Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
In this concluding chapter to the fourth part of the book, I will argue, perhaps counterintuitively, that in the Rwandan genocide the most significant actions that should be punished were by some of those who were not merely reckless but intended to incite rather than those who killed or were merely complicit. If we think of genocides on the model of the Holocaust, responsibility is primarily assigned to those who planned or participated in the planning of the genocide against Jews in Nazi Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The “intent to destroy a group” is seen in the explicit and quite elaborate plans that were drafted by, or administered under the direction of, Hitler. But, then, when we think about genocides such as that in Rwanda, conceptual puzzles arise. There seems to have been no central plan to destroy Tutsis in Rwanda. Rather, there was a tinder box of ethnic hatred in Rwanda that various individuals ignited. Mostly these individuals did not communicate with each other and did not follow a single script. Nonetheless, if there was genocide occurring in Rwanda, as seems evident to most legal theorists and practitioners alike, then there must have been something like instigation even if there was no planning. In this chapter I will try to shed some light on this difficult conceptual puzzle.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.