Prevent Mass Atrocities

MOBILIZING THE WILL TO INTERVENE LEADERSHIP & A CTION TO PREVENT MASS ATROCITIES The W2I report is dedicated to the memory of the late Alison Des Forges, who worked tirelessly to prevent genocide, advance accountability, and end impunity. We also pay tribute to all the victims of mass atrocities whose lives ended prematurely while the world stood by. The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies would like to thank the generous and principled sponsors of the Will to Intervene Project—the Simons Foundation of Vancouver, James Stanford of Calgary, the family and friends of Aaron Fish of Montreal, Lieutenant-General Roméo A. Dallaire (Retired) Incorporated, the Tauben Family fund of Irwin and Sara Tauben, and several offices at Concordia University, especially the Office of the Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies, the Office of Research, and the Office for Advancement. ISBN 978-0-88947-473-4 MOBILIZING THE WILL TO INTERVENE LEADERSHIP & A CTION TO PREVENT MASS ATROCITIES The Will to Intervene Project The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies Concordia University 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West • Montreal, QC, Canada H3G 1M8 514 848-2424 exts. 5729 and 2404 http://migs.concordia.ca THE WILL TO INTERVENE PROJECT Roméo Dallaire Kyle Matthews Co-Director Lead Researcher Frank Chalk Carla Barqueiro Co-Director Researcher Simon Doyle Researcher Research Steering Committee Academic Consultation Group Maurice Baril Elizabeth Bloodgood Ed Broadbent David Carment Fred C. Fischer Don Hubert Tom Flanagan Michael Ignatieff Robert Fowler Bruce Jentleson Yoine Goldstein Paul Koring Bill Graham Michael Lipson David A. Hamburg Stephen Saideman Ted Koppel Abby Stoddard Juan É. Méndez Scott Straus Alex Neve Amanda Sussman André Pratte Allan Thompson Kenneth Prewitt Thomas G. Weiss David Scheffer Hugh D. Segal Jennifer Allen Simons Janice Gross Stein Allan Thompson Thomas G. Weiss Harvey Yarosky CO-DIRECTORS’ FOREWORD In 1946, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed the following resolution: “Genocide is the denial of the right to existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind, results in great losses to humanity in the form of cultural and other contributions represented by these groups, and is contrary to moral law and to the spirit and aims of the United Nations. Many instances of such crimes of genocide have occurred, when racial, religious, political and other groups have been destroyed, entirely or in part. The punishment of the crime of genocide is a matter of international concern. The General Assembly Therefore, Affirms that genocide is a crime under international law which the civilized world condemns, and for the commission of which princi- pals and accomplices—whether private individuals, public officials or statesmen, and whether the crime is committed on religious, racial, political or any other grounds—are punishable.” In 2009, the world is still struggling to implement these noble principles and curtail mass atrocities, which shock the conscience of humankind. Why is our record of preventing genocide and mass atrocities so poor? Since 1946, why have we done so little to halt the systematic killings of innocent civilians in Indonesia, Burundi, East Pakistan, Cambodia, East Timor, Rwanda, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo? What stops the richest and most powerful nations on earth from vigorously combating the economic and social conditions that breed genocides? What discourages them from using their influence to interdict genocides once they are underway? One of us, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Roméo Dallaire, commanded the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda during the genocide that ripped through the African country like a scythe from April to July 1994. The world sat on its hands as hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were slaughtered and any Hutu who stepped forward to offer them sanctuary was literally chopped to bits. The Security Council withdrew UN peacekeepers instead of reinforcing them. The other one of us, Professor Frank Chalk, comes from a family whose European branches were decimated in the Holocaust and, since 1978, has devoted much of his academic life to seeking answers to the questions posed above. Mobilizing the Will to Intervene iii Together, we are struck not by the absence of the will to intervene to prevent genocide, but by the presence of the will not to intervene, a negative thrust evident among the leaders of Canada, the United States, and other democracies when confronting the great mass atrocities of the 20th and 21st centuries. These mass atrocities were surely “contrary to moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations,” as the U.N. expressed it in 1946, but “moral law” and “the spirit and aims of the United Nations” carry very little weight in the national interest and partisan political calculations that shape foreign policies in the capitals of the great democracies. This report was born in hope—our hope that concrete factual analyses and practical recommendations can change the way our democratically elected political leaders think and act. We ask for nothing less than a paradigm shift, a change in how our leaders view the world. Specifically, we seek to persuade the leaders of Canada and the United States to adopt a concept of the national interest that incorporates the notion that preventing genocide and mass atrocities serves the interests of their people and not doing so puts the welfare of their citizens at risk. The age of the global village has dawned. Ignoring instability and conflict leading to genocides and mass atrocities today seriously threatens the health, security, and prosperity of our two peoples. We can and we must change. “Yes we can prevent genocide and mass atrocities” is our motto for achieving a better and more secure future, not just for societies vulnerable to mass atrocities, but for our children and grandchildren right here in North America. We would like to thank the generous and principled sponsors of our project—the Simons Foundation of Vancouver, James Stanford of Calgary, the family and friends of Aaron Fish of Montreal, Lieutenant-General Roméo A. Dallaire (Retired) Incorporated, the Tauben Family fund of Irwin and Sara Tauben, and several offices at Concordia University, especially the Office of the Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies, the Office of Research, and the Office for Advancement. We also want to express our thanks to the outstanding members of our Research Steering Committee and the learned members of our Academic Consultation Group. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the more than 80 persons who gave their time freely for interviews with our researchers about their direct experiences and insights regarding the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the 1999 crisis in Kosovo. Your candor and confidence in our important work, and your willingness to make time in your very busy schedules, spoke volumes about your values. We thank you. Roméo Dallaire and Frank Chalk Co-Directors of the Will to Intervene Project iv The Will to Intervene (W2I) Project PREFACE The fundamental goal of this report is to identify strategic and practical steps to raise the capacity of government officials, legislators, civil servants, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), advocacy groups, journalists, and media owners and managers to build the political will to prevent mass atrocities. The Will to Intervene (W2I) Project report, Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership and Action to Prevent Mass Atrocities, draws on interviews with more than 80 foreign policy practitioners and opinion shapers in Canada and the United States. Many of the interviewees participated directly in Canadian and American government decision making during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and the 1999 Kosovo crisis. The interviews furnished us with an inside view of the decision making processes that shaped each country’s responses to Rwanda and Kosovo, exemplifying a failure to act and a strong will to act. The W2I Project’s researchers also wanted to understand what civil society groups and the news media could have done to ramp up the pressure on Prime Minister Chrétien and President Clinton to save lives in Rwanda. We wanted to learn if civil society played a role in the decisions of Canada and the United States to preserve lives in Kosovo and what considerations propelled the decision to intervene. We designed our questions with an eye to the future, hunting for “lessons learned,” informed not only by our interviews, but also by scholarly studies of Canadian and U.S. Government policies. One of the major outcomes of the W2I study is the finding that when leadership at the top is absent, civil society in Canada and the United States must strongly pressure governments to broaden their concept of “national interests.” Saving the lives of innocent civilians in future Rwandas and Kosovos is vital to saving lives in Canada and the United States. More and more, our security is threatened by neglected crises in faraway places. Thanks to the growth in international travel by business people, tourists, and aid workers, infectious disease outbreaks arising in once ignored areas like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Zimbabwe now pose real challenges to our public health. As well, mass atrocities undermine the foundations of political stability in entire regions of the globalized international economy and threaten our economic prosperity. Our stake in international security has converged with our stake in humanitarian principles as never before. We need to redefine our national interests more broadly, not only to help failing states, but also to help and protect ourselves. W2I’s message to Canadian and American politicians is that to be a responsible leader you must spearhead policies and programs that prevent mass atrocities.

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