Genocide Perpetrators Brought To Justice

Throughout the 20th century, numerous acts of genocides have attempted to bring the complete elimination and devastation of large groups of people originating from various particular ethnicities. With these genocides occurring in many regions of the world, the perpetrators often organizing such crimes, have historically been larger and more powerful than the victims themselves. Often being the government and its military forces. However, the lack of international response associated with these genocides, further contributed to the devastating outcomes. On April 6,1994, the fastest killing spree of the century took place in Rwanda against the Tutsi minority population. With many warning signs having already been proclaimed prior to the start of the Rwandan genocide, I believe that with international interference, this bloodshed could have ultimately been prevented.

Genocide is one of the evillest moral crimes any ruling authority such as a government can commit against its people and it happens more than we think. A general definition of Genocide is the intention to destroy or murder people because of their race, beliefs, or even political and economic status. As we have been taught in this course Raphael Lemkin, created the term ‘Genocide’ 1944. Lemkin combined the ancient Greek word ‘genos’ which means race and the Latin word ‘cide’ which translates to killing. There are many examples of genocide in the world but the most recognizable is that of the Holocaust and how the German powers that be sought and attempted to kill all Jews. A recent example is the Rwandan Genocide in 1994 where the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana caused a violent reaction resulting in mass killings. In efforts to reduce Genocide, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UNCG) was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 and was placed in force in 1951. On July 1, 2002 the International Criminal Court (ICC) came into force. The ICC not only accepted the UNCG’s definition of Genocide but expanded it to include crimes against humanity such as enslavement, deportation, torture, rape, enforced disappearance and apartheid. There have been many organizations created throughout the world to defend and prevent genocide and even communities, religions and even colleges are forming organizations and these are just some examples of how

The United Nations established this international law against genocide after the appalling Nazi genocide in hope to prevent future genocides. However, the end of the twentieth century proved that a law was not enough. The collapse of the State of Yugoslavia lead to ethnic cleansings. Rwanda became chaos with Hutus killing the Tutsi ethnic group in mass murders and internment camps (Morgan, 2011). “It seemed that the twentieth century, one of the most violent in human history, was ending in an orgy of state-sponsored atrocities” (Morgan, 2011).

The crime and punishment Rwanda experienced played a huge factor during the genocide. In fact, in 1992 political organizations affiliated President Habyarimana for two militias . The militias were involved in the killing of more than two thousand civilians, mostly Tutsi tribe members Nearly one hundred and forty thousand people were imprisoned as suspected investigators and participants in the Rwandan Genocide.

The Rwanda Genocide was an unfortunate case where thousands of deaths could have been prevented, but because of irresponsibility and selfishness of global governments’ innocent lives were lost. The Genocide began on April 6, 1994 and was, “initiated by the Hutu political elite and extremists and its military support, their prime targets were the Tutsi, as well as Hutu moderates.” (Hain 2) The Hutu made up majority of the population and government officials and enforced a government-assisted military force to fatally attack the Tutsis. The genocide lasted one hundred days until a rebel Tutsi groups army Hutu armies in a Civil War. Within ten years of the genocide, Rwanda would make exceptional changes to government that would hold genocide participants accountable, within twenty years of the genocide; the economy has grown about 8% an annum. In the next fifty years, Rwanda will continue to see economic and population growth, but will continue to push peace and unity as the genocide continues to cause ethnical tension.

After twenty percent of cambodia’s population was slaughtered, much of the victims were left with very little resultion or justice. Few moments in human history offer as poignant an insight into the human condition as genocide, no moment was more demonstrative of this than the prosecution of Kang Kek Lew, the most deadly of all of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge leaders. Thierry Curvellier’s book Master of Confessions: the Making of Khmer Rouge Torturer examines this trial through an impartial lens that allows the reader to understand the great societal implications the tribunal carried not only for the healing of Cambodia, but for the future of judicial independence and rule of law in Cambodia.

To understand the Rwandan Genocide, first you need to understand the colonialism that took place there. Around the 1880’s

The primary and secondary information gives distinction between both a first hand view and a secondary view of genocide, not only in Rwanda but also in Bosnia. In both cases, thousands of people were slaughtered or brutally beaten including women and children by rebel groups. In “Back to Rwanda”, the first hand telling of how effective the genocide was, showed it was influenced by Bosnia and how the impact was felt not only on a federal government level but on a personal level as well. In both Bosnia and Rwanda, cultural independence played a major role in the attempt and succession of genocide. The populations of both countries, separated into two different minorities, were both willing to be redistributed to surrounding countries and far away villages where they could be safe from a purge like massacre. The Tutsis’ and Hutu’s were the aggressors in Rwanda with the Tutsis in control until the Rwandan President was gunned down in mid day. This event triggered the aggression between both of the groups. In Bosnia the Catholic Croats and Eastern Orthodox Serbs fought against each other after the death of pro- unionized demonstrators. These two main events triggered the beginning of the genocides. Both articles mentioned that the UN did not intervene to stop the genocides but rather end it with bloodshed and that the targets were of multiple races, mainly those who were African American, as well as those of different economic background. Over 100 days, close to 1 million Rwandans and 7000 Bosnians were massacred. Together, Bosnia and Rwanda were in fear of manipulation by the superior race and were in fear of mistrust amongst the nations as well as the possibility of more

The Rwandan Genocide began on April 6th 1994 culminating in the killing of an estimated 800,000 Hutus and their sympathizers. After it became apparent that the Rwandan government was not willing or able to protect it 's citizens, the question became why did the international community do nothing to intervene.

Background: Genocide is a horrific event that must stopped and prevented around the world. With that, political leaders that played roles in the genocide must be prosecuted and given necessary punishment. The convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of punishment defined genocide as an act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. One of the biggest and most known genocide would the Jewish Holocaust during World War II, where more than 11 million innocent people lost their lives under the Nazis regime. Other genocides have occurred after the Holocaust, such as the Rwandan Genocide and the genocide in Darfur (Still occurring). Genocides can include mass murder, acts of terrorism, Physical or mental abuse, exclusion from certain rights, or

Bringing the suspects to court was more difficult than intended, as many of the lawyers, judges and prosecutors were killed during the genocide. Many of the defendants were convicted without even having a chance to acquire a lawyer, as either their lawyer was killed or a lawyer would simply refuse to defend the client since they were afraid the public would fight back at them. At this point, many courts called “Gacaca” courts were put into play in 2005 as they processed almost two million cases until their closure in 2012. Although these courts were pumping out cases daily, they simply weren’t doing a great job investigating the cases which led to many unfair trials. Rwanda had a lack of safeguards which resulted in a high risk of unfair trials, as their judicial system was extremely weak at the time. An organization called “Lawyers without Borders” came into play to help genocide suspects, but the need for lawyers in Rwanda far outweighed what the organization could supply, which caused a slow process for each trial. Many of the participants in the courts either lied or remained silent which prolonged the process even further. In 1994, the ICTR

In April of 1994, a terrible atrocity began in the African country of Rwanda where around eight hundred thousand individuals were massacred over a time period of 100 brutal days. If thought about in mathematical terms, this works out to about 333 deaths per hour; which is a rate of deaths worse than what occurred during the Holocaust. (2) The term genocide is defined in the United Nations Genocide Convention, established in 1948, as “any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) killing members of the group; b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to

At the core within the study of Rwanda, whether in terms of its people or its government’s public policy, are the continual affects of the 1994 genocide (also referred to as the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi). The genocide’s effects can be seen within the context of the nation’s foreign policy. Its study becomes problematic as the genocide’s role within the nation's international relations is misunderstood. For much of the last two decades, scholars interpret Rwanda’s foreign affairs in terms of the utilisation of the genocide guilt card. This concept defines Rwandan foreign policy in terms of guilting the international community for state interests. The effectiveness of the guilt stems from the shame by global states for not intervening

During the end of the genocide, the international community and the government of Rwanda were set on prosecuting the perpetrators. The trials were based in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and a great number of the perpetrators have been apprehended or are

In 1994, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was formed by the UN punishing those who were responsible for the genocide. However, this was difficult because it was hard to find out the location of many criminals.