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Managing outrage over genocide: case study Rwanda

2009; Routledge; Volume: 21; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14781150903168978

1478-1166

Brian Martin,

Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts

Abstract Perpetrators of genocide are likely to use a variety of tactics to reduce outrage from their actions. The main sorts of tactics are covering up the actions, devaluing the target, reinterpreting the actions in ways that minimise seriousness and responsibility, using official channels to give an appearance of justice, and using intimidation and bribery. The 1994 Rwandan genocide reveals ample evidence of all these tactics. Critics of genocidal behaviour should expect the use of these tactics and be prepared to counter them. A focus on tactics concerning outrage over genocide is a complement to the usual approaches looking at history, psychology, social dynamics, causes and responsibility. Keywords: genocideRwandatacticsoutrage Acknowledgements I thank Ben Kiernan for helpful advice and Michael Barnett, Stephen James, George Myconos, Gregory Stanton and several anonymous referees for useful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Notes 1 Helen Fein, 'Accounting for Genocide after 1945: Theories and Some Findings', International Journal on Group Rights 1, no. 2 (1993): 81. 2 Many authors address the history and politics of the UN definition, for example, Adam Jones, Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (London: Routledge, 2006), 8–28, who gives a convenient list of definitions by key authors. 3 Helen Fein, Genocide: A Sociological Perspective (London: Sage, 1993), 24. Note that my analysis is not sensitive to the precise definition of genocide so long as people can be outraged by the actions involved. 4 For example, Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990); Jones, Genocide; Albert J. Jongman, ed., Contemporary Genocides: Causes, Cases, Consequences (Leiden: Projecten Interdisciplinair Onderzoek naar de Oorzaken van Mensenrechtenschendingen, 1996); the journals: Journal of Genocide Research, Genocide Studies and Prevention, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and War Crimes, Genocide & Crimes against Humanity. 5 For example, Helen Fein, Accounting for Genocide: National Responses and Jewish Victimization during the Holocaust (New York: Free Press, 1979). 6 For example, Ervin Staub, The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and other Group Violence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). 7 For example, John G. Heidenrich, How to Prevent Genocide: A Guide for Policymakers, Scholars, and the Concerned Citizen (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001); Leo Kuper, The Prevention of Genocide (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985). 8 Martin Shaw, War and Genocide: Organized Killing in Modern Society (Cambridge: Polity, 2003); Martin Shaw, What is Genocide? (Cambridge: Polity, 2007). 9 Samantha Power, 'A Problem from Hell': America and the Age of Genocide (New York: Basic Books, 2002). 10 Brian Martin, Justice Ignited: The Dynamics of Backfire (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). See also Susan Engel and Brian Martin, 'Union Carbide and James Hardie: Lessons in Politics and Power', Global Society: Journal of Interdisciplinary International Relations 20, no. 4 (2006): 475–90; Truda Gray and Brian Martin, 'My Lai: The Struggle over Outrage', Peace & Change 33, no. 1 (January 2008): 90–113; David Hess and Brian Martin, 'Repression, Backfire, and the Theory of Transformative Events', Mobilization 11, no. 1 (2006): 249–67; Sue Curry Jansen and Brian Martin, 'Making Censorship Backfire', Counterpoise 7, no. 3 (July 2003): 5–15. 11 Fein, 'Accounting for Genocide after 1945', 79–106. 12 James Dunn, East Timor: A Rough Passage to Independence, 3rd ed. (Sydney: Longueville Books, 2003), 292–3. 13 Chisako M. Fukuda, 'Peace through Nonviolent Action: The East Timorese Resistance Movement's Strategy for Engagement', Pacifica Review 12, no. 1 (February 2000): 17–31. 14 Arnold S. Kohen, From the Place of the Dead: The Epic Struggles of Bishop Belo of East Timor (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999). 15 Martin, Justice Ignited, 23–33. See also Brian Martin, Wendy Varney and Adrian Vickers, 'Political Jiu-jitsu against Indonesian Repression: Studying Lower-profile Nonviolent Resistance', Pacifica Review 13, no. 2 (June 2001): 143–56. 16 Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1961), is a classic treatment. 17 Roy F. Baumeister, Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty (New York: Freeman, 1997); Fred Emil Katz, Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil: A Report on the Beguilings of Evil (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993). 18 For more on the failures of official channels in theory and practice, see Martin, Justice Ignited; Brian Martin, 'Illusions of Whistleblower Protection', UTS Law Review 5 (2003): 119–30; Thane Rosenbaum, The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right (New York: HarperCollins, 2004). 19 Brian Martin, 'The Beating of Rodney King: The Dynamics of Backfire', Critical Criminology 13, no. 3 (2005): 307–26. 20 Brian Martin, 'Iraq Attack Backfire', Economic and Political Weekly 39 (17 April 2004): 1577–83. 21 Donald Bloxham, The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). 22 Philip Frankel, An Ordinary Atrocity: Sharpeville and its Massacre (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001). 23 Andrew Herd, 'Amplifying Outrage over Children Overboard', Social Alternatives 25 (Second Quarter 2006): 59–63. 24 Hannah Lendon and Brian Martin, 'Environmental Disasters', in Martin, Justice Ignited, 99–112. 25 An example is 'cultural genocide' that operates through policies prohibiting use of tradition languages and cultural practices. I thank an anonymous referee for this example. 26 Gregory H. Stanton, 'The 8 Stages of Genocide' (Yale University Program in Genocide Studies, Working Paper GS01, New Haven, CT, 1998), http://www.genocidewatch.org/images/8stagesBriefingpaper.pdf (accessed 13 August 2009). 27 See, for example, Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke, eds., The Path of a Genocide: The Rwanda Crisis from Uganda to Zaire (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1999); Nigel Eltringham, Accounting for Horror: Post-Genocide Debates in Rwanda (London: Pluto, 2004); Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001); Peter Uvin, Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1998). 28 Among the most useful sources are: African Rights, Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defiance, rev. ed. (London: African Rights, 1995); Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide: Censorship, Propaganda and State-Sponsored Violence in Rwanda 1990–1994 (London: Article 19, 1996); Michael Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002); Roméo Dallaire with Brent Beardsley, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004); Alison Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story': Genocide in Rwanda, 2nd ed. (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999); Jean Hatzfeld, Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005); Linda Melvern, A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide (London: Zed Books, 2000); Linda Melvern, Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide (London: Verso, 2004); Power, 'A Problem from Hell'; Scott Straus, The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006). 29 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 16; Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 93. 30 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 90–1. 31 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 44; African Rights, Rwanda, 236–40. 32 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 44; African Rights, Rwanda, 236–40. 33 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 283. 34 Ibid., 595ff. 35 Dallaire, Shake Hands with the Devil, 394: 'Repeated requests to Western nations for aerial photographs and satellite pictures fell on deaf ears'. Dallaire says the Russian government offered to sell satellite pictures, but UN peacekeepers in Rwanda had no budget for this. See also Power, 'A Problem from Hell', 354. 36 Melvern, A People Betrayed, 47–8. 37 Ibid., 48–9. 38 Power, 'A Problem from Hell', 506. 39 Melvern, A People Betrayed, 152. 40 Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide, 110. 41 Ibid., 159. 42 Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, Rwanda's Genocide: The Politics of Global Justice (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 87; Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 3. 43 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 109. 44 African Rights, Rwanda, 238, 254. 45 Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide, 150. 46 Melvern, A People Betrayed, 138. 47 Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 44. Killers had a legal right to remain silent, but this was not the reason for their reticence because Hatzfeld was interviewing them separately from the legal process. 48 Ibid., 127–8, 137–9; Straus, The Order of Genocide, in extensive interviewing took many precautions to elicit valid responses. 49 Sam Keen, Faces of the Enemy: Reflections of the Hostile Imagination (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986). 50 On the politics of the Hutu ruling group, see, for example, Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story'; Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers. 51 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 67–8; African Rights, Rwanda, 42–3. 52 Straus, The Order of Genocide, 131. 53 Melvern, A People Betrayed, 71; Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 113; Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 66–71. 54 Melvern, A People Betrayed, 155. 55 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 90. 56 On the role of humiliation in genocide, including in Rwanda, see Evelin Lindner, Making Enemies: Humiliation and International Conflict (Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2006). I thank an anonymous referee for recommending Lindner's work in this context. 57 Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 213–5. 58 Ibid., 132. 59 Ibid., 47. 60 Straus, The Order of Genocide, 8–9, 96–7, 173. 61 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 258. 62 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 138, 140. 63 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 252, 254, 256. 64 Ibid., 74ff. 65 Ibid., 86. 66 Léon D. Saur, 'From Kibeho to Medjugorje: The Catholic Church and Ethno-Nationalist Movements and Regimes', in Genocide in Rwanda: Complicity of the Churches?, ed. Carol Rittner, John K. Roth and Wendy Whitworth (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2004), 220. 67 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 110. 68 Ibid., 111. 69 Ibid., 114–9, 125. 70 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 259. 71 Ibid., 284–5; African Rights, Rwanda, 250–1. 72 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 19–20, 641–2. 73 Power, 'A Problem from Hell', 383–4. 74 Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide, 133–8; Alain Destexhe, Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (New York: New York University Press, 1995), 50; Melvern, A People Betrayed, 177; Power, 'A Problem from Hell', 359–64; Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 641–2. 75 Melvern, A People Betrayed, 171–2. 76 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 628. 77 Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 44. 78 Ibid., 156. 79 Ibid., 154; Straus, The Order of Genocide, 157–60, also reports extensive use of war language. 80 Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 240, 145. 81 African Rights, Rwanda, 240ff; Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 12, 196ff; Straus, The Order of Genocide, 173. 82 Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers, 214. 83 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 595ff. 84 Ibid., 93. 85 Melvern, A People Betrayed, 202–3. 86 Power, 'A Problem from Hell', 508. 87 African Rights, Rwanda, 1134. 88 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 144; Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 641. 89 Gérard Prunier, 'Opération Turquoise: A Humanitarian Escape from a Political Dead End', in Adelman and Suhrke, Path of a Genocide, 281–305. 90 Dallaire, Shake Hands with the Devil. 91 Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide, 90. 92 Ibid., 144; Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 25. 93 Melvern, A People Betrayed, 163. 94 On the shortcomings of official channels after the genocide, specifically humanitarian action on behalf of Rwanda refugees in Zaire, among whom former génocidaires reorganised and mounted attacks into Rwanda, see Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002), 155–215. I thank an anonymous referee for recommending Terry's book in this context. 95 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 225, 391; African Rights, Rwanda, 993ff; Straus, The Order of Genocide, 135–48. 96 Straus, The Order of Genocide, 135–48. 97 Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 119; Straus, The Order of Genocide, 141–4. 98 Hatzfeld, Machete Season, 112. 99 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 236. 100 Ibid., 263–4; Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers, 218–21. 101 African Rights, Rwanda, 177–99. 102 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 236. 103 Article 19, Broadcasting Genocide, 44. 104 The expression 'des Milles Collines', in English 'of a thousand hills', is another name for Rwanda, so there is no special connection between RTLM (Radio Télévision Libre des Milles Collines) and the Hôtel des Milles Collines besides their location in Rwanda. 105 African Rights, Rwanda, 238, 719ff; Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 633. 106 Power, 'A Problem from Hell', 368. 107 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 642. 108 African Rights, Rwanda, 1148; Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 681. 109 Des Forges, 'Leave None to Tell the Story', 263. 110 African Rights, Rwanda, 1124ff. 111 Straus, The Order of Genocide, 7, 151. 112 Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973), 207–34, documents the importance of nonviolent discipline. 113 Shaw, War and Genocide. 114 Article 19, Starving in Silence: A Report on Famine and Censorship (London: Article 19, 1990). 115 Leo Kuper, Genocide (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981).