Eyewitness to a Genocide

Michael Barnett

Description

Why was the UN a bystander during the Rwandan genocide? Do its sins of omission leave it morally responsible for the hundreds of thousands of dead? Michael Barnett, who worked at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations from 1993 to 1994, covered Rwanda for much of the genocide. Based on his first-hand experiences, archival work, and interviews with many key participants, he reconstructs the history of the UN's involvement in Rwanda. In the weeks leading up to the genocide, the author documents, the UN was increasingly aware or had good reason to suspect that Rwanda was a site of crimes against humanity. Yet it failed to act. In Eyewitness to a Genocide, Barnett argues that its indifference was driven not by incompetence or cynicism but rather by reasoned choices cradled by moral considerations.Employing a novel approach to ethics in practice and in relationship to international organizations, Barnett offers an unsettling possibility: the UN culture recast the ethical commitments of well-intentioned individuals, arresting any duty to aid at the outset of the genocide. Barnett argues that the UN bears some moral responsibility for the genocide. Particularly disturbing is his observation that not only did the UN violate its moral responsibilities, but also that many in New York believed that they were "doing the right thing" as they did so. Barnett addresses the ways in which the Rwandan genocide raises a warning about this age of humanitarianism and concludes by asking whether it is possible to build moral institutions.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Ruanda
• International relations
• War crime
• History of Africa
• Rwanda

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 03 mai 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801465185
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

EYEWITNESS TO A GENOCIDE

EYEWITNESS TO A GENOCIDE The United Nations and Rwanda With a New Afterword

MICHAEL BARNETT

C O R N E L LU N I V E R S I T YP R E S S Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2002 by Cornell University

Afterword copyright © 2015 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this

book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without

permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address

Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca,

New York 14850.

First published 2002 by Cornell University Press

First printing, Cornell Paperback, 2003

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Barnett, Michael N., 1960–  Eyewitness to a genocide : the United Nations and Rwanda / Michael Barnett.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN13: 9780801438837 (cloth : alk. paper)  ISBN10: 0801438837 (cloth : alk. paper)  ISBN13: 9780801488672 (pbk. : alk. paper)  ISBN10: 0801488672 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Genocide—Rwanda. 2. United Nations—Rwanda. 3. Rwanda—History—Civil War, 1994—Atrocities. 4. Rwanda—Ethnic relations. I. Title.  DT450.435 .B38 2002  967.57104—dc21  2001005561

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For Maya and Hannah

 PREFACE ix

Contents

 INTRODUCTION: DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE? 1

1 IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR 22

2 RWANDA THROUGH ROSECOLORED GLASSES 49

3 “IF THIS IS AN EASY OPERATION . . . ” 74

4 THE FOG OF GENOCIDE 97

5 DIPLOMATIC GAMES 130

6 THE HUNT FOR MORAL RESPONSIBILITY 153

AFTERWORD183

 BRIEF CHRONOLOGY OF RWANDAN CONFLICT 201

 SELECTED CHRONOLOGY OF UNITED NATIONS’ SECURITY AGENDA 207

 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 211

 NOTES 215

 INDEX 229

Preface

R wanda lives inside of me. Sometimes I find this lingering obsession be wildering, almost as unexplainable as the genocide itself. I have never set foot on Rwandan soil. My first sustained images of Rwanda were pictures of the genocide, the same pictures that assaulted millions of people around the world and came to define much of what they know about the country. At the time of the genocide, however, I knew more than the average viewer because I was a political officer at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. A fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations had funded a year’s leave from academia and placement in government service. I arrived in New York late in the summer of 1993 and was assigned to follow various aspects of the UN operation in Somalia. By early January 1994 my duties had di minished as the United States was preparing to withdraw from Somalia. At that time my superiors asked me to work on various African operations, in cluding the one in Rwanda. I knew very little about the country but quickly came to understand that the peace agreement that was supposed to effect the transition from civil war to multiethnic democracy—the Arusha Ac cords—was at risk. In early April the civil war returned with a vengeance, an outcome many had fearfully predicted, and left thousands upon thousands of Rwandans dead. I vividly recall sitting at my desk, reading the morning cables. They de tailed the gruesome nature of the violence, a murder campaign that seemed to have no limit, and reported bodies lining the streets and mutilated corpses piled high in churches and schools. But I honestly cannot say that