State Crime

Abstract

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s historic judgment in the Akayesu Judgment established that rape and other forms of sexual violence can be an actus reus of genocide as defined by the United Nations Convention on Genocide Article II. The Akayesu Judgment therefore provides a logical framework to analyze a hidden episode of extreme post-colonial state violence in the newly independent Zimbabwe, namely a state policy of mass atrocities in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands, targeting the minority Ndebele ethnic group during Operation Gukurahundi . The specific foci of this study are the patterns of mass rape and sexual violence in the military operation between 1983 and 1984 in Matabeleland. Drawing on 36 in-depth interviews with survivors from throughout Matabeleland, this study provides a critical new lens on Operation Gukurahundi through its identification of uniform systematic patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence across Matabeleland. The article concludes that the patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence identified in this study are indicative of a state policy of systematic genocidal rape between 1983 and 1984, deployed with the intent and effect to destroy, in part, a specific ethnic group, namely the minority Ndebele of Zimbabwe, thereby fulfilling every condition of the Genocide Convention principles of genocide.

Main article text

STATE CRIME

Journal of the International State Crime Initiative

Volume 13 • Number 1 • 2024

“I think there’s no challenge in our world quite as daunting as finding effective ways to address state crime. I believe that the future of democracy, world peace, and global justice each crucially depend on the capacity of peoples throughout the world to hold the state accountable for its failures to comply with law and its refusals to promote justice.”

Richard Falk

Produced and distributed by

ISSN 2046–6056 (Print)

ISSN 2046–6064 (Online)

© INTERNATIONAL STATE CRIME INITIATIVE 2024

STATE CRIME

Journal of the International State Crime Initiative

EDITORS IN CHIEF

Prof Penny Green (Queen Mary University of London)

Prof Tony Ward (Northumbria University)

Prof Kristian Lasslett (University of Ulster)

Dr Thomas MacManus (Queen Mary University of London)

BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR

Dr Dawid Stańczak (Ulster University)

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Sophie Knowles-Mofford

EDITORIAL BOARD

Dr Michael Grewcock (University New South Wales)

Prof Neve Gordon (Queen Mary University of London)

Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Dr Vincenzo Bollettino (Harvard University)

Prof Scott Poynting (Queensland University of Technology)

Prof Jude McCulloch (Monash University)

Prof Sharon Pickering (Monash University)

Dr Elizabeth Stanley (Victoria University)

Prof Bill Rolston (University of Ulster)

Prof Frank Pearce (Queen’s University)

Prof Ron Kramer (Western Michigan University)

Prof Ray Michalowski (Northern Arizona University)

Prof Martha K. Huggins (Tulane University)

Prof Hilal Elver (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Dr José Atiles-Osoria (University of Illinois)

Dr Victoria Mason (Australian National University)

Prof Jeremy Keenan (SOAS, University of London)

Shaazka Beyerle (John Hopkins University)

Dr Rachel Seoighe (University of Kent)

Prof Elisabeth Saatjian Weber (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Dr Hazel Cameron (Pearl International Insights)

Prof Jennifer Leaning (Harvard University)

Prof David Whyte (University of Liverpool)

Prof Steve Tombs (The Open University)

Prof Jennifer Schirmer (Harvard University/ London School of Economics)

Prof David Kauzlarich (Southern Illinois University)

Dr Cathy Gormley Heenan (University of Ulster)

Dr Sam Raphael (University of Westminster)

AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL

State Crime is the first peer-reviewed, international journal that seeks to disseminate leading research on the illicit practices of states. The concept of state crime is not confined to legally recognized states but can include any entity that exerts political and military control over a substantial territory. The journal’s focus is a reflection of the growing awareness within criminology that state criminality is endemic and acts as a significant barrier to security and development. Contributions from a variety of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives are welcomed. Topics covered by the journal include: torture; genocide and other forms of government and politically organized mass killing; war crimes; state–corporate crime; state-organized crime; natural disasters exacerbated by government (in)action; asylum and refugee policy and practice; state terror; political and economic corruption; and resistance to state violence and corruption. See here for a guide for contributors: http://statecrime.org/journal/notes-for-contributors/

ABOUT ISCI

State Crime is administered by the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI). ISCI is a multi-disciplinary, cross-institutional and international initiative designed to collate, analyse and disseminate research-based knowledge about criminal state practices and resistance to them. Launched in 2010 with an inaugural lecture by Robert Fisk, ISCI actively develops and administers diverse spaces which enable state crime researchers to engage in meaningful dialogue with civil society in order to both understand and prevent illicit state practices. ISCI is institutionally supported by Queen Mary University of London and partnered with Northumbria University and the University of Ulster. Further information on ISCI and its members can be found at the initiative’s website: www.statecrime.org.

Contents

Articles

Operation Gukurahundi: A Policy of Genocidal Rape and Sexual Violence in Zimbabwe, 1983–1984 4

Hazel Cameron

Closing the Borders to end Human Trafficking: Moral Panic and the New Official State Politics on the Refugee Crisis in Greece 35

Dimitra Mareta

Zionist Philanthropy and Palestinian Erasure: Jgive.com and the Mizrachi Organization of Canada 60

Miles Howe

The Outsourcing of State Security: A Case Study of US Intervention in Laos, 1962–1975 81

Gabrielle Nugent-Stephens and Rachel Monaghan

Book reviews

M. Evans, Tackling Torture: Prevention in Practice, reviewed by Rosa Freedman 108

L. McKeown, Time Shadows: A Prison Memoir, reviewed by Jade Moran 111

S. Salman, The Shaming State: How the US Treats Citizens in Need, reviewed by Cydney Sheridan 113

C. McGettrick et al., Ireland and the Magdalene Bodies: A Campaign for Justice, reviewed by Gráinne Perkins 116

E. Sokirianskaia, Bonds of Blood? State-Building and Clanship in Chechnya and Ingushetia, reviewed by Marat Iliyasov 119

Notes on contributors 122