Rwanda Revisited
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200105600110 |
| Author | Douglas G. Anglin |
| Date | 01 March 2001 |
| Published date | 01 March 2001 |
| Subject Matter | Review Article |
DOUGLAS
G.
ANGLIN
Rwanda
revisited
Search
for
the
truth
Report
of
the
Independent
Inquiry
into
the
Actions
of
the
United
Nations
during
the
1994
Genocide
in
Rwanda,
UN
document S/1999/1257,
16
December
1999,
82
pp.
Online
at www.un.org/Docs/sc/letters/1999/
1257.
Rwanda:
The
Preventable
Genocide
-
The
Report
of
the
International
Panel
of
Eminent
Personalities
to
Investigate
the
1994
Genocide
in
Rwanda
and
the
Surrounding
Events.
[Addis
Ababa:
Organisation
of
African
Unity],
7
July
2000,
xxii,
318pp.
Online
at
www.oau-
oua.org/Document/ipep/report/rwanda.
The
flood
of
books,
commentaries,
TV
documentaries,
theses,
and
commission
reports
on
the
Rwanda genocide
seems
to know
no
end.
Some early
superficial
or
partisan
accounts
have
given way to
better
informed,
if
no
less
tragic,
recitals
of
those
terrible
events.
Nevertheless,
such
is
the
controversy
and
confusion
generated
by
the
genocide
that
blighted
Rwanda
and
shamed
the
world
that
great
expectations awaited
the
two
'official'
reports
under
review,
anticipat-
ing
that
they
would
clarify
the
outstanding
issues.
The
secretary-gen-
eral
of
the
United
Nations,
Kofi
Annan
-
a
central figure
in the
drama
-commissioned the
first
and
the Organization
of
African
Unity
(OAU)
initiated
the
second.'
Neither
disappoints. While
not
free
of
contro-
versy
or
in
total
agreement on
every
point,
the
two
assessments
taken
Professor
Emeritus
ofPolitical
Science,
Carleton
Universij
Ottawa.
i
Hereafter
cited
as
'UN'
and
'owU'
respectively.
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter 2000-2001
Douglas
G. Anglin
together
are
about
as
definitive
as
one
can expect
at
this
stage.
Their
judgments
are
bound
to
carry
great
weight.
No
one
with an
interest
in
the
causes,
course, complexities,
and
consequences
of
the
genocide
can
afford
to
ignore
them.
Both
reports
were
partly
funded
by
Canada.
The
authors
of
the
reports
share
two
distinctions.
First,
they alone
were
'accorded
the
opportunity
to
research
the
confidential
records
of
the
UN'
(OAU
132;
UN
4)
and
were
able
to
interview
a
wide range
of
(largely
the
same)
individuals
who
were
actively
involved.
Secondly,
they
were given
a
genuinely
free
hand
in
reaching
their
own
conclu-
sions,
and
they
took
full
advantage
of
that
independence to
write
frankly,
even
brutally.
The
UN
Inquiry
comprised
a
three-man
team:
a
former
Swedish
prime minister
as
chair,
a
former
Korean
foreign
minister with
experi-
ence
as
United
Nations
special
representative in
Cyprus,
and
a
Nigerian
general
who
had
served
as
field
commander
of
ECOMOG,
the
West
African
peacekeeping
force,
in Liberia
and
as
head
of
the
United
Nations
Truce Supervision
Organization
in Jerusalem.
The
OAU
panel
consisted
of
seven
'Eminent
Personalities,'
two
of
whom
were
former
heads
of
state
(of
Botswana
and
Mali)
and
two
were
illustrious
women,
one
Liberian
and
the
other
Swedish.
The
remaining
three
were
an
Algerian
ambassador,
a
retired Indian
chief
justice,
and
Stephen
Lewis,
UNICEF
deputy
executive
secretary
and,
earlier,
one
of
Prime
Minister
Brian Mulroney's
inspired
appointments
as
Canadian
ambassador
to
the
United
Nations.
The
senior writer
on
the
project
was
another
Canadian,
the
indomitable
Gerry
Caplan.
2
The
mandates
of
the
two
bodies
differed
in
significant
respects.
The
Inquiry
was
enjoined
to
establish
the
facts
related
to
the
United
Nations
role
and
response
in
Rwanda
and
to 'draw
relevant
conclu-
sions
and
identify
the
lessons
to
be
learnt.'
The
actions
of
African
orga-
nizations
and
governments,
as
well
as
outside
powers,
are,
in
the
main,
left
to
the
OAU
panel
and
others to
explore
(UN
1,
4).
Moreover,
the
period
under
review covers
only
nine
months
-
from
the
launching
of
UNAMIR,
the
UN
Assistance
Mission
for
Rwanda,
in
October
1993
to
the
winding
down
of
organized
killing
following
the
military conquest
of
the
country
by
the (Tutsi)
Rwanda
Patriotic
Front
(RPF)
in
July
1994.
2
The
Inquiry
members
were
Ingvar
Carlsson
(the
report
is
also
know
as
the
Carlsson Report),
Han
Sung-Joo,
and
Rufus
M.
Kupolati.
The
Eminent
Personalities
were:
Q.K.J.
Masire,
Amadou
Toumani
Tourd, Ellen
Johnson-Firleaf,
Lisbet
Palme,
Hocine
Djoudi,
P.N.
Bhagwate,
and
Stephen
Lewis.
IS0
INTERNATIONAL
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Winter2000-2001
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