Double genocide theory (Rwanda)

The double genocide theory accuses the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of engaging in a "counter-genocide" against the Hutus that occurred in addition to the Rwandan genocide.[1] Some scholars of Rwanda, such as Scott Straus and Gerald Caplan, say that RPF violence against Hutus does not match the definition of "genocide," considering that it instead consisted of war crimes[2] or crimes against humanity.[3]

Examples

Black Furies, White Liars, a book by French investigative journalist Pierre Péan, accuses the RPF of genocide against Hutus. Jean-Pierre Chrétien, a French historian, criticized Péan's "amazing revisionist passion".[4] A 2003 study by Philip Verwimp, based on 8 months of field research in central and southern Rwanda over a period of 2 years, found that the absolute number of Tutsis killed was double that for Hutus, and that the patterns of killing for the two groups differed.[5] Verwimp acknowledged that his study was only a partial test of the double-genocide thesis as it excluded the prefectures where most RPF killings where purportedly committed, yet concluded by arguing that "for those prefectures in which we performed our fieldwork, the term genocide should be reserved for the killings committed by the Interahamwe and the FAR, and another word should be used for the killings committed by the RPF. That word could be massacre or terror or another word, depending on the event."[6]

A great deal of effort has been extended to make sure the focus stays exclusively on the Francophone Tutsi victims and their Hutu executioners. But of the estimated one million people killed, between 300,000 and 500,000 of them were Tutsi, according to best estimates. What about the other 500,000 to 700,000 people? Who is responsible for their deaths?[7][8]

—Christian Davenport
Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Michigan

In 2009, scholars Christian Davenport of the University of Michigan and Allan C. Stam of Dartmouth College argued that the anti-Tutsi genocide constituted only part of the slaughter of spring and summer 1994; that the RPF was "clearly responsible" for another major portion of the killings; that the victims were "fairly evenly distributed between Tutsi and Hutu"; that the majority of the dead were Hutu, rather than Tutsi; and that, "among other things, it appears that there simply weren't enough Tutsi in Rwanda at the time to account for all the reported deaths".[9]

In October 2014, a BBC documentary, Rwanda: The Untold Story, was aired featuring interviews with Davenport and Stam. It suggested that Kagame's RPF was involved in the shooting down of Habyarimana's plane. It aroused considerable controversy.[10] Following this, the Rwandan government banned the BBC's Kinyarwanda-language radio broadcasts from the country[11] before conducting a three-week inquiry into the documentary.[12]

In 2018, the Canadian journalist Judi Rever released a book titled In Praise of Blood. Based on interviews with RPF defectors and top-secret documents that were leaked from the ICTR, Rever argued that a second genocide against Hutus had in fact been committed by the RPF in 1994 as well as in the following years.[13] Scholars had mixed reactions to Rever's work. René Lemarchand called it a "path-breaking inquest", "destined to become required reading for any one claiming competence on the Rwanda genocide".[14] Political scientist Scott Straus was critical of Rever's book, writing that in his opinion the evidence showed that the RPF killings of Hutu civilians constituted crimes against humanity, but not a double genocide.[3] Similarly, Gerald Caplan said that RPF had committed "war crimes" against Hutus but those crimes did not meet the definition of genocide.[2]

References
  1. Jean-Paul Gouteux. "Mémoire et révisionnisme du génocide rwandais en France: Racines politiques, impact médiatique". Online posting. Amnistia.net Archived 11 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine 12 February 2004.
  2. Caplan 2018, p. 186.
  3. Straus 2019, pp. 5, 13.
  4. "Point de Vue: Un pamphlet teinté d'africanisme colonial". Le Monde Archived 17 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine 9 December 2005. Qtd. by Thierry Perret in "Les dossiers de presse : Afrique-France: Rwanda/« l'affaire » Péan". Online posting. RFI Service Pro Archived 19 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine 22 December 2005. Chrétien's "Point de Vue" posted online in Observatoire de l'Afrique centrale 8 (December 2005) Archived 19 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Verwimp 2003.
  6. Verwimp 2003, pp. 424, 441.
  7. David Peterson (17 June 2011). "Rwanda's 1991 Census". ZSpace. Archived from the original on 18 April 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  8. Fallon, Joan (24 March 2009). "Research sheds new light on Rwanda killings". news.nd.edu. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  9. Christian Davenport; Allan C. Stam (6 October 2009). "What Really Happened in Rwanda?". psmag.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2013.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. For criticism of the documentary, see:
    Wallis, Andrew (6 October 2014). "'Rwanda: The Untold Story': questions for the BBC". openDemocracy. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
    Musoni, Edwin (26 November 2014). "BBC had an agenda to twist Rwanda history – UK expert". newtimes.co.rw. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
    Johnson, Richard (14 December 2014). "The BBC and the West need to clean up their act on Rwanda". csmonitor.com. Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 19 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  11. Baird, Dugald (24 October 2014). "Rwanda bans BBC broadcasts over genocide documentary". theguardian.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  12. Musoni, Edwin (18 November 2014). "BBC probe team begins work tomorrow". newtimes.co.rw. New Times (Rwanda). Archived from the original on 21 November 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  13. Rever 2018, p. 232.
  14. Lemarchand, René (25 June 2018). "Rwanda: the state of Research | Sciences Po Violence de masse et Résistance – Réseau de recherche". www.sciencespo.fr. ISSN 1961-9898. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2018.

Sources
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