tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post7077833219344216051..comments2023-09-12T03:00:44.772-07:00Comments on ::Colored Opinions::: John McCain Sells Rwanda Genocide Narrative As Republican: SighUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-21577629521315069402011-06-25T09:02:28.322-07:002011-06-25T09:02:28.322-07:00Actually, my feelings about the Bruguière report i...Actually, my feelings about the Bruguière report indicate that I find the idea of context not compelling at all.<br /><br />Hutu extremists killed over half a million people, predominantly Tutsi, over three months. This took place during a four-year civil war, but it would be wrong to call the genocide a part of the civil war or the civil war part of the genocide. There is an important moral distinction that must be made.<br /><br />The Hutu génocidaires want to contextualize the genocide because it then makes them seem justified for what they did, and the RPF wants to contextualize it because then it justifies their own war crimes, crimes against humanity, and totalitarianism once in power.<br /><br />Unless and until both Kagame et al. and the génocidaires are able to deal with those hundred days without all that "context," Rwanda will remain doomed.Andrew E. Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13057529769573506419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-70073371842336890172011-06-24T22:28:15.601-07:002011-06-24T22:28:15.601-07:00The family of the victims and the accused (indivi...The family of the victims and the accused (individuals, church and states) might probably be the most interested. Context is important to the RPF (do I have to provide links?), to France (do I have eto provide links?) and all other parties that are potentially involved in this. Your own comment in which you try to discredit the Bruguiere report demonstrates that even you attach value to the context.Colored Opinionshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17172030328954992750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-90677809377899278132011-06-24T15:32:32.378-07:002011-06-24T15:32:32.378-07:00Please. I'm all ears.Please. I'm all ears.Andrew E. Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13057529769573506419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-79473015014307769452011-06-24T14:54:31.808-07:002011-06-24T14:54:31.808-07:00You don't seem very curious to me.You don't seem very curious to me.Colored Opinionshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17172030328954992750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-44681713012889275242011-06-24T12:39:29.805-07:002011-06-24T12:39:29.805-07:00I'd be curious to know the "context"...I'd be curious to know the "context" of 800,000 people being murdered in a hundred days would be.Andrew E. Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13057529769573506419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-56488048080227230222011-06-23T10:27:51.960-07:002011-06-23T10:27:51.960-07:00I would think putting the genocide in it's pro...I would think putting the genocide in it's proper context is the duty of every serious scolar on the genocide. The fact that Kagame shot down Habyarimana's plan does not make him directly responsable for the genocide, but doesn't make him look good either.<br /><br />Just as the fact that the US trained RPF soldiers through their IMET program while Kagame ordered the killings of hundreds of thousands of unarmed women children and elderly in refugee camps across the border in the DRC (while Susan Rice said we just had to "look the other way"), does not make the US responsable for those crimes. But it sure doesn't make US look very sexy either.Colored Opinionshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17172030328954992750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-28665061300645069122011-06-23T08:32:25.575-07:002011-06-23T08:32:25.575-07:00Posting this to provide an update to myself.Posting this to provide an update to myself.Andrew E. Mathishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13057529769573506419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-19253568479255735072011-06-23T07:31:24.177-07:002011-06-23T07:31:24.177-07:00Vincent, it's clear that what Ms. Unuhoza is t...Vincent, it's clear that what Ms. Unuhoza is trying to do is claim a "double genocide" in Rwanda in '94, based on trying to "contextualize" the genocide within the civil war and using the shaky "statistical work" that's out there on the topic. I'm at working on a long analysis of this stuff; I'd be happy to show you where I'm going with it so far (my e-mail address is pretty widely available).<br /><br />Re: Ruzibiza: The testimony is suspect for several reasons, many of which I'm sure you're aware. That doesn't mean it isn't true — e.g., the RPF may very well have killed Habyarimana, and certainly they committed countless war crimes over the last twenty years — but it does mean it must be taken with several grains of salt.<br /><br />I take issue, instead, with the notion that, if the RPF killed Habyarimana, then they're responsible for the genocide that followed. I don't buy that one bit, and I find it a dangerous line of argument. The assassination and the genocide were distinct events, even if there was a proximate effect that the assassinated "sparked" the genocide. Clearly, the genocide had been planned.<br /><br />Understand that I agree Ms. Umuhoza shouldn't be in jail, and she may well be a very good person who has been caught up in the rhetoric surrounding the events of the spring of '94. I believe many people involved in "soft denial" of the genocide fall into this camp, Ms. Garrison included.<br /><br />I wish Ms. Garrison would take the time to read carefully the materials that are out there on the genocide. It's quite clear, when you ask her specific questions, that she hasn't, and that's troubling. Nevertheless, it's clear to me that if she knew where her current line of argumentation would lead, she wouldn't be offering it quite so readily. Thus, my contentious tone w/her.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />AndrewAndrew E. Mathismailto:aemathisphd@gmail.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-61737509852644404012011-06-21T11:49:01.996-07:002011-06-21T11:49:01.996-07:00You two should be able to get to some consensus. I...You two should be able to get to some consensus. I have scrolled through the MARO, didn't see much detail on the Rwandan genocide in it.<br /><br />http://france-rwanda-tribune.over-blog.com/article-l-ultime-temoignage-de-joshua-abdul-ruzibiza-57860470.html<br /><br />Andrew E. Mathis made a claim in a post:<br /><br />"The question is whether Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is someone who should win the support of progressives. The answer to that question is no. Here's why: She is part of a movement designed to deny that genocide took place in Rwanda in 1994."<br /><br />1)There is no such movement. And 2) Victoire Ingabire does not deny the genocide.<br /><br />Ann Garrison's articles and views are hers, I have mine. I don't agree with everything she writes and vice versa.Colored Opinionshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17172030328954992750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-56090276509080595702011-06-21T07:02:21.978-07:002011-06-21T07:02:21.978-07:00@Ann, it's become the "version" in t...@Ann, it's become the "version" in the Handbook because it's the TRUTH.<br /><br />Jeez, Ann, you just drank the Kool Aid without a blink, didn't you?Andrew E. Mathisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-87586818356384272142011-06-20T13:18:05.982-07:002011-06-20T13:18:05.982-07:00that last link is not complete I think.that last link is not complete I think.Colored Opinionshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17172030328954992750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8735388569178359001.post-24523073366148811102011-06-20T12:59:59.715-07:002011-06-20T12:59:59.715-07:00Good eye, Vincent. I Just posted to Victoire for ...Good eye, Vincent. I Just posted to Victoire for President on Facebook. <br /><br />It was clear this story would hold, back in 2008, during the Obama/McCain debates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVcFv3ZV9os<br /><br />This version of the Rwanda Genocide story is also written into the Harvard/Pentagon Mass Atrocities Response Operations Military Planning Handbook, downloadable here: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/maro/index.php.Ann Garrisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07763740577715213433noreply@blogger.com