Academic literature on the topic 'Rwanda – History – Civil War, 1994'

AbstractChristian churches were deeply implicated in the 1994 genocide of ethnic Tutsi in Rwanda. Churches were a major site for massacres, and many Christians participated in the slaughter, including church personnel and lay leaders. Church involvement in the genocide can be explained in part because of the historic link between church and state and the acceptance of ethnic discrimination among church officials. In addition, just as political officials chose genocide as a means of reasserting their authority in the face of challenges from a democracy movement and civil war, struggles over power within Rwanda's Christian churches led some church leaders to accept the genocide as a means of eliminating challenges to their own authority within the churches.

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.

The 1992 peace accords ending a 16-year civil war, followed by the 1994 democratic elections, promised a brighter political and economic future for Mozambique. Despite the adoption of multiparty politics and robust economic growth since the 1990s, however, Mozambique today faces seemingly intractable challenges. Amid increasing allegations of electoral fraud, Frelimo continues to be the country’s ruling party, a position it assumed after independence in 1975. Political insiders control most of the country’s considerable economic assets, including vast natural gas deposits in the north. A violent jihadi insurgency, which began in the northern province of Cabo Delgado in 2017 and tapped into local grievances, has so far resisted the combined efforts of the national military, regional security forces, and a contingent of troops from Rwanda to eliminate it. With spaces for peaceful civic participation and action shrinking, the glimmer of hope for democracy, security, and well-being in Mozambique is fading.

Abstract:This article situates the sexual violence associated with the Rwandan civil war and 1994 genocide within a local cultural history and political economy in which institutionalized gender violence shaped the choices of Rwandan women and girls. Based on ethnographic research, it argues that Western notions of sexual consent are not applicable to a culture in which colonialism, government policy, war, and scarcity of resources have limited women's access to land ownership, economic security, and other means of survival. It examines emic cultural models of sexual consent and female sexual agency and proposes that sexual slavery, forced marriage, prostitution, transactional sex, nonmarital sex, informal marriage or cohabitation, and customary (bridewealth) marriages exist on a continuum on which female sexual agency becomes more and more constrained by material circumstance. Even when women's choices are limited, women still exercise their agency to survive. Conflating all forms of sex in conflict zones under the rubric of harm undermines women's and children's rights because it reinforces gendered hierarchies and diverts attention from the structural conditions of poverty in postconflict societies.

International trials of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are currently a matter of considerable interest – legal, political and human. The work of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR), set up respectively in 1993 and 1994, and the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague in 2002, have focused attention on the practice and value of such juridical processes both as forms of law and in terms of the events they address. The unexpected death of Slobodan Milosevic during his trial at the ICTY has only intensified the controversy aroused by such proceedings. Politics, history, memory, mourning, reparation and even reconciliation are inescapably part of the legal process, often in an explicit and even formal manner. This means that scholars in disciplines other than legal science and people from many backgrounds are interested in the work of such international tribunals and in the types of ‘truth’ that they seek to establish.Such trials are not new. The idea stems directly from the intersection of military violence and humanitarian impulses in the 19th century. Geneva law, emanating from the International Red Cross (founded after the main war of Italian unification), dealt with the humane treatment of wounded and prisoners. Hague law, which codified the conduct of belligerents towards non-combatants, grew from the Lieber Code devised by the Union during the American Civil War and from the attempts by European powers to regulate military conduct after the Franco-Prussian War, culminating in the Hague conferences of 1899 and 1907.

Theories of social movement emergence posit “threat” as an important concept in explanations of mobilization. This article uses the case of the 1994 Rwandan genocide to investigate whether threats that stem from mass violence can also have a mobilizing effect. Drawing from interviews with 152 women in Rwanda, I reveal how threatening conditions created by the genocide and civil war initiated a grassroots mobilization process among women. This mobilization featured women founding and joining community organizations, engaging in new forms of claims making toward state institutions, and eventually running for political office. Two mechanisms facilitated this process: the social appropriation of feminine values for the reconceptualization of women as legitimate political actors, and the brokerage of connections between individual women, organizations, and government institutions by foreign actors. I conclude by suggesting that this mobilization served as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the meteoric rise of women in Rwanda's politics.

AbstractThe 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 meticulous, 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.

Since the very beginning of the Rwandan Genocide of the Tutsis in 1994, members of Hutu Power, the Akazu, and other interested allies of the former government of Rwanda have been conducting a campaign of genocide denial, one in which they blame the Tutsi dominated Rwandan Patriotic Army for carrying out murder of civilians during the civil war in 1994. In this article Linda Melvern examines the role that Hutu Power played in creating the myth of a counter-genocide and the unwitting legitimacy that was given to it by several UN agencies and their associated employees and consultants. Melvern notes that despite overwhelming evidence that demonstrates that there was no ‘counter genocide’, the lies and misinformation planted in the early post-genocide days persist, with some authors making new unsubstantiated claims about a slaughter of those Hutu who did not flee the country in July 1994.

The 20th century has witnessed several wars and genocides worldwide. Notable examples include the Armenian and Jews genocides which took place during World War I and World War II respectively. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 is a more recent example. These wars and genocides have impacted on the socio-economic and demographic transition with resounding crisis. The present study focused on the Rwandan genocide which affected households and families by reducing the fertility rate. Hence the fertility transition in Rwanda was analyzed for the period before, during and after genocide.

Ce travail est consacré au Tribunal Pénal International pour le Rwanda (TPIR), une juridiction ad hoc créée par le Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU le 8 novembre 1994.

Le fil conducteur de la thèse interroge la manière dont le Tribunal produit des archives. Comment une institution en devenir, produit-elle ses sources ?Cette interrogation entraîne deux questionnements :D’une part, comment analyser le devenir ou la constitution d’un Tribunal ?D’autre part, quelles sont, précisément, ces sources ?

Ces deux axes correspondent à la structuration de ce travail.

Dans la première partie, nous avons voulu mettre en exergue les débats et acteurs qui ont accompagné la création du Tribunal. En croisant les sources issues des archives des procès, des États, des organisations internationales ou des ONG, ainsi que par des entretiens, elle propose une entrée en matière concrète de l’histoire du Tribunal. Pourquoi crée-t-on ce Tribunal ?Quels sont les débats qui l’accompagnent ?Quels en sont les acteurs ?Ce retour sur les débats qui ont modelé le TPIR a permis de mettre en lumière un balisage du terrain judiciaire impliquant une grande diversité d’acteurs et de facteurs.

La deuxième partie, « Le procès Akayesu », propose une étude micro-historique du premier procès, débuté en janvier 1997 et clôturé en septembre 1998. Comment le procès a-t-il fonctionné au jour-le-jour ?Qui en sont les acteurs ?Comment s’est opérée la lecture judiciaire des faits qui se sont déroulés dans la commune de Taba, dont le bourgmestre, Jean-Paul Akayesu, était jugé ?Nous proposons dans cette deuxième partie un travail de contextualisation des sources issues du procès en interrogeant le dispositif et le formatage judiciaires qui sont à l’œuvre à tous les stades de la procédure. Par une approche fondée sur les archives judiciaires du procès, l’objectif est de mettre en lumière les différentes narrations et les dynamiques du procès. Si notre démarche a pris comme point focal ce premier procès, nous tentons constamment de le replacer dans un contexte élargi. Ce travail a voulu amorcer une ouverture vers l’étude d’autres procès, en mettant en exergue les ramifications de ce procès avec d’autres affaires. À travers cette contextualisation, nous avons également souhaité interroger, en historienne, la manière dont on peut se servir de ces sources. Nous avons en effet voulu aller au-delà de la critique des sources, afin de mettre en œuvre un essai d’histoire au plus près du terrain et portant sur la commune et la région concernées dans le procès.

Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
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Bachelors
Arts and Sciences
Political Science

Large-scale humanitarian crises in foreign countries raise the question of whether or not other countries have a duty to alleviate that suffering. In extreme cases, humanitarian intervention, that is: military intervention for the purpose of alleviating human suffering, is sometimes advocated as the morally required course of action. This thesis suggests that while the international community has a general moral responsibility to prevent and ameliorate humanitarian crises there is no simple duty of military humanitarian intervention. Hitherto, the question has typically been treated as a matter of either moral or legal principle. This thesis argues that empirical factors, which affect the international community's ability to carry out interventions effectively, have not been given their due weight in the debate. On the basis of evaluations of international responses to crises in Somalia and Rwanda, 1992 - 1994, it is suggested that a range of factors undermine the efficacy of humanitarian interventions. These factors include the impact of state interests, the effects of domestic politics in intervening states and, contrary to expectations, the role of humanitarian considerations in decision making on intervention. By showing the limitations of a simplistic view of a duty of humanitarian intervention the thesis seeks to contribute to reconciling idealism with realism in international crisis-responses. Based on sound moral and political judgment military interventions in humanitarian crises would hopefully be less ambitious and ultimately more effective.

Depuis le début des années quatre-vingt, la petite localité de Kibeho - un hameau particulièrement difficile d’accès situé aux confins d’une région rurale du sud-ouest du Rwanda, à environ deux cents kilomètres de Kigali - s’est muée en une destination de pèlerinage prisée par de nombreux Catholiques rwandais et, désormais, étrangers. L’origine de ce changement de nature du lieu se confond avec les apparitions de la Vierge (mais aussi du Christ et d’autres personnages du « panthéon » catholique) dont ont été favorisées plusieurs jeunes filles scolarisées au collège catholique local au début des années quatre-vingt, puis un certain nombre d’adolescents des environs. De spontanés et irréguliers qu’ils étaient dans les premières années du phénomène, encore liés aux performances publiques des voyants qui bénéficiaient des apparitions à heures fixes sur un podium surélevé, les déplacements d’individus se sont graduellement organisés. Aujourd’hui, à Kibeho, les apparitions publiques ont pris fin. Les pèlerins, qu’ils appartiennent à l’un ou l’autre mouvement d’Action catholique ou à un groupe de prière et de pèlerinage né des apparitions, se regroupent dans différents centres urbains du pays pour rejoindre le sanctuaire de Notre-Dame des Douleurs, érigé suite à la reconnaissance des apparitions par l’Eglise catholique en 2001 et en perpétuelle expansion depuis lors.

En 2001, la déclaration de reconnaissance mentionne, parmi les signes de crédibilité des apparitions, « la journée du 15 août 1982 qui fut marquée notamment, contre toute attente, par des visions effroyables, qui dans la suite se sont avérées prophétiques au vu des drames humains vécus au Rwanda et dans l’ensemble des pays de notre région des Grands Lacs ». Cette lecture officielle qui confère un horizon de sens aux événements, instituant la prophétie en des termes choisis permettant d’y entrevoir le génocide comme l’hécatombe du choléra dans les camps de réfugiés du Congo, est diversement négociée par les acteurs locaux, même si la conviction de la réalisation d’une prophétie est quasi-unanime. Du point de vue des pèlerins, les apparitions demeurent relativement problématiques. Elles exigent de chacun qu’il négocie sa position en fonction d’une représentation de l’orthodoxie constamment réévaluée dans les limites de ce qui est expérimenté et affirmé comme une identité catholique. Cette difficulté est notamment due à la multiplicité des individus qui ont revendiqué ou revendiquent encore des visions ou apparitions, alors que seules trois jeunes filles ont été reconnues par l’Eglise catholique en 2001.

Après avoir soigneusement défini le cadre socio-historique des apparitions rwandaises, en abordant la question depuis le point de vue de voyants non reconnus - dont l’une expatriée en Belgique - et de ceux qui leur sont proches, la thèse propose une analyse des discours par lesquels ceux-ci se définissent et négocient la légitimité de leur pratique religieuse. Une attention particulière a été portée aux outils stéréotypés de la critique (sexualité, politique, vénalité…), mobilisés dans le cadre des tensions et conflits qui opposent différents acteurs individuels et collectifs. Par ailleurs, les mécanismes qui président aux rhétoriques de la construction de soi ont été mis en lumière, notamment par le biais des récits de guerre qui fondent une identité de survivant liée à la conviction d’une intervention mariale. Ce processus se confond souvent avec ceux qui président à la construction du pouvoir de la Vierge, et donc des voyants. Finalement, au travers de l’analyse des représentations touchant notamment à la prophétie du génocide et de la guerre civile, les nouveaux rapports au national se font jour, les violences des années nonante étant intégrées dans un schéma biblique qui opère un basculement significatif :parce que le Rwanda serait touché de plein fouet par la Mal, il a été choisi par Dieu et par la Vierge comme noyau de la Nouvelle Evangélisation. À travers l’analyse du rapport au divin, à l’autorité, aux représentations de la modernité que les mots des acteurs reflètent, c’est le catholicisme vécu qui s’éclaire à l’ombre du sanctuaire et de son appareil médiatique foisonnant, ce catholicisme empirique dont la richesse se renouvelle à chaque « enculturation » comme au passage des générations successives et dont il importe, pour l’anthropologie comme pour l’histoire du christianisme, d’approcher l’infinie variété.

Doctorat en Philosophie
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Orientador: Andrei Koerner
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T01:52:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marques_IvanContente_M.pdf: 767815 bytes, checksum: 6ec7092e0e762c66283af8c6bcc55128 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008
Resumo: Este trabalho se propõe a estudar os debates acerca das intervenções humanitárias e sua relação com os conceitos de legalidade e legitimidade nas relações internacionais. Para isso, partiremos do início desta discussão que ocorreu antes da formação e da consolidação dos Estados nacionais e o fortalecimento do princípio da soberania, e passaremos pelos impactos causados pela nova ordem jurídica internacional criada pela Organização das Nações Unidas. Isso trará subsídios para a análise da situação do combate às crises humanitárias nos anos 1990 sob a ótica da intervenção. Como exemplo da atuação do Conselho de Segurança das Nações Unidas, investigaremos dois casos emblemáticos de intervenções humanitárias deste período: o genocídio de Ruanda, em 1994, e os ataques da OTAN no Kosovo, em 1999. Dessa forma, levantaremos o entendimento atual sobre o tema, demonstrando o dilema entre o dever moral de salvar vidas em risco e o impedimento legal de fazê-lo dado o sistema jurídico internacional vigente. Por fim, apresentaremos a teoria ¿Responsabilidade de Proteger¿ que tem a pretensão de dar respostas ao problema da aceitação das intervenções humanitárias como prática legítima nas relações internacionais
Abstract: This work proposes to study the debates on humanitarian intervention and its relation with concepts of validity and legitimacy on international relations. For that, it will start from the beginning of this discussion which occurred before the constitution and consolidation of national states and the strengthen of the sovereignty principle, and goes through the impacts caused by the new international legal order created by the United Nations. This will support the analysis of the humanitarian crisis in the 90's under the optic of intervention. As an example of the United Nations Security Council performance, it will investigate two emblematic cases of humanitarian intervention of the period: Rwanda's genocide, in 1994, and NATO¿s air strikes on Kosovo, in 1999. From this perspective, it will rise the present understanding on this issue, bringing up the dilemma between the moral duty of saving lives jeopardized by the scourge of war and the legal bar of doing it considering the international legal system in vigor. At last, it will present the ¿responsibility to protect¿ theory which intends to provide solutions to the problem of acceptance of humanitarian intervention as a legitimate practice on international relations
Mestrado
Instituições, Processos e Atores

Drawing on recent theorising of 'nation branding', this article examines how mediatised security narratives are used as part of the current Government of Rwanda's public diplomacy strategy to establish post-conflict Rwanda's peacekeeping identity and brand image as a Troop Contributing Country. It does so by undertaking an analysis of media discourse published by the state-owned English language national newspaper The New Times between 2008 and 2018, and two 'twitter storms' that occurred in March 2017 and 2018 in response to the Central African Republic Sexual Exploitation and Abuse scandal involving French military peacekeepers and a second scandal involving Ghanaian police peacekeepers in South Sudan. Specifically, we ask, how does the Government of Rwanda use mediatised security narratives as a nation branding tool after genocide and civil war? We argue that mediatised security narratives are employed to erase Rwanda's negative brand informed by the frameworks of victimology, poverty and violence and reposition Rwanda as an emerging strategic player in international peacekeeping. The RPF achieves this by 'niche building' and mimicking the public diplomacy strategies of middle-powers in order to present Rwanda as a catalyst and facilitator of contemporary peacekeeping policy and practice.

The leading academic literature on Rwanda tends to focus on the Hutu-Tutsi dichotomy, either directly or indirectly, thus resigning the historical narratives of the Twa to a footnote, permanently buried in history. Based on interviews and focus groups, as well as personal testimony provided by three Twa civil society leaders, this chapter explores Twa perceptions and experiences of national unity and reconciliation during the post-genocide period. As a component of this, our chapter examines popular perceptions of the Historically Marginalized Peoples (HMP) label, a quasi-legal category generally associated with the Twa, within the broader framework of the government's unity-building and reconciliation campaign. This snapshot of Twa interactions with government policy and practice shows that Twa often feel excluded from efforts to foster national pride, unity and reconciliation. Equally, the majority of Twa object to the use of the HMP label, and many emphasize the continued relevance of Twa identity and culture at a community level.

This section provides primary sources relating to the 1979-1994 period. The anti-Soviet jihad is of particular importance to the movement’s (pre-)history and these sources bear that out, telling of their involvement in the fighting at the time. The activities of various members during the civil war of the 1990s is also covered.