X-NUPop-Charset: English Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 12:34:40 -0600 (CST) From: "Alan Spector" Sender: spector@calumet.purdue.edu Reply-To: spector@calumet.purdue.edu To: revs@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Fw: Rwanda and genocide >From Alan Spector, REVS Editor/Manager:The following message appeared on another e-mail network. It raises some provocative points that would be of interest to REVS members. Forwarded message follows: ----------------- From: Steve Rosenthal Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 17:17:00 -0400 (EDT) To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK Subject: Rwanda and genocide The discussion by Mbayiha Rene-Claude and others about the nature and causes of the genocide in Rwanda (and the continuing killing in neighboring Burundi) offered some important insights. In particular, the Belgian and other colonialists intensified the Hutu and Tutsi identities and promoted the Hamitic myth of the alleged European origins of the Tutsi. At Hampton University where I teach we have had considerable discussion about Rwanda, mainly led by several African faculty in the social sciences and history. I have learned that it has been a long time since Hutu and Tutsi were in any way physically distinguishable, but the division has been perpetuated both by colonial rulers and Rwandan rulers. Genocide in Rwanda, I think, was caused by imperialism and nationalism. Imperialists not only sustained and exacerbated the Tutsi-Hutu division. They also took sides and supplied arms. Since the end of the Cold War, competition between rival imperialists seems to be increasing in Africa. During the Cold War the U.S. was willing to let the French and others protect their neo-colonial interests and keep the Soviets at bay. Now the U.S. is challenging the French and all the imperialists are competing for markets, raw materials, investment opportunities, allies, etc. When they support and arm different groups, the result is often civil war. Nationalism also plays an important role in genocide. What the media called "tribal hatred" is essentially the equivalent of the nationalist hatreds whipped up by fascist politicians in the former Yugoslavia. Rwandan elites indoctrinated youth with fear and hatred and ordered them to slaughter their "enemies," while army units stood guard. It was not so different from mass exterminations during World War II or the U.S. led mass killings in Southeast Asia and Central America. The decay and death of the old international communist movement has led to an orgy of capitalist inspired racist and nationalist civil wars throughout the world. The urban and rural working people of the world are being slaughtered, ethnically cleansed, made into refugees and immigrants by these many civil wars. The UN and the imperialist states, with their "peace-keeping" and "humanitarian" missions will never end these wars. The international communist movement led the fight that destroyed the genocidal fascists during the 1940s. The rulers who incite violent hatred by saturating societies with vicious propaganda against a "race," "nationality," "tribe," or religious group are the enemies of working people everywhere. Steve Rosenthal