"Leave None to Tell the Story": Genocide in Rwanda

This study describes in detail how the killing campaign was executed, linking oral testimony with extensive written documentation. It draws upon interviews with those who managed to survive, those who killed or directed killings, those who saved or sought to save others, and those who watched and tried not to see. It analyzes the layers of language and the silences that made up the deceptive discourse of genocide, broadcast on the radio and delivered at public meetings. It also traces changes in the tactics and organization of the campaign as well as its collapse as the RPF defeated the genocidal government.

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"Starving Armenians:" America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After

In "Starving Armenians," Merrill Peterson explores the American response to atrocities in Armenia. As the New York Times carried stories about the "slow massacre of a race," public outrage over this tragedy led to an unprecedented philanthropic crusade spearheaded by Near East Relief, dedicated to saving the survivors of the first genocide of the twentieth century. The book also addresses the Armenian aspirations for an independent republic under American auspices; these hopes went unfulfilled in the peacemaking after the war and ended altogether when Armenia was absorbed into the Soviet Union.

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"War on Terror" Used to Target Minorities: Report

"Countries on the front line in the 'war on terror' are using the battle against extremists as a smokescreen to crack down on minority groups, an international human rights group said on Thursday. For the fourth straight year, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan topped an annual index compiled by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) of countries where minorities are most at risk of genocide, mass killings or violent repression." -- from Website

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A Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia

This book discusses the link between religion and genocide in Bosnia.

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A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation

Eric Weitz investigates four of the twentieth century's major eruptions of genocide: the Soviet Union under Stalin, Nazi Germany, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and the former Yugoslavia. He demonstrates how, in each of the cases, a strong state pursuing utopia promoted a particular mix of extreme national and racial ideologies. This book offers some of the most absorbing accounts ever written of the population purges forever associated with the names Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Milosevic. A controversial and richly textured comparison of these four modern cases, it identifies the social and political forces that produce genocide.

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A Civil Alternative: An Evaluation of the IOM KPC Program

This article describes and evaluates the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), which was a defense organization designed to facilitate the demilitarization, demobilization, and reintegration of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Case Study

A People Betrayed: the Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide

In 1994 up to one million people were killed in Rwanda in a deliberate, public and political campaign. For five years, Linda Melvern has worked on the story of this great crime, and this book, a classic piece of investigative journalism, is the result. The new and startling information this book contains has the making of an international scandal. Melvern reveals how the great powers failed to heed the warnings of the coming catastrophe, andrefused to recognize the genocide when it began, ignoring obligations under international law, specifically the genocide convention. A set of secret documents leaked to the author from within the Security Council proves that the circumstances of the genocide were suppressed or ignored.

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A President, a Boy and Genocide

Kristof's opinion piece provides striking detail of the condition of Darfuri aid camps and their precarious situation on the border with Chad.

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A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide

"A Problem from Hell is both a history of America's reactions to the genocides of the twentieth century and a history of the American government's understanding of genocide itself. Written by Samantha Power, a former war correspondent and executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, A Problem from Hell synthesizes interviews and documentary evidence into a readable narrative." -- from Website

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A Reason to Wait for iPhone 4: Rape and Genocide in the Congo

Thanks to Apple's rabid PR push and to media coverage, almost every little detail of the iPhone 4 has been documented - except for one minor factoid - that is. The phone, like several other luxury electronics on the market, may contain minerals supplied by bloodthirsty Congolese paramilitary groups.

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A Spanish Genocide? Reflections on the Francoist Repression after the Spanish Civil War

This article considers whether the Franco regime pursued a genocidal policy against Republicans after the formal ending of hostilities on 1 April 1939, stressing that the institutionalisation of military justice from 1937, following the arbitrary murders of 1936, contributed to a relative decline in executions.

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Accounting for War Crimes in Cambodia

Article Summary

After Arusha : Gacaca Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda

"The Gacaca courts were resurrected in Rwanda as an indigenous form of restorative justice. The principles and process of these courts hope to mitigate the failures of 'Arusha Justice' at the tribunal and seeks to punish or reintegrate over one hundred thousands genocide suspects. Its restorative foundations require that suspects will be tried and judged by neighbours in their community." -- from Abstract

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After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond

"In 'After Genocide', leading scholars and practitioners analyse the political, legal and regional impact of events in post-genocide Rwanda within the broader themes of transitional justice, reconstruction and reconciliation. Given the forthcoming fifteenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, and continued mass violence in Africa, especially in Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Uganda, this volume is unquestionably of continuing relevance." -- from Website

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After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide

For 25 years, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge have avoided responsibility for their crimes against humanity. For 30 long years, from the late 1960s to the late 1990s, the Cambodian people suffered from a war that has no name. New findings demonstrate that the death toll was approximately 2.2 million--about a half million higher than commonly believed. Detailing the struggle to come to terms with what happened in Cambodia, Etcheson concludes that real justice is not merely elusive, but in fact may be impossible, for crimes on the scale of genocide. Despite regular denial of knowledge of the mass killing among the surviving leadership of the Khmer Rouge, Etcheson demonstrates that they were not only aware of it, but that they personally managed and directed the killing.

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After the TRC: Reflections on Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa

Looking back at South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), this collection has two primary goals. First, it aims to provide an assessment of the TRC experience. Second, it asks where South Africa should go from here.

Book Summary

Armenian National Institute

This site is dedicated to the study, research, and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.

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Assessing the Genocide and Political Mass Murder Framework: The Case of Uzbekistan

This particular journal article focuses on the mass murders in Uzbekistan and the need to focus on Central Asia more closely. In addition to defining genocide and the many forms it takes in Uzbekistan, this article aslso identifies risk factors to evaluate the danger of genocide in Uzbekistan.

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Beyond Libya: A World Ready to Respond to Mass Violence

"The decision to authorize force to counter Gaddafi's explicit threats was steeped in the rationale of a political principle known as the Responsibility to Protect, or R2P. Its final outcome will undoubtedly impact the way global leaders view their self-professed responsibility to protect civilian populations from genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes." -- from Website

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Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur

"For thirty years Ben Kiernan has been deeply involved in the study of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has played a key role in unearthing confidential documentation of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. His writings have transformed our understanding not only of twentieth-century Cambodia but also of the historical phenomenon of genocide. This new book - the first global history of genocide and extermination from ancient times - is among his most important achievements."

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Blood on the Doorstep: The Politics of Preventive Action

"Combining hard-headed commentary with expert analysis of recent deadly conflicts in Somalia, Rwanda, the Balkans, and Afghanistan, Rubin shows that violence arises not only from internal conflicts within poverty-stricken societies, but also from external political manipulation and failures of global institutions... According to Rubin, the solution lies in coalitions of international organizations, NGOs, and states prepared to take political action, and not in a new institutional architecture or global governance." -- from Website

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Blue Nile State (Sudan) and the Resumption of Country-wide War

This article discusses the destructive military actions seen in Sudan by the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party. Even after the successful secession by South Sudan as an independent nation, the war that has ravaged the country has not ended, and civilian casualties continue to be lost as the government of Khartoum refuses to adhere to the calls for immediate ceasefire by the UN.

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Book Review of "The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda" by Scott Straus

According to this book review, "the local dynamics of the 1994 Rwandan genocide have remained poorly understood. Scott Straus demonstrates that although a ‘new consensus’ (pp. 31–40) has dismissed the ‘tribal hatred’ model, this consensus tends to overemphasise the ‘intentionalist’ role of the elite, failing to account for the ‘middle and the bottom’ (p. 2). Through a ‘more micro-level, social scientific investigation’ (p. 40) Straus seeks to remedy these lacunae." -- From Review

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Cambodia Confronts the "G" Word

The horrors of the Khmer Rouge's rule may be in the past, but the question of whether its crimes amount to genocide lingers on. The term genocide is often used reflexively to describe the Khmer Rouge's rule of terror that led to the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians from overwork, starvation, and murder from 1975 to 1979. It was not, however, one of the charges former Khmer Rouge leaders had faced in the three-year-old U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal. This is changing, though, and the new move is controversial.

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Cambodian Genocide Program

"Since 1994, the award-winning Cambodian Genocide Program, a project of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, has been studying the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 to learn as much as possible about the tragedy, and to help determine who was responsible for the crimes of the Pol Pot regime." -- from Website

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Children of Genocide - Cambodia

April 1995 Cambodia is a still deeply scarred by Pol Pot's holocaust. More than a million people may have died during his reign. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot were at the heart of the circumstances which brought the USA into the Vietnam War - one of the cruellest of the Cold War disputes. This feature paints a picture of a people still struggling to forget the devastation of Pot's own special brand of social reform. Mental illness is rife and neighbour still fears neighbour.

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Christiane Amanpour Reveals Stories of Those Who Tried to Stop Genocide

"From ethnic slaughters in Armenia to the Holocaust to systematic terror and violence in Cambodia, Rwanda, Iraq and Darfur, CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour reports on the recurring nightmare of genocide and the largely unknown struggles of the heroes who witnessed evil -- and 'screamed bloody murder' for the international community to stop it... A new two-hour documentary, CNN Presents: Scream Bloody Murder, will premiere on Thursday, Dec. 4, [2009]." -- from Website

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Chronicle of a Genocide Foretold

The global refrain about genocide is "Never Again," but we may be watching how that slips into "One More Time." The place is southern Sudan, and the timetable is the next few months. The South, which holds more than 75 percent of Sudan's oil, is scheduled to hold a referendum on Jan. 9 on seceding from the rest of Sudan.

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Coexistence Community Consultations in South Africa

Sarah Peterson describes a negotiation process in South Africa involving land reform that has, with effort, led to longer-term coexistence. But maintenance of coexistence takes continual effort, she explains.

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Conflict Transformation Training as Intervention

This essay discusses the use of training as a means of conflict intervention, focusing especially on the author's work with both an external and local NGO in Manipur, India.

Beyond Intractability Essay

Darfur

There are four ongoing cases in the Court's Darfur investigation. Three of the suspects have still not been arrested, but three others voluntarily responded to summons to appear before the Court. This site links to documents concerning these cases; everything from ICC statements and reports to goverment and inter-governmental documents to factsheets and much more.

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Darfur in Flames: Atrocities in Western Sudan

"Militias backed by the government of Sudan are committing crimes against humanity in Darfur, western Sudan, in response to a year-long insurgency. The past three months of escalating violence threaten to turn the current human rights and humanitarian crisis into a man-made famine and humanitarian catastrophe." -- from Summary

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Darfur: the Ambiguous Genocide

In mid-2004 the Darfur crisis in Western Sudan forced itself onto the center stage of world affairs. A formerly obscure 'tribal conflict' in the heart of Africa has escalated into the first genocide of the twenty-first century. Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide explains what lies behind the conflict, how it came about, why it should not be oversimplified, and why it is so relevant to the future of the continent.

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Deciphering Disorder in Africa: Is Identity the Key?

Noted Africa-watcher Crawford Young reviews five books that examine the role of identity in recent conflicts in Liberia, Rwanda, Algeria, and elsewhere. While competing identities certainly can influence conflict, they are just one factor among many that cause and perpetuate them.

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Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?

"The purpose of this book is to reveal the difference between history and pseudohistory by using Holocaust denial as a classic case study in how the past may be revised for present political and ideological purposes." -- from Website

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Dismembering Yugoslavia: Nationalist Ideologies and the Symbolic Revival of Genocide

The violent dismemberment of Yugoslavia has added the term "ethnic cleansing" to the global vocabulary. This article interprets the ideological and historical context within which these practices erupted, focusing on the symbolic dynamics of genocide as a critical underlying issue in the ethnic war that began in Croatia in 1991, spreading to Bosnia-Herzegovina the following year. The "forgotten" burial sites of massacre victims provided a powerful reservoir of traumatic memory, subject to manipulation on the part of all who seized the "disjunctive moment" to reconstitute the state according to nationalist definitions.

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Do We Understand Life after Genocide?: Center and Periphery in the Construction of Knowledge in Postgenocide Rwanda

A reflection on the construction of knowledge in and on Rwanda reveals that it is rife with contradictory assertions and images, and that there is a discrepancy between image and reality. This article attempts to map the center(s) of knowledge construction in postgenocide Rwanda, the place not only where policy is made, but also where knowledge is actively construed, managed, and controlled. It argues that an overall cultivation of the aesthetics of progress and a culturally specific communication code have contributed to an active interference in the scientific construction of knowledge. It stresses the need for scholars and observers to reveal the social and historical context for the knowledge being generated. It also urges them to physically and mentally move away from the center of society: to adopt a bottom-up perspective that captures the voices of ordinary people.

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Documenting Brutalities to Change the World

"When you hear the word 'survivor', you usually think of that reality TV show pitting contestants against one another on some remote island. In Rwanda, 'survivor' refers to those who survived the genocide. I had the privilege of visiting a survivor's village an hour outside of Kigali to hear from women who have survived extreme sexual violence." -- from Website

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East and Central Africa: A Legacy of Deadly Political Violence and the Risks of its Recurrence

The East and Central Africa region has experienced intense protracted conflict for decades characterized by insurgent groups, refugees, and munitions traveling across borders to propogate more conflict. Because of the high likelihood of East and Central African countries to fall into trends of deadly political violence, this article attempts to assess the risks of future genocides in the region.

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Enemy Images

In Rwanda, the Tutsis were referred to as the enemy, cockroaches and rats. These extreme enemy images paved the way for the atrocities of the Rwandan genocide.

Beyond Intractability Essay

Equipo Nizkor - Report of the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador

"Between 1980 and 1991, the Republic of El Salvador in Central America was engulfed in a war which plunged Salvadorian society into violence, left it with thousands and thousands of people dead and exposed it to appalling crimes, until the day -- 16 January 1992 -- when the parties, reconciled, signed the Peace Agreement in the Castle of Chapultepec, Mexico, and brought back the light and the chance to re-emerge from madness to hope." -- from Website

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Ethnic Conflict Management in Africa: A Comparative Case Study of Nigeria and South Africa

This case study examines theoretical explanations about the causes of ethnic conflict and then does a comparison of such conflict and its resolution (or not) in South Africa and Nigeria. The author examines the factors that appear to have made conflict resolution efforts in South Africa more successful than those in Nigeria.

Case Study

European Roma Rights Centre

"The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) is an international public interest law organisation working to combat anti-Romani racism and human rights abuse of Roma through strategic litigation, research and policy development, advocacy and human rights education." -- from Website

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Expectations for International Mediation

Article Summary

Eyewitness to a Genocide: the United Nations and Rwanda

Michael Barnett, who worked at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, covered Rwanda for much of the genocide. Based on his first-hand experiences, archival work, and interviews with many key participants, he reconstructs the history of the UN's involvement in Rwanda.

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Five Misconceptions About Using the Word Genocide

Five of the most common misunderstandings about the Genocide Convention have again appeared in the press in the debate about whether the atrocities in Darfur constitute genocide.

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Forgiveness, Amnesty and Justice: The Case of the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda

By analysing the role that forgiveness is playing in bringing almost two decades of conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan government to an end, this article demonstrates that a disjuncture exists between the theoretical treatment of forgiveness and the practice of political forgiveness. That is, it demonstrates, contrary to arguments made by both its supporters and critics, that political forgiveness, even when conceived in conjunction with amnesties, may contribute to both restorative and retributive forms of justice.

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Gacaca Justice - Rwanda

According to this video, Rwanda's Gacaca Courts have become a model for transitioning into a peaceful society. Fifteen years after the genocide and with thousands of culprits sentenced by the courts, is Rwanda ready to surmount its tragic history?

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Genocide After Emotion: the Post-emotional Balkan War

The failure to adequately respond on the part of the major Western superpowers to the atrocities in the Balkans constitutes a major moral and political scandal. In Genocide After Emotion, Mestrovic and the contributors thoroughly interrogate the war, its media coverage and response in the West. The result is alarming, both for the progress of the war and for the condition of our society today: the authors argue that the West is suffering from a 'postemotional' condition - we are beyond caring about anything anymore.

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Genocide as a Crime Under International Law

The practices of the National Socialist Government in Germany resulting in destruction of entire human groups have impetus to a reconsideration of certain principles of international law. If the destruction of human groups is a problem of international concern, then such acts should be treated as crimes under the law of nations.

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Genocide Verdicts in Srebrenica Killings

Judges at the Hague handed down two rare genocide convictions, sentencing two security officers for the Bosnian Serb Army to life in prison for their roles in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the worst single episode in a decade of war that left 100,000 dead and tore the Balkans apart. In Serbia and Bosnia, many still deny the magnitude of the killings at Srebrenica and of the role of both the Serbian and Bosnian Serb leadership in the planning and final capture of the United Nations protected zones.

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Historical Injustice and Democratic Transition in Eastern Asia and Northern Europe: Ghosts at the Table of Democracy

This work emerged from a conference in Denmark, and explores the legacy of past trauma in countries that do not receive much attention in transitional justice literature.

Book Summary

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"The major forum for scholarship on the Holocaust and other genocides, Holocaust and Genocide Studies is an international journal featuring research articles, interpretive essays, and book reviews in the social sciences and humanities. It is the principal publication to address the issue of how insights into the Holocaust apply to other genocides." -- from Website

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How Africa's Internal Wars Ended: Lessons for Prevention?

This paper asks what might be learned about prevention, or mitigation, from the ways in which continental Africa's internal wars ended. By comparing information on 19 internal wars in post-colonial Africa, this article makes conclusions on the outcomes of such internal conflicts, some of which have not yet ended, as well as makes observations on the future of peacemaking in these areas.

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Human Rights in Africa

This powerful volume challenges the conventional view that the concept of human rights is peculiar to the West and, therefore, inherently alien to the non-Western traditions of third world countries. From a cultural perspective, the contributing authors discuss prospects for a cross-cultural approach to human rights.

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Human Rights Watch: Kenyan Police Exploit Somali Refugees

Human Rights Watch warns of deteriorating conditions at the borders of Kenya and Somalia. The group calls for governments, the United Nations, and donors to address widespread violence, degrading detention, extortion, rape and providing security to asylum seekers.

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In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

"Irene Gut was just 17 in 1939, when the Germans and Russians devoured her native Poland. Just a girl, really. But a girl who saw evil and chose to defy it." -- from Website

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Ingando Solidarity Camps: Reconciliation and Political Indoctrination in Post-Genocide Rwanda

Based primarily on interviews with government officials, journalists, genocide survivors, and solidarity camp participants, this article evaluates the merits and limits of these post conflict solidarity camps in fostering reconciliation in the complicated social landscape of Rwanda. The article argues the failure of these solidarity camps as a reconciliation mechanism.

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Justice for Cambodia? Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunals for the Future Direction of International Criminal Justice

This article examines the Extraordinary Chambers of the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) -- the tribunal recently created to try Khmer Rouge leaders for the Cambodian "killing fields." It not only examines the potential effectiveness in the Cambodian context, but also the larger role of hybrid local/international tribunals in the context of the ICC and other war crimes tribunals.

Case Study

Justice, Democracy, and Impunity in Post-genocide Rwanda: Searching for Solutions to Impossible Problems

In discussing Rwanda, the author asserts that bold and innovative solutions have been required, and more will be needed as the prosecutions continue. These have already included the creation of specialized chambers for genocide, and the implementation of innovative schemes like the confession and guilty plea procedure of the new legislation. Foreign experts may play an essential, albeit secondary, role as trainers and advisors in this process. The goal should not be to replace the existing judicial system, which must recover from the genocide at its own pace and according to its own requirements.

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Kurds in Turkey: Building Reconciliation and Local Administrations

This paper recounts the history of the conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurdish community living in Turkey, and proposes specific strategies that could be taken by both groups in order to resolve it.

Case Study

Liberia on the Brink...of Peace

"Liberia, for all of its progress, remains largely defined by the civil war that ravaged it for 14 years. This small West African country of 3.5 million people, after all, was once infamous for child soldiers, blood diamonds, and Charles Taylor -- the country's former president now on trial for crimes against humanity in neighboring Sierra Leone." -- from Website

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Locating Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Global Trends

This article describes the truth and reconciliation commission that has been instituted to examine the treatment of aboriginal populations in Canada's "Indian Residential Schools." The author examines the problems and benefits of this effort, and how it relates to other TRCs around the world. The Canadian TRC is a critical case for analysis due to the fact that it is located outside the normal political dimensions for the use of truth commissions, it is focused on historical crimes committed against an indigenous population, and it lacks a justice mandate.

Case Study

Making Peace after Genocide

This report distills the author's experience as a presidential special envoy to Africa's Great Lakes region from 1996 to 2001, and as the director of a Burundi leadership training initiative from 2003 to 2009. The author discusses the lessons drawn from the Burundi and Rwandan experiences after the Tutsi-Hutu conflict.

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Management of Civil Wars and Genocidal Violence: Lessons from Statistical Research

This paper assesses the question of atrocities against civilians in the context of civil wars. It clarifies the magnitude of atrocities, the track record of peacekeeping operations in areas like Rwanda, Bosnia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and suggests an agenda for further discussion on management of violent civil wars through the lens of statistics.

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Moral Victories: How Activists Provoke Multilateral Action

"This book combines four analytical threads: an account of the development of a transnational human rights regime; a detailed discussion of human rights intervention in El Salvador and Guatemala (with comparative references to Cambodia, Argentina, and briefly, Colombia); an analysis of the role of civil society in the form of transnational networks of human rights activists in making human rights intervention possible and successful; and a set of propositions about what makes human rights missions succeed or fail." -- from Website

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Nation-Building and Conflict in Modern Africa

Nation-building has long been seen as an important focus for post-colonial African governments. However, up until now there has been no empirical analysis of either the origins or consequences of these policies. Here we compile an original dataset measuring nine different types of nation-building policies. Using Ordinary Least Squares regressions, we first show that nation-building policies are correlated with larger states and British colonialism. We then use logistic regressions to test the effect of such policies on civil wars using two different datasets of civil wars, and and no evidence that such policies have helped to prevent civil war.

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Negotiating Peace for Darfur: An Overview of Failed Processes

This essay evaluates the various attempts at peacemaking in Darfur, examining why they have failed and what will need to change if peace is to be achieved.

Case Study

Peacebuilding from the Grassroots: Equity Conciliation and Conflict Transformation in Colombia

Conflict resolution efforts that attempt to work in cooperation with -- rather than in opposition to or in ignorance of -- the local culture in which a conflict is occurring are much more likely to succeed. Colombian culture already contains several powerful conflict resolution mechanisms, which may hold great potential for effecting lasting change. This case study focuses particularly on a mechanism called equity conciliation.

Case Study

Preventing Genocide: How the Early Use of Force Might have Succeeded in Rwanda

"Based on the presentations by the panel and other research, the author believes that a modern force of 5,000 troops, drawn primarily from one country and sent to Rwanda sometime between April 7 and 21, 1994, could have significantly altered the outcome of the conflict. Although the organized combatant factions in Rwanda were fairly capable light infantry and such an operation would have entailed significant risk, the introduction of a combat force large enough to seize, at one time, key objectives all over the country would have, in the words of one senior officer, 'thrown a wet blanket over an emerging fire.' More specifically, forces appropriately trained, equipped, and commanded, and introduced in a timely manner, could have stemmed the violence in and around the capital, prevented its spread to the countryside, and created conditions conducive to the cessation of the civil war between the RPF and RGF." -- from Website

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Propaganda and Conflict: Theory and Evidence from the Rwandan Genocide

This paper investigates the impact of propaganda on participation in violent conflict. The author examines the effects of the infamous "hate radio" station Radio RTLM that called for the extermination of the Tutsi ethnic minority population before and during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. The author develops a model of participation in ethnic violence where radio broadcasts a noisy public signal about the value of violence. Findings indicate that Radio RTLM increased participation in violence.

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Rape Warfare: the Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia

In this highly personal account, Beverly Allen provides a compelling testimony and analysis of the horrifying phenomenon of "a military policy of rape for the purpose of genocide."In Rape Warfare, Allen examines the complexity of identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia through the accounts of rape/death camp survivors and those who work to help them. Allen concludes with an impassioned argument for bringing to trial the perpetrators of genocidal rape. By turns personal, polemical, and informative, Rape Warfare is a lucid guide for anyone seeking to make sense of what is happening in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.

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Reconciliation in Bosnia

Almost everyone living in Bosnia has deep emotional scars from the war. Despite their suffering, perpetrators and victims have to learn to work together to rebuild their country.

Case Study

Risk Assessment and Early Warning and Their Uses for Prevention: Three Mini Case Studies

This article is included in the Genocide Prevention Advisory Network that discusses the countires that the author feels to be at risk of genocide. The article addresses the gaps concerning prevention and early detection of genocide, as well as describes the early warning risk assessment model. The author provides three case studies to illustrate her point.

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Rwanda, Ten Years On: From Genocide to Dictatorship

Ten years after the 1994 genocide, Rwanda is experiencing not democracy and reconciliation but dictatorship and exclusion. It has caused protracted regional instability and derailed the transition process in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The international community has been complicit in the rebuilding of a dictatorship under the guise of democracy. In years to come, this may well lead to renewed acute violence.

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Rwandan Genocide Survivor Recalls Horror

A survivor recalls the genocide in Rwanda. Immaculee Illibagiza finally speaks out in hopes of preventing further atrocities, not only in Rwanda, but in Darfur and other places.

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Some Current Problems of Genocide Prevention

The author analyzes four types of genocide threats, focusing in particular, on groups that perpetrate genocide identifying with global genocidal ideologies atttempting to conquer the world and annihilating opposing groups in the process. Yehuda uses Radical Islam as a particular case study to illustrate how this fourth type of genocide threat plays out and how to counter it.

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Special Affinities and Conflict Resolution: West African Social Institutions and Mediation

This essay describes a particular kind of interpersonal relationship common in West Africa called "joking kinship." This relationship has importance for conflict resolution and transformation in that region and has further implications for the way trainers and intervenors work in cultures different from the ones they are familiar with.

Beyond Intractability Essay

Sudan on the Brink

Though a little out-dated, this article analyzes the potential for conflict in Sudan on the brink of genocide due to divisions within the country, including the conflicts between the North and South Sudan. Though recent events have established an independent South Sudan, this article offers important lessons on the nature and culture of the conflict regions that may contribute to future violence.

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Supporting Regional Approaches to Genocide Prevention

This article analyzes the changing international framework around genocide issues and its increasing prominence in the international stage. Conferences and forums have declared special offices dedicated to the prevention of genocide, as well as draw up roles for countries to monitor and carry out policies to understand the roots and prevent genocide.

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Systematic Early Warning of Humanitarian Emergencies

More than 60 communal minorities were victimized as a result of internal wars and state failures between 1980 and 1996. The potential for rebellion is said to be a joint function of group incentives, group capacity, and opportunities for collectivve action. Indicators of these concepts from the Minorities at Risk poject identify 73 groups at high risk of communal rebellion in the late 1990s. Genocide and politicide are attributed to background conditions, intervening conditions, and a short-term increase in accelerators. This article discusses the monitoring of these accelerators in potential crisis situations, using the example of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

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The Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The Chilean truth commission held after Pinochet lost power was not as successful as many had hoped, yet it did have significant impacts at both the individual and national level. This case study examines what the truth commission did, and what the short- and longer-term impacts were for individuals and for Chile as a whole.

Case Study

The Darfur Peace Process: Understanding the Obstacles to Success

This article examines the history of efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the violent conflict in the Darfur region of the Sudan. The author points out ways in which attempts at peacemaking have been lacking, and makes suggestions for future endeavors.

Case Study

The Darfur Region of the Sudan

The horror in Darfur was front-page news for months, yet the international community was unable (or unwilling) to stop the violence. Learn why the conflict in Darfur is so intractable.

Case Study

The Documentation Center of Cambodia

"The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) is an independent Cambodian research institute. Since 1995, we have built a reputation as an international leader in the quest for memory and justice." -- from Website

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The Encyclopedia of Genocide

"The Encyclopedia of Genocide is a rededication to human life. It is an encyclopedia of humankind's beginning struggle to control and prevent the mass slaughters of unarmed beings that, tragically, take place very often on our planet." -- from Website

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The Failures of Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Sierra Leone and The Threat to Peace

This article examines why post-conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction in Sierra Leone has failed to bring stable peace and examines the lessons to be learned for other peacebuilding and reconstruction efforts.

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The History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies

Genocide is not an invention of the twentieth century, say Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn in this absorbing book, but has occurred throughout history in all parts of the world. This study--the first comprehensive survey of the history and sociology of genocide--presents over two dozen examples of the one-sided mass slaughter of peoples, spanning the centuries from antiquity to the present.

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The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda

Combining unprecedented analyses of the genocides progression and the logistical limitations of humanitarian military intervention, Kuperman reaches a startling conclusion: even if Western leaders had ordered an intervention as soon as they became aware of a nationwide genocide in Rwanda, the intervention forces would have arrived too late to save more than a quarter of the 500,000 Tutsi ultimately killed. Serving as a cautionary message about the limits of humanitarian intervention, the books concluding chapters address lessons for the future.

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The Media and the Rwanda Genocide

"The news media played a crucial role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide: local media fueled the killings, while the international media either ignored or seriously misconstrued what was happening. This is the first book to explore both sides of that media equation. The book examines how local radio and print media were used as a tool of hate by encouraging neighbors to turn against each other. It also presents a critique of international media coverage of the cataclysmic events in Rwanda."

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The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

An analysis and history of the crucial role that German doctors played in Nazi genocide. It provides a convincing psychological interpretation of the Third Reich and the crimes of National Socialism.

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The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution

Tracing the rise of racist and eugenic ideologies, Henry Friedlander explores in chilling detail how the Nazi program of secretly exterminating the handicapped and disabled evolved into the systematic destruction of Jews and Gypsies. He describes how the so-called euthanasia of the handicapped provided a practical model for the later mass murder, thereby initiating the Holocaust. To document the connection between the assault on the handicapped and the Final Solution, Friedlander shows how the legal restrictions and exclusionary policies of the 1930s, including mass sterilization, led to mass murder during the war. He also makes clear that the killing centers where the handicapped were gassed and cremated served as the models for the extermination camps.Based on extensive archival research, the book also analyzes the involvement of the German bureaucracy and judiciary, the participation of physicians and scientists, and the nature of popular opposition.

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The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79

In this riveting book, the first definitive account of the Khmer Rouge revolution, a world renowned authority on Cambodia shows how an ideological preoccupation with racist and totalitarian policies led a group of intellectuals to impose genocide on their own country. This edition includes a new preface recounting the fatal disintegration of the Khmer Rouge army, the death of Pol Pot, the United Nations' foray into the struggle to bring his surviving accomplices to justice, and the damning new evidence they could face.

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The Politics of Genocide: the Holocaust in Hungary

The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary, Condensed Edition is an abbreviated version of this classic work first published in 1981 and revised and expanded in 1994. It includes a new historical overview, and retains and sharpens its focus on the persecution of the Jews. Through a meticulous use of Hungarian and many other sources, the book explains in a rational and empirical context the historical, political, communal, and socioeconomic factors that contributed to the unfolding of this tragedy at a time when the leaders of the world, including the national and Jewish leaders of Hungary, were already familiar with the secrets of Auschwitz.

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The Role of Civil Society in International Law: The Relationship Between Civil Society Organizations and the International Criminal Court in the Central African Republic

This article looks at civil society's role in the activities of the International Criminal Court in the Central African Republic. Unlike the hostility of civil society in other African countries, the response in the CAR was more positive. This article examines why this might be so, and what can be done to enhance the work of civil society and the ICC throughout Africa and the wider world towards both justice and peace.

Case Study

The Rwandan Genocide

This is the first of a series of articles that Kimberly Fornace wrote when she was taking a Peace and Conflict Studies class based on Beyond Intractability. Living in Rwanda at the time, and being extremely perceptive, her papers were of such high quality we asked her if we could publish them here. This is the first overview of the conflict parties and issues. More papers on other aspects of the conflict and long-term prospects are forthcoming as soon as we can get them uploaded.

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The Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) - Report

"The Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR -- the Portuguese acronym) -- was set up in 2001 and functioned from 2002 until its dissolution in December 2005. It was an independent, statutory authority led by seven East Timorese Commissioners and mandated by UNTAET Regulation 2001/10 to undertake truth seeking for the period 1974-1999, facilitate community reconciliation for less serious crimes, and report on its work and findings and make recommendations. Its 2,800 page report entitled 'Chega!' was presented to the President, Parliament and Government of Timor-Leste following its completion in October 2005." -- from Website

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The Trials and Tests Faced by R2P

"In a snapshot of the current debate surrounding the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and global efforts to prevent large-scale violence against civilians, Libya and Syria would dominate a frame of amorphous figures with blurred edges, each shifting haphazardly in unknown directions." -- from Website

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The World was Silent

"There aren't many Armenian Americans in Pensacola, so when two of my students and I discovered our common heritage, we eagerly compared family customs and stories." -- from Website

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Trauma Exposure and Psychological Reactions to Genocide Among Rwandan Children

A total of 3030 children age 8--19 years from Rwanda was interviewed about their war experiences and reactions approximately 13 months after the genocide that started in April 1994. Rwandan children had been exposed to extreme levels of violence in the form of witnessing the death of close family members and others in massacres, as well as other violent acts. A majority of these children believed that they would die; most had to hide to survive, and others had to hide under dead bodies to survive. These children documented high levels of intrusion and avoidance. Analyses showed that reactions were associated with loss, violence exposure, and, most importantly, feeling their life was in danger.

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Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea: Outline

"Under the 'Framework Act on Clearing up Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation', the Commission's purpose is to foster national legitimacy and reconcile the past for the sake of national unity by honoring those who participated in anti-Japanese movements and exposing the truth by investigating incidents regarding human rights abuses, violence, and massacres occurring since Japanese rule to the present time, specifically during the nation's authoritarian regimes." -- from Website

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Turkish Coalition of America

This organization's mission is to educate the general public about Turkey and Turkish Americans and voice their opinion on critical issues to interested parties, as well as engage a new generation and promote friendships between America and Turkey.

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Understanding Genocide: The Social Psychology of the Holocaust

The primary focus of this volume is on the Holocaust, but the conclusions reached have relevance for attempts to understand any episode of mass killing. Among the topics covered are how crises and difficult life conditions might set the stage for violent intergroup conflict; why some groups are more likely than others to be selected as scapegoats; how certain cultural values and beliefs could facilitate the initiation of genocide; the roles of conformity and obedience to authority in shaping behavior; how engaging in violent behavior makes it easier to for one to aggress again; the evidence for a "genocide-prone" personality; and how perpetrators deceive themselves about what they have done.

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Violations of Human Rights: Health Practitioners as Witnesses

"With examples from the HIV/ AIDS epidemic in the USA, the Rwandan genocide, and physician -led political activism in Nepal, we describe three cases in which health practitioners bearing witness to humanitarian and human-rights issues have had imperfect outcomes. However these acts of bearing witness have been central to the promotion of humanitarianism and human rights, to the pursuit of justice that they have inevitably and implicitly endorsed, and thus to the politics that have or might yet address these issues." -- from Website

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We Cannot Forget: Interviews with Survivors of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda

Utilizing personal interviews with trauma survivors living in Rwandan cities, towns, and dusty villages, We Cannot Forget relates what happened during this period and what their lives were like both prior to and following the genocide.

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Western and Local Approaches to Justice in Rwanda

This article discusses the three types of efforts ot deal with the perpetrators of genocide in Rwanda that receive international support. The authors then juxtapose these with the internal politics within Rwanda, attempting to find a system of justice that will bring the most success at reconciliation.

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