Gersony Report

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Documents published in 1988 and 1994 on the human rights situation in two African countries are referred to as the Gersony Report ; Mozambique (April 1988) and Rwanda (1994). A report commissioned in 1989 on the humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa also bears this name.

Gersony Report Mozambique

The report was commissioned by the US State Department in late 1987 from advisor Robert Gersony, who was close to the Reagan administration . The subject of the study was the question of what position the USA should take in the conflict between the civil war parties FRELIMO and RENAMO . Gersony traveled to Mozambique and four of its neighboring countries for three months. He visited 25 refugee camps and spoke to around 50 senior staff from local non-governmental organizations and religious dignitaries about the situation in the country. The report contained findings on 600 investigated political murders, 94% of which were at the expense of RENAMO, according to Gersony, 3% were attributable to FRELIMO, and a further three percent to various armed groups. He described in detail the human rights violations committed and named the number of 100,000 people murdered by RENAMO and over a million displaced persons. The report resulted in the tightening of the embargo against South Africa , which was armed by RENAMO.

Gersony Report Rwanda

The report was made after the genocide in Rwanda . Robert Gersony worked as a freelancer on behalf of the UNHCR . His task was to carry out an analysis of the situation in Rwanda in order to create conditions for the return of the Hutu refugees.

The Gersony Report gained relevance due to the fact that it was the first to report on the crimes of the rebel front, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The RPF primarily recruited members of the Tutsi who lived in exile in Uganda . Gersony reports about 25,000 to 45,000 civilians who were systematically killed by the RPF between April and August 1994. Most of the people killed were suspected of cooperating with the Interahamwe , as well as officials from the previous government.

The acts described in the report were carried out by Tutsi , who were the victims of the actual genocide. Leading members of the RPF formed the Rwandan government after 1994, including the later head of state Paul Kagame . The report was never officially published, its existence denied by the UNHCR. Critics of this UNHCR position claim that this happened because the UN, the United States and the Rwandan government agreed not to publicly attach little weight to these RPF offenses in order not to snub the new Rwandan government. The results only became public when the report was launched to the press.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georges Lory: Afrique australe - L'Afrique du Sud, ses voisins, leur mutation . In: Henry Dougier (ed.): Série Monde . 1st edition. No. 45 . Éditions Autrement, April 1990, ISSN  0336-5816 , p. 188 ff .
  2. ↑ UN Report on Rwanda: When the Victims Kill - Time
  3. ↑ Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda , chapter The Rwandan Patriotic Front on hrw.org , accessed April 9, 2019.
  4. ↑ Original documents of Robert Gersony's reports (PDF; 172 kB)
  5. ↑ Auer-Frege, Ilona: Possible applications of a development policy concept using the case study Rwanda
  6. ↑ See Allison Des Forges for information on Gersony's mission and report, and how to use this information. No witness: pp. 849–856. Allison Des Forges criticizes the UNHCR on this issue. On the Gersony report, see also Ilona Auer-Frege: The Civil Peace Service, Possible Applications of a Development Policy Concept Using the Case Study of Rwanda , Dissertation at the Free University of Berlin , p. 120. (PDF)