Civil War In Rwanda Research Articles

A Postmodernist Critique of the International Community’s Response to the Genocide in Rwanda: How the UN’s Rhetoric Contributed to Humanitarian Failure

"The gruesome savagery displayed during the events in Rwanda astounded the entire world. Even more outrageous is the fact that the international community did not have a strong response to the massacre and allowed millions of lives to be affected by the actions of Akazu. In this essay, I wish to propose that, drawing on the notion that postmodernist international theory's metanarratives can be created inside the framework of international politics, I look at a horrific incident that shocked the public. This study aims to address the issue, ""Why was the rhetoric of the United Nations potentially fueling the brutality of the Rwandan genocide?"" to demonstrate that the international community's rhetoric played a significant role in these sad events. All of them point to the fact that the way we classify and prioritise humanitarian situations can be considerably influenced by a international organisation with accepted authority in the international community. We saw the construction of a ""Rwanda Civil War"" metanarrative that only showed one side of the conflict before collapsing in the face of the terrible truth of what had actually occurred. Keywords: Rwandan Genocide, humanitarian intervention, discourse analysis, United Nations, postmodernism."

Judicial Dialogue in Human Rights

Abstract The editors and other authors of the studies contained in this volume have chosen to focus attention on the problem of the broad concept of judicial dialogue, defined as the communication between various judicial authorities. The studies included consider the problem of institutional relations in the field of human rights protection from a national and international perspective. The issue of judicial dialogue in the field of human rights after the civil war in Rwanda is assessed. Next, the issue of the legal responsibility for placing hyperlinks in the context of the judicial dialogue between the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union in the field of protecting human rights on the internet is raised. Finally, the question of whether private or public legal entities can find direct protection under the Inter-American System of Human Rights is analysed. The academic value of the analytical considerations presented in this volume is very high and this should lead to considerable readers’ interest. This is because intellectual considerations of judicial dialogue in the field of human rights protection undoubtedly bring an interesting and significant new dimension not only to the theory but also to the practice of applying the law.

Constructing identity through commemoration:Kwibukaand the rise of survivor nationalism in post-conflict Rwanda

AbstractIn the years following Rwanda's civil war, the country has remembered those killed in the 1994 genocide with 100 days of official commemoration, known as Kwibuka. The temporary commemoration period is characterised by an explicit acknowledgement and public discussion of ethnic identity, which stands in puzzling contrast to the state's policy of ethnic non-recognition, enforced during the rest of the year in hopes of achieving national homogeneity (Ndi Umunyarwanda). Thus, one observes seemingly diametrically opposed practices of legally erasing identity groups because of their link to conflict and a unique, three month-long saturation of reminders in the form of public speeches, memorial programming and burials, and commemorative signage. A blurring of ‘Tutsi’ with ‘survivor’ and the deliberate passing down of survivor identity to Tutsi youth have created, over time, conditions for a ‘survivor nationalism’, which exacerbates social tensions and risks sustainable peace in the long term.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN ARMED CONFLICT ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

The environment is a victim of various armed conflicts that occur in some parts of the world. Such as Congo war in 1998 that create environmental damage like deployment of the HIV-AIDS virus, the extinction of national parks, wildlife poaching and the forest burning. In addition the Rwanda civil war in 1994 affected the loss of biodiversity, natural resources and population decline in rare animals such as the African Gorillas. While the former Yugoslavia war in 1991 that impact in environmental pollution of water, air and land that threaten human survival.The environment becomes a victim when the war was happend its caused the human, but on the other side, the environment can’t be separated from human life because somehow humans need the environment to. However, when the war was happend human can’t maintaining the environment even though there have been rules that regulate about the protection of the environment when the war takes place. Therefore, its necessary to analysed an environmental protection in armed conflict according to international humanitarian law.This research is discusses about how an environmental protection in armed conflict according to international humanitarian law, which aims to explain the regulations that apply to protect the environment at the armed conflict. This research uses normative law approach (literature research).The results of this study show that environmental protection in armed conflict is regulated in the conventions of international humanitarian law both from the Hague Law and the Geneva Law. In The Hague law the environmental protection is governed by the IV Hague Convention 1907of respecting the laws and customs of war and land Art 23 (g) and Art 55. In the Geneva Law an environmental protection is contained in the IV Geneva Convention 1949 Art 53 and Additional Protocol I in 1977 Art 35 (3), 54, 55, 56, 59, and Art 68. Basically both of Geneva and Hague Law against the use of weapons during the war that have an effected in environmental damage and the existence of precautions in the war on environmental protection life. Beside the Geneva and the Hague Law there are have other arrangements to protect the environment in the event of a war that is in ENMOD Convention Art 1 and 2.

Concept of Recognition in International Law and Instances of its Breach by Powerful Nations

As international law struggles with the question of sovereignty, it also suffers from the question of recognition. So, it is very important to understand the various kinds of recognition which are concurrent to the question of sovereignty. Even after 65 years since the establishment of United Nations and various conventions, International community is again and again blanked by the question of ‘Recognition’. Incidents of civil war in Rwanda, Sierra Leone or question of recognition of Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Palestine as independent state, or internal disturbance like Naxalism in India, LTTE in Sri Lanka, or Secession demand by the states like Chechnya, Tibet recurrently imposes the question mark on the effectiveness of International Law.Answering this question is important but first it is necessary to discuss the need of recognition. Why it is required? In simple terms, Recognition is required as it signifies that the entity has attained the required qualifications[1] for state and is entitled for privileges and immunities within the domestic legal order[2].This research paper will try to analyse aforementioned issue in context of various types of recognition. Recognition in International Law is divided into 8 types, which are:a) Recognition of States; b) Recognition of Government; c) De Facto and De Jure recognition; d) Premature recognition; e) Implied recognition; f)Conditional recognition; g) Collective recognition; h) Withdrawal of recognition.Subsequent to the above discussion, paper will also dwelve upon the idea of Non-Recognition and Legal consequences of recognition and non-recognition.[1] Nurullah Yamali, “What is Meant by State Recognition in International Law”, General Directorate of International Law and Foreign Affairs,Turkey, http://www.justice.gov.tr/e-journal/pdf/LW7081.pdf[2] International Law, “Recognition”, http://web.wits.ac.za/NR/rdonlyres/E0A48346-CB0B-4BEC-95B1-DD3FD4DEDD58/0/Overhead15.doc

Recovery of Ungulate Populations in Post-Civil War Akagera National Park, Rwanda

Following the 1991–1995 civil war in Rwanda, large parts of Akagera National Park (NP) and the adjacent Mutara Game Reserve were endowed by government to returning war refugees for cattle grazing. In 1997, official degazettement reduced the area covered by these two protected areas by 60% (from 2800 km2 to 1120 km2). This study reports trends in population sizes and densities of ungulates in modern Akagera NP (1120 km2), with a focus on the more common ungulates (impala, topi, zebra, buffalo, waterbuck, and warthog). Data from previous surveys are compared with our 2010–2014 road strip counts using distance sampling. A decline of ungulate populations during the civil war, followed by recovery several years after reduction of the size of the Park, is evident. The ungulate populations show different trends in size in recent years, suggesting that the carrying capacity has been reached for some species.

The Psychology of Threat in Intergroup Conflict: Emotions, Rationality, and Opportunity in the Rwandan Genocide

How do security threats mobilize social groups against each other? The strength of such threats lies in the power of group emotions, notably the primary emotion of fear. Fear works by activating psychological processes at the group level that polarize attitudes between different groups. An analysis of survey data, radio broadcasts, and interviews from Rwanda's civil war and genocide of 1990–94 reveals four psychosocial mechanisms at work in group polarization: boundary activation, outgroup derogation, outgroup homogenization, and ingroup cohesion. Additionally, scholarly debates on the role of emotions, material opportunities, and rationality in ethnic conflicts represent a false theoretical choice. Both emotions and material opportunities matter, and rationality and emotion are not incompatible. Two simple refinements to extant theoretical and empirical approaches are needed. First, scholars ought to distinguish between attitudes and violence in ethnic conflicts; emotions matter for the polarization of attitudes, but material and structural opportunities mediate their expression as violence. Second, scholars should pay greater attention to the extensive research in social psychology that shows that both emotion and reason interact in individual judgment and decisionmaking.

Mimesis and Remembrance

This article asks what is the function of theatrical simulation, or mimesis, in the testimonial performance genre? The analysis focuses on a verbatim project by Daedalus Theatre Company, A Place at the Table, an eye-witness exposé of the atrocities of the conflict in Burundi and the civil war in Rwanda, 1993 – 1994. This production was a design-led, overtly theatrical response to the varying documented ‘truths’ about these events, from UN Security Council reports to personal testimony, that positioned the performers as multiple testifying subjects, emerging in a range of performance genres from seemingly realist performance, to abstract embodied simulation of the disputed territories. These performances, a combination of conscious theatrical replaying, testimonial and remembrance, drew heavily on theatrical simulation; a particular testimonial mimesis. To explore how this might function as a part of the testimonial genre, I draw on the theories of mimesis by Roger Caillois and the more positive version thereof by Michael Taussig. Caillois's material mimesis is a dangerous lure between self and space based on the desire not for visual replication or the facsimilie of similarity, but for the act of being similar. Taussig interprets in this temptation a potential for the self to playfully sample the Other, an act of selfing of space which suggests agency in mimesis. My analysis of this in A Place at the Table countenances possibilities in the performance of the intolerable, and offers an example of Ranciere's witness as artist, not victim. Thus I argue for an emancipated understanding of mimesis that asks us to consider the agency of performing the remembered.

The Czech Republic on the UN Security Council: The Rwandan Genocide1

The Rwanda civil war that in 1994 degenerated into a slaughter of the country's Tutsi, amounting to genocide, was possibly the world's most devastating bloodbath of the 1990s. In 1994, the newly formed Czech Republic took up its place as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council; Karel Kovanda was the Czech Ambassador at the time. Drawing on internal documents of the Czech Foreign Service and on his own private notes, as well as on a wealth of published information, Kovanda details in this personal memoir the step-by-step evolution of the Rwandan tragedy as he and his delegation perceived it, and the Czech reaction to it. He repeatedly highlights the information gap: on the one hand, insufficient and biased information provided by the UN Secretariat; on the other hand, the detailed, accurate, and timely information his delegation received from NGOs. Kovanda estimates that during the first weeks, the Security Council gave perhaps 80% of its attention to the civil war between Rwandan government forces and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and 20% to how to handle the difficult position of UNAMIR, the peacekeeping operation then on the ground in Rwanda. Only after weeks of delay did the Security Council even start to come to grips with the ongoing genocide—a term that Ambassador Kovanda was the first to employ publicly in an official UN meeting. While focusing on Rwanda proper, Kovanda also explains and describes the sometimes little-known mechanisms that play a role in the day-to-day workings of the Security Council: the role of the UN Secretariat, informal consultations, groupings of Security Council members, and so on.

The Czech Republic on the UN Security Council: The Rwandan Genocide

The Rwanda civil war that in 1994 degenerated into a slaughter of the country's Tutsi, amounting to genocide, was possibly the world's most devastating bloodbath of the 1990s. In 1994, the newly formed Czech Republic took up its place as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council; Karel Kovanda was the Czech Ambassador at the time. Drawing on internal documents of the Czech Foreign Service and on his own private notes, as well as on a wealth of published information, Kovanda details in this personal memoir the step-by-step evolution of the Rwandan tragedy as he and his delegation perceived it, and the Czech reaction to it. He repeatedly highlights the information gap: on the one hand, insufficient and biased information provided by the UN Secretariat; on the other hand, the detailed, accurate, and timely information his delegation received from NGOs. Kovanda estimates that during the first weeks, the Security Council gave perhaps 80% of its attention to the civil war between Rwandan government forc...

Legal Recordkeeping in an African Context – The Case of the Rwandan Genocide Archives

Ten years on from the horrors of the civil war in Rwanda in 1994, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda [ICTR] has come a long way in terms of its recordkeeping practices. In four years since 2000 many innovative and sustainable practices have been adopted. The main focus of the work of the Judicial Records and Archives Unit has been to provide a service based on satisfying the users’ requirements. The court proceedings are the raison d’etre of the work of all staff at ICTR. We have developed some innovative and feasible solutions to practical problems. This article sketches some of the challenges we faced in managing records of ICTR. ESARBICA Journal Vol.23 2004: 3-16

War and Children

CHILDREN ENSURE THE SURVIVAL OF SOCIETY. ADULTS are entrusted with their well-being, including the daunting challenge of protecting children against the violence of war. War continues to evolve in response to geopolitical transformations with large-scale wars being replaced by regional conflicts and international terrorism. Modern versions of war disproportionately affect civilian populations including children. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, the proportion of civilian casualties of war has increased from 5% to 90% during the past 2 decades, with children accounting for at least one half of the casualties, and more than 1.5 million children have died as a result of violence between the years 1990-2003. During the violent civil war in Rwanda, 300 000 children were brutally killed over a 90-day period. Similar catastrophic situations are found today in the Darfur region of Sudan and the Congo.

Testing the Double-Genocide Thesis for Central and Southern Rwanda

Results of a research project with household-level data on the demographic impact of genocide and civil war in Rwanda are reported. The survey includes demographic and criminological data on 352 peasant households that were part of a large household survey project before the genocide. The absolute number of Hutu killed in the sample is half of the number of Tutsi killed. The statistical and econometric results show that the killing pattern among Hutu and Tutsi was different; Tutsi members of the same household were often killed on the same day and in the same place. The effect of the arrival of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) at the survey sites on the survival chances of Hutu and Tutsi is estimated.

Peacemaking in Rwanda: The Dynamics of Failure. By Bruce D. Jones. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001. 200p. $49.95.

By almost all indicators, Rwanda's civil war should have ended in a successful negotiated settlement. Both the Tutsi rebels and the Rwandan government had agreed to participate in negotiations brokered by a team of Tanzanian mediators whom most people considered highly skilled. The two parties to the negotiations were able to reach and sign a detailed peace settlement that guaranteed both parties representation in the legislature and a set percentage of slots in the military. And the United Nations offered to “guarantee” the security of the two sides during the implementation period. Almost all factors purported to lead to a peaceful solution were present at the time the Arusha accords were signed in 1994. Rwanda's civil war, however, did not end peacefully. Instead, a peace process that seemingly had all the elements of success ended in one of the most rapid genocides in recorded history.

Ethnicity Kills? The Politics of War, Peace and Ethnicity in Sub Saharan Africa

List of Tables, Figures and Maps Preface Abbreviations Notes on the Contributors PART I: INTRODUCTION Ethnicity Kills? Social Struggles for Power, Resources and Identities in the Neopatrimonial State E.Braathen, M.Boas & G.Saether The Politics of War: A Meditation V.Y.Mudimbe PART 2: ETHNICITY AND CIVIL WAR The Somali Catastrophe: Explanation and Implications A.I.Samatar Causes of Civil War in Rwanda: The Weight of History and Socio-Cultural Structures A.Lema The Struggle for Kingship: Moses or Messiah - Ethnic War and the Use of Ethnicity in the Process of Democratisation in Congo-Brazzaville A.Sundberg The Political Economy of State Collapse in Somalia and Liberia G.Saether PART 3: TRANSITIONS FROM WAR TO PEACE? Nigeria and West Africa: from a Regional Security Complex to a Regional Security Community? M.Boas Nationalism and Ethnicities: Lessons from Mozambique M.Cahen Conclusion - Transcending the Discourse on the Politics of War E.Braathen, M.Boas & G.Saether Bibliography Index

Forensic Osteological Analysis: A Book of Case Studies

Edited by Scott I. Fairgrieve, 340 pp, with illus, Springfield, Ill, Charles C Thomas Ltd, 1999.This is a book of case studies on how skeletal analysis is applied to human and animal remains in medicolegal cases. The book probes the limits of forensic osteology and examines both successes and failures. The book does not teach the reader how to establish identification from skeletal remains, but rather supplies useful practical information about how actual skeletal analyses have been performed in a wide variety of cases.The 20 chapters, written by 32 contributors, cover the broad gamut of forensic identification, including identifying human versus animal bones, sex determination, DNA analysis, cremated remains, historical cases, facial reconstruction, video superimposition, detection of strangulation, unusual skeletal anomalies, mass disasters, and human rights investigations. Material on the use of insects in death investigation is also included. There is an excellent discussion of the pathologic changes seen on human skeletons before, during, and after death.The chapter on mass disasters discusses a collision between a passenger train and a freight train that occurred near Hinton, Alberta, Canada, in February 1986, resulting in 23 fatalities. The collision caused massive deformation of the passenger and freight cars with entrapment of the victims. An intense diesel fuel fire supplemented by spilled grain and sulfur from the freight cars hampered recovery efforts. Cold weather and large amounts of burned railcar insulation, which simulated burned bone, further complicated the process.The chapter on the role of forensic anthropology in human rights issues presents compelling information on the difficulties encountered in investigating genocide cases on foreign soil. Among the obstacles to the exhumation of a 1991 mass grave at Ovcara, Croatia, believed to contain as many as 200 remains, were land minds, explosives, and military and political intimidation. During a 1994 civil war in Rwanda, Hutu extremists killed 500 000 to 800 000 Tutsi. Forensic experts, including forensic anthropologists, archeologists, and pathologists from various parts of the world, participated in the recovery and analysis of the skeletal remains that resulted from the genocide in the vicinity of a church in Kibuye, Rwanda. Heat, explosives, poisonous snakes, and heavy vegetation made the work hazardous.The illustrations used in the book are of excellent quality, were carefully selected, and greatly facilitate understanding. Excellent references accompany each chapter. The book is primarily designed for students of forensic anthropology and presumes a background in human anatomy and osteology. Forensic pathologists and dentists who do identification work will also find this book very useful. The book provides an excellent overview of the field of forensic anthropology. It clearly delineates the potential contribution that can be made by the forensic anthropologist and archeologist in cases involving skeletal remains and encourages the early involvement of these specialists in the recovery of those remains.

Scrambling for Africa Again

This article is meant to be a critical look at the African presence in the Western mass media. Since the time of Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, Africa has almost always been painted in dark colors in movies, newspaper articles, and all sorts of literature throughout the Western world. This article demonstrates that Africa is still being treated quite unfairly, and behind her blurred and distorted picture, there are a number of shocking truths that need to be revealed. To support his claim, the writer provides a good deal of evidence from Blaine Harden's Africa: Dispatches From a Fragile Continent. More specifically, the essay focuses on the civil war in Rwanda and the subsequent crisis in Zaire. When they are carefully and thoroughly cross-examined, various articles in newspapers and magazines unravel the mystery as to whom is to blame. That is what this article shows thanks to Chicago Sun Times, The New York Times, Time magazine, the British The Weekly Telegraph, and the French Le Monde. In paraphrasing the biblical words of the Book of Genesis, I am simply trying to point to a tragic historical fact: the colonization of Africa. It has been 36 years since most African countries became independent territories and politically sovereign states. But, looking at the way the W~estern press interprets major events in Africa,

Airborne Field Hospital in Disaster Area: Lessons from Armenia (1988) and Rwanda (1994)

The outcome of survivors within disaster areas largely depends upon the quick reallocation and operation of logistic and medical support systems. Enthusiastic media equipped with advanced communication systems, reveal mass human suffering in real time. But, the response period required for the organization of rescue systems is much slower and is most frustrating. In this article, we present our experience in quick deployment and operation of airborne field hospitals gained following the earthquake disaster in Armenia in 1988 and the civil war in Rwanda in 1994. Deployment of improvised, volunteer-based, military field hospitals was feasible within 24 hours after the decision was made. A multi-disciplinary structure enabled an effective, flexible mode of operation and reduced the dependency on mericulous, time-consuming assessments of requirements prior to deployment. These missions are a paradigm for the successful incorporation and integration within the capabilities of military infrastructure of volunteer professionals drafted from civil medical facilities. Such field hospitals could provide backup for primary care medical systems in disaster areas and substitute or take some pressure off of local hospitals, particularly when evacuation systems are insufficient.