Britain S Hidden Role In The Rwandan Genocide

Britain’s Hidden Role in the Rwandan Genocide examines the role of the United Kingdom as a global elite bystander to the crime of genocide, and its complicity, in violation of international criminal laws during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. As prevailing accounts confine themselves to the role and actions of the United States and the United Nations, the full picture of Rwanda’s genocide has yet to be revealed. Hazel Cameron demonstrates that it is the unravelling of the criminal role and actions of the British that illuminates a more detailed answer to the question of ‘why’ the genocide in Rwanda occurred. In this book, she provides a systematic and detailed analysis of the policies of the British Government towards civil unrest in Rwanda throughout the 1990s that culminated in genocide. Utilising documentary evidence obtained as a result of Freedom of Information requests to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as well as material obtained through extensive interviews - with British government cabinet members, diplomats, Ambassadors to the United Nations Security Council, prisoners in Rwanda convicted of being leaders and organisers of genocide, and victims and survivors of genocide in Rwanda – the author finds that the actions of the British and French governments, both before and during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, were disassociated from human rights norms. It is suggested herein that the decision-making of the Major government during the period of 1990 – 1994 was for the advancement of the interrelated goals of maintaining power status and ensuring economic interests in key areas of Africa. This account of the legal culpability of the powerful within the corridors of government, in both London and Paris, shows that these behaviours cannot be conceptualised under existing notions of state crime. This book serves to illuminate the inadequacies and limitations of a concept of state crime in international law as it currently stands, and will be of considerable interest to anyone concerned with the misuse of state power.

Throughout the 1990s, humanitarian interventionism sat at a crossroads, where ideas about rights and duties within and beyond borders collided with an international reality of civil conflict where the most basic human rights were violated in the most brutal manner. This growing awareness of humanitarian crises has been enabled by a more globalized media which increasingly shapes public perceptions of distant crises, public opinion, and political decision-making. Clarke examines the extent to which the public discourse, and particular concepts, including those of an ethical and legal nature, influenced British newspaper coverage of the 1994 crisis in Rwanda, and, in turn, the extent to which that coverage influenced the British Parliament’s response to the crisis. Through his development and application of a broader methodological approach that combines both quantitative and qualitative analyses, the book offers a fuller understanding of the relationship between media coverage, parliamentary debate, and policy formulation, and the central role that the globalized media plays in this process. Integrating ethics, law and empirical analysis of the media to obtain a more cohesive understanding of the chemistry of the media-public policy nexus, this work will be of interest to graduates and scholars in a range of areas, including Genocide Studies, the Responsibility to Protect, the Media & Politics and International Relations.

On the contemporary international law scene, there are not many jurists who match the eminence and stature of Abdul G. Koroma, who served as distinguished judge of the International Court of Justice for 18 years. This volume of outstanding essays, Shielding Humanity, written by renowned judges, scholars and practitioners of international law in honour of Judge Koroma, discuss both classical and contemporary topics of significant relevance to the current and future of international law.

This important reference work offers students an accessible overview of the Rwandan Genocide, with more than 100 detailed articles by leading scholars on an array of topics and themes and 20 key primary source documents. Tracing the history of Rwanda prior to, during, and after German and Belgian colonization of Rwanda through the present day, this invaluable resource scrutinizes the historical events that determined how and why the Rwandan Genocide occurred and discusses the memory, history, and legacy of the atrocity both within and outside of Rwanda. Designed to suit the needs of students both new to and advanced in the subject, this reference work provides readers with a thematic overview of the Rwandan Genocide, an accessible analysis of the national and international complexities that drove it, and more than 100 in-depth entries on topics related to the genocide. Encyclopedic entries profile key perpetrators, rescuers, and witnesses as well as religious, political, and nonprofit groups, which, in combination with entries on judicial proceedings and the United Nations, offer readers a multifaceted understanding of Rwanda, the genocide, and its aftermath. To help learners to engage with the historical and social contexts of this atrocity, the book also contains 20 curated primary source documents and six perspective essays, in which scholars debate key questions regarding the genocide.

This book provides an indispensable resource for anyone researching the scourge of mass murder in the 20th and 21st centuries, effectively using primary source documents to help them understand all aspects of genocide. This illuminating primary source collection closely examines and analyzes primary documents related to genocides, focusing on genocidal events from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Thematically organized into eight sections, each document comes with an introduction and analysis written by the author that helps provide the crucial historical background for the users of this title to learn about the complexities of genocide. The first section considers a range of definitional matters relating to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes; the second section relates to warnings of impending genocide, and how they have been received; the third considers atrocities and how they have been perpetrated; the fourth is an examination ofexamines a range of resistance initiatives that have been taken in response to genocide; the fifth looks at reactions to genocide from outside actors; the sixth considers the ways in which states have intervened to stop genocide; the seventh relates to post-genocide justice measures; and the eighth section relates to how states and NGOs have sought to prevent genocide.

This perceptive book analyzes the scope of the duty to prevent genocide of China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US in light of the due diligence standard under conventional, customary, and peremptory international law. It expounds the positive obligations of these five states to act both within and without the Security Council context to prevent or suppress an imminent or ongoing genocide.

The Rwandan genocide was one of the most shameful events of the 20th century. Many Westerners’ understanding of it is based upon the Oscar-winning film Hotel Rwanda and the critically acclaimed Shooting Dogs. Yet how accurately do these films depict events in Rwanda in 1994? Drawing on new scholarship, this collection of essays explores a variety of feature films and documentaries about the genocide to understand its expression in both Western and Rwandan cinema. Interviews with filmmakers are featured, including journalist Steve Bradshaw (BBC’s Panorama), director Nick Hughes (100 Days), director Lee Isaac Chung (Munyurangabo) and Rwandan filmmakers Eric Kabera and Kivu Ruhorahoza.

A powerful investigation into a grisly political murder and the authoritarian regime behind it: Do Not Disturb upends the narrative that Rwanda sold the world after one of the deadliest genocides of the twentieth century. We think we know the story of Africa’s Great Lakes region. Following the Rwandan genocide, an idealistic group of young rebels overthrew the brutal regime in Kigali, ushering in an era of peace and stability that made Rwanda the donor darling of the West, winning comparisons with Switzerland and Singapore. But the truth was considerably more sinister. Vividly sourcing her story with direct testimony from key participants, Wrong uses the story of the murder of Patrick Karegeya, once Rwanda’s head of external intelligence and a quicksilver operator of supple charm, to paint the portrait of a modern African dictatorship created in the chilling likeness of Paul Kagame, the president who sanctioned his former friend’s assassination.