Sexual Violence at Nyarubuye: History, Justice, Memory
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 9-22-2015 12:00 AM Sexual Violence at Nyarubuye: History, Justice, Memory. A Case Study of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide Nicole M. Ephgrave The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Amanda Grzyb The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Women's Studies and Feminist Research A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Nicole M. Ephgrave 2015 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Other Political Science Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Ephgrave, Nicole M., "Sexual Violence at Nyarubuye: History, Justice, Memory. A Case Study of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide" (2015). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3335. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3335 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SEXUAL VIOLENCE AT NYARUBUYE: HISTORY, JUSTICE, MEMORY A CASE STUDY OF THE 1994 RWANDAN GENOCIDE (Thesis format: Monograph) by Nicole M. Ephgrave Graduate Program in Women’s Studies & Feminist Research Collaborative Program in Transitional Justice & Post-Conflict Reconstruction A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTORATE OF PHILOSOPHY The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Nicole Ephgrave 2015 Abstract: This dissertation raises complex questions about historical truth, the pursuit of justice, and processes of memorialization vis-à-vis one case study of the Rwandan genocide: the Nyarubuye Church massacre, where members of the Interahamwe militia and their accomplices murdered tens of thousands of (mainly) Tutsi men, women and children, April 15th-17th, 1994. As a microcosm of larger patterns of the genocide and its aftermath, I analyze official discourses to uncover how this specific event is framed and understood, with a focus on the widespread perpetration of sexual violence. Specifically, I provide a chronological reconstruction of the massacre, investigate transcripts of the ICTR Prosecutor v. Gacumbitsi trial in detail, analyze the memorial site in a comparative perspective, and explore theoretical discussions about how rape functioned during the genocide, and how it has been understood and represented in post-genocide Rwanda. This dissertation contributes to an interdisciplinary scholarly trajectory that takes a narrow focus on one event, drawing out analyses and questions with wider implications, at the intersection of genocide studies, feminist work on sexual violence, developments in international law, and the politics of memory. Nyarubuye is a site that offers meaningful insights about genocidal rape – how it functioned in the Rwandan genocide, how it was dealt with from a judicial perspective, and how it has been imprinted in national memory. Keywords: Rwandan genocide, sexual violence, rape as a weapon of war, international law, memorialization, post-genocide politics, official discourse, Nyarubuye ii Acknowledgements I want to thank my Supervisor, Dr. Amanda Grzyb, for her guidance and support throughout this process, and all of the time and effort she put forth. She was continually pushing me to produce the best dissertation project I possibly could, and for that I am very grateful. I would also like to thank Dr. Valerie Oosterveld for her assistance, which was particularly integral to the legal aspects of my dissertation work. The expertise of both these scholars has very much inspired me. Thank you to Dr. Tracy Isaacs for your advice and encouragement as well. I am grateful to the Women’s Studies and Feminist Research department for your commitment to providing opportunities and encouragement to your graduate students, and to my brilliant and incredibly kind colleagues (and friends) in the program, in particular Sarah, Kate, and Jen. I have to thank my supportive partner and best friend Tamer, for always having confidence in me and surrounding me with positivity. I couldn’t have done it without you, and I dedicate this work to you. Thank you to my parents, for all of your love and support, particularly to my mom for being my sounding board for my ideas since I was young, and encouraging me in every venture I undertake. Thank you to my siblings, Natalie and Nolan, who have grown into such unique individuals with the biggest hearts, and whom I love very much. I am very grateful to my friends and extended family who have been kind and encouraging throughout this process - it means a lot to me. Finally, I want to acknowledge Rwandan survivors of the genocide, whom I am inspired by and forever indebted to in terms of this project, and thank those who welcomed me with open arms at the CNLG and beyond when I visited this beautiful country. Your resilience has taught me so much. iii Table of Contents Abstract …………………………………………………………………………. ii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………... iii Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………….. iv List of Figures …………………………………………………………………... v Introduction: Official Discourses ……………………………………………….. 1 Chapter 1: 1.1 Background: The Rwandan Genocide ……………………………………… 21 1.2 The Nyarubuye Massacre: A Chronology …………………………………. 34 Chapter 2: 2.1 Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War & its Role in the Rwandan Genocide ………………………………………………………. 65 2.2 Reviewing the ICTR’s Record on Rape Prosecutions ……………………… 84 2.3 Looking Beyond the Judgment: Witness TAP, Rape Revelations, and Lessons from Prosecutor v. Gacumbitsi …………………………………. 104 Chapter 3: 3.1 Remembering Nyarubuye ….……………………………………………… 138 3.2 The Politics of Memorialization …………………………………………... 164 Conclusions: History/Justice/Memory, Other Discourses & Future Directions for Research ………………………………………………... 180 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………… 201 Curriculum Vitae ………………………………………………………………. 221 iv List of Figures: Figure 1: Map of Rusumo, Kibungo Province ……...…………………………………. 33 Reprinted with permission, Nations Online Map Project Figure 2: Photograph – Nyarubuye ………………..………………………………… 34 Copyright Gilles Peress, reprinted with permission. Photographs: 1Figure 3: Nyarubuye church ………………………………………………………… 150 Figure 4: Sticks used to rape women …………………………………………………. 150 Figure 5: Decapitated statue of Mary …………………………………………………. 151 Figure 6: Latrines at Nyarubuye ………………………………………………………. 151 Figure 7: Preserved corpses, Murambi ………………………………………………... 161 Figure 8: Tomb at Nyamata …………………………………………………………… 161 1 Note: Figures (Photographs) 3-8 were taken myself with CNLG permission, October 2013. v Introduction: Official Discourses “If we read stories not for what they say, but for what they psychically perform, what can we learn about our social and political responses to events such as war, genocide, political conflict, as well as colonial and postcolonial traumas? …In our stories we imagine our safety, we resist threat, we construct the terms of community, we find ego ideals. Our stories offer psychic consolation to pain. They are indeed our strategies to abate suffering and difficulty. We live by our stories; sometimes we even die for them” (Georgis 2013, 1-2). In her recent book The Better Story, Dina Georgis argues that narratives “give us access to the deeply human qualities of how political histories get written from the existential experience of trauma, loss, [and] difficulty,” (2013, 1) suggesting that we must read historical representations as human constructions emerging from responses to difficult situations. Although Georgis is focusing on the aesthetics of stories from the Middle East as a form of queer affect, the central idea that particular narrative discourses emerge to construct the past, seek and transmit knowledge, and influence the future, is highly resonant in post-genocide (and post-conflict) contexts. My dissertation project simultaneously engages with (re)constructing a micro-history of the Rwandan genocide, while also questioning the power relations of how ‘collective’ and ‘official’ memory is constructed; It uncovers what reading between the lines of official discourse can reveal, and the repercussions of this analysis for understanding the broader story of the Rwandan genocide. In the anthology Disturbing Remains, Michael Roth and Charles Salas pose the philosophical question, how do “we make our histories, our memories, and ourselves in relation to events so dire that they exceed the categories available to us?” (2001, 3). This is a central query facing transitional justice scholars. As an emerging and expanding area of scholarly inquiry, transitional justice entails studying the worst aspects of human actions, including genocide and mass atrocity, alongside mechanisms to rectify and recover from them, including justice-seeking bodies (local, domestic, and international), post-conflict reconstruction, the possibility of reparations, and the difficult task of reconciliation. Critical scholarship is attentive to the power relations and imbalances that both propel violence and persist in post-conflict contexts, including deeply entrenched axes of oppression such as gender inequality. While we often see testimony as communicating the ‘truth’ of what happened, past events are necessarily recalled and understood through a mediated, constructed narrative – what gets