GENOCIDE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Genocide in the Twentieth Century

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION:3

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: 3

THE CASE EXAMPLES OF UNITED STATES AND GERMANY:15

CONCLUSION:16

References17

INTRODUCTION:

Some who suggest that genocide did not actually occur; that it was simply part of the civil war between the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and government troops working in conjunction with the Interahamwe to defend Rwanda. The RPF was founded by Tutsi exiles in 1985 with the aim of establishing repatriation for Tutsi Diaspora and establishing democracy in Rwanda. When efforts for Tutsi repatriation by peaceful means failed, the RPF began their attacks in an attempt to forcibly resettle in Rwanda. By the end of October 1990, Rwanda was in the midst of a guerrilla war. In response to the Tutsi invasion Hutus began indiscriminate killing. According to Anderson, “…these events also marked the beginning of the massacres of Tutsi in the country, which escalated to genocidal proportions by April 1994.” When the RPF learnt that massacres had begun, they renewed the civil war against the Hutu government and Interahamwe who were committing the massacres. What exactly constitutes civil war, and what genocide, is therefore slightly ambiguous. The resulting conflicts ran concurrently until the RPF gained control of Kigali, so to some extent they are inextricable. (Wiesenthal 1998)

The Minister of Justice of the Hutu government in exile, Mbonampeka supports the claim that it was not genocide, but civil war; "In a war, you can't be neutral. If you are not for your country, are you not for its attackers?" Rationalising the killings in this way, he suggests, "…it wasn't genocide. Personally, I don't believe in the genocide. There were massacres within which there were crimes against humanity or crimes of war. But the Tutsis were not killed as Tutsis, only as sympathizers of the RPF. Ninety percent of the Tutsis were pro-RPF." His suggestion that all Tutsi were necessarily members of the RPF corroborates with the idea of civil war; that the Hutu were defending themselves against Tutsi citizens who had the goal of overthrowing the Rwandan state and re-establishing Tutsi domination. (Rummel 1992)

Whilst some might not go so far as to reduce the genocide to civil war, they suggest civil war perpetuated the conflict and led to genocide because it created instability and fear of the Tutsi population. This fear exacerbated by the state propaganda, engendered fear and gave Hutus what they may have perceived to be a legitimate reason to kill Tutsis. The mass participation in the massacres of 1990-1993 and the genocide of 1994 could be understood partly within the context of this fear - not only of the Interahamwe, who killed many Hutu who refused to participate, but also of the RPF. As Mamdani notes, "Hutu Power extremists prevailed…because they told farmers that the alternative would be to let RPF take their land and return it to the Tutsi who had been expropriated after 1959." This view is echoed by Percival and Dixon who suggest; “…the government was able to create and capitalise on popular fear by ...