In a news report from today, the Rwandan parliament "has condemned the BBC for broadcasting a documentary which questioned official accounts of the 1994 genocide in the country. It approved a resolution calling on the government to ban the BBC in Rwanda and to charge the documentary-makers with genocide denial." The news report also indicates that "The BBC programme Rwanda, The Untold Story, includes interviews with US-based researchers (Prof. Christian Davenport and Prof. Allan Stam) who say most of those killed may have been Hutus, killed by members of the then-rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which has been in power since 1994."
While the first part of the response is correct - our research does question official accounts of the violence of 1994 in terms of the number of individuals killed - at no point does the research suggest that a genocide did not occur. This claim is part of the name of our project (GenoDynamics), it has been stated in every single page associated with the research effort (virtual and otherwise) and it has been part of every presentation about our research on the topic. What is at issue is how many individuals from different ethnic groups were killed. Our 14-year exploration into the topic (employing diverse sources from the current Rwandan government, Rwandan NGOs as well as international human rights organizations - Human Rights Watch and African Rights) has resulted in a range of deaths for both Tutsi as well as Hutu and it is the range of estimates that we have put forward for discussion as well as additional exploration. The "official account" noted in the BBC news article has never been made public (i.e., the raw, disaggregated data behind official statements) and without this transparency it is not quite clear what the account is based upon. The approach adopted by GenoDynamics is based on a statistical model that the more information that has been provided, the better the estimation (including the reduction in error). With the government's data, the estimation could probably be improved.
The second claim is simply completely incorrect: at no point does the research suggest that the RPF killed large numbers of individuals. Our research focuses on the territorial zones under which different actors were found during 1994 and attributes deaths to these zones. The findings are instructive. The zone under the jurisdiction of the FAR/Extremist Government is responsible for the majority of the deaths within our research (which is consistent with the definition of genocide but also crimes against humanity, human rights violations, war crimes and random violence - information about intent is required to make this judgement for every death incurred). The zone where the FAR and Rwandan Patriotic Front (the invading rebels or RPF) meet is associated with deaths. These are likely classified as deaths attributed to the military exchanges between the combatants but it is possible that these deaths are associated with other reasons. Finally, the zone under the jurisdiction of the RPF is also associated with deaths. These are likely classified as reprisal killings but could also include crimes against humanity, human rights violations, war crimes and random violence).
The RPF troops were significant in our work not because of what took place under their jurisdiction but in a different way: movements of the RPF forward into Rwanda were associated with increasing the number of deaths under the jurisdiction of the FAR/Extremist government. Such a concern is revealed by declassified documents from the US government: 1, 2.
The second misrepresentation of our work is important for it raises the question: why would the FAR/Extremist government kill both Tutsi and Hutus? This is the question that we believe should be addressed in order to better understand what took place. Additionally, further reference should be made to the fact that before 1990, the amount of overt political violence (i.e., violent deaths at the hands of the existing Rwandan government) were limited.
To facilitate improved understanding of what took place - specifically, who did what to whom, when and where, GenoDynamics calls upon all source to provide information and for this information to be made publicly available for the systematic analysis and re-analysis of what took place.
While the first part of the response is correct - our research does question official accounts of the violence of 1994 in terms of the number of individuals killed - at no point does the research suggest that a genocide did not occur. This claim is part of the name of our project (GenoDynamics), it has been stated in every single page associated with the research effort (virtual and otherwise) and it has been part of every presentation about our research on the topic. What is at issue is how many individuals from different ethnic groups were killed. Our 14-year exploration into the topic (employing diverse sources from the current Rwandan government, Rwandan NGOs as well as international human rights organizations - Human Rights Watch and African Rights) has resulted in a range of deaths for both Tutsi as well as Hutu and it is the range of estimates that we have put forward for discussion as well as additional exploration. The "official account" noted in the BBC news article has never been made public (i.e., the raw, disaggregated data behind official statements) and without this transparency it is not quite clear what the account is based upon. The approach adopted by GenoDynamics is based on a statistical model that the more information that has been provided, the better the estimation (including the reduction in error). With the government's data, the estimation could probably be improved.
The second claim is simply completely incorrect: at no point does the research suggest that the RPF killed large numbers of individuals. Our research focuses on the territorial zones under which different actors were found during 1994 and attributes deaths to these zones. The findings are instructive. The zone under the jurisdiction of the FAR/Extremist Government is responsible for the majority of the deaths within our research (which is consistent with the definition of genocide but also crimes against humanity, human rights violations, war crimes and random violence - information about intent is required to make this judgement for every death incurred). The zone where the FAR and Rwandan Patriotic Front (the invading rebels or RPF) meet is associated with deaths. These are likely classified as deaths attributed to the military exchanges between the combatants but it is possible that these deaths are associated with other reasons. Finally, the zone under the jurisdiction of the RPF is also associated with deaths. These are likely classified as reprisal killings but could also include crimes against humanity, human rights violations, war crimes and random violence).
The RPF troops were significant in our work not because of what took place under their jurisdiction but in a different way: movements of the RPF forward into Rwanda were associated with increasing the number of deaths under the jurisdiction of the FAR/Extremist government. Such a concern is revealed by declassified documents from the US government: 1, 2.
The second misrepresentation of our work is important for it raises the question: why would the FAR/Extremist government kill both Tutsi and Hutus? This is the question that we believe should be addressed in order to better understand what took place. Additionally, further reference should be made to the fact that before 1990, the amount of overt political violence (i.e., violent deaths at the hands of the existing Rwandan government) were limited.
To facilitate improved understanding of what took place - specifically, who did what to whom, when and where, GenoDynamics calls upon all source to provide information and for this information to be made publicly available for the systematic analysis and re-analysis of what took place.
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