approach, known as gacaca, which focuses on a lower and less heinous level of participation in genocide, and which is inspired by traditional models of local justice. Acting upon legislation adopted in 2001, a pilot phase convinced Rwandan justice officials of the viability of the process throughout the country. The institutions have been fine-tuned, and become fully operational in the course of 2005. Because the pilot phase encouraged denunciation, instead of offering ‘closure’, the process has actually revealed a much broader popular participation in the atrocities of 1994. Rwandan authorities now say the gacaca process will prosecute more than 1,000,000 suspects.

Punishment Postgenocide: From Guilt to Shame to 'Civis' in Rwanda

Following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, national and international trials set out to encourage national reconciliation, promote peace, punish perpetrators, foster a culture of human rights, and effect justice. In this Article, Professor Mark Drumbl questions the ability of these trials to achieve these goals and suggests they may in fact aggravate ethnic identity politics, thereby threatening Rwanda's long-term stability. He argues that the highly interdependent yet dualist nature of Rwandan society, together with the widespread level of participation in and victimization by the genocide, create a situation where accountability for the violence and the deterrence of future violence can be pursued more effectively through the restorative cultivation of shame, rather than through the retributive imposition of guilt. Although criminal sanction usually attaches to deviant conduct, participation in genocide in Rwanda was not particularly deviant, nor was it an individualized, pathological transgression. Professor Drumbl asks whether there might be times and places where collective wrongdoing needs to be exposed and not hidden by the law's preference for individual fault. Despite the concerns that ought to be emerging from the Rwandan experience, international lawyers continue to push - with significant degrees of success - for selective criminal prosecution as a preferred, and potentially exclusive, response to mass atrocity. In contrast, he suggests that creating presumptions in favor of criminal trials may preempt the supervening inquiry about the suitability of those trials to the afflicted society. Professor Drumbl concludes that policy responses to mass atrocity should be founded upon contextual inquiries, not driven by globalitarian or legalistic agendas, and should recognize the uniqueness of each incident of mass atrocity and the uniqueness of the reconstruction process that should follow, instead of flattening that uniqueness. This may lead to a preference for flexible, polycentric responses within and outside of what may be customarily identified by the West as the law.

Kościół miejscem zranienia i uzdrowienia. Historia pojednania Anyesie Mukankaka z Rwandy

Minęło już 25 lat od ludobójstwa w Rwandzie, które miało miejsce w 1994 roku. W zbiorowej świadomości ten afrykański kraj został doświadczony ludobójstwem. Jednak 1 000 000 ofiar to przede wszystkim osobiste dramaty Rwandyjczyków i ich rodzin. Świadectwo Anyesie Mukankaki pokazuje, w jaki sposób kobieta, która straciła męża i dzieci, zmaga się z wyzwaniem przebaczenia swoim życiu, jaką rolę w tym procesie odgrywa także Kościół katolicki. W historii jej życia widać, że Kościół był miejscem, gdzie została zraniona, ale w Kościele doświadczyła także daru przebaczenia i pojednania. Obecnie Kościół katolicki w Rwandzie inspiruje poszczególnych ludzi do działania na rzecz sprawiedliwości, pojednania i do podjęcia terapii celu uleczenia ich straumatyzowanego życia. Historia rwandyjskiego Kościoła najczęściej dzisiaj przywoływana jest kontekście udziału jego członków w ludobójstwie, jednak prawda jest taka, że ponad 250 duchownych katolickich oddało swoje życie w obronie prześladowanych Tutsi. W rwandyjskim Kościele ludzie byli ranieni, był on także raniony w tragicznych wydarzeniach 1994 roku, a obecnie podejmuje leczenie ofiar ludobójstwa.