Vue aérienne des montagnes Ngomo entre les lacs Tanganika et Kivu, à la frontière entre le Congo, le Rwanda et le Burundi
Dossier

Extreme violences: MSF experience in Rwanda

Jean-Hervé Bradol
Jean-Hervé
Bradol

Medical doctor, specialized in tropical medicine, emergency medicine and epidemiology. In 1989 he went on mission with Médecins sans Frontières for the first time, and undertook long-term missions in Uganda, Somalia and Thailand. He returned to the Paris headquarters in 1994 as a programs director. Between 1996 and 1998, he served as the director of communications, and later as director of operations until May 2000 when he was elected president of the French section of Médecins sans Frontières. He was re-elected in May 2003 and in May 2006. From 2000 to 2008, he was a member of the International Council of MSF and a member of the Board of MSF USA. He is the co-editor of "Medical innovations in humanitarian situations" (MSF, 2009) and Humanitarian Aid, Genocide and Mass Killings: Médecins Sans Frontiéres, The Rwandan Experience, 1982–97 (Manchester University Press, 2017).

Portrait de Marc Le Pape
Marc
Le Pape

Marc Le Pape has been a researcher at the CNRS and then at the EHESS. He is currently a member of the scientific committee of the CRASH. Formerly with the CNRS, Marc Le Pape is currently a researcher at the l'Ehess (Centre d'études africaines). He has carried out research in Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Central Africa. His recent studies have focused on the Great Lakes region in Africa. He has co-directed several publications: Côte d'Ivoire, l'année terrible 1999-2000 (2003), Crises extrêmes (2006) et dans le cadre de MSF : Une guerre contre les civils. Réflexions sur les pratiques humanitaires au Congo-Brazzaville, 1998-2000 (2001) and Génocide et crimes de masse. L'expérience rwandaise de MSF 1982-1997 (2016). 

Réfugiés rwandais à la frontière entre le Burundi et le Rwanda

Rwandan refugees at the border between Burundi and Rwanda, April 1994
Copyright: Xavier Lassalle

Several texts by members and associates of the CRASH published between 1994 and 2014 are united in this collection. In 2017, a book joins these publications: Humanitarian aid, genocide and mass killings: Médecins Sans Frontières, the Rwandan experience (1982-1997)

Some articles of this dossier are only available in French.

 

Les articles du dossier
13 avril 1994. Réfugiés rwandais à la frontière entre le Burundi et le Rwanda.Xavier Lassalle/MSFAnalysis

Rwanda : l’histoire longue du génocide

04/06/2019

Un ouvrage propose une synthèse sur le génocide des Tutsis en 1994, depuis le début de la guerre jusqu’à la mise en place de la politique mémorielle. Au-delà, il retrace l’histoire du Rwanda sur le temps long du XXe siècle, en insistant sur les constructions coloniales et ethniques.

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Rwanda GenocideRoger JobReview

From War To Genocide: Criminal Politics in Rwanda 1990–1994; Humanitarian Aid, Genocide and Mass Killings: Médecins Sans Frontiéres, The Rwandan Experience, 1982–97

10/07/2018Bert Ingelaere

Although much has been written about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, two recent volumes offer fresh perspectives and add considerable insights. Guichaoua’s From War to Genocide: Criminal Politics in Rwanda 1990–1994 takes the reader deep into the belly of the beast. The book describes and analyzes the real politics of the politics of genocide based on extraordinary detailed evidence with respect to the strategies and tactics of key military and political players. Bradol and Le Pape’s Humanitarian Aid, Genocide and Mass Killings: Médecins Sans Frontières, The Rwandan Experience, 1982–97 offers a unique understanding of the consequences of this murderous political game from the point of view of humanitarian aid workers in general and the NGO Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières – MSF) in particular.

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RwandaJohn ParkinOpinion

Debate: Judi Rever will not let anything stand in the way of her quest to document a second Rwandan genocide

06/06/2018

Published in March 2018, Judi Rever’s investigative work, In Praise of Blood, quickly garnered international attention. It is an indictment of both the Rwandan patriotic front (RPF) and its leader, current Rwandan president Paul Kagame, and foreign governments and international institutions – the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), in particular – that allowed crimes committed against Hutu civilians to go unpunished.Judi Rever’s book is more than a work of investigation. It reads like a prosecutor’s closing argument: the massacres are described in such a way as to classify them as genocide. And it is precisely this combination of investigation and the pursuit of evidence that would stand up in a court of law that is problematic.

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Kigali. L’equipe MSF brûle des cartes MSF. Sur la photo Rene Caravielhe, logisticien pour MSF.Roger Job Speaking Out Case Studies

Genocide of Rwandan Tutsi 1994

04/03/2014Laurence Binet

This case study is describing the difficulties and dilemmas met by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) during the genocide of Rwandan Tutsis in April, May and June 1994.

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Des Rwandais déplacés, près de la frontière avec la RDC (Zaire), décembre 1994Klaas FopmaOp-ed

Rwanda: les idiots utiles de Kagame

01/28/2012Rony BraumanJean-Hervé Bradol

Cette tribune a été publiée dans le journal Marianne, le 28 janvier 2012. Les découvertes du juge Trevisic ont relancé la polémique sur le Rwanda, une partie de la presse exonérant Kagame de ses responsabilités passées et présentes. Rony Brauman, Jean-Hervé Bradol et Claudine Vidal tentent de mettre en lumière les véritables enjeux du génocide rwandais.

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Un enfant fait la queue pour avoir de l'eauIan BerryAnalysis

Terror and Impunity in Rwanda

08/01/2000Rony BraumanStephen Smith

Not having seen the genocidal drift of Hutu Power in 1994 coming, the international community grants Paul Kagame's RPF the impunity of victims. Yet such power also lends itself to criminal acts. The authors express their indignance that NGOs and international organisations - invoking the duty of remembrance - join in the endless evocation of the past that masks the political phenomena at the root of the current violence.

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Réfugiés rwandais à la frontière entre le Burundi et le Rwanda, 13 avril 1994Xavier LassalleOp-ed

Le Rwanda à huis clos

05/15/1998Jean-Hervé BradolMarc Le Pape

Cette tribune a été publiée dans le journal Libération, le 15 mai 1998. La décision de créer une mission parlementaire d'information sur le Rwanda a été une heureuse surprise. Mais entendre à huis clos les responsables administratifs et militaires de l'engagement français au Rwanda est une mauvaise décision.

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