{"id":329,"date":"2013-01-08T15:27:35","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T15:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie?p=329"},"modified":"2013-01-08T15:27:35","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T15:27:35","slug":"structural-violence-and-the-struggle-for-state-power-in-rwanda-what-arusha-got-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/?p=329","title":{"rendered":"Structural violence and the struggle for state power in Rwanda: What Arusha got wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SPIRe&#8217;s Dr. Andy Storey discuses structural violence and state power in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.accord.org.za\/publications\/ajcr\/downloads\">recently published paper<\/a> at the African Journal on Conflict Resolution.\u00a0 Dr. Storey argues that the 1994 Rwandan genocide occurred despite the existence of a peace and power sharing agreement (the Arusha Accords) to which all parties to the conflict had ostensibly subscribed. The paper addresses the failings of the Arusha peace and power sharing process and makes three core arguments.<\/p>\n<p>The first argument is that the Arusha process was more a part of the problem than<br \/>\nit was part of any putative solution because it heightened tensions within \u00e9lite<br \/>\ncircles (whose monopoly of state power was seriously challenged) and provided<br \/>\na channel through which aspirant \u00e9lites could pursue their dangerous goals.<br \/>\nEven more fundamentally, the Arusha process failed to tackle the most pressing<br \/>\nproblems of Rwandan society, including chronic and worsening poverty and<br \/>\nthe oppressive presence of the state in all aspects of social life. This disastrous<br \/>\ncocktail \u2013 creating what Uvin (1998) calls a situation of \u2018structural violence\u2019 \u2013<br \/>\nlaid the basis for mass participation in the genocide of 1994. Far from helping solve these problems, certain international interventions \u2013 especially economic<br \/>\n\u2018structural adjustment\u2019 that ran parallel to the Arusha negotiations \u2013 worsened<br \/>\nthe situation.<\/p>\n<p>The Arusha Accords also therefore failed, and this is the second core<br \/>\nargument, because they neglected (or worsened) the structural conditions of life<br \/>\nfor the vast bulk of ordinary Rwandans. The concluding section of the paper<br \/>\nexamines post-genocide Rwanda and how the legacy of the Arusha Accords has,<br \/>\namongst other devices, been used to legitimise new forms of repression at the<br \/>\nsame time as the abuse and violence inflicted upon ordinary Rwandans (and<br \/>\ntheir neighbours) have continued.<\/p>\n<p>Again, and this is the third core argumentof the paper, a seemingly reasonable political agreement to share power isbeing co-opted for a very different purpose \u2013 to legitimate the power of a new ruling \u00e9lite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SPIRe&#8217;s Dr. Andy Storey discuses structural violence and state power in a recently published paper at the African Journal on Conflict Resolution.\u00a0 Dr. Storey argues that the 1994 Rwandan genocide occurred despite the existence of a peace and power sharing &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/?p=329\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-spire-research","category-spire-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/politicalscience.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}