| The
Crime of Genocide and the Failure of United Nations in Rwanda
The source of Central Africa's recent turmoil was Rwanda. The 'politics
of genocide' have been a planned, conscious strategy applied from 1990
onwards. The clique of powerful people around dictator Habyarimana (Akazu)
superimposed a pathological plan to murder all Tutsi and the political
opposition among the Hutu - in order not to implement the scheme of power
sharing agreed in the Arusha Accords 1993.
Despite earlier warnings, the United Nations remained disunited, paralysed,
and inactive in the case of Rwanda. The weeks of inactivity by the UN
-in the face of the horrific organized massacre of Tutsi civilians by
militia forces, the police and the army- are an incomprehensible scandal.
Cases of Total
Genocide
In the 20th Century alone there were four cases of full-scale genocide,
causing millions of victims:
the Aghet: Turkish genocide 1914 - 1923
against the Armenians;
the Holocaust: genocides committed 1933 - 1945
by the fascist German state and its allies against the European Jews
(Shoah), Roma (Parajmos), Russians, other Slavic peoples, POWs, slave
workers and the political opposition;
the Khmer Rouge genocide in Kampuchea 1975 - 1979
against the Vietnamese, Cham Muslim and Chinese minorities as well as
against the Khmer urban classes; and
the Hutu-power genocide in Rwanda 1994 committed
by the akazu elite, their state machinery, Hutu-power factions of all
political parties and a huge number of common people against the Tutsi
branch of the Banyarwanda and against Hutu opponents.
The most deadly regimes in the 20th Century have all committed total genocide
against domestic groups, mainly the attempt to exterminate their minorities.
Common Elements and Patterns
of Genocidal Processes
Analyzing and comparing the four total modern genocides of the 20th Century
produces a set of common elements and patterns of genocidal processes.
Patterns can be found by looking at the perpetrators and their environment.
Comparative research identifies and explores:
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Elites
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the role of the elite |
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Organizers
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the core organizers |
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Perpetrators
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legitimizers and perpetrators of genocide,
and their relations to the mass of 'willing executioners' (Goldhagen) |
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Conditions
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the internal and external conditions
they find and create |
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Context
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the context in which they act |
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Politics
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the political environment in which they
take the decision to destroy |
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Power
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the way genocidal extremists gain the
state power and transform it |
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Victimization
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the type of victims they chose |
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Ideology
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the exterminatory ideology they use |
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Execution
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the systematic way they plan, prepare
and execute the crime of genocide |
The perpetrators, their ideology, the process of victimization and the way
they executed the crime of genocide are the first focus of attention. A
coherent and vicious elite is more likely to gain state power in situations
of deep historic changes. Under certain internal and external conditions
they succeed in imposing their genocidal and destructive aims. The agendas
of such elites are to destroy specific domestic groups, which as a rule
are always in a non-dominant and minority position.
The
Challenges of Genocide Prevention
The challenges of genocide prevention are great and the matter is urgent.
A systematic overview on the tasks, procedures, institutions and voids
of genocide prevention is required. This overview on genocide prevention
is focusing on such activities, which are essential to combat and eliminate
genocide. Following I mention six areas of activities.
1. Genocide Alert and
Early Warning System
I believe that the global monitoring of gross human rights violations
is a task which has to be coordinated by a special UN task force. Genocide
scholars from all over the world shall be invited to a series of conferences.
The main task is to filter out indicators for early warning about serious
risk of genocide on global scale. Indicators of genocide alert and signifiers
for "red alert" shall be deducted from a large tool box. Translated
into practical work this could be done in much the same way as it is done
by Interpol or by the FBI when assembling and accessing their criminological
data base in order to trace organized crime. One of the main tasks for
applied comparative genocide research is therefore the development of
an integrated early warning and early response system. The effective functioning
of such a system is only guaranteed if a rapid reaction mechanism will
be institutionalized within the United Nations system and as part of regional
regimes.
2. Early
Action: The Creation of a Rapid Reaction Mechanism
The main reason why a future institution for genocide alert and early
action should become part of the UN General Secretariat is the idea to
have short procedures and solid facilitation of high level diplomacy in
cases of alert. The UN member states must agree on a new mechanisms of
rapid reaction in cases of 'red genocide alert'. Averting genocide is
in principle the duty of all signatory states of the 1948 UN Genocide
Convention.
The UN Secretariat will be chiefly responsible for organizing political
to establish a rapid reaction mechanism which is not depending from political
criteria but a purely professional venture. Organizing the political will
for the mandatory military intervention of UN in case of genocide alert
could be done by reforming the Convention. The effective protection of
the victims in case of genocide is definitely a duty the United Nations
have to accept. The consequences of the Carlsson Report of December 1999
have yet to be drawn.
3. Prosecution and Deterrence:
international and domestic
New developments such as the Pinochet case, the indictment of Rwandan
perpetrators of genocide and the prosecution of crimes against humanity
committed on Former Yugoslavia have in recent years helped to form public
awareness. The understanding that the international community is responsible
to monitor the mandatory persecution of perpetrators of genocide in anyone
state is growing.
The establishment of special persecution institutions in several states
(such as Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda) is part of an international
effort to end impunity for organised mass murder. The debate about the
International Criminal Court (ICC) and its establishment in due time shows
clearly that the time is ripe for systematic international prosecution
and deterrence against mass murder. Ad hoc tribunals such as the ICTR
are not enough. The international system needs a permanent international
criminal tribunal specialized to deal with the crime of genocide; it shall
be institutionalized as integral part of the UN system. In the spirit
of Raphael Lemkin the international criminal law has to be developed comprehensively
in order for the international rule of law to be respected by all states
and political actors.
4. Enforcing International
Law
The main problem is the lack of enforcement of the existing international
law instruments. Either no institution has the formal mandate to do so
or the existing institutions are too weak. Law enforcement of by comprehensive
review processes and checks-and-control, as in the case of the European
Convention on Human Rights or in the case of the ILO convention 169, is
rarely provided for by international instruments. Law enforcement needs
more institution building.
The establishing of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the first
decade of the 21st century, in order to outlaw gross human
rights violations such as genocide and crimes against humanity, is one
of the noblest tasks for the near future. Establishing an effective and
respected International Criminal Court is genuinely among the tasks of
global governance. As coercive measures the United Nations should establish
a commission of experts to refine the UN arsenal of sanctions. UN sanctions
shall hurt regimes not the people. The heart of global governance must
be prevention of destructive violence. The ICC is an important step into
that direction. Unfortunately the ICC has already met strong resistance
by great powers; amongst the hardest resistors were countries known for
a intensive official Human Rights discourse such as the USA and France!
5. Pressure, Vigilance,
and Protection
UN agencies such as UNDP, regional organizations and donor states shall
impose conditionality on development aid in cases of organised forms of
state criminality in weak states. Development aid should be suspended
in cases of gross violations of human rights by such states. Threats against
groups of citizens must be dealt with immediately. Incentives shall promote
democratization, respect for basic human rights and minority rights, rule
of law, good governance and promotion of free media. Projects in these
sectors should get priority funding.
International and local Non-Governmental Organizations as well as International
Governmental Organizations should be more active in monitoring risk areas
and minorities at risk. Averting genocide must become a main area of activity
of all NGOs working in conflict areas. Escalation processes can be broken
through permanent presence, monitoring and appropriate media coverage
of the plight of minorities. A rapid and broad system of protection of
possible victims should be organized by a NGO coalition in every conflict
area. Civil actors shall intervene in addition to and as correction of
parallel efforts by the UN, IGO and regional organizations.
6. Anticipating Dangers and Learning
Lessons from Past Experiences
The international community can learn many lessons from past traumatic
experiences of genocide as well as from relevant experience of genocide-free
world regions. Especially violence preventive and confidence-building
measures should be studied carefully. Civil actors should take the lead
in fighting powerlessness and passive response on genocide taken by states
and state organizations. The development of concepts of structural prevention
of genocide and mass violence is among the noblest task of peace research.
Charitable Funds and scientific funding institutions should prioritize
research project in these fields. Genocide prevention should be written
into the statutes of many more associations. Standardizing the prevention
of genocide and mass violence internationally should become a key task
for the UN Human Rights Commission in the 21st Century. Genocide
prevention should become part of domestic laws and national constitutions
as well as of relevant international conventions and pacts.
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Dr Christian P Scherrer,
ECOR Genocide Research Project, (ECOR-IRECOR), The Netherlands Ph.
D., University of Bern, 1985. Founder and head of ECOR. Senior researcher,
Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (COPRI), 1997-1999. Since 1999 Research
Director at the Institute für Ethnizitätsforschung und Konfliktbearbeitung
(IFEK), Moers.
Publications include: "Rwanda: Proposal for the
establishment of a Conflict Prevention Unit" (1995), "Ethno-Nationalismus
im Weltsystem" (1996), "Ethnisierung und Völkermord in Zentralafrika"
(1997), "Ethno-Nationalismus im Zeitalter der Globalisierung" (1997),
"Intra-state conflicts and ethnicity" (1997), "Ethnizität, Bürgerkrieg
und Staat" (forthcoming 2000).
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