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A Comparative Perspective

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The International Dimension of Genocide in Rwanda

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Abstract

In early 1979, the governments of Cambodia and Uganda were overthrown. Under Pol Pot and Idi Amin respectively, they had engaged in the mass killing of civilians; their denouements were brought about through the military intervention of bordering states, Vietnam and Tanzania. Although genocide was proclaimed as a motivating factor in both cases, neither Vietnam nor Tanzania cited humanitarian intervention to justify its role. The context of international law and diplomacy differed from the post-Cold War Rwandan situation, and it is therefore instructive to investigate the two most significant examples of intervention against murderous regimes in order to understand the changing perceptions since that time regarding the concept of sovereignty and the principle of humanitarian intervention.

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Notes

  1. William Shawcross, The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust and Modern Conscience (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), pp. 67 and 330.

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  2. See Robert Gates, From the Shadows ( New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996 ), pp. 121–23.

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  3. Comment by Nguyen Co Thach to Congressman Steven Solarz in Shawcross, p. 71. See also Michael Bazyler, ‘Reexamining the Doctrine of Humanitarian Intervention in Light of the Atrocities in Kampuchea and Ethiopia,’ Stanford Journal of International Law, vol. XXIII, no. 2 (Summer 1987 ): 608.

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  4. Statement by the Vietnamese ministry of foreign affairs, January 6, 1979, Annex to a letter to the president of the Security Council from Vietnamese representative Ha Van Lau, January 8, 1979, 8/13011, Security Council, Official Records, 1979 (January–March), vol. 34, p. 11. See also the statement by the Central Committee of the United Front for the National Salvation of Kampuchea, January 6, 1979, Annex to a letter to the president of the Security Council from Ha Van Lau, January 8, 1979, S/13010, Security Council, Official Records, 1979 (January–March), vol. 34 p. 10; Michael Akehurst, ‘Humanitarian Intervention,’ in Hedley Bull, ed., Intervention in World Politics ( Oxford: Clarendon, 1984 ), p. 97

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  5. and Natalino Ronzitti, Rescuing Nationals Abroad Through Military Coercion and Intervention on Grounds of Humanity ( Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1985 ), p. 99.

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  6. See Irving Louis Horowitz, Taking Lives: Genocide and State Power, third edition (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1982), p. 171. For a discussion of the human rights issue in the Security Council debate, see Ronzitti, pp. 99–101.

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  7. Henry Kamm, ‘The Cambodian Dilemma, The New York Times Magazine, February 4, 1979, pp. 52–54.

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  8. Leo Kuper, Genocide ( New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981 ), p. 167.

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  9. Thomas Patrick Melady, Burundi: The Tragic Years ( Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1974 ), pp. 88–89.

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  10. See Caroline Thomas, New States, Sovereignty and Intervention ( Gower: Hants, 1985 ), pp. 92–93.

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  11. Ralph Uwechue, ‘Dangerous Vacuum,’ Africa, no. 93 (May 1979): 9 and The New York Times April 8, 1979, IV, p. 2E.

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  12. General Assembly, Official Records, 1979 A/34/PV.14, September 28, 1979, vol. I, pp. 269–70.

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  13. For a discussion of similarities between the two situations, see Ali Mazrui, ‘The Blood of Experience,’ World Policy Journal, vol. XII, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 32–33.

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  14. Noreen Burrows, ‘Tanzania’s Intervention in Uganda: Some Legal Aspects,’ The World Today, vol. 35, no. 7 (July 1979): 309–10.

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  15. See also Farooq Hassan, ‘Realpolitik in International Law: After Tanzanian-Ugandan Conflict ‘Humanitarian Intervention’ Reconsidered,’ Willamette Law Review, vol. 17, no. 4 (Fall 1981 ): 911–12.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

    Arthur Jay Klinghoffer (Professor of Political Science)

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  1. Arthur Jay Klinghoffer
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© 1998 Arthur Jay Klinghoffer

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Klinghoffer, A.J. (1998). A Comparative Perspective. In: The International Dimension of Genocide in Rwanda. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230375062_15

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