A Passion to Understand: Genocide

Saturday, 18 September 2021

Srebrenica Genocide Survivor Nedžad Advić Speaks About His Experience

I'm reading Ann Petrila and Hasan Hasanović's Voices from Srebrenica: Survivor Narratives of the Bosnian Genocide. The book is a series of oral histories from survivors of the Srebrenica genocide in July 1995; I've only made it through the section on execution site survivors so far. It is slow-going. Each story deserves pause and consideration, a moment of reflection on the gravity of loss and the miracle of survival.

Nedžad Advić's story was particularly powerful. Advić is the same age as my 'baby' brother and thus, in the eyes of an older sister, a child when the events of Srebrenica took place. At the age of 17, he was amongst the men and boys separated from their families at Srebrenica and taken to execution sites to be massacred. He survived despite being shot four times and left to die. Advić and the man who saved his life were the only two survivors from the Petkovci Dam execution site.

So touched was I by Advić's account, I went out in search of other media relating to his story. Advić gave the interview below on the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.

25 years on: Srebrenica massacre survivor Nedzad Avdic recalls how he escaped death in 1995

'Letters from Diaspora' by Arnesa Buljusmic-Kustura | Book Review

If you've ever contemplated how people 'get over' war and genocide, Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura has the answer in her debut novel Letters from Diaspora: Stories of War and its Aftermath: they don't. The war follows them everywhere, their trauma never leaves them and it simply gets quieter.

To deal with my grief, I have been writing a lot about it and on one particularly grief wrenched day I wrote this:

“Everyone says it will get better with time, but I have been in mourning my entire life. It’s a lie we want to believe but it never gets better, it gets quieter.”
— Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura (@Rrrrnessa) April 19, 2021

Letters from Diaspora: Stories of War and its Aftermath reads like an oral history and it's written in a very similar voice to that used by Svetlana Alexievitch. Alexievitch's Voices From Chernobyl was one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read and I very much enjoyed both the style and content of the book, however grim.

Letters from Diaspora is not a book that is enjoyed. It's fiction, short at 98 pages and is twelve stories about twelve survivors of war and genocide in Bosnia. All of the subjects are living in the diaspora and speak about rage, loss, grief and being told to move on.

There is no moving on.

I finished Letters from Diaspora in one sitting; not surprising perhaps, given the length. It's an incredibly difficult subject matter to read but is a necessary and beautifully written book. I'd highly recommend this book, especially to teens. The short, accessible stories would be an ideal starting point for exploration and discussion.

Survivors Speak: RLTM and the Role of the Media in the Tutsi Genocide

The media played a critical role in the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994. There is still debate about the nature of that role; while it is unlikely that the media played a direct role in influencing Hutus to kill, it certainly played a secondary role in inciting and prolonging the genocide.

Almost four years before the genocide began, the pro-Hutu, anti-Tutsi newspaper Kangura published the Hutu Ten Commandments which explicitly called for an end to inter-ethnic relationships and business partnerships between Tutsis and Hutus; an exclusion of Tutsis from public office, the military and education sector; and an end to so-called Hutu ‘mercy’ on Tutsis.

The Rwandan radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM, translates as “Thousand Hills Free Radio and Television”) specifically targeted the younger Hutu generation, playing popular music from neighbouring countries and referring to Tutsis as ‘cockroaches’ during anti-Tutsi, pro-Hutu broadcasts. During the genocide, government forces used RTLM to promote violence, going so far as to broadcast specific instructions for carrying out the killings (including the names and whereabouts of Tutsis).

Link: ICTR ‘Media Case’: sentencing of Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, Ferdinand Nahimana and Hassan Ngeze

The Hutu Ten Commandments were attributed to the editor of Kangura, Hassan Ngeze. In 2003, in a judgement pertaining to the ICTR ‘Media Case’, Ngeze was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity along with RTLM co-founder Ferdinand Nahimana and RTLM executive Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza.

Genocide Survivors' Recollections of RTLM

Link: 'Music to kill to': Rwandan genocide survivors remember RTLM (Al Jazeera, June 2020)

RTLM office Rwanda
The office from which RTLM was broadcast during the genocide against the Tutsi [Source: Kigali Wire/Flickr]

84-year-old Félicien Kabuga was a former businessman in Rwanda and was arrested in Paris, France on 16 May in relation to his role as founder and financier of both RTLM and Kangura magazine.

"[In 2011] Kabuga was charged before the ICTR with genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, committed in Rwanda between 6 April and 17 July 1994"

- Case File: Félicien Kabuga [IRMCT.org]

Following the arrest of Kabuga, Al Jazeera have published an excellent in-depth report on the recollections of three genocide survivors about RTLM. Read the full report by Mia Swart on Al Jazeera.

Claver Irakoze

"I remember RTLM broadcasting songs conveying hatred and demonising the Tutsi. The songs would openly call for our extermination. Political slogans were translated into song and young people were mobilised into youth movements. These youth movements were key to executing the genocide"

- 'Music to kill to': Rwandan genocide survivors remember RTLM [Al Jazeera, June 2020]

Honore Gatera

"Before April 1994, RTLM sent messages about how the Hutus must protect themselves against the "snakes" and the "cockroaches", meaning the Tutsis. There were already some killings taking place. People my family knew in another region of Rwanda were killed. "

- 'Music to kill to': Rwandan genocide survivors remember RTLM [Al Jazeera, June 2020]

Beatrice Uwera

"More than 200 people in my own family had been killed. In my mother's family, there were eight siblings. Only one survived. We had to begin again from zero. . "

- 'Music to kill to': Rwandan genocide survivors remember RTLM [Al Jazeera, June 2020]

Chief Prosecutor of ICC Gives Damning Statement on Darfur to UNSC

Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, made a statement to the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Darfur last week. In her speech she gives a damning indictment of the lack of international response to the ongoing situation in Darfur.

Link: ICC: Twenty-second Report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to the UN Security Council pursuant to the UNSC 1593 (2005) [Hague Justice Portal, 15 December 2015]

I observe with great regret that the adoption of each Resolution has, in practical terms, amounted to no more than an empty promise. Year after year, victims' hopes and aspirations for justice and a durable peace have been dashed

Despite the overall negative tone of her statement, she reiterates the determination of her office to tackle these crimes but notes that the victims require action not words.

The victims of Darfur will no longer find solace in our words. They deserve tangible justice, and they deserve to see justice is being done. What is required is concrete and joint action by this Council, the States and the Court to achieve real progress.

Bensouda noted that justice has been served in the case of Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone and in those situations, peace and reconciliation is only possible once perpetrators of atrocities are held accountable for their crimes. She insists that the same is true of Darfur.

In her closing, Bensouda calls for a commitment by both individual states and the United Nations Security Council to act for Darfur.

Ending impunity for the world's most destabilising and gravest crimes is not the prerogative of one single institution. It is a collective responsibility with humanity as a whole as its beneficiary.

Read the full statement on Hague Justice Portal.

Living the Lessons of Srebrenica (Event at Wiener Library)

Tonight we attended the "Living the Lessons of Srebrenica" event at the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide in London. It was one of hundreds of events taking place across the UK this week to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide in July 1995.

We first heard from Munira Subasic, president of Mothers of Srebrenica. Ms Subasic spoke through a translator but I'd like to record some of what she said.

On the continuing struggle to locate, identify and bury the remains of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide:

If a human being doesn't have a place to show where they lived, it doesn't show that they existed.

Ms Subasic talked about reaching out to other mothers' organisations but those who did it won't admit it, won't admit there was a genocide. Without admission, there can be no reconciliation.

"Many women who were abused are not able to have their own children or have relationships with men. A whole generation is disappearing".

Ms Subasic mentioned that the people who committed the crimes are still there, still abusing them.

"People say things are moving forward but Mothers of Srebrenica wish they had two lives: one for waiting and one for enjoying our lives".

When asked whether it would help if lower level perpetrators admitted their guilt, Ms Subasic explained that after the Holocaust, it was accepted that it happened. With Srebrenica, they are dealing with such total denial that no one is admitting it happened.

"They found only two bones of my son. It is very difficult to move on not knowing how he died. They dragged him from my arms".

"Those who committed genocide think they are national heroes. I am very happy with who I am today. I'd rather be a victim than a war criminal".

The next speaker was Dr Gill Wigglesworth who spoke about the lessons from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She gave a fascinating overview of the legal situation and the different levels of proof required by the ICTY and ICJ when hearing genocide cases.

Dr Wigglesworth mentioned a different level of justice, restorative justice if you will, whereby Serbia or Croatia issues an apology for the crimes. Serbia has done so but that was only because they want EU membership whereas Republika Srpska have no such impetus and therefore there is very little chance of an acknowledgement or apology.

Alex Buskie of the United Nations Association UK spoke next on the responsibility to protect.

She examined how the United Nations learned from their mistakes in the 90s and 00s and how the Responsibility to Protect doctrine came to be adopted in 2005.

She mentioned that failures in the past stemmed from inattention, indifference and misjudgment or a perceived contradiction between the desire to protect a population vs the desire to protect a group of individuals. One concept that Ms Buskie reiterated several times was that the UN is a meeting of nation states, that they have no specific power as an organisation and they can only go so far as their members allow them.

Ms Buskie then took us through the three pillars of responsibility to protect and what we are protecting against (ethnic cleaning, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity)

Finally, Ms Buskie admitted that the UN is struggling and that the R2P has only recently been adopted. Having watched the UN reaction to Syria and the continued yet fruitless motions, I found this especially frustrating. Ms Buskie dis highlight how the security council should have briefings earlier on in future and how the organisation needs to adopt a company-wide commitment to upholding human rights but they have a long way to go.

Finally, Jasvir Singh of City Sikhs UK spoke about his own visit to Sarajevo and Srebrenica and how moving the experience was for him.

He spoke of the parallels to be drawn with the Sikh genocide and how friends and neighbours turned on each other. Mr Singh had an important message about how easily a situation can deteriorate and he hinted that such a situation is not impossible even in the UK. He highlighted the role of interfaith organisations in establishing commonality and ensuring that communities can maintain their faith while living in peace with those of other faiths.

The event was then wound up with a very interesting discussion. I was most impressed with how we tackled some controversial topics with respect and consideration.

This event was organised by Remembering Srebrenica, City Sikhs and the Wiener Library. We received a copy of the excellent “Remembering Srebrenica” publication which I was very pleased about.

ISIS: An Unholy Terror

At some point in nearly every opinion piece on the Islamic State (often referred to in the press as ISIS or ISIL), it seems inevitable that commentators will mention how little the international community seems to be alarmed by the crisis, especially in light of the situations unfolding in Gaza and Ukraine. I'm alarmed by the situation, but speaking as a human being I just find it difficult to comprehend the sheer scale, organisation and maleficence of the Caliphate.

Since 29 June 2014 when they declared their Caliphate, the Islamic State have captured a quarter of the land in Iraq. They have become a major player in the conflict in Syria and have captured a third of the land in that country. Perhaps most alarming in terms of sustaining their activity is that they are now in control of the majority of Syria’s oil and gas fields.

But what does that mean?

Link: ISIS Consolidates [London Review of Books]

In his article "ISIS Consolidates", Patrick Cockburn notes that ISIS controls an area greater in size than Great Britain. With a population of more than 6 million people, he notes that it is more people than live in Ireland, Norway or Denmark.

"The birth of the new state is the most radical change to the political geography of the Middle East since the Sykes-Picot Agreement was implemented in the aftermath of the First World War" (ISIS Consolidates)

Perhaps the message that is not reaching consumers of mass media is that ISIS is particularly malevolent. Cockburn continues to say that the West chronically underestimates the Islamic State and they are also at fault in their estimation that the state will simply crash and burn. He notes that those in Baghdad are in an acute state of denial with one individual questioning whether ISIS even exists (as opposed, we presume, to being used to attain a certain political outcome providing political power-sharing to Sunni Muslims).

At the time of writing his article, Cockburn predicted, "Isis may well advance on Aleppo in preference to Baghdad: it’s a softer target and one less likely to provoke international intervention". It has been reported today that Islamic State fighters have seized Aleppo towns.

The expansion of the territory of the Islamic State is not purely political. There are very real concerns that specific groups of people are being targeted and destroyed.

Link: Genocide watch: the Iraqi communities most endangered by the rise of ISIL [Quartz, 6 August 2014]

In his article on the communities most endangered by ISIS, Bobby Ghosh notes that Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, self-appointed Caliph of ISIS "hates pretty much everyone who doesn’t agree with his particular, perverted interpretation of Islam" and that this includes Sunni Muslims who do not agree with him as well as Shi’ites, whom ISIS regard as apostates.

Ghosh notes that of particular concern are certain vulnerable groups who appear to have been marked for special persecution by ISIS:

the Yazidis whose faith features a fallen angel narrative and who have thus long been referred to as 'devil worshipers' by Iraqi Muslims.
the Shabak whose faith covers aspects of Christianity, Islam and Yazidi but who often identify as Shi'ite thus making them even more at risk from ISIS.
the Shi’ite Turkmen, an ethically Turkish group who have fallen foul of ISIS.

As early as 19 July 2014, Human Right Watch reported that ISIS were kidnapping, killing, expelling and extorting minorities. The Guardian reported on Monday about Yazidi women being sold as sex slaves:

“Some Yazidi men say they had phoned their daughter or wife's phone number only to be told tersely by strange male voices not to call again” [Guardian, 11 August 2014]

Numerous sources have reported executions, beheadings, rapes and sex slavery in the streets of Mosul and across the region with Christian websites posting particularly graphic videos and photographs which I am not going to link to here.

Rwanda, 20 Years On: Healing the Scars of Genocide

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda and while it is ever important to remember the genocide in order to learn from it and prevent such an event from happening again, it is also important that we focus on how we move forward after such an event. Last night I attended Peace Talks, an event hosted by International Alert at The Geological Society in London. The topic for discussion was Rwanda, 20 Years On: Healing the Scars of Genocide.

The event was chaired by Dan Smith, Secretary General of International Alert. You might remember that he chaired the event War, Peace and Faith: The Ambiguous Role of Religion in 21st Century Conflict that I attended last year. Dan began by saying that while much has rightly been said about the genocide in Rwanda, the focus of the evening was on healing the scars of the genocide, to focus on what we can do to move forward.

The Way Things Appeared 20 Years Ago

Dan began asking His Excellency Williams Nkurunziza, High Commissioner of Rwanda to the UK, about what he saw 20 years ago as the road that lay ahead. He replied that by the end of the genocide, out of 8 million Rwandans, up to 1 million were dead, 3 million displaced and out of the country and the remaining 4 million were traumatised.

The emphasis of the Rwandan government had to be in reversing the forces that made genocide possible in the first place. The Rwandan constitution now stresses that Rwanda belongs to all Rwandese, and the focus is on reconciliation and belonging.

Nkurunziza notes that attitudes take time to change but that Rwandans have shown a readiness to learn from mistakes, a willingness to forgive and an ability to move on.

The same question was posed of Gloriosa Bazigaga, Rwanda Country Manager for International Alert. While Nkurunziza had touched on the Gacaca courts, Bazigaga continued saying that the courts were the start: they highlighted the events of the past but healing was slow to begin because people feared speaking out in fear of punishment.

Starting in 2007, International Alert began their work in healing psychological wounds and helping economic recovery through micro finance and the teaching of skills. Specifically, the organisation works with former prisoners and combatants, survivors and young people and they provide dialogue groups, trauma counselling and micro-finance to corporations of five people consisting of both survivors and perpetrators.

The Issues Involved in Recovery

Dan then asked Dr Ian Palmer, professor of military psychiatry to discuss the issues involved in healing from the scars of genocide. Dr Palmer began by saying that he believes psychiatry (that is the treatment of psychiatric conditions primarily through the use of medication) has only a small role to play and that the focus must be on healing individuals. Healing cannot begin until individuals feel safe, both from death and from the elements. Dr Palmer stressed social support in terms of safety, schooling, structure and food.

On forgiveness and reconciliation, Dr Palmer said that Rwandans (along with other post-conflict societies) had shown incredible resilience but that reconciliation is a choice. If we do not forgive, we cannot move on and while punishment is important, justice is more important. He finished by saying that we cannot have justice without resilience, forgiveness and reconciliation.

I found Dr Palmer's thoughts especially interesting given that I did my post-grad in Psychology.

Burundi and the DRC: The Political Context of Rwanda

Next up, the Rt Hon Lord Jack McConnell of Glenscorrodale PC spoke in his capacity as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the African Great Lakes Region. He began by saying that it is remarkable that Rwanda has achieved what they did but there remain two different but continuing issues.

The first is that the exodus of Rwandans had an undeniable effect on the DRC and contributed to the inability of the DRC to move forward. The difficulty is that the government of the DRC relies too heavily on this explanation for their all of progress and they do move forward or take action.

The second issue is the impact of the genocide on the international community. 1994 was a disgrace: the international community knew it was going to happen, knew when it was happening and even exacerbated the events. Changes have been made to the way the international community responds to crises but a consistent international response is difficult given the continuing difficulties in the region. The DRC, Burundi and Central African Republic remain volatile.

The Road Ahead: New Avenues or More of the Same?

This is an interesting issue and the crux of this question was whether we continue in the current path of reconciliation, construction and coming together or whether our focus needs to be slightly different in the future.

HE Nkurunziza began by saying the Rwandan government are pleased with the progress made so far and are optimistic about the future. Reconciliation has been a deliberate decision and it is possible because the leadership is driving it. We must ensure that people do no succumb to the temptation to exact revenge, he said and without committed leadership, we cannot heal a fractured society.

When pressed, HE Nkurunziza went on to say that the process is driven by the politics of coexistence and systems and institutions to ensure that all Rwandese are views equally under the eyes of the law. Rwanda chose a path of restorative justice applied by the people themselves.

Specifically, programmes are underway to put all orphans into family homes rather than group homes; equal opportunities legislation provide equal access to jobs and education; there is universal primary education with 98% of primary school children in school; equal access to healthcare; and work to elevate people above the poverty line.

Gloriosa Bazigaga responded to the same question by stating that in the past, the focus has been on the legacy of genocide and reconciliation is still needed because people heal progressively but not at the same pace.

Bazigaga raised the issues of youth unemployment and land issues and Nkurunziza confirmed that the focus of the government is on the growth of the SME sector instead of a reliance on agriculture. According to the goals of the Rwandan government's Vision 2020 [PDF] policies, due to limited land capacity, the country aims to switch to a knowledge based economy by 2020.

Dan then asked Dr Ian Palmer, based on his experience of being in Rwanda and Bosnia, whether he could compare the two countries and comment on the timescale of healing (given that Bosnia is volatile again). Dr Palmer remarked that we take a lot for granted in the UK in terms of the structures needed for healing. He stated that if you don't have that structure, you can't do the rest and he commented again on the need for whole system change. He stated that mental illness is a combination of predisposition, a person's upbringing, trauma and the current environment. If you don't heal society, you're waiting for unscrupulous people who will pick on vulnerable people and start the whole process over again. Safety, structure, systems and the environment are most important.

In Closing

Finally, Dan asked Jack McConnell to comment on a type of leadership that would be conducive to supporting Rwanda and other post-conflict societies. McConnell observed that we have a generation of political leaders with little history or passion and that there is a lack of strong leadership in the EU as a whole (with the possible exception of Germany). The difference between Bosnia and Rwanda, he said, was in the leadership but it is not really correct to draw comparisons between Rwanda and Bosnia (given what had previously been discussed on different paces and rates of change). It was perhaps most accurate to look at post-war Germany and the steps that were taken to suppress right-wing ideologies.

In closing, McConnell warned that we should not forget the facts and we should not let people minimise the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia. We require education and witness participation so that change can be made but also to prevent it happening elsewhere. Dr Palmer closed by saying there is no perfect fix. We must be ever vigilant and aware of the risks and the cost of not getting it right. He stressed that we must not forget.

Gloriosa Bazigaga closed by saying that the work of International Alert in the communities should be a lesson for other institutions. The Catholic Church, for example, has not reflecting on the role of their priests in the genocide. Finally, HE Nkurunziza stated that we must get involved, that it is important to be an ambassador in the global campaign against genocide.

The debate was followed by a lively discussion on Apartheid and the possible application of the TRC model to Rwanda instead of the Gacaca courts and a comment on whether people should forgive and forget (as opposed to remembering what happened). The event was then following by drinks and canapés and an exhibition of the work of photojournalist Carole Allen Storey.

This Day in History: 6 April 1994

On this day in history on 6 April 1994, the plane carrying presidents Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi was shot down just outside Kigali airport in the Rwandan capital.

It was the catalyst that started the Rwandan genocide and over the next 100 days between April and July 1994, between 800,000 and 1.2 million Rwandans of Tutsi and moderate Hutu origin were murdered.

The assassination of the president might have triggered the genocide but in truth, this was a carefully planned, organised and systematic attempt to wipe out the Tutsi race.

As early as December 1990, 3 years before the start of the genocide, a racist manifesto known as the The Hutu Ten Commandments appeared in the anti-Tutsi newspaper Kangura in which Hutus were reminded of their inherent superiority to Tutsis and their responsibility to maintain racial purity.

Over the years, hostilities escalated as Tutsi were scapegoated, targeted and increasingly dehumanised. It was a disturbingly familiar turn of events that Dr Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch now refers to as the Ten Stages of Genocide.

In the months leading up to the genocide, it became ever more clear that something was amiss. In what has become notorious as the Genocide Fax, on 11 January 1994 Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire of the UN sent a facsimile to his superiors explicitly warning of the major stockpiling of weapons and the mobilisation of forces to exterminate the Tutsis. His concerns and those of other key individuals were ignored.

Once it began, the genocide continued unabated until Paul Kagame's RPF forces gained control of the country in mid-July 1994.

The world did not respond during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and today, despite being discussed by the UN Security Council on more than one occasion, we've not responded in Syria. This is the reason why, on the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, it is more important than ever to understand, educate and discuss genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and mass murder in order to prevent them from happening in the future.

Click to read more about Rwanda or Genocide on this blog.

Image credit: “Skull and Belongings of Genocide Victims - Genocide Memorial Center - Kigali – Rwanda” by Adam Jones (source)

Book Launch: Genocide Since 1945 by Philip Spencer

Tonight Philip Spencer talked at the Wiener Library in London about his book Genocide Since 1945. He gave an impassioned speech about what had made him become a scholar of genocide and why he wrote this book. He discussed Raphael Lemkin's struggle to comprehend why it was so difficult to bring the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide to justice, how this lead him to the naming and creation of the concept of genocide and how he lobbied the newly formed United Nations to make this act a crime under international law. Spencer noted how far we have come in such a short time from defining genocide to the International Criminal Tribunals and the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

What moved me the most about Spencer's talk was his focus on despair. I have often talked about my own despair, how the task of learning about genocide can seem so great, so unmanageable especially in the face of moral relativists, genocide deniers and others who seek to twist and rewrite history.

Spencer spoke of his own despair and the difficulty of drafting a book like this when the temptation is there to put it down as human nature and let the perpetrators get on with it.

He spoke of his obligation to the victims, those who can no longer speak for themselves or those who survived the vicious attacks. We need to speak up for them, to tell the world that it is not acceptable. We also need to speak up on behalf of the rescuers, those noble men and women who risk their lives to save others, who show that there is a choice and it is a crime to commit these acts. These are the people who show that there is hope for the future, and they are the ones who remain after the genocide to support the survivors and become their fellow citizens.

We need to continue learning about genocide causes and prevention in order to support and validate both victims and rescuers.

I spoke to Philip Spencer about Genocide Since 1945 and who his target market was with the novel. He explained that he had made the book as accessible as possible and it is certainly intended that his own university students would read it. The book contains an introduction to the concept of genocide and explains the differences between victims, perpetrators, bystanders and rescuers. Two full chapters are dedicated to case studies divided between the 'hidden' genocides of the Cold War era and those after. Each of the case studies carefully identifies victims and perpetrators with an important focus on intent. These chapters will be invaluable in understanding those genocides which have not formally been recognised or prosecuted.

Genocide Since 1945 is published by Routledge and available to purchase on www.routledge.com. For a limited time, you can use the discount code GEN45 to receive a discount of 20%.

Prijedor: An Anatomy of A Genocide

Kozarac memorial [Source: Ranko Cukovic/Reuters]

If there were a guidebook for preparing for a genocide, it is likely that it would include several fundamental steps. The budding genocidaire would be advised to seek out a society characterised by increasing socio-political tensions, preferably in the grips of a war or economic collapse. The media would be used to conduct a campaign of propaganda, vilifying one ethnic group and blaming them for the ill fortunes of another. Radio and news stations would need to be taken over, newspapers controlled.

The enemy would need to be identified, dehumanised. The coup de grace would be getting the enemy to participate in identifying themselves, making them carry passbooks and identity cards, wear arm bands or paint their doors. And then you kill them.

If this reads as flippant, it is certainly not meant to be but it underlines the precise reason why genocide education is so important. After the horrors of the Holocaust, there is no way that the painstakingly well-planned and systematic genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia should have gone unnoticed before it was too late, but they did. And they followed a frighteningly similar pattern to that described above.

Prijedor is a town in north western Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the 1991 census, prior to the war in 1992-1995, Bosniaks formed 43.9% of the town’s inhabitants, 42.3% were Serbs while the rest were Roma, Ukrainians, Croats and Serbs. In the aftermath of the war, 94% of the Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats had been removed from the area in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing that saw Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats murdered, raped and interred in concentration camps.

It began shortly after Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in 1991. A local Serbian newspaper Kozarski Vjesnik began to print propaganda, instilling fear of local Bosniak and Croatian populations and imploring Serbs to arms themselves against these perceived threats. The statements were inflammatory and emotive, using historically loaded terms such as Ustaše and Mudžahedini to refer to Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks respectively. The local radio station Radio Prijedor was taken over, as was the television transmitter station.

There were rumours abounding of a document known as the “Silent Night”, a list of Serbian intellectuals, political leaders and community figures that were supposedly being targeted by Bosniak militants. Such propaganda paved the way for the the next phase of identification and removal.

It is reported that on 31 May 1992, the Bosnian Serb authorities in Prijedor issued a decree that all non-Serb civilians should mark their houses with white sheets or flags and that they should wear white armbands when out of their homes. This was witnessed by European Commission Monitoring Mission observers in August 1992 and is exactly what the Nazis did to Jews during the Holocaust, yet nothing was done to stop the upcoming extermination.

Thousands of Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats died in Prijedor and the surrounding villages and thousands more still were forcibly removed from their homes, raped, executed and arrested and sent to nearby Keraterm, Omarska and Trnoplje camps. Inhabitants in camps were subjected to further regimes of torture and beatings, many to the point of death, and widespread rape and sexual assault of both male and female prisoners occurred.

It could be said that a blueprint of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews was taken and applied precisely against the local non-Serb population in Bosnia and just as entire regions of Poland and Europe remain cleansed of Jews, so have regions of Bosnia been cleansed of non-Serbs. It beggars belief that this happened in 1992.

Tomorrow marks 20 years since Bosnian Serb authorities decreed that non-Serbs should identify their homes and persons with white sheets, flags and armbands. To this day, and in spite of ICTY judgements, local authorities have not apologised for or acknowledged these atrocities.

To this end, 31 May is marked as White Armband Day Worldwide and you are invited to show your solidarity with victims of mass atrocities committed in Prijedor and around the world by wearing a white armband or placing a white sheet or flag on your window.

Visited the Stop Genocide Denial website for more details.

Southern Kordofan: Unfinished Business

When asked why there is so little coverage of the situation in Sudan, correspondent Peter Greste admits that Southern Kordofan is almost impossible to gain access to. The Sudanese government in Khartoum will not allow entry to journalists and it remains for them to travel from South Sudan and into the area on long, treacherous roads.

Peter Greste and Al Jazeera travelled to the Nuba Mountains in the remote state of Southern Kordofan in Sudan and discovered, in Greste’s words, “a humanitarian disaster”.

“This is what a scorched earth policy looks like”.

This exclusive report by Al Jazeera exposes the hidden war in the Nuba Mountains. It shows that the Sudanese government is targeting civilians, that they are being forced to live in caves, and that the government is embarking on a campaign of genocide. Most importantly, it shows Sudanese government footage whereby troops are ordered to “clear out the area” and not to leave any survivors as this would lead to administrative costs for the Sudanese government.

In this report, Dr Mukesh Kapila, former UN head in Sudan and Mustafa Osman Ismail, senior adviser to Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir are interviewed. Mustafa Osman Ismail claims that civilian casualties are incidental, that civilians are not being targeted, and that food, water and medical supplies are being sent to the people.

“I’m very disappointed in my good old friend Mr Osman, it must be very, very difficult to be advisor to a genocidal head of state. What I saw in Southern Kordofan, and it’s not just me, is that what he’s saying is an absolute pack of lies.

If that was the case, we would not be seeing a deserted countryside, we would not be seeing black, charred fields, we would be seeing seeds being planted as the rains come, yet that is not happening. We would not be seeing thousands and thousands of women and children living in caves, as I saw for myself, and as refugees, as I saw for myself.

And we would not be seeing anti-personnel landmines and Antonov bombers as I saw for myself. And if Mr Osman is right, then why doesn’t he allow independent and impartial access to the region, which he will not do?

Film Review: Coexist Documentary by Amazo Productions (Rwanda)

“When hate persists, how will you coexist?”

“The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction” – Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian Prime Minister

On Wednesday I attended a screening of the Adam Mazo / Amazo Productions documentary Coexist at the Wiener Library in London followed by a question and answer session with David Russell of the Survivors Fund (SURF).

The reality in Rwanda today is that many of the survivors have no choice but to live amongst and interact with the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.

On June 18, 2012, the Gacaca court process is due to end after hearing almost 2 million cases. There was some good that came of these courts as the survivors were provided with an element of truth and a modicum of closure. However, the prisons in Rwanda were overflowing and over the years (for example, in 2003 and 2005), President Paul Kagame sanctioned the mass release of confessed killers into the community.

In their relentless quest to move forwards and to not dwell in the past, the Rwandan government is hard-selling the idea of unity and reconciliation. The history of the genocide is not taught in schools and people are encouraged to views themselves as Rwandans and no longer Hutus or Tutsis.

What becomes increasingly clear in the documentary is that people are saying what they think they are meant to say, that they are forced to follow the government’s policies and are made to deal with their pain and devastation behind closed doors. It seems that a great deal of effort is put into assimilating the perpetrators back into the community with reconciliation workshops and other initiatives.

But what of the survivors?

There are three major themes in the documentary which were picked up in the discussion: reparations and compensation, rehumanisation, and coexistence.

Reparations and Compensation

Given the reality of the overcrowded prisons and the logistics of sentencing each and every single perpetrator of the genocide, many individuals were simply released on time served. Some were sentenced to community service or to work on public works with no direct benefit to the survivors.

Even if an order was passed for reparations or compensation, the perpetrators are often indigent (as are the survivors), with no means to pay their debts and it is rare that reparation or compensation orders are enforced.

David Russell explained that as the Gacaca process draws to a close, SURF are now moving to gather data on how many orders still need to be enforced. He explained that initially it was impossible to put a number on the sheer magnitude of loss during the genocide. How do you quantify the loss of parents, children, a spouse? How do you apply numbers to the loss of property or to abuse, rape and trauma? The government had to support the most vulnerable and now there are motions to focus on compensation once again. From the SURF website:

“Over the past month in Rwanda, SURF in partnership with Redress, and in collaboration with IBUKA, has been working on a project exploring the rights to reparation (which includes compensation, restitution and rehabilitation) for survivors” – Compensation, SURF website, 6 April 2012

Rehumanisation

It is easy to focus on the challenges and shortcomings evident in present-day Rwanda but we must not lose sight of the human beings involved and their incredible achievements over the past years.

David Russell reminded us that everybody has their own experiences during a genocide and there are four main classes of people: victims, perpetrators, witnesses and rescuers. The challenge is to rehumanise people so that they no longer see themselves in terms of these labels but come to define themselves as Rwandans again, as human beings.

But many survivors are in an untenable situation. Fifi talks of the abuse she suffered at the hands of relatives after the genocide, how she grew up alone and without a family. For her and Agnes, the pain and suffering did not end in 1994 but continues to this day. Agnes suffers with the fact that she was raped and the enduring legacy of those attacks. Théophilla was the only member of her family to survive the genocide. Domitilie’s husband became a judge with the Gacaca courts and was murdered as a result of his work there. Still these women must continue to live amongst and meet the perpetrators and murders on a daily basis.

Part of the work that counsellors and victim support groups must undertake is to assist survivors with their reconciliation, recovery and search for meaning. Despite their circumstances, these women have achieved great things in their lives with Agnes leading a team of women that caters for the reconciliation workshops, Théophilla counsels those with PTSD and Fifi is attending law school.

Coexistence

“We cannot have a land of victims and a land of perpetrators” – Fatuma Ndangiza, RPF government official

It is clear at this time, when the genocide trials are drawing to a close, that the real fight has only just begun. Throughout the coexistdocumentary.org website, the following quote is displayed:

“If we ignore each other, the genocide could happen again”

This really resonates with me. When I returned from Serbia in 2010, the overwhelming impression I got was that genocide, intolerance and conflict could erupt again. It seemed to me that nothing was being done to ensure unity and reconciliation amongst the Balkan states, NATO was still identified as an unfair aggressor, and I was informed that the school curriculum still defended Serbian hostilities during the the war and later in Kosovo.

It impresses me that despite the hurdles raised in this film, a lot more is being done in the name of unity and reconciliation in Rwanda than in other former conflict zones and scenes of ethnic or racial intolerance.

What occurred to me during the screening and the following discussion is that there is a four point continuum from revenge to coexistence:

revenge – tolerance – reconciliation – coexistence

Those interviewed in the film stressed the need to forgive in order to move on. This despite the fact that the killers often show no remorse, have not asked for forgiveness, and continue to taunt them during commemorations, asking if they have not cried enough.

There is simply no other option but to coexist and that is why the work of SURF in supporting survivors and gaining compensation is so important.

Coexist Trailer from Adam Mazo on Vimeo.

Coexist is a must-see documentary that I would recommend to both individuals interested in Rwanda and those with an interest in escalating ethnic or racial tensions across the globe. You can purchase the documentary here or watch it in full here.

Book Review: I’m Not Leaving by Carl Wilkens

Carl Wilkens, Jean-Francois Gisimba, Freddy Mutanguha and James Smith

In 2011, I had the privilege of watching Carl Wilkens speak at the event "Rwanda: Strengthening Society Through Genocide Education” in London. It was a privilege not because Carl Wilkens was the only American to remain in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and we got to hear about his experiences, but because his story was one of hope, inspiration and near-miracles in the face of incredible horror.

Carl Wilkens has written a book about his experiences in Kigali during the genocide and the decision he made to stay behind when most foreign nationals left. I’m Not Leaving is based on Wilkens’s recollections and almost 8 hours of cassette recordings that he made during that fateful time but he is keen to stress that this is not another book about genocide:

“While the stories written here happened during the genocide, this book is not really about genocide. It is more about the choices people made, actions people took, courage people showed, and sacrifices people gave in the face of genocide”.

In 1994, Carl Wilkens was director of the Adventist Development Relief Agency. On April 6, 1994, the presidential airplane was shot down as it prepared to land at Kigali airport, killing all on board including Presidents Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira of Rwanda and Burundi respectively. The assassination was a catalyst that set off the genocide against local Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

I'm Not Leaving Carl Wilkens book cover It was a catalyst, but not the cause. The genocide had been in preparation for months, if not years before, as lists were compiled and weapons stockpiled. In fact, it was on January 11, 1994 that the UN Force Commander in Rwanda, Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire, warned his superiors of plans to exterminate Tutsis.

Carl Wilkens knew this and when his wife and three young children were evacuated on the morning of April 10, 1994, he made the decision to stay behind to ensure the safety of his Tutsi employees Anitha and Janvier. All of the foreign nationals were leaving Rwanda and the American embassy was closing for good. Not surprisingly, his decision to remain behind was not well received by his superiors at ADRA or the United States embassy and he had to stand up to both of them.

"I took one of Mindy's school notebooks, found a blank page, and wrote with a pencil: "I have refused the help of the United States government to leave Rwanda"

As an eyewitness account I’m Not Leaving gives a valuable insight into the situation in Kigali before and during the genocide. Wilkens reminds us that at the beginning of 1994, there were over a million refugees in Kigali due to the 1990-1993 Rwandan civil war and the October 1993 assassination of Burundi President Melchior Ndadaye. There was already a widespread humanitarian relief effort in Kigali at that time and Wilkens notes that their food stocks are what kept Kigali going during the genocide.

Wilkens also provides insight into the role of the UN peacekeeping soldiers that had been in Rwanda since August 1993. While acknowledging the work that they did do and the lives that they saved, Wilkens questions whether their presence gave Rwandans a false sense of security. He believes that their presence might have contributed to people not fleeing or protecting themselves in face of RTLM propaganda and hate speech.

It seems incredible that there was so much inaction in the face of the genocide and that, as Wilkens notes in the final pages of the book, it was solely the actions of the Rwandan Patriotic Front that brought an end to the slaughter. This is especially notable as Wilkens transcribes a BBC report from April 24, 1994 (18 days after the start of the genocide) in which the term ‘genocide’ was already being used to describe the events in Rwanda.

It was in the second week of the genocide that Wilkens thought of recording his ideas and thoughts on a cassette recorder. He then dedicates the majority of the book to chronicle his incredible actions over the next three months. Nearly every day, Wilkens and other ADRA associates braved snipers and mortars to drive around the streets of Kigali bringing food and water to various orphanages around the city. He achieved this despite the ADRA headquarters being completely sacked.

"Soon you stop diving for cover each time you hear an explosion, realizing that you will never hear the one that kills you".

There are times in I’m Not Leaving when my heart felt as though t might stop and the book is uncomfortable to read at times. This is an intimate account of service, faith and courage and I almost felt like a worthless bystander watching as people risked their lives to save others. Wilkens talks about real fear and I got that. I could feel it as I read the book and my chest began to tighten.

In his ADRA vehicles and borrowed UN flak jacket, Wilkens achieved what no one else could achieve during the genocide. This man got into a neighbourhood like Nyamirambo to get food and water to two orphanages when the UN couldn't even get in. He talks about negotiating and pleading with genocidaires to save the life of Tutsis, how he got one Major Emmanuel to rescue 12 Tutsis. They were rescued as they knelt in prayer, with the killers standing with machetes raised above their heads, poised to strike.

He tells of the events at Gisimba orphanage where his intervention led to the rescue of hundreds of people as they were moved to the safety of Saint Michel church. He was then helped by government soldiers to pack up the orphans’ belongings and take them through to the church (you can read more about Carl Wilkens and Jean-Francois Gisimba talking about their recollections of that day here).

No matter how many lives were spared, Wilkens reminds us of the incredible loss of life:

"Such staggering losses, so enormous that it seems wrong for me to keep on writing without some sort of respectful pause".

Indeed, there were times when I had to pause myself to respect the gravity of what I was reading. Since the end of the genocide, Carl Wilkens has dedicated his life to educating people about prejudice, genocide and entering the world of “the other”. I would really recommend that you check out his speaking schedule and take the time to see him speak when he is next in your town or city. I’m Not Leaving was self-published and all proceeds go towards the educational efforts of his organisation WorldOutsideMyShoes.org (click to go straight to the purchase page).

I’m Not Leaving is essential reading for anybody wanting to know more about the genocide in Rwanda. If you are new to this topic, you might find it useful to read Jean Hatzfeld’s Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak, Roméo Dallaire's Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda or Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda first to gain some insight into what happened during the 100 days of the genocide, how the genocide occurred, and the failure of the international community to stop it.

This is a self-published book without the benefit of professional editors or proof readers and as such, there are inevitable grammatical and spelling errors. These are minor though and don’t detract from the unique and inspirational perspective provided by Wilkens in the book.

Open Society Justice Initiative Fact Sheet on Cambodian Tribunal

The Open Society Justice Initiative has issued an excellent two page fact sheet on the work of the ECCC and the Cambodia Tribunal. There was much that I already knew on the fact sheet but a couple of items that were new to me.

For instance, of interest is the fact that the case will be split into a series of phases in order that each issue might be dealt with in full and that judgement can be reached before moving on to the next phase. This was decided “due to concerns that the elderly defendants might otherwise die before any judgments are brought, and similar concerns about further delaying justice for surviving victims”.

The first phase of the trial will deal with the period immediately following the Khmer Rouge rise to power in April 1975, when a massive proportion of the population was forcibly removed from Phnom Penh and other cities and forced to work in the countryside and rural areas.

It is intended that future phases of the case will focus on “crimes committed at co-operatives, worksites, security centres, and execution sites, as well as other crimes, including genocide against minorities”.

There has been quite a lot of controversy surrounding the Cambodia Tribunal lately, especially with respect to cases 003 and 004 regarding officially unnamed defendants. There have been allegations of mishandling of cases and Judge Blunk resigned in October citing political interference in the case. Despite these difficulties, I concur with the Open Society Justice Initiative when they state:

“If the trial is carried out independently, transparently, and in accord with international standards, it will make a major contribution to the cause of accountability in Cambodia and to the global movement for international justice”.

Cambodia Tribunal Declares Ieng Thirith Unfit to Stand Trial

AFP/Archives/Heng Sinith

The Washington Post is reporting that the UN-backed Cambodia war crimes tribunal, the ECCC, has found Ieng Thirith unfit to stand trial on the grounds of diminished capacity due to Alzheimer’s disease. Ieng Thirith has been reported as showing signs of dementia.

This comes just four days before the start of Case 002 in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia which is focusing on crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge, a communist, Maoist party that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 under the leadership of Pol Pot.

The Khmer Rouge set up a radical form of agrarian communism whereby population was set to work on the land and the urban, educated population was removed from cities. Working conditions were extreme and between 20 and 25% of the population was literally worked to death. It has proved impossible to gauge accurate figures but estimates say that between 850,000 and 1.5 million men, women and children died from execution, torture, forced work or starvation.

Case 001 of the ECCC was against Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, who was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years in prison in July 2010. Duch was the prison chief of the notorious Tuol Sleng Jail (S-21) in Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge regime and was responsible for the deaths of approximately 15,000 people.

Public gallery of Cambodia Tribunal
Public gallery during testimony of S-21 survivor Vann Nath on 29 June 2009 [Source: ECCC]

Case 002, due to start on 21 November 2011, is the case against Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith. This case is in an entirely different league to the former case as it is against four former high-ranking, government officials.

Khieu Samphan, aged 79, was the former Head of State; Nuon Chea, aged 84, was former Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea; Ieng Sary, aged 85, was the former Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs; and his wife, Ieng Thirith, aged 78, was the former Minister of Social Affairs.

Despite the numbers of people that perished during the Khmer Rouge regime, legally, the event is not classified as a genocide because the perpetrators were of the same nationality and ethnic group as the victims and there was no systematic attempt to destroy a certain ethnic, racial, religious or national group.

Therefore, case 002 brought charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the four defendants.

Nevertheless, in December 2009, charges of genocide were brought against Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan and later against Ieng Thirith in relation to the brutal slaughter and oppression of Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslim minorities during the Khmer Rouge era. Charges of murder, imprisonment and torture have also been brought against the defendants.

The Cambodia Tribunal was always going to be problematic in that they only began 30 years after the brutal events of the Khmer Rouge era. We are experiencing similar problems with aging defendants with the Ratko Mladić trial less than 20 years after the events. The difficulty is that these people committed unspeakable acts and the trials are as important for the punitive element as they are in unearthing the atrocities that were committed. The ECCC is beset by scandal and setbacks at present and I just hope that they can push through and get to the bottom of this senseless and tragic time in Cambodian history.

USHMM Fellow Michael Dobbs to Cover Mladic Trial, Research “Origins of Evil”

Michael Dobbs is an award-winning foreign correspondent and author who is currently serving as a Goldfarb fellow at the Committee on Conscience at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

This talented journalist will travel to the Hague to observe the trial of Ratko Mladic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He will also travel to Srebrenica, Sarajevo and Belgrade, interviewing not only the victims of Ratko Mladic and his men, but also his associates and, I presume, supporters.

He is currently blogging about his experiences on his blog at ForeignPolicy.com. At the outset, his posts appear to be balanced as he searches for the truth and questions what he is observing. He wrote of his difficulties in accepting the term genocide when referring to the massacre at Srebrenica in his post Defining Genocide.

I wanted to express a knee-jerk reaction to this, we all do when faced with the overwhelming abundance of genocide denial with respect to both Rwanda and Srebrenica. But on reading his post, it turns out that his question was well considered and he appeared satisfied at his affirmative answer. These questions are important and need to be asked and answered. We can’t sweep them under the carpet for fear that we might be pandering to the fantasies of genocide-deniers.

There is no doubt that Michael has a long, challenging journey ahead and in the video below, he discusses the work that he will be doing and the questions he intends to answer:

His questions will include:

Why did the massacre at Srebrenica happen?
Could it have been prevented by the international community?
What lessons have we taken from the series of trials of former Yugoslav military leaders over the last decade?
Have these trials contributed to helping to prevent future genocides?

You can follow Michael Dobb on Twitter: @MichaelDobbs and you can also follow the USHMM: @HolocaustMuseum.

Serbia Reiterates Call to Mutually Withdraw Genocide Suits

Credit: OSCE/Milan Obradovic

Serbian State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and PR coordinator Slobodan Homen has reiterated the Serbian position that it would be best for both Serbia and Croatia to withdraw their mutual genocide suits. However, B92.com reports that Homen has stated that if Croatia do not withdraw their claim then Serbia have no choice but to defend its interests.

Croatia initially filed the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Croatia v. Serbia) with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 1999. Preliminary objections culminated on November 18, 2008 when the ICJ ruled against Serbia's three objections to the case and decided that the court has jurisdiction over the case.

In January 2010, Serbia filed a counter-memorial against Croatia. This prompted the court to issue an order on February 4, 2010 stating that they required a reply by Croatia and a rejoinder by Serbia to ensure equality between the parties and to give Croatia the opportunity to reply to Serbia’s counter-claims. They fixed time limits for these proceedings. Croatia was to issue their reply by December 20, 2010, which they did, and Serbia was given until November 4, 2011 to submit their rejoinder.

Croatia’s Case Against Serbia

In the application to institute proceedings [1999, PDF], Croatia assert that by seizing control of the Knin region and eastern Slavonia and their shelling and attacking of portions of Dalmatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) drove Croat and non-Serb citizens from the areas with the intent to "ethnically cleanse" these regions, and to unite them with the FRY to form a "greater" Serbian State”. They see this as constituting a violation of the Genocide Convention.

They further assert that by instilling fear and panic into the Serbian population in the Knin region immediately prior to the commencement of Operation Storm, the FRY committed a further violation of the Genocide Convention when they “directed, instigated and coerced the Serb population …. to evacuate from the area, thus creating a second "ethnic cleansing" of the area”.

They further state their intention to show that the FRY conducted a campaign of terror designed to bring about the destruction of the Croat and non-Serb communities in part or whole, the causation of serious physical and mental harm and the imposition of measures designed to bring about the prevention of births, all violations of the Genocide Convention.

Serbia’s Case Against Croatia

In the counter-memorial filed on January 4, 2010, Serbia claimed that Croatia committed acts against ethnic Serbs living in the Krajina Region (UN Protected Areas North and South) in Croatia during August 1995 with the intention to destroy the local population and rid the area of ethnic Serbs. Specifically, they claim that acts committed during operation Storm violated the Genocide Convention article II, a) killing members of the group; b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part [see ICJ Press Release February 18,2010].

In addition, B92.com reported in January 2010 that the counter-memorial detailed crimes committed against Croatia's ethnic Serb population in Gospić, Sisak, Pakračka Poljana, Karlovac, Osijek, Paulin Dvor, Medački Džep. They cite crimes against victims not only during the 1991-1995 conflict, but also after the war when ethnic Serb refugees tried to return to their homes.

Finally, Serbia sought to present the lawsuit in the context of historical relations between the two countries, focusing on World War II, the Ustasha involvement in the persecution of Serbs and the mass killings that occurred at Jasenovac.

Serbia continues to maintain that this is not a matter that should be played out in the courts but one that should be dealt with through negotiation and reconciliation.

It is indeed regrettable that the Truth Commission: Serbia and Montenegro failed in 2003 as such a commission would play an important role in paving the way to understanding, forgiveness, acceptance and reconciliation. As it stands, tensions remain high and emotions volatile.

However, this is not in any way an excuse to avoid the investigation and prosecution of claims of genocide, if the ICJ sees merit in the claims. In short, if genocide was committed, then there is simply no avoiding a trial.

Rwandan Genocide: The Hutu Ten Commandments

Tutsi Identity Card [Source: Prevent Genocide International]

The Rwandan genocide began on 6 April 1994 when the plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down from the sky, killing all on board. Over the course of the next 100 days, 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered. While the assassination of President Habyarimana was certainly a catalyst, it did not cause the genocide.

Owing to their systematic and intentional nature, genocides, by definition, are rarely caused by underlying factors, as such. Rather, underlying factors are manipulated and exploited in the planning and preparation that goes into the act of genocide. (See: What is Genocide?).

In Rwanda, evidence shows that militia had been trained, machetes flown into the country and weapons had been stockpiled for several months before the genocide started. Much has been made of the role of the media in inciting genocide in Rwanda, with singers, radio presenters and journalists all calling for the extermination of the Tutsi cockroaches.

“The Hutu Ten Commandments” was a document that was published in the pro-Hutu, anti-Tutsi newspaper Kangura in December 1990, almost four years before the commencement of the genocide in Rwanda. The document was published in Kinyarwandan, the official language of Rwanda, and has also been translated as “The Ten Commandments of the Bahutu”.

Incitement to commit genocide is a crime punishable under article 3c of the Genocide Convention. There were numerous convictions of genocide that related to media, propaganda and incitement to commit genocide. The Hutu Ten Commandments were attributed to the editor of Kangura, Hassan Ngeze, and in 2003, he was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity by the ICTR.

The Hutu Ten Commandments

1. Every Hutu should know that a Tutsi woman, whoever she is, works for the interest of her Tutsi ethnic group. As a result, we shall consider a traitor any Hutu who

marries a Tutsi woman
befriends a Tutsi woman
employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine.

2. Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and conscientious in their role as woman, wife and mother of the family. Are they not beautiful, good secretaries and more honest?

3. Hutu women, be vigilant and try to bring your husbands, brothers and sons back to reason.

4. Every Hutu should know that every Tutsi is dishonest in business. His only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group. As a result, any Hutu who does the following is a traitor:

makes a partnership with Tutsi in business
invests his money or the government's money in a Tutsi enterprise
lends or borrows money from a Tutsi
gives favours to Tutsi in business (obtaining import licenses, bank loans, construction sites, public markets, etc.).

5. All strategic positions, political, administrative, economic, military and security should be entrusted only to Hutu.

6. The education sector (school pupils, students, teachers) must be majority Hutu.

7. The Rwandan Armed Forces should be exclusively Hutu. The experience of the October 1990 war has taught us a lesson. No member of the military shall marry a Tutsi.

8. The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi.

9. The Hutu, wherever they are, must have unity and solidarity and be concerned with the fate of their Hutu brothers.

The Hutu inside and outside Rwanda must constantly look for friends and allies for the Hutu cause, starting with their Hutu brothers.
They must constantly counteract Tutsi propaganda.
The Hutu must be firm and vigilant against their common Tutsi enemy.

10. The Social Revolution of 1959, the Referendum of 1961, and the Hutu Ideology, must be taught to every Hutu at every level. Every Hutu must spread this ideology widely. Any Hutu who persecutes his brother Hutu for having read, spread, and taught this ideology is a traitor.

Source: Wikipedia (reproduced under Creative Commons)

Rwanda – Strengthening Society Through Genocide Education

On Thursday 16 June, the Aegis Trust hosted an event in London entitled “Rwanda – Strengthening Society Through Genocide Education”. The purpose of the event was to celebrate 25 years of the Gisimba Memorial Centre Kigali, Rwanda and to share the incredible story of what happened at the orphanage during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Aegis Trust founder James Smith facilitated the proceedings and was joined by Freddy Mutanguha (Director, Kigali Memorial Centre), Jean-Francois Gisimba (former Rwandan journalist and family member, Gisimba Memorial Association), and Carl Wilkens (American aid worker and witness to the genocide).

The evening began with Freddy Mutanguha sharing his story about the history of Rwanda and how the labels of Tutsi, Hutu and Twa were formalised and enforced by the Belgian colonialists. He explained how the Tutsi were elevated by the colonialists above the Hutu and that the Tutsi monarchy was allowed to continue. The king died in 1959 and the Hutus rose up against against the Tutsi monarchy. Massacres of Tutsis began around that time and a Hutu government took over from the Belgian colonialists with independence in 1962. In what was an incredibly powerful statement, Freddy Mutanguha stated simply that genocide was a failure of humanity.

Jean-Francois Gisimba and Carl Wilkens then told us about the incredible story of the Gisimba Orphanage and how they hid between 600 and 1,000 people during the Rwandan genocide. The people at the orphanage were in clear and immediate danger of being murdered by Interahamwe militia when Carl used his influence and status as a foreign national to get the prime minister to save their lives. The staff, children and hidden adults were escorted to San Michele church on 2 July 1994 by government forces and their lives were spared.

This was an incredibly emotional and touching talk and you can learn more about this incredible story at Defying Genocide. Carl and Jean-Francois had not seen each other in the 17 years since the genocide and only met up in London recently. What struck me the most is that Carl Wilkens still struggles today with the decision he made to leave the orphanage to try and get them help. He stills struggles with the fact that he promised them he would return, knowing that they could well have all perished.

What I really wanted to capture from the evening was what the three guests had to share about the future and the topic for the evening, Strengthening Society Through Genocide Prevention. I made the decision to transcribe what was said because I found each of the men to be really inspirational and wanted to try and capture that.

Freddy Mutanguha (Director, Kigali Memorial Centre)

On the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre

We have 250,000 victims of genocide lying in mass graves. It’s our place, it’s a home for many people; provided by Aegis Trust who contributed to run Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre helping the government and survivors to have a place of memory. But there is more than memory of genocide, there is more than to talk about the past. What about the future? The future of our country, the future of our children, the future of my two daughters (Now, I hope I will get one today). What about the future?

As I said, the genocide happened but many people, normal population, have been involved. Neighbours / neighbours, people against their children, people who were against their family. You cannot imagine how someone can kill his children because he think that the mother of his children is a Tutsi, or the mother can take decision to kill her children because her husband is a Tutsi.

You cannot imagine this, there is a problem of trust between the children of perpetrators and the children of the survivors. What we do as Aegis: we feel that we cannot stop by talking about the past. We need to unite these children, they have to look forwards, to be the hope of the country. They need to be responsible for the future and social cohesion is very, very important.

That is how we thought about having an education programme. How can we build from our past to build our future? We started two years ago an educational programme at the centre. First of all we had six students, three times a week coming to the centre. It is a small number of children but they are very innocent, children. The want to learn, they want to listen to the stories but what they get from home is a disaster. First of all we had the problem with what kind of message we can give to children, the same message which can be appreciated by children of the perpetrators and children of the survivors. It is very difficult and very challenging to have these children, this message but we managed it.

We feel that during genocide, people didn't think critically of what they are doing. The mayor says you have to kill your neighbour and your neighbour’s a snake, is a cockroach and you believe him. We, as humankind, we have a problem of not thinking critically. Two months ago we were talking about the education programme at the centre, and I asked my wife, “Why do you like to use Omo [washing powder]", why do you like it?” She didn’t know, she says, “nice soap”. We use it but we don’t think about it. We don’t think critically about why we like Omo and everybody likes it.

So, why someone come to me and say I have to kill this one. The children need to be taught to think critically. This is part of our lesson we give to children. They need to learn to be responsible, they need to think exactly what they are going to do but they need to make the right choice. That is the future we’d like at this time.

Carl Wilkins (American aid worker and witness to the genocide)

In answer to the question: “What are we to learn from all of this if we are to prevent these sorts of atrocities from happening"?”

Any kind of crisis or things like this, it challenges us to re-evaluate who we are, what we’re about, what drives us, why are we even here? And I think that with the genocide that for us, Teresa and I, very much it has challenged us and it has changed our lives. I travel now, speaking at schools and the two things I’m passionate about if you talk about education and you talk about re-examining our values and why we’re even on this planet, two tools that I hope to share with you tonight is the power of stories and the power of service.

The day that they were moved [to San Michele church], they didn’t let them to bring anything with them. I got to the church and they didn’t have blankets, they didn’t have cooking pots, anything. And it was cold at night, we didn’t know how long the genocide was going to go on, we would have to feed the kids. I asked the colonel for permission (thanked him profusely for moving the kids), “can I go collect the kids stuff, will you write me a letter authorising it?” He did, I went back, it was empty, a lot of gunfire on the left. I went around to the right, as I came round behind the orphanage: face to face with the militia leader and about twelve of his guys. The same guys that were there to murder everybody a couple of days earlier.

They were surprised to see me, I was terrified to see them.

And then I remembered that letter. I pulled the letter out of my pocket and I handed it to him, he read it and he said, “of course! Your orphans need their things” and that was a shock. And he turns around and he says to his guys (who actually, they’re looting the orphanage, they had the orphans’ stuff in their hands already), he says to them, “help the guy load his truck”.

I go walking in the first dormitory with this new volunteer crew behind of me, “guys, would you put blankets on the floor, put stuff in the blankets, tie the corners”. They help me, my truck is way too small, they help me find a bigger truck, the big truck has low sides. I said, “listen”, to one of them, “would you take this table with me, we’ll stand the tables on end on each side, build the sides of the truck high so we can put stuff in”. And as they’re lifting the table (they’re on one end, I’m on another end) they start to give their own ideas of how we could get more on the truck.

They start showing initiative and it was finally when I was writing down these stories (that you can see on the table behind you there*) that it came to me: when we engage our mind and our muscles in acts of service, it changes the way we think. It changes the way we think about ourselves, it changes the way we think about others. This shift in our thinking from me-thinking to we-thinking, I think is hugely impacted by stories and service.

Stories stick with us. Stories connect us, stories are bridge builders. And stories change the way we think, potentially and that changes the way we feel and that changes the way we act, which is where the service comes in. So as you take off this evening, there is very many concrete things with Aegis and the work that they’re doing that you can partner with them but even more than Aegis is just our way of thinking, our way of living – are we into a me-focused living or a we-focused living.

Everybody wants to be a we-person but don’t know how. But it’s not complicated. It is about learning the stories of the people who are different to us and after we learn the stories, we’re getting involved in acts of service. And so for me, that’s education, it is stories and service.

* Carl Wilkens has written the book I’m Not Leaving and runs the organisation World Outside My Shoes.

Jean-Francois Gisimba (Gisimba Memorial Association)

On how they got from the orphanage to San Michele Church

That day, before Carl Wilkens left the orphanage, a group of seven or eight soldiers, gendarmerie, were sent to the orphanage and some of them spent the night there at the orphanage. Then, the following morning, they left. What I saw is that, because I want to go into details but we don’t have much time, but what happened is that there was a first attempt to evacuate us from the orphanage - the United Nations soldiers came to the orphanage two or three times.

But there is a soldier who came to the orphanage (I’m sorry to say that the person asked me not to mention his name; he is living in Europe and I went to thank him for what he did). He came to the orphanage, he was a high ranked officer in the army. He came to the orphanage with his three bodyguards and many militia in the army followed him. Among them, one of the big killers in Nyamirambo and Kigali, Kiginye, I think you’ve heard about his name, he killed thousands of people and he killed also many people at the orphanage.

When he [the unnamed hero] came to the orphanage, he found me there and I just told him, “please, please don’t go inside the orphanage”, because then they will follow him inside the orphanage and know who is exactly inside. And I was surprised to see that he just stopped. And then these militia took a piece of map, I don’t know where they found it, and started telling him “this is the map we found with the cockroach, we found here at the orphanage, and this is the map of where the Hutu lives”. Many lies.

With my 24 years, I could not see this was just… I said that we are willing to die but not in this way. There is nothing like that. Then the guy just [makes gesture of stamping on his toes, to give him a signal], he looked me in my eyes and he kicked me on my feet and I could see that this guy is not a killer. I got the message and he told me “shut up!”. I understood that he just wanted to show them that he is hard with me but at the same time I had got the message that this is not a killer.

Then, he told them, “I did not ask you anything, I am asking this guy, you just get out”. So they took some five steps and then he asks me, “young man, I’m with you. Just be quiet, tell me exactly, but not loud. Tell me exactly is happening here”. I said, “we have hundreds of people here. They’re in the roof, in the toilets, under the beds of kids but we are dying here. This is what is happening”. He said “okay” and then he started saying, “You! Cockroach!”, just like he is telling them he is going to kill us.

The he told them, “you just leave these people under me. We’ll find a solution for them. But don’t come here and he who comes here before me, because I’m responsible now, he’ll have problems with me”. So he was giving different messages and then he left.

So he tried another day and he did not succeed but then the day he took us, we just saw him coming at the orphanage with his twelve bodyguards. Everyone with two or three guns. Himself, he was having two guns, a Kalashnikov and one pistol. He was no longer the soldier I saw coming, he was looking like a lion. He was another person that day.

So he just came, he ordered another person, “we are taking everyone from here”. So I thought, the guys going to kill us. So he said, “I’m taking everyone, out!”. So he gave me the guy who was the big killer to take him to the wards where the women were, hundreds of them, like 300 or 400, to tell him to take them out. So what I did, I told that guy, “look, you’ve been given a chance to show that you are not bad, you are not going to kill people. Just take them out and don’t touch anyone, then you’ll be making your name”.

Then I came out to the soldiers, to the high ranked officer, I took him by the hand. We went to the other side of the orphanage where there was a room that was before used as a dispensary. There was five persons there who were somehow in danger more than others. We were all in danger but these were more in danger. One of them is a judge in the high court in Rwanda, Pio and his family. He had been, in fact even before the genocide even started, he was in danger.

At that time, many people were coming from the roof, it was chaos at the orphanage, from everyone running. In fact, they had left buses 200 – 300 metres from the orphanage because bombs were landing just in front of the orphanage and the frontline was just in 300 metres. Bombs, bullets were just like….

So I took the hand of the solider and we made the walk of about 100 metres to the room where these people were, six or seven of them. And I told him “man, we are going maybe to die but these people are in your hands. It will be a case between you and you God”. Because we were two of us. At the door, to give myself a kind of strength, I shouted “you open, you stupid!” They opened the door and the person who opened the door fell down immediately. That was the person who became a judge. And this soldier said, “hey, Pio, you are still alive”, and he took him and he said, “man, you are not going to die, I am here today”.

And so, when the militia saw this man, his wife, his sister-in-law, the wife of another high ranked person of the RPF, they just put their guns down and said “it is not possible, we did not do anything! How come these people are alive!” So, the soldier told his bodyguards, “you just arm your guns. He who tries to block us, you just shoot”. He just give the order.

And that’s why I always say, if all the soldiers could act like him, the genocide could not have happened.

So, we were surrounded by his bodyguards, he took us. No bomb came in those ten minutes. He packed all of us, more than 600, in five buses and he took two soldiers for every bus and he went in his car with two or three body guards. So we went in front, finding the roadblocks, when the militia started saying, “eh!”, it was very strange to see hundreds of Tutsis, in June! Anyway, even the Hutus we were all looking like Tutsi because of three months without eating.

Whenever we arrived at a roadblock he would just tell them, “you open, or we fire!” so they would just open and that’s how we went up to the San Michele and then they told us to go underground and sleep there. And he came to me because my brother was not there during that week, he never came back. I don’t know how what happened between but him and Carl Wilkens came to the San Michele and we found him there. So the soldier came to me to tell me, “now I have done what I could. I have also to save my life” and he disappeared.

I went to thank him in Europe in 2005.

It was an incredible evening and I could have easily sat listening to them speak for several more hours. Freddy Mutanguha spoke about the need for critical thinking and responsibility, Carl Wilkens relayed his beliefs about stories and service, and Jean-Francois Gisimba’s told us about the difference one person can make and how if more people had acted like him, that could have prevented a genocide.

Despite everything that they went through in setting up the orphanage and in surviving the genocide, the Gisimba Memorial Centre Kigali, Rwanda is still struggling to put food on children’s plates.

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