The thesis approaches the complex of ethnicity in Rwanda under German colonial rule (1885-1916) and focuses on how Rwandan social structures were perceived by German colonialists and influenced by...Show moreThe thesis approaches the complex of ethnicity in Rwanda under German colonial rule (1885-1916) and focuses on how Rwandan social structures were perceived by German colonialists and influenced by their policy. The research question – what was the German approach to ethnicity in the former protectorate of Rwanda, what informed it, and how did it impinge on the society? – already suggests that this period is severely under-researched. Challenging the contemporary discourse that it was the Belgian rule under which Hutu and Tutsi were divided into two premordial entities, the thesis argues that it was earlier, during the German period, that social differences were introduced as racial differences. This argument gets developed on the basis of archive material and with a focus on four key personalities who were implementing German racial ideology in Rwanda by translating it into colonial policy. Without attributing direct responsibility for the 1994 genocide to the German rule, the case shows that the search for root causes of ethnic conflict in Rwanda must consider this timespan as a crucial incision for the further developments that tore society apart along racial lines.Show less
This thesis addresses how the United Nations Secretariat, and mainly the Secretary-General and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), framed and legitimized their actions when they were...Show moreThis thesis addresses how the United Nations Secretariat, and mainly the Secretary-General and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), framed and legitimized their actions when they were confronted with genocide in Rwanda in April 1994. It answers what discourse UN staff use to authorize inaction while working for an organization set up to save the people in the world from the harm that war brings. The purpose is to criticize the representation of the United Nations' identity by its own Secretariat in the face of powerful member states and other external constraints, to expose the discursive framing of the meanings and limits of peacekeeping and subsequently, to show the policies that derived from the discourse UN staff propounded. This is important because, as this thesis argues, the Secretariat’s discourse limits their understanding of peacekeeping and their own role in it, and in turn restricts their available policy options. A lack of independence and unwillingness to confront the status quo caused a discourse that created policy detrimental to the UN’s goals formulated in the Charter. An alternative conception of the role of the UN and its civil servants would have delegitimized their role as bystanders and provided different policy options than the ones set forth during the Rwandan genocide.Show less
Events of extreme ethnic violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda shook up the international community in the 1990s. In the years after genocide and ethnic cleansing both countries employed in...Show moreEvents of extreme ethnic violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda shook up the international community in the 1990s. In the years after genocide and ethnic cleansing both countries employed in different strategies for rehabilitating ethnic groups and mitigating ethnic tensions. This thesis focuses on the electoral institutions, and thereby aims to contribute to the literature on power sharing institutions. In Bosnia international actors have attempted to reconcile ethnic groups by dividing power in the country’s most important political institutions along ethnic lines. Though Bosnia has remained peaceful in the last two decades, cooperation between the Bosniak, Croat and Serbian ethnic minorities has proven difficult. The Office of the High Representative has used his ‘Bonn powers’ frequently to pass legislation or remove politicians that frustrated the peace process. In Rwanda the story is entirely different. The Arusha Peace Agreement of 1993 entailed democratization and power sharing between the Hutu government and Tutsi rebels, the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF). However, in a society in civil war, where ethnic discrimination was prevalent, power sharing catalysed a genocide. Now the RPF are in firm control of Rwanda’s political institutions. The RPF aims to ban the notion of ethnicity from the political sphere.Show less
