BOOK REVIEW
Rwanda-Horrors of Genocide: Prevention is Possible in our World
(Beau Bassin: Editions Universitaires Europeennes, 2018)
Mih Bibiana Mbei Dighambong (Author)
Reviewed By
Michael Kpughe Lang, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of History
The University of Bamenda
Introduction
I wish to sincerely thank Mrs. Mih Bibiana Mbei, author of Rwanda-Horrors of Genocide: Prevention is Possible in our World, for the opportunity to review her mind-searching research work, being an important addition to English-language scholarship on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which an estimated 800,000 Rwandan civilians—most of whom were members of the nation’s ethnic Tutsi minority—were murdered by Hutu power extremists and their collaborators. I am happy to be associated with this academic debate on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda; used in this book as a lens to discuss international humanitarian action and genocide prevention mechanisms in our world today.
Summary of the Book
Since 1944 when legal scholar Raphael Lemkin coined the term “genocide” to describe the Nazi’s near-successful attempts to exterminate the Jews of Europe, genocidal violence has received international concern. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, with the international community agreeing to work in synergy not to allow such gruesome killings to be repeated in any part of the world. Yet, there was a renewed wave of genocidal atrocities in Cambodia, the Balkans, and the Great Lakes Region of Africa. The most recent of these grisly atrocities were those committed in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. While the international community has set up competent tribunals to convict persons for the crime of genocide, scholars have been busy conducting research on various aspects of genocide. These academics have written many books on the Rwandan genocide. One such author is Mih Bibiana Mbei.
Her recent book called Rwanda-Horrors of Genocide: Prevention is Possible in our World Today, offers a lurid explanation of how human rights violation and humanitarian crisis of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 can inform the debate on how genocides can be prevented in the world. The central question addressed in the book is: Considering the causes and imprint of the Rwandan genocide on human rights instruments and the daunting effect of humanitarian crisis, what strategies and policies can be implemented to prevent genocide today? The entire discussion is hinged on the argument that due to the high cost of humanitarian crisis that accrues from human rights violation during genocide, prevention should be prioritized. As such, the aim of the book is to examine the measures and strategies of preventing genocide as informed by the human rights violation and humanitarian crisis occasioned by the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The Rwandan genocide is chosen as the primary case study because the 100 days human slaughter in that East African country could have been prevented. According to the author, “the genocide stemmed from an ideology of hatred, divisionism, and meticulous planning, economic hardship deeply rooted in colonialism and the search for identity.” As an expert in peace, conflict prevention and humanitarian action, Bibiana very explicitly knits together the origins and unfolding of the Rwandan genocide, showing how shortcomings in human rights sanctions and humanitarian aid heighten the necessity to prevent genocide.
The 167-page book excluding the preliminary pages, contains an introduction and is organized chronologically in two parts and four chapters. The introduction is devoted to a contextualization of the intertwined relationship between genocide, human rights abuse and humanitarian crisis as well as the engagement of the subject with existing literature. The introduction further highlights the theoretical framework, details the methodology employed, and defines key concepts. In part one of the book, comprising two chapters, the concept of genocide, the historical roots of the Rwandan genocide and resultant human rights violations and humanitarian crisis are examined.
Chapter one discusses the concept of genocide and offers a brief overview of the social, economic and political context of the Rwandan genocide from the Belgian colonial era to the Habyarimana regime. It has brought to light Rwanda’s intertwined and complex history between the Hutu, Tutsi, and the impact of colonial rule by both Germany and Belgium, showing how Rwanda was placed on the path to genocide. Along this road to genocide, as the book highlights, were successive events such as the 1957 Hutu uprising against Tutsi oligarchy, the establishment of the Rwanda Patriotic Front in 1988 by exiled Tutsis in Uganda who had fled the country following Hutu-led repressive rule, the Arusha Peace Process and resultant Arusha Accords which was prompted by the escalating political tensions and violence between Habyarimana’s military and the invading Rwanda Patriotic Front, and the assassination of President Juvenile Habyarimana on April 6, 1994 when his plane was shot down. This assassination triggered the genocide which lasted for 100 days.
In Chapter Two, the author examines human rights violations and humanitarian crisis as outcomes of the Rwandan Genocide. The first section of the chapter gives attention to human rights that were violated in the course of the Rwandan genocide. This presentation of genocide as a violation of the right to life and property ownership is novel, considering that this aspect has so far been either missed or simply scratched from the surface. Of relevance for scholarship on the human rights violation perspective of the Rwandan genocide are the various international conventions on human rights examined by the author. Presenting murder, torture, rape, and use of child soldiers as some of the human rights violations that characterized the Rwandan genocide, Mih Bibiana intimates that the genocide “was a crime against humanity.” The author uses pictures to illustrate the human rights violations committed by Hutu extremists during the genocide. Mih stresses that Hutu militias coordinated and tactfully executed the plot of ensuring that all Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were killed in quick succession. Mih Bibiana’s arguments are based largely on information from reports assembled by international human rights non-governmental organizations.
The humanitarian crisis occasioned by the genocide and the international response by relief organizations are addressed in the second section of Chapter Two. Mih’s concern in this section is to “paint the horrible and devastating impact of genocide” as a call for measures to be taken to prevent such human-induced horror from recurring. The author states that the Rwandan genocide led to the collapse of the state and the disintegration of socio-economic structures (p. 72). This is evidenced by the displacement of over two million Rwandans, high incidence of diseases due to the collapse of healthcare facilities, post-genocide human rights abuses, and the disruption of educational facilities and the local economy. Simply put, the Rwandan genocide is presented in this book as a humanitarian tragedy with resultant complex emergencies. Mih asserts that the tragedy in Rwanda had regional ramifications, stirring conflict and humanitarian emergencies in neighboring countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi. This amounted to international humanitarian response which pulled together non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, and bi-lateral aid agencies. These humanitarian actors, argues Mih, churned into high gear, delivered thousands of tons of material relief, and saved tens and thousands of refugees and internally displaced people from death due to starvation and disease. But Mih Bibiana questions why the international community did nothing to stop Rwanda from descending into genocidal violence and to stop it from lasting for over three months. This explains why the author maintains that the prevention of genocide is possible in our world today.
In Part Two of the book, organized in two chapters (Chapter Three and Chapter Four), Mih discusses the prevention of genocide in two perspectives: the sanctioning of perpetrators of genocide by international and local criminal tribunals and building on the Rwandan case to enforce genocide preventive measures in our world, especially in African countries. This preventive approach is predicated on the author’s premise that the 1994 genocide in Rwanda could have been prevented or halted. In this light, Mih addresses the issue of practical criminalization of human rights abuses by the competent courts can deter governments and individuals from pursuing genocidal agendas. This aspect of genocide prevention is handled in Chapter Three of the book. Building on the case of Rwanda, Mih argues that the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda set up by a 1994 United Nations Security Council Resolution to handle cases relating to the genocide was constrained from functioning properly by an aura of factors. It was therefore difficult for the court to judge persons accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. As Mih posits, “the justice meted by the international criminal tribunal was to a great extent considered by most Rwandans as bias, with lots of lapses and inadequacies.”
Mih further argues that the local tribunals informed by customs and traditions that were put in place by the Rwandan government to judge persons accused of genocide compromised justice. Christened locally as Gacaca, this traditional approach to the criminalization of the Rwandan genocide was stalled by its reliance on judges with no legal training, its mismatch with basic international legal standards and the context of mutual suspicion and tightly controlled political system in which it operated. These lapses, observes the author, combine to work against the prevention of genocide with legal instruments and criminal tribunals. The author suggests that justice will only be rendered through the Gacaca if and only the tribunals are made to have “the desired restorative and reconciliatory effect.” In the words of the author, both the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Gacaca have failed to provide lasting solutions to sustainable peace in Rwanda and around the central African region.
The constraints associated with the judicial approach are used by the author to make a call for more robust measures to be taken to prevent genocidal violence. These preventive measures are analyzed in Chapter Four, based on lessons drawn from the Rwandan genocide. Mih postulates that such preventive measures should cover the pre and post-genocide periods, discussing them under rubrics such as the use of the media and involvement of civil societies and political organizations. She adds that efforts intended to prevent genocide in any part of the globe should be informed by lessons drawn from the failure of the international to prevent and halt the 1994 Rwandan genocide. According to her, countless inexplicable atrocities were allowed to occur in Rwanda from April to July 1994 before action was taken by the international community. Put differently, she is simply saying that the Rwandan genocide was preventable. Little wonder the author calls on governments and international community to pay attention to warning genocide signs, intervene timely, mobilize political will, and put in place standing military forces to swiftly intervene when and wherever the need arises.
There are many positive things about the book which need to be flagged. First is the fact that the author is an expert in peace, conflict prevention and humanitarian action, with first-hand knowledge and understanding of the issues and challenges on the path of preventing genocide in our world today. This background has brought to bear on the book the proper balance between theoretical and practical issues of genocide and, more importantly, the interplay between genocide, human rights abuse, humanitarian crisis, and the criminalization and prevention of genocidal violence.
Second, I found the central argument, prescriptions, and predictions in the book more relevant to policy on genocide prevention than some of the publications on the Rwandan genocide. The argument that lessons from the historical roots of the Rwandan genocide, ensuing humanitarian crisis and international emergency response can contribute to a genocide-free world seems novel and consistent with available scholarship. Mih’s book makes a case for the fashioning of a preventive mechanism for the detection and elimination of early signs indicating that a genocide is in preparation. Taken together, the book offers recommendations intended for the realistic and effective participation of governments, non-governmental organizations, individuals, and the international community in preventing genocide.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth stating that Mih Bibiana’s book, Rwanda-Horrors of Genocide: Prevention is Possible in our World Today is a well-researched, beautifully crafted and revealing document on Genocide scholarship. The importance of the content of the book cuts across all classes of society in the world and speaks particularly to Cameroonians in this present context of socio-political crisis in the North West and South West regions of our country. As such the book is destined to every researcher, teacher, student, politician and patriotic Cameroonian, eager to move Cameroon forward in concord and harmony so that we may together build a culture of peace and national cohesion. The obvious reality is that lessons from past tragedies such as the Rwandan genocide have the potential to prevent recurrence. The tragedy in Rwanda teaches Cameroonians that genocide is usually preceded by incitement expressed through demonization and dehumanization of the other. Sadly, this is the reality in Cameroon and must be halted through swift action. In fact, what makes the Rwandan genocide so unspeakable is not only the horror of the genocide, but that the genocide was preventable. As such, the content of the book conveys the message that national reconciliation is necessary to ensure peaceful co-existence among Cameroonians. Broadly speaking, the author is confident that respect for genocide prevention principles will not only prevent further similar tragedies but will also create the foundations for peace, justice and co-existence in the world. The book is therefore a must-read for academics, researchers, policy makers, and students.
