Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

FORENSIC INQUIRY AND GENOCIDE
Forces Armées Rwandaises (FAR). The national army of Rwanda up to July 1994.
The FAR was a composite army, comprised of two forces: the Armee Rwandaise (AR),
whose responsibility was national security, and the Gendarmerie Nationale (GN), which
was responsible for maintaining public order throughout the country. Although a composite
army, the FAR did not have a unified command structure; its authority derived
directly from the minister of defense, and the commander of the FAR was the president
of Rwanda (until April 6, 1994, this was President Juvenal Habyarimana, 1937–1994).
The FAR included a number of different units, including the Presidential guard, Habyarimana’s
personal bodyguard. Officers and troops of the FAR were integrally involved in
the genocide of Rwanda’s Tutsi population (and moderate Hutu who objected to the
killing and/or attempted to protect Tutsis), and many of its members were held as alleged
génocidaires by the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) government that came into
power after the end of the genocide in July 1994, or were indicted by the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania. Of those who were not
arrested and/or imprisoned after the genocide, many fled to the Democratic Republic of
Congo (formerly Zaire) in order to escape prosecution or (as they feared) revenge from
the RPF. The FAR is not to be confused with the current army of Rwanda, which is the
reconstituted RPF, which is now known as the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF).
Forensic Inquiry and Genocide. According to the American Board of Forensic
Anthropology, forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology
to both the legal process and humanitarian agendas primarily involving the identification
of skeletal and other human remains, to determine such characteristics as age,
gender, identity, evidence of crimes committed, and other traumas. The genocides and
genocidal massacres of the 1990s saw attempts after the fact to assess the scale of the
killing, plot the distribution of killing sites, and evaluate the means whereby the victims
lost their lives. Indeed, in places such as Cambodia, Guatemala, Rwanda, Bosnia, and
Kosovo (to name but a few of many), teams of forensic scientists, lawyers, historians,
anthropologists, and archaeologists have pooled their skills in order to locate, investigate
and chronicle scenes of genocidal crime. Their findings have provided evidence so that
legal proceedings can be brought against those indicted for war crimes, crimes against
humanity, and genocide. It also provides surviving family members with the remains of
their missing loved ones for whom they can perform a proper burial. As a result, forensic
inquiry has taken center stage in the investigation of genocidal activity. The work itself
involves the study of osteology (or bones) to make both observations and determinations.
For example, the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Team (GFAT), founded in 1991,
investigated the massacres in Tunaja and Río Negro, and estimated the genocidal loses at
more than one hundred thousand persons.
Forensic inquiry at genocide sites is an expensive undertaking, and, when not underwritten
by international agencies, research teams often rely on charity in order to do this
important work. Activities in forensic inquiry range widely. These include, but are not
limited to, the following: locating crime scenes; managing crime scenes and laboratory
apparatus; excavating crime scenes; analyzing remains, both human and artifact; soil
analysis; gathering of witness statements; and recreating crime scene circumstances.
Although police forensics is now highly developed in civilian environments in advanced
societies, genocide forensics is still developing and requires immense international effort
and support in order to achieve the kind of results necessary to be recognized as part of
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