Legal basis of genocidal practice in traditional Rwanda (XV-XX centuries)

The illusioned, deprived of this royal prerogative from birth,

This wealthy chosen one exterminated them,

And with their remains the Kalinga is adorned. (Sindayigaya: 1945) " [...]

Nowhere do I hear about kinglets:

This plague of enemies has exterminated them

And the drums are decorated with their trophies. When he thinks of independent princes,

He cannot rest or be sleepy;

He can't go a single day without taking it;

And without turning it into a massacre of extermination.

When there is an offspring of them,

He does not let him grow up a! the risk of getting up again:17!

He inquires about his hiding place and goes there to uproot him (Sindayigaya: 1945).

[... ”]

One might think that this hideous exterminating practice was solely a matter of politics, yet it is surprising to find it enshrined in the Code of Political Institutions of pre-colonial Rwanda and the Esoteric Code. The extermination in question is still carried out through the emasculation which we will discuss in another article.

Conclusions

The exterminating practices which have always taken place in the world have always been committed against a background of permanent violence which reigned in different societies. Rwanda, on the other hand, had a well-developed genocidal ideology. He inherited violence in several forms: physical violence, psychological violence. This violence is physical depending on whether the individual or a group of individuals is being made to suffer physically. It reaches its peak when it seeks to proceed with the extermination of an entire group of people (family, clan, ethnic group, etc.) as an extreme form of this violence. It is also psychic, because it is directed against the psyche. To this type of violence belong lies, brainwashing, and various forms of indoctrination, manipulation, and threats etc ... which aim to diminish spiritual capacities. Here, we resort more to the language, because the Tutsi especially in the Rwandan society understood that "the lance of language defeats the spears of a troop of shock", that is to say the language kills more people than the war.

The other type of violence that has still predominated in Rwanda is structural violence that takes place when violence is embedded in the system itself and is expressed in unequal powersharing relationships and hence, in the inequality of opportunity, unequal distribution of income, educational opportunities, illiteracy, the concentration of health services in certain sectors to the detriment of others, social injustice.

In addition, to these three types of violence was added the cruelest: extermination, in the Rwandan language itsembatsemba and in the contemporary vocabulary of genocide. The latter was invented by Raphael Lemkin in 1945 when Rwandans, since the 16th century, use it very easily in their daily practices. The genocide was narrated with pride and fervor in a multitude of poems. Hence the conclusion that genocide, in a society won by violence like Rwanda, is authorized and publicly supported because it is instituted by the governing power.

In Rwandan literature, we find the foundations of the genocidal policy in three major poetic genres in Rwanda: the Pastoral, the Warrior and the Dynastic. The specter of conflicting relationships runs through Rwandan culture and anyone who does not understand its nuances is very likely to make errors in value judgments believing that they operate better according to Western logic.

The strong violence that so ruined Rwandan society was well tied up around a politico-legal architecture carefully designed by its rulers. Thus traditional penal law, traditional military law, war poetry, dynastic poetry and finally the esoteric code. Anyone wishing to settle any dispute, or prosecute an individual for a crime committed in Rwanda, is advised to know these African specificities. Oddly enough, the judges, investigators, the prosecutor and his agents knew nothing about these realities. Which was one of the roots of the failure of the ICTR.

References

legal genocide tradition extermination

1. ANGRAND Beatrice, L'Allemagne, Paris, Editions le Cavalier Bleu, 2006

2. BACHMAN, R., Death and violence on the reservation: Homicide, family violence, and suicide in American Indian populations. New York: Auburn House, 1992.

3. BALIBUTSA Maniragaba, Une Archeologie de la violence en Afrique des Grands Lacs, Libreville, 2000

4. BOURGEOIS R., Banyarwanda et Barundi T.II, La coutume, IRCB, Bruxelles, 1958, 391 ss.

5. BUSHAYIJA S., « Aux origines duprobleme Bahutu et Batutsi au Rwanda », in : La Revue Nouvelle, Vol. XXVIII, n° 12, ddcembre 1958

6. COUPEZ A. et KAMANZI Th., Recits historiques Rwanda, Musde Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgique, sdrie in 80 Sciences Humaines, N° 43, 1962

7. COUPEZ A. et KAMANZI Th., Litterature de cour au Rwanda, Oxford, Oxford University Press.1970.

8. d'HERTEFELT M., Coupez A., "La Royaute sacree de l'ancien Rwanda" (Musde royal de l'Afrique centrale, Tervuren, Belgique.) Annales - Sdrie IN-8, Sciences humaines, no. 52, 1964

9. d'HERTEFELT M., de Lame D., Societe, Culture et Histoire du Rwanda. Encyclopddie bibliographique 1863 - 1980/87, Musde royal de l'Afrique centrale, Tervuren, Belgique, 1987.

10. D'HERTEFELT M., TROUWBORST AA, SCHERER, Les anciens royaumes de la zone interlacustre mdridionale : Rwanda, Burundi, Buha, Tervuren, 1965

11. DALE C., The Origins of Major War, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2000;

12. De Lacger L. Le Rwanda ancien.- Namur.- Kabgayi.- 1939

13. ELIAS M. « Hutu et Tutsi. La machine infernale » In Antipodes, 1994.

14. FARALE D., De Gengis Khan a Qoubila'i Khan, la grande chevauchee

mongole, Economica, 2003, En savoir plus sur

http:/./www.cosmovisions.com/ChronoGengis.htmiiuzgWSIDSHv2 UhwLh.99

15. GALTUNG J., Strukturelle Gewalt. Beitrage zur Friedens-Konfliktforschung, 1975

16. KAGAME A., Isokoy'amajyambere (La source duprogres), ed. Kabgayi (Rwanda), 1949

17. KAGAME A., « Le Rwanda et son Roi », in Aequatoria, VIIeme, N° 2, 1945

18. KAGAME A., La poesie dynastique au Rwanda, IRCB, Memoire in 8°, fasc.1, T.XXII, Bruxelles, 1951

19. KAGAME A., Le Code des Institutions politiques du Rwanda precolonial, Memoire d'Institut Royal Colonial Belge, Bruxelles, 1952

20. LEMKIN R., « Axis Rule in Occupied Europe », Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, 1944

21. LEMKIN R., Genocide as a Crime under International Law », A.J.I.L., 1947

22. LEVY J., GOCHAL J., « Democracy and Preventive War: Israel and the 1956 Sinai Campaign », Security Studies, 11 (2), hiver 2001-2002, p. 11

23. MARIA Yellow Horse Brave Heart et Lemyra M. DeBruyn, « The American Indian Holocaust: Healing Historical Unresolved Grief » [archive], sur le site de I'universite du Colorado, p.60-82;

24. MARGOLIN L.L., « Une reevaluation du massacre de Nankin », Perspectives chinoises [En ligne], 92 | novembre-decembre 2005, mis en ligne le 10 mai 2007, consulte le 10 novembre 2017. URL : http://perspectiveschinoises.revues.org/927

25. MAQUET J.J., Le systeme des Relations sociales dans le Rwanda ancien, Tervuren, Annales du Musee royal du Congo belge, 1954

26. MEYER H., Les Barundi: Une etude ethnologique en Afrique Orientale, Paris, Societe i'rancaise d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, 1984

27. MUPENDANA P.C., Cours de Droit International, Editions SCRIBE, Bruxelles, 2021

28. NIZEYIMANA J.P., « Menya inzira z'Ubwiru mu Bwami bw 'u Rwanda », https://ar.umuseke.rw/author/chief-editor de 19/19/2014

29. NKURUNZIZA Ch., Le Conflit Rwandais, Bruxelles, 2006

30. Pages P., « Au Rwanda : sur les bords du Lac Kivu - Congo Belge » in Congo- Revue generale de la Colonie Belge, Bruxelles, mars 1927, T.I, N°3

31. ROUX J.P., Gengis Khan et l'empire mongol, Gallimard, 2002.

32. SNYDER J., Ideology of the Offensive: Military Decision Making and the Disasters of 1914, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1984

33. Vanhove J., Essai de Droit Coutumier du Rwanda, IRCB, Memoire in 8°, T.X, fasc.1, Bruxelles, 1941

34. VANSINA J., L 'evolution du Royaume Rwanda des origines a 1990, ARSOM, Vol. XXVI, fasc.2, Bruxelles, 1962

Размещено на Allbest.ru