Book Release: Webs of Violence in Rwanda: A Conversation With Lee Ann Fujii
Fifteen years after the end of the genocide, the events of 1994 still loom large in both the Rwandan and global conscious. The failure of intervention on the part of the international community remains a source of fervent debate, particularly in light of similarly alarming crises currently taking place in the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. On the other hand, investigations of the motivations behind the genocide have conspicuously waned and many observers remain comfortable with the explanation that ethnically-based motivations drove Rwandan Hutus to brutally murder their Tutsi counterparts by the thousands. However, there is an emerging circle within academia that is challenging this commonly held notion. On September 23, the Africa Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted a discussion focused on George Washington University Professor Lee Ann Fujii's recently published book, Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda. Fujii was joined on the panel by H.E. Robert Gribbin, former U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda from 1995 to 1999, and Lars Waldorf, former director of Human Rights Watch's office in Rwanda from 2002 to 2004. The discussion was moderated by the consulting director of the Africa Program, Steve McDonald.