Earlier this month, two grenade attacks occurred nearly simultaneously in Kigali, wounding at least 16 people. Last month, a similar attack involving a trio of explosions killed one person and injured 30. Rwandan authorities blamed the earlier attack on former army chief Lt. Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, who resigned as Rwanda's ambassador to India in late February and fled to South Africa in exile. Naymwasa denies the allegations and accuses the government of branding him as a member of the opposition.

These episodes of violence -- and the subsequent trading in accusations -- evokes a larger context involving two important developments in Rwanda:

Congolese rebel and former Rwandan ally, Laurent Nkunda, who has been under house arrest in Kigali for 14 months, is expecting to learn on March 26th if the Rwandan Supreme Court will decide to hear his case. And, for only the second time since the 1994 genocide, elections are due in Rwanda at the end of the summer. President Kagame's record of providing stability and economic growth, coupled with forceful control of the nation's political environment, has increased expectations that he will secure reelection. The government has been criticized for its intolerance of dissent. Reporters Without Borders ranks Rwanda 157th out of 175 countries in its press freedom index. Eritrea, Somalia, and Equatorial Guinea were the only African countries that received worse rankings.

Last month, Human Rights Watch called attention to the increasing intimidation of opposition parties and their members. HRW writes, "The Rwanda government and the RPF have strongly resisted any political opposition or broader challenge of their policies by civil society. On several occasions, the government has used accusations of participation in the genocide, or 'genocide ideology', as a way of targeting and discrediting its critics."

It is difficult to accurately gauge who is behind the grenade attacks or their intentions, besides causing injury and fear. Nevertheless, the attacks present real threats as the population -- still divided in many ways by the legacy of the genocide and war -- prepares for a major election.

On December 10, the Museum hosted a special program with U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Susan Rice. Michael Abramowitz, Director of the Museum’s Committee on Conscience, interviewed Ambassador Rice, discussing her work at the UN and her experiences working on issues of genocide and mass atrocities.

Here are some highlights from the evening:



Watch the full video; read more about the important topics, including United States policy towards Sudan, discussed at the event; and view photos from Ambassador Rice's visit to From Memory to Action: Meeting the Challenge of Genocide.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has suffered two wars since 1996. At its height, the second war involved the armies from seven African nations and multiple rebel groups. According to the International Rescue Committee, an estimated 5.4 million people died between 1998 and 2008, most from preventable diseases as a result of the collapse of infrastructure, lack of food security, displacement, and destroyed health-care systems. The formal conclusion of the war in 2003 did not bring an end to conflict in the region.

The dense jungles of eastern Congo remain home to numerous rebel organizations, which have complex histories and agendas. Responsible for perpetrating mass atrocities against civilians, including massacres, rapes, and abductions, three rebel groups stand out as having caused the greatest destruction and suffering in recent years. These are the FDLR, CNDP, and LRA. At times, each organization has received government support from different countries in the region, and many of the rebels have profited generously from the continued exploitation of the DRC’s abundant natural resources. All prey on the civilian population.

Spread thinly across northeastern Congo, the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world (MONUC) is largely unable to halt attacks. The Congolese Armed Forces, themselves responsible for committing widespread atrocities in 2009, is increasingly an impediment to achieving peace and security in the region.

We have recently published background summaries for the FDLR, CNDP, and LRA. We hope they will help extend an understanding of what can appear to be, at first glance, a hopelessly complicated situation. Please follow the links to learn more.

Last night in a special program at the Museum, Ambassador Susan Rice, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made clear that the U.S. government has adopted benchmarks by which it will measure whether Sudan is making progress in meeting humanitarian and other obligations -- and they will be assessed quarterly. There has been some ambiguity about whether such benchmarks existed. The benchmarks are very specific and have been agreed on by "the highest officials, including the President of the United States, and by us at the principals level," Rice said. The status quo in Sudan, Rice insisted, was inherently unacceptable. Asked whether there had been consequences for the perpetrators in Darfur, Rice replied, "Not enough."

Marking UN Human Rights Day, the discussion at the Museum came at a meaningful time. Earlier in the day, during his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, President Obama had spoken about the realities of achieving peace and vowed, "When there is genocide in Darfur, systematic rape in Congo or repression in Burma -- there must be consequences." This week also marked the adoption of the 1948 Genocide Convention, and the one-year anniversary of the Genocide Prevention Task Force, which the Museum convened with the U.S. Institute of Peace and The American Academy of Diplomacy.

The final report of the Task Force offered a blueprint for improving U.S. government response to threats of genocide and mass atrocities. Reflecting about her experiences on President Clinton's National Security Council in April 1994, as genocide swept Rwanda and Clinton's administration failed to act, Susan Rice spoke of the lessons she'd learned for improving government response:

I've often reflected that our greatest failure in the U.S. government -- and I think, frankly more broadly -- was not that we ever took a decision not to act. It was that we never confronted the question... Now that I am at the principals table, as opposed to a junior staffer, I think it's my responsibility and that of my colleagues and those in leadership responsibilities and in Congress and the public and the media to demand answers to those questions and not allow them to be unasked or unanswered.

Visiting the Museum's new interactive installation From Memory to Action: Meeting the Challenge of Genocide before the event, Ambassador Rice wrote her pledge to help meet the challenge of genocide: "Speak the truth." And doing so loudly and emphatically, especially when it most matters.

With the power to capture the complexities of life in a single image, photography plays two unique, distinct, and tremendously important roles in genocide prevention and response. Photographs provide visual evidence so the world can know and remember; they also allow us to understand. By looking at a photograph, we bear witness to the emotions, relationships, and implications of that single moment. In the words of photographer, Ron Haviv, this "time to contemplate, time to absorb, time to put yourself into that situation" has the potential to influence a human being to not only reflect, but also act.

Our website includes an online gallery with hundreds of photographs from regions as diverse as Bosnia, Rwanda, and Chechnya. The gallery also includes images taken by USHMM staff on bearing witness trips to Chad, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In November 2006, during an event called "Darfur: Who Will Survive Today," photographs taken in Darfur and Chad by eight different professional photographers were projected on the facade of the Museum. These photographs include the work of Ron Haviv and are displayed in two albums inside the online gallery.

On this day nine years ago, the Rwanda "Media Trial" opened at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Three Rwandan journalists stood before the judges, accused of using the media to spread hate speech and directly incite violence during the 1994 genocide. The trial raised important questions about the nature of speech and genocide: Did media directly influence the killing? What speech is protected under the freedom of the press? How can the intent behind words be determined? In a landmark decision, ICTR judges ultimately convicted all three men of direct and public incitement to genocide, one of several punishable acts outlined in the Genocide Convention. Handing down the verdict, the ICTR judges declared to the men, "Without a firearm, machete, or any physical weapon, you caused the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians."

A newly published article in the Holocaust Encyclopedia, "Incitement to Genocide in International Law", traces the history and development of this crime's definition, from its foundation in the trials of major Nazi war criminals following the Holocaust and WWII to current debates over its use. In a second important trial at the ICTR, on December 2, 2008, ICTR judges found Rwandan composer and singer Simon Bikindi not guilty for his songs espousing hatred of Tutsi. However, they did convict him for statements he made on a loudspeaker in the Rwanda countryside during the genocide. The case demonstrated the difficulty of determining the implications and intent of speech.

Senior prosecutor for the ICTR and profiled here in our gallery of eyewitness testimonies, Stephen Rapp described the significance of issues raised during the Media Trial, "A key question is what kind of speech is protected and where the limits lie. It is important to draw that line. We hope the judgment will give the world some guidance."

One of the most wanted suspects in the 1994 genocide was arrested in Uganda this week and extradited to Tanzania to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The head of intelligence and military operations at Rwanda's elite military training school during the genocide, Idelphonse Nizeyimana was indicted by the ICTR in 2000 and charged with crimes against humanity, as well as complicity in genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide. The indictment charged that:

From late 1990 until July 1994, military personnel, members of the government, political leaders, civil servants and other personalities conspired among themselves and with others to work out a plan with the intent to exterminate the civilian Tutsi population... In executing the plan, they organized, ordered and participated in the massacres perpetrated against the Tutsi population and moderate Hutus. Idelphonse Nizeyimana elaborated, adhered to and executed this plan.

Nizeyimana was also specifically accused of establishing "secret units of extremist elements" to help carry out the genocide.

Hiding out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the genocide, Nizeyimana served as a top commander in the FDLR, a rebel army comprised of perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide and responsible for countless atrocities across eastern Congo.

To learn more about the FDLR and its impact on the Congo, visit World is Witness.

This week, President Obama nominated Stephen Rapp to become ambassador at large for war crimes issues. As a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Rapp led a landmark case against three Rwandan journalists charged with and found guilty of genocide, direct and public incitement to genocide, and other crimes. In 2006, Rapp left the ICTR to become the prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. His nomination as ambassador awaits confirmation by the Senate.

Featured in a gallery of eyewitness testimonies in the Museum's new installation, From Memory to Action: Meeting the Challenge of Genocide, Stephen Rapp explains the importance of pursuing justice and his efforts to always put himself in the shoes of the victim. Watch his testimony and learn more about Rwanda and the ICTR.

In May, award-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion discussed her documentaries about Rwanda with Bridget Conley-Zilkic in an episode of the Museum's Voices on Genocide Prevention podcast series. Aghion described the three short films and one feature-length film she has produced and directed on the community-based justice process in Rwanda called gacaca. Her films present an intimate view of how Rwandans are living together after the genocide.

Now, Washingtonians have the opportunity to meet Aghion and view her film My Neighbor My Killer at the SilverDocs Film Festival on June 16th and 19th.