The Rwanda Catastrophe : Its Actual Root-Cause and Remedies to Pre
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The International Centre for Le Centre International pour les Peace and Conflict Reconciliation Initiatives de Paix et de Initiative for Africa Résolution des Conflits en Afrique (ICPCRIA) (ICPCRIA) THE RWANDA CATASTROPHE: Its Actual Root-Cause and Remedies to Pre-Empt a Similar Situation in Rwanda , 1 A MEMORANDUM Submitted to: H.E. DR. BOUTROS BOUTROS - GHALI SECRETARY-GENERAL THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION NEW YORK H.E. DR. SALIM A. SALIM SECRETARY-GENERAL T HE ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY ADDIS ABABA H.E. CHIEF EMEKA ANYAOKU SECRETARY-GENERAL THE COM MONWEALTH SECRETARIAT LONDON AND Other World Leaders: HEADS OF STATE And HEADS OF INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS WITH INTEREST IN PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS FOR NATIONAL RECONCILIATION AND RECOVERY IN RWANDA BY The International Centre for Peace and Conflict Reconciliation Initiative for Africa (ICPCRIA), P.O. Box 47288, Tel. Nos.565366, Fax No. 214127, Nairobi. Prof. Agola Auma-Osolo PRESIDENT/ICPCRIA 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREAMBLE PAGE CHAPTER ONE: PURPOSE AND METHODOLOGY OF THE MEMORANDUM.............................................6 I. PURPOSE .....................................................................................................................................................6 II. METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................................................6 CHAPTER TWO: IS THE RWANDA CATASTROPHE ALSO GENOCIDE?......................................................8 I. GENOCIDE DEFINED................................................................................................................................8 (a) First Degree Genocide.........................................................................................................................8 (b) Second Degree Genocide ....................................................................................................................9 II. CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH GENOCIDE MAY OR MAY NOT BE A CRIME............................10 III. THE RWANDA CASE...............................................................................................................................10 1. Actual Immediate Events Leading to the 1994 Catastrophe.................................................................10 2. Who Was the Real Victim in the Rwanda Mutual Genocide?..............................................................14 3 If so, then what should Africa and World Communitv as a whole. do to pre-empt similar situations in future?..........................................................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER THREE: WORLD COMMUNITY'S RESPONSIBILITY...................................................................18 I. Its Inherent Responsibility Since the Time of Our Forebears:...................................................................18 1. Briand -Kellogg Peace Pact of 1928:.....................................................................................................18 2. Declaration of Genocide-as a World Crime .....................................................................................19 3. The London and Nuremberg Trials (1945 -1949) .................................................................................19 II. Its Expected Responsibility with Respect to the Rwanda Catastrophe .....................................................20 III. What action should the World Community take regarding the Rwanda Mutual Genocide for National Reconciliation and Recovery? ....................................................................................................................24 1. According to the New RPF Government in Kigali: ..............................................................................24 2. The ICPCRIA's View.............................................................................................................................24 (A) RWANDA HISTORY ................................................................................................................................26 (B) PSYCHIATRY ON RWANDA PEOPLES: ..............................................................................................30 (C) UN NOBLE EFFORTS: .............................................................................................................................32 (D) OAU NOBLE EFFORTS ...........................................................................................................................34 (E) POST-GENOCIDE EVENTS: ...................................................................................................................36 (F) IS THE RWANDA MUTUAL GENOCIDE A CRIME OR A REPRISAL?...........................................36 (G) SLMTLARITTES AND DISSIMILARITIES BETWEEN NAZI GERMANY GENOCIDE AND RWANDA GENOCIDE .............................................................................................................................43 (a) NAZI GERMANY GENOCIDE ................................................................................................................44 (b) RWANDA GENOCIDE .............................................................................................................................44 (c) A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN RWANDA GENOCIDE AND NAZI GERMANY GENOCIDE ................................................................................................................................................46 (H) THE RWANDA GENOCIDE VERDICT..................................................................................................48 CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY OF ICPCRIA'S FINDINGS AND SPECIFIC AJOR FACTORS LEADING TO 1994 MUTUAL GENOCIDE ......................................................................................50 I. SUMMARY: ...............................................................................................................................................50 II. SPECIFIC MAJOR FACTORS LEADING TO APRIL 1994 MUTUAL GENOCIDE ..........................54 CHAPTER FIVE: ICPCRIA'S RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SOLUTIONS AND REMEDIES TO AVERT AND PREVENT A SIMILAR SITUATION IN RWANDA .............................61 I. DURING PRE-INDEPENDENCE:..................................................................................................................61 1st Option...............................................................................................................................................................61 2nd Option .............................................................................................................................................................62 II. DURING POST MUTUAL GENOCIDE ..................................................................................................62 3 PREAMBLE WHEREAS it is self - evident that the recent Rwanda Catastrophe is the worst and most flabbergasting experience Africa and the entire World Community have ever witnessed in our history of civil wars; AND WHEREAS in the first horrifying experience of the Congolese Civil War of 1960 61, Africa had suffered dreadfully with a loss of immense number of innocent lives including the lives of two Prominent World Leaders namely Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Republic of Congo (now Zaire) on 17th January, 1961 and H.E. Secretary - General Dag Hammarskjold of the United Nations Organization on 17th September, 1961 while the latter was on his official UN Peace Mission in Africa seeking a solution to the Congolese Civil War; NOTHING THAT in spite of all these painful horrors of the Congolese Civil War, Africa has never been allowed to enjoy any sustainable comfortable peace due to the continued scourge of recurrent civil strifes not only in Rwanda but also in Burundi, Angola, Liberia, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eriteria, Uganda, Algeria, etc.; AND FURTHER NOTING THAT many other African countries may soon also be faced with similar potential threats of Civil War. 1. WE ARE EXTREMELY CONCERNED about the new developments in Rwanda such as: - (a) Continued massacres of refugee returnees particularly those of the Hutu tribe by the Tutsis using their Rwanda Patriotic Army of the Tutsi dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) as a reprisal against the recent Tutsi massacres thereby forcing surviving Hutu returnees to flee back en-mass to refugee camps (as also confirmed by the UNHCR, the Human Rights Watch reports, and the Amnesty International reports on the CNN, 20 October, 1994 and also by Reuter in the Daily Nation. Nairobi, 21 October, 1994, (b) Hasty demands by the new Tutsi dominated RPF Government in Kigali for an immediate formation of an International Tribunal to try and punish suspects of the Rwanda genocide who happen to be all Hutus, without due regard to Hutu consequential reprisals which could lead to the second chapter of Rwanda Holocaust, (c) Continued refusal by the RPF Government Leaders to accept a Reconciliation Offer by the Hutu - dominated former Government Authorities arguing that the latter are criminals of the 1994 Rwanda Holocaust, (d) Refusal by the Hutu refugees in the camps totaling approximately 5 million people (4.5 million in Zaire and 0.5 million in Tanzania) to return to their homes of domicile in Rwanda or participate in the new RPF 4 Government unless and until the latter first accepts this Reconciliation Offer, (e) Pressure by the new RPF Government in Kigali on the United Nations