Timothy Longman

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Timothy Paul Longman (born February 10, 1964) is a professor of political science and international relations at Boston University. [1] A protege of Alison Des Forges, he is recognized as one of the top authorities on the Rwandan genocide and its legacies.

Contents

Career

Longman was born in Illinois and graduated from El Dorado High School in El Dorado, Kansas. He earned his undergraduate degree in religion and political science at Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma. He received his PhD in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a certificate in African studies. At UW, Longman studied with M. Crawford Young, Aili M. Tripp, Murray Edelman, and Jan Vansina, among others. His dissertation focused on the involvement of Christian churches in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. After completing his PhD, he served as the head of the field office of Human Rights Watch and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in Rwanda, conducting research for and helping to write the report, Leave None to Tell the Story. [2] From 1996 to 2009, he taught at Vassar College, before moving to Boston University. [3] Longman served as director of the African Studies Center, Boston University from 2009 to 2017. In 2017, he became the director of BU's Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA). He has previously held research and teaching appointments at the Human Rights Center at University of California, Berkeley; the International Human Rights Exchange at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa; the National University of Rwanda; Drake University; and Columbia University.

In addition to his teaching positions, Longman has served as an expert witness in a dozen trials related to the Rwandan genocide held in the United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, as well as testifying in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. [4] He has also served as a consultant for Human Rights Watch, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and USAID in Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda. Longman has served on the Executive Committee of the African Studies Association.

Publications

Human Rights Watch Reports

Longman is listed as a researcher and contributing author to Leave None to Tell the Story, the report on the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi written primarily by Alison Des Forges. He wrote the chapters on the genocide in the commune of Nyakizu, one of the three local-case studies in the book. [5] Leave None to Tell the Story is widely recognized as the definitive account of the Rwandan genocide and was awarded the 2000 Raphael Lemkin Book Award from the Institute for the Study of Genocide for the best book "that focuses on explanations of genocide, crimes against humanity, state mass killings and gross violations of human rights, and strategies to prevent such crimes and violations." [6]

While he was directing the HRW/FIDH field office in 1995–96, he researched and wrote a report on attacks against ethnic Tutsi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then called Zaire). [7] He also participated in the research and publication of "Shattered Lives," a report that focused on sexual violence during the 1994 genocide. [8] This report was instrumental in pushing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to bring charges of sexual assault against genocide perpetrators, with the case against Jean-Paul Akayesu setting the precedent that sexual violence could be considered a genocide crime. [9] Longman also wrote reports for Human Rights Watch on attacks on civilians in the two Congolese wars. [10] [11] In 1997, Longman conducted research in Burundi with journalist Molly Bingham on attacks against civilians in the civil war there. [12]

Publications on Religion in the 1994 Rwanda Genocide

Much of Longman's published work focuses on religion in Rwanda, which is an overwhelmingly Christian country. Longman's first book, Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda, analyzes the involvement of Rwanda's Christian churches in the 1994 genocide. [13] In the book, Longman explores the history of Christianity in Rwanda and argues that churches in the country maintained a close relationship with political power and practiced ethnic discrimination from their foundation. He notes that in the early 1990s some voices in the Christian churches were promoting democracy, fighting for human rights, and opposing ethnic violence, but that the most church leaders strongly supported the regime that ultimately carried out genocide. Longman writes that church support helped make the genocide possible by giving it moral support. “Christians could kill without obvious qualms of conscience, even in the church, because Christianity as they had always known it had been a religion defined by struggles for power, and ethnicity had always been at the base of those struggles” [14]

Publications on Post-Genocide Rwanda

Longman has also published extensively on efforts to rebuild post-genocide Rwanda, most notably in his 2017 book, Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda. [15] In this book, Longman looks at the many transitional justice programs that the post-genocide government has implemented, including the grassroots gacaca courts, and how the Rwandan population has responded. He concludes that transitional justice programs in Rwanda have done more to help the Rwandan Patriotic Front government to consolidate its power than to promote justice and reconciliation. The book is based on research conducted when Longman was affiliated with the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, that was funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, the Sandler Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation. The book received honorable mention for the Melville J. Herskovits Prize and the Bethwell Ogot Book Prize from the African Studies Association and was named the 2017 best book in African politics by the African Politics Conference Group. [16]

Related Research Articles

Human occupation of Rwanda is thought to have begun shortly after the last ice age. By the 11th century, the inhabitants had organized into a number of kingdoms. In the 19th century, Mwami (king) Rwabugiri of the Kingdom of Rwanda conducted a decades-long process of military conquest and administrative consolidation that resulted in the kingdom coming to control most of what is now Rwanda. The colonial powers, Germany and Belgium, allied with the Rwandan court.

The Hutu, also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great Lakes Twa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda</span> 1994 court of the United Nations Security Council

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to adjudicate people charged for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan citizens in nearby states, between 1 January and 31 December 1994. The court eventually convicted 61 individuals and acquitted 14.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interahamwe</span> Paramilitary group involved in 1994 Rwandan Genocide

The Interahamwe is a Hutu paramilitary organization active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The Interahamwe was formed around 1990 as the youth wing of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development, the then-ruling party of Rwanda, and enjoyed the backing of the Hutu Power government. The Interahamwe, led by Robert Kajuga, were the main perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, during which an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi, Twa, and moderate Hutus were killed from April to July 1994, and the term "Interahamwe" was widened to mean any civilian militias or bands killing Tutsi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rwandan genocide</span> 1994 genocide in Rwanda

The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hutu militias. Although the Constitution of Rwanda states that more than 1 million people perished in the genocide, the actual number of fatalities is unclear, and some estimates suggest that the real number killed was likely lower. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 800,000 Tutsi deaths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of the Rwandan genocide</span>

This is a bibliography for primary sources, books and articles on the personal and general accounts, and the accountabilities, of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Georges Henri Yvon Joseph Ruggiu is a Belgian radio presenter who worked for Rwandan radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, which played a significant role in promoting the genocide against the Tutsi. Like the station's other broadcasters, Ruggiu incited violence against Tutsi and moderate Hutu over the air. He had become involved in Rwandan politics just two years before the genocide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Lakes refugee crisis</span> 1990s refugee crisis in Central Africa

The Great Lakes refugee crisis is the common name for the situation beginning with the exodus in April 1994 of over two million Rwandans to neighboring countries of the Great Lakes region of Africa in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Many of the refugees were Hutu fleeing the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which had gained control of the country at the end of the genocide. However, the humanitarian relief effort was vastly compromised by the presence among the refugees of many of the Interahamwe and government officials who carried out the genocide, who used the refugee camps as bases to launch attacks against the new government led by Paul Kagame. The camps in Zaire became particularly politicized and militarized. The knowledge that humanitarian aid was being diverted to further the aims of the genocidaires led many humanitarian organizations to withdraw their assistance. The conflict escalated until the start of the First Congo War in 1996, when RPF-supported rebels invaded Zaire and sought to repatriate the refugees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 ethnic violence in Burundi</span> 1993 killings of mostly Tutsis in Burundi

Mass killings of Tutsis were conducted by the majority-Hutu populace in Burundi from 21 October to December 1993, under an eruption of ethnic animosity and riots following the assassination of Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye in an attempted coup d'état. The massacres took place in all provinces apart from Makamba and Bururi, and were primarily undertaken by Hutu peasants. At many points throughout, Tutsis took vengeance and initiated massacres in response.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Rwanda</span>

Christianity is the largest religion in Rwanda. The most recent national census from 2012 indicates that: 43.7% of Rwanda's population is Catholic, 37.7% is Protestant, 11.8% is Seventh-day Adventist, 2.0% is Muslim, 2.5% claims no religious affiliation, and 0.7% is Jehovah's Witness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Des Forges</span> American historian and human rights activist

Alison Des Forges was an American historian and human rights activist who specialized in the African Great Lakes region, particularly the 1994 Rwandan genocide. At the time of her death, she was a senior advisor for the African continent at Human Rights Watch. She died in a plane crash on 12 February 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Rwanda</span>

Human rights in Rwanda have been violated on a grand scale. The greatest violation is the Rwandan genocide of Tutsi in 1994. The post-genocide government is also responsible for grave violations of human rights.

Gersony Report is the name given to the 1994 findings made by a team under Robert Gersony, which was under contract to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and identified a pattern of massacres by the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels during and after their military victory in the civil war in post-genocide Rwanda. The findings were suppressed by the United Nations and involved governments for political reasons, and its existence was denied. No final written report was ever completed, though purported early written documentation has been leaked. The validity of Gersony's purported findings continue to be disputed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Burundi</span>

Religion in Burundi is diverse, with Christianity being the dominant faith. Catholicism is the largest Christian denomination in the country.

Rwandan genocide denial is the pseudohistorical assertion that the Rwandan genocide did not occur, specifically rejection of the scholarly consensus that Rwandan Tutsis were the victims of genocide between 7 April and 15 July 1994. The perpetrators, a small minority of other Hutu, and a fringe of Western writers dispute that reality.

During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, over the course of 100 days, up to half a million women and children were raped, sexually mutilated, or murdered. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) handed down the first conviction for the use of rape as a weapon of war during the civil conflict, and, because the intent of the mass violence against Rwandan women and children was to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular ethnic group, it was the first time that mass rape during wartime was found to be an act of genocidal rape.

Jean-Baptiste Habyalimana was a Rwandan academic and politician who served as the Prefect of Butare and was killed during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. He was the only Tutsi prefect at the time of the genocide, and also the only prefect belonging to the Liberal Party. He had resisted the genocide.

Laurien Ntezimana is a Rwandan Catholic theologian, sociologist and peace activist known for protecting Tutsi during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ikiza</span> 1972 mass killings of Hutus in Burundi

The Ikiza, or the Ubwicanyi (Killings), was a series of mass killings—often characterised as a genocide—which were committed in Burundi in 1972 by the Tutsi-dominated army and government, primarily against educated and elite Hutus who lived in the country. Conservative estimates place the death toll of the event between 100,000 and 150,000 killed, while some estimates of the death toll go as high as 300,000.

<i>In Praise of Blood</i> Non-fiction book by Judi Rever

In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front is a 2018 non-fiction book by Canadian journalist Judi Rever and published by Random House of Canada; it has also been translated into Dutch and French. The book describes alleged war crimes by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Rwanda's ruling political party, during its ascent to power in the 1990s.

References

  1. ↑ "Timothy P. Longman | Political Science". www.bu.edu.
  2. ↑ Alison Des Forges, Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda , New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999.
  3. ↑ "Curriculum Vita, Timothy Paul Longman" (PDF). 2017.
  4. ↑ Susan Seligson (January 3, 2013). "CAS Prof a Valued Witness in Rwanda Trials". BU Today.
  5. ↑ John S. Freidman (May 2, 2011). "Genocide Trial in Kansas". The Nation .
  6. ↑ "The Lemkin Book Award". Institute for the Study of Genocide.
  7. ↑ Timothy Longman, "Zaire: Forced to Flee: Violences against the Tutsis in Zaire," Vol. 8, no. 2 (A), New York: Human Rights Watch, July 1996
  8. ↑ Binaifer Nowrojee and Janet Fleischmann (September 1996). "Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the Rwandan Genocide and its Aftermath" (PDF). HRW. New York.
  9. ↑ Shayna Rogers, "Sexual Violence or Rape as a Constituent Act of Genocide: Lessons from the Ad Hoc Tribunals and a Prescription for the International Criminal Court," George Washington International Law Review, 2016.
  10. ↑ Timothy Longman and Alison Des Forges (1997). "Attacked by All Sides: Civilians and the War in Eastern Zaire". Human Rights Watch. New York.
  11. ↑ Timothy Longman (2000). "Eastern Congo Ravaged". Human Rights Watch. New York.
  12. ↑ Timothy Longman and Molly Bingham (1998). "Proxy Targets: War Against the Civilian Population of Burundi". Human Rights Watch. New York.
  13. ↑ Timothy Longman, Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  14. ↑ Longman, Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda, p. 164.
  15. ↑ Timothy Longman, Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Longman Wins Best Book in African Politics at ASA Meeting | the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies".
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