Class Discussion Notes from October 31

Differences between Gourevitch and Epstein

Gourevitch focused more on Rwanda and less on Uganda

Epstein kinda of indicted

Gourevitch didn’t really talk about the United States but Epstein totally did

Epstein didn’t villainize the Hutus or the Tutsis but Gourevitch made the Hutus the ‘bad guy’

Epstein also talked about the regional and domestic factors of the war

When Gourevitch talks about the assassination of Rwanda’s president he never really claimed who did it but Epstein makes an argument and gives evidence about who shot down the plane (persuasive evidence that the RPF shot down the plane)

Shows that the RPF weren’t just innocent victims, they were provoking Hutu action

G was writing a lot earlier in the history than Epstein was

How is it different from the Holocaust? In the holocaust it’s more like the government is attacking a group but in the Rwandan genocide, it’s more killing among Civilians, Government/organized machine vs. people killing people, internal vs. external, mode of killing is completely different, the method of murder, organized death camps vs. hand-to-hand combat

Holocaust- people tried to hide what they were doing, Rwandan genocide was more open

Rwandan genocide was more personal but the Holocaust was less personal (beating someone to death with a club vs. pressing a button in a gas chamber)

Is it easier to get a few people to kill a lot of people or a lot of people to kill a few people?

radio broadcasts- mobilize minority population, got thousands of people to kill tens of thousands of people while in WWII you just had to get a few subunits of the machine to kill a shitload of people

An American example: Hiroshima and Nagasaki- you just had to get like 10 guys to fly some planes drop bombs

Smaller groups are more easily controlled

more personal motivation in Rwanda from the people doing the killing (“if I don’t murder lots of people my family will die”)

What happened in Rwanda after the RPF took over? lots of prisons, dude

Tutsis were called cockroaches- dehumanizes the Tutsis, makes it easier to kill them, viewed as pests/invaders

Radio Rwanda- hype people up to get the killing going, as a method of a communication, organized the whole thing (tune in to the right frequency and there were instructions or something like that)

Wasn’t random killing

RTLM

Acts of genocide vs genocide

Why didn’t they get involved?

Operation turquoise: International community’s reaction to the genocide
France was pro-government/pro-Hutu

Kibeho- last camp to be disbanded/taken away, lots of killings

Goma- Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALR)
Goma is in

When Mbuto died in 1997 there was a Civil War