Arya Ashish Jade
GST- ASOC0401
211439 2022-23
Machetes And Bibles
In a conflict, can you determine who is right and who is wrong? And will it even help at all?
The Rwandan genocide is a recent and gruesome conflict encompassing multiple factors
based on what I call manufactured differences, because when we scale the conflict a little
back in history, we learn that Hutus and Tutsis (the two conflicting parties) were not really
communities based on ethnic, religious or cultural differences rather on economic
differences. Hutus were the peasant class and Tutsis were the Nobles, in that Tutsis owned
land and Hutus were the labourers on these lands. Hence it was a class conflict just like in our
Indian context we had upper-caste Hindu zamindars who were the minorities and owned
most of the land, the land on which most of the lower-caste Hindus worked on. Upon my
research in the Rwandan conflict, I could draw parallels not only in terms of the current
communal violence but also in the caste-based discrimination and violence in India. India had
caste hierarchy even before the British colonisers set their foot, but the colonisers did add fuel
to the fire by reinforcing the hierarchy by using upper-caste/ class Indians to rule over the
lower-caste/class Indians. Similarly, the Tutsis were favoured by the Belgians and were used
to enslave the Hutus ultimately transforming the class conflict into an ethnic one. Further, the
Belgian colonizers also escalated the conflict by legitimizing this by printing ethnic identity
on an ID card. They studied the physical features (height, nose and skull was measured) to
physically distinguish a Hutu from a Tutsi suggesting that the two ‘created-communities’ are
actually two different races. The two communities had a back and forth for quite a while in
terms of strife and violence until it broke into a genocide. In this essay I will be highlighting
and analysing these features of the conflict:
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Basis of the conflict
Who are the actors of this conflict?
What is their role?
Limitations and power
How true is the genocide prophecy for India?
Basis of conflict:
The conflict is based on the problem of the status quo and the access to the
resources(territory). More than that it was also about identity, ethnic domination. Hutus were
the majority community and were enslaved by the Tutsis, after the Belgian colonies were
evacuated, Rwanda was in preparation for its independent majoritarian government, which
meant their president was a Hutu. The conflict was triggered by the assassination of the Hutu
president which could have been an excuse to then commit genocide against Tutsis as they
were blamed for this, was the death then actualized by the Hutus themselves to favour their
agenda? The motive of the genocide was ethnic cleansing and it HAD to be a non-zero sum
game, the affective and ‘irrational’ part of the conflict can not be ignored, it was based on
hatred for a community, ego and revenge. Hence, it was imperative for the Hutus to not only
win but also for the Tutsis to lose.
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Arya Ashish Jade
GST- ASOC0401
211439 2022-23
Actors in the conflict:
The external, supposedly unbiased actors in this conflict were the UN peacekeeping troops
who were Belgian? Surprising, considering Belgians initially had colonies in Rwanda and
UN does not take troops for peacekeeping missions from countries who may have previously
been the colonisers for that country. The conflicting parties were the Hutus and the Tutsis,
there was also the Twa’ community but they were a neutral and a peripheral minority. The
church and its members along with international volunteers who were professionals such as
teachers helped in the humanitarian work. There was also the role of the media, international
press in documenting and observing.
Actors
Strategies
Track I
Track II
Track III
UN peacekeepers,
UN, Belgium,
France, Rwandan
government
officials, political
elites and military.
Diplomacy, official
documentations
(Arusha accords),
monitoring.
International
journalists and
members of the
press, teachers,
doctors, priests.
Rwandans (doctors,
media, teachers,
shop owners), Priest,
Missionaries
Facilitation,
consultation,
education, civil
mediation, relief.
Trauma work,
humanitarian work
(basic rights),
facilities provided.
Role of the actors:
The UN peacekeepers were simple monitoring, they could not arbitrarily mediate because of
a UN imposing mandate. Why were they monitoring? Was it for gaining geo-political
privileged information? Or was it to exercise and remind Rwandans of their superior
authority as a coloniser? They were supposedly unbiased but they still protected the Tutsis
and showed clear bias favouring them until where it mattered. Speaking of the media, why
was only the Tutsi genocide documented and highlighted more? Why wasn’t the massacre of
200,000-300,000 educated and political Hutus also spoken of equally? The Hutus as the
conflicting party surveyed and conducted surveillance to know where the Tutsis lived and
their average population size indicating that the genocide was a systematic move. The
political elites and parties such as FAR (Hutu), RPF(Tutsi) and Akazu ( Radical Hutus,
started by the president’s wife, Agathe) were the leaders and aggressors.
2
Arya Ashish Jade
GST- ASOC0401
211439 2022-23
Limitations, power, and agency:
The peacekeeping troops, however much I blamed them were in fact following orders from
the UN office, they could not refuse to follow the mandate. UN lacked the proper funding to
properly do the operation. They kept saying that they were “just following orders” however
‘evil is everyday actions that don’t challenge orders’.
Moreover, in terms of agency, we can see that a lot of Hutus (such as François in the movie
‘shooting dogs’) had an apparently neutral stance but as the conflict escalated after the
president’s death, a lot of them chose to go against Hutus and fight. The power of being white
in a black country also cannot be ignored as we see time and again how Joe (Educator), the
international journalists and Father Christopher’s (priest) lives are spared by the Hutus simply
because they are white.
Power that the Belgians have even post-colonisation is clearly shown, the Rwandans still
think that they are the superiors.
Genocide prophecy for India:
Gregory H. Stanton a former Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the
George Mason University, United States has warned India for chances of Genocide due to
communal conflicts via the Genocide Watch. He thinks the systemic dehumanisation of the
Muslim minorities (Amit Shah called the Muslims termites or dimaks and the Hutu radio
station called Thousand hills free radio station called Tutsis cockroaches). The hatred being
spread by media, making the majority Hindu population feel a false sense of threat against the
Muslims. Monitoring inter-faith marriages with Muslims and policing it by calling it lovejihad hence instilling a feeling of otherness for the Muslim community.
Moreover, even the caste system has similar dynamics but the system of cultural, social and
political oppression against them is too strong for the oppressed castes to rise to seek
genocide. However, even though the upper-caste Hindus with a political leader that is
favouring them feel the manufactured threat to their status quo (position, interest) and hence
still oppose something like reservations, it shows how this is a much more complex sociopolitical space with multiple layers of identity and conflict. Indian media should tread
carefully.
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Arya Ashish Jade
GST- ASOC0401
211439 2022-23
REFERENCES
Feature History. (2018, February 24). Feature History - Rwandan Genocide (1/2) [Video].
YouTube. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iGxre5G3_k
Feature History. (2018, March 9). Feature History - Rwandan Genocide (2/2) [Video].
YouTube. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V82i_dpKos
Reimann, C. (2004). Assessing the State-of-the-Art in Conflict Transformation. Transforming
Ethnopolitical Conflict, 41–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-05642-3_3
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