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A Properly Closed Book

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A Properly Closed Book A Properly Closed Book The ICTR and the secrecy around the Akazu A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History: Holocaust and Genocide Studies University of Amsterdam Name: Marjolein Verhaag Student number: 5677106 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Johannes Houwink ten Cate Second reader: Thijs Bouwknegt Abstract The Rwandan genocide of 1994 was allegedly planned and prepared by a group known as the Akazu, an informal power structure centered around Rwanda’s President Juvénal Habyarimana and his wife Agathe Kanziga. According to the historiography on the Rwandan genocide, from the 1970s until 1994 this group of influential Rwandan Hutus infiltrated and consolidated the economic and political sphere in Rwanda in order to strengthen the president’s and their own power base. This study explores the structure and mode of operation of the Akazu on the basis of three cases that came before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, respectively the Media Trial, the Military 1 Trial and the case against Protais Zigiranyirazo. It will lead the reader to the conclusion that the Akazu consisted of the inner and wider Akazu, and that the power its members wielded differed significantly. Moreover it will argue that it was not so much the Akazu, but all the more a parallel clandestine organization called the Zero Network that masterminded the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Key words Rwandan genocide, Akazu, Zero Network, clandestine organizations, Hutu Power, ICTR Table of Contents Glossary I Acknowledgements V Introduction 1 Historiography 2 The rise of the Akazu 3 The power of Juvénal Habyarimana 6 From civil war to genocide 10 Focus 15 1. Ideology and propaganda: the ICTR Media Case 19 1.1 Kangura and the Hutu Ten Commandments 21 The invention of hate media 21 Awake the Majority People 23 1.2 CDR 26 The rise of multipartyism 26 The ‘underlying’ message 29 1.3 Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines 31 An administrative puzzle 31 Clear intentions 34 1.4 Hutu Power 36 The extremists unite 36 From defense to action 38 2. Preparing, arming and training: the Military 1 Trial 41 2.1 The Definition and Identification of the Enemy 43 The ENI Document 43 The enemy lists 46 2.2 The actual perpetrators 47 Organizing the youth wings 47 State units 49 The civil defense system 50 Financial support 52 2.3 Secret societies 53 The Zero Network 53 AMASASU 56 Death squads 58 3. A Family Affair: the case against Protais Zigiranyirazo 63 3.1 The facts 64 Family ties 65 Regional ties 65 Ideological Hutu Power ties 66 3.2 Insider witnesses 66 Central and wider Akazu 67 The parallel network 69 3.3 Expert witnesses 70 The actual rulers 71 Threats to the power 73 The power of the Zero Network 74 Conclusion 77 Central versus wider Akazu 78 The Akazu versus the Zero Network 81 Bibliography 85 Primary sources 85 Secondary sources 89 Appendices 93 1. The Hutu Ten Commandments 93 2. Structure of RTLM Limited 94 3. The ENI Document 95 Glossary ADECOGIKA Association through which international aid and development money was channeled to the home region of the Akazu Akazu Kinyarwanda for ‘Little house’; group of influential individuals close to President Juvénal Habyarimana and his wife Agathe Kanziga AMASASU Clandestine group that made an urgent call for the legitimate use of self-defense against the RPF threat. Its members ranged from FAR officers to the smallest soldiers Arusha Accords Peace agreement – signed on the 4th of August 1993 in Arusha, Tanzania – between the Rwandan government and the RPF to bring an end to the civil war BBTG Broad Based Transitional Government CDR Coalition pour la Défense de la République; the Hutu extremist party, formed in 1992 by the extremist wing of the MRND Clan de Madame See Akazu Death squads Hutu extremist forces that massacred and assassinated the enemy and disturbed the events of opposition parties. Their aim was to destabilize the democratization process, intimidate the Tutsis and other opponents and bring a halt to the peace process DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo Enemy Commission Military Commission, established on the 4th of December 1991, that studied the enemy in order to find an answer to the question of how to defeat that enemy militarily, in the media and politically ENI document Document, written by the Enemy Commission, that defined and identified the enemy of the Rwandan Hutu population FAR Forces Armées Rwandaises; the Rwandan Armed Forces FPR French acronym for the RPF, the Rwandese Patriotic Front I Gacaca-courts Rwandan court system, based on a traditional dispute resolution mechanism, at which lay judges held trials for the smaller acts of genocide GP French acronym for the Presidential Guard, the highly trained and well equipped unit of Hutu extremists, which were intensely loyal to President Habyarimana HRW Human Rights Watch; international NGO that conducts research on and supports human rights Hutu Power Movement, established in October 1993, which further disseminated the extremist Hutu ideology Ibyitso Kinyarwanda for ‘Accomplice’ ICTR International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Impuzamugambi Kinyarwanda for ‘Those who have a single aim’; the youth wing of the CDR Inkotanyi Kinyarwanda for ‘war fighter’ Interahamwe Kinyarwanda for ‘Those who stand together’; the youth wing of the MRND Inyenzi Kinyarwanda for ‘cockroach’ Kanguka Kinyarwanda for ‘wake up’; independent Rwandan newspaper Kangura Kinyarwanda for ‘wake others up’; Rwandan anti-Tutsi periodical Kinyarwanda One of the official languages of Rwanda MDR Mouvement Démocratique Républicain; the main opposition party to the MRND MRND Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement; President Habyarimana’s political party NGO Non-governmental organization NUR National University of Rwanda ORINFOR Office Rwandais d’Information; government agency that managed Rwanda’s public media II Prefecture At the time of the genocide, Rwanda was divided in ten prefectures, comparable to provinces, which were led by a prefect, a kind of governor who served as the personal representative of the president RPA Rwandese Patriotic Army; the army of the RPF RPF Rwandese Patriotic Front; Tutsi-led opposition party RTLM Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines; the hate radio in Rwanda SC Security Council UN United Nations UNAMIR United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda UNAR Royalist Tutsi party that the members of the AMASASU linked to the RPF Zero Network Clandestine organization that operated parallel to and partly in cooperation with the Akazu III IV Acknowledgements “Rwandan history has the dark-magic ability to cause anyone who studies it to lose all reason.”1 Thierry Cruvellier I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who supported me throughout the course of this research project. Writing this thesis took quite some time and energy, and without the help of a couple of people I would have never succeeded. First of all, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Prof. Dr. Johannes Houwink ten Cate. Without his suggestions, constructing criticism and encouragement this thesis would have never been written in the first place. I also want to thank Thijs Bouwknegt for his insightful thoughts, for challenging my thinking and helping me out when I got stuck, and for his interest in acting as my second reader. Thank you both for your patience. I am very thankful to Adam Hayward for initially sparking my interest in the Akazu and for proofreading the draft text. I am also grateful to my friends for keeping me motivated and offering me a listening ear. Last but not least I want to thank my family, and especially my parents, for their love and support during this long journey. 1 Thierry Cruvellier, Court of Remorse: Inside the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, trans. Chari Voss (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2010), 140. V Introduction “The difficulty with any type of “secret societies” is that insider knowledge is rarely available, usually only after a longer period of time; however, the tribunal needs to know it in order to bring the Akazu members to justice.”2 Christian P. Scherrer “It was as if we were taken over by Satan. […] When Satan is using you, you lose your mind. We were not ourselves. […] We had been attacked by the devil.”3 Gitera Rwamuhizhi, Hutu farmer The twentieth century has known quite some genocides. From the Armenian Genocide to the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda and eventually Bosnia, it happened, and despite saying ‘never again’, it does happen again. Every time after such an atrocity, people have asked the question of how this could possibly happen. There is, unfortunately, not one single answer to this question. Before, during and after a genocide, several parties and events fulfill several roles and release several forces on several levels. We often see a certain set of ‘genocidal preconditions’ that occur in the decades preceding a genocide. These preconditions enclose, but are not restricted to, the rise of a utopian ideology, ideas of social engineering, a political, economic and/or social crisis, a deteriorating social position of minorities and the process of ‘othering’. 4 These preconditions on their own are not so threatening, yet the combination of these conditions can lead to a serious and dangerous escalation of events. Then, as soon as the genocide is eventually sparked, the perpetrators get into action and do their job. The question of why these ‘ordinary men’ obey the orders and do their jobs has been widely investigated and discussed by Christopher Browning 2 Christian P. Scherrer, Genocide and Crisis in Central Africa: Conflict Roots, Mass Violence, and Regional War (Westport: Praeger, 2002), 106. 3 Gitera Rwamuhizhi, “Taken over by Satan,” BBC News (2 April 2004), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ programmes/panorama/3582011.stm [21-02-2014].
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