2 The prime minister and the Ministry of the Interior directed prefects to involve local politicians in the efforts to assure security. Theydid and they made sure their subordinates did the same. Party leaders like Karemera of the MRND and Murego of the MDR-Power participated in meetings of the council of ministers while others like Ngirumpatse of the MRND represented the interim government abroad in its efforts to legitimate the genocide. Administrators gave orders to militia groups and Interahamwe leaders intervened in the administrative realm, as when their national committee ruled on the acceptability of the candidate to replace the prefect of Butare. Simba when he took the chair of prefectural meetings away from the prefect of Gikongoro, and civilians, even those with no legal authority, obtained military support for their attacks on Tutsi. Military men, retired or in active service, took charge in the civilian domain, as did Col. Similarly, actors bypassed the usual legal and bureaucratic limits on their activities. To preserve appearances, an inferior might obtain the approval of his superior for decisions he made, but those receiving the orders knew who really had the power. This flexibility encouraged initiative and ambition among those willing to purchase advancement at the cost of human lives. Thus within the administrative system, sub-prefects could eclipse prefects, as they did in Gikongoro and Gitarama, and in the military domain, lieutenants could ignore colonels, as happened in Butare. The organization that ran the campaign was flexible: primacy depended more on commitment to the killing than on formal position in the hierarchy. Through these three channels, the organizers were able to reach all Rwandans and to incite or force most Hutu into acquiescing in or participating in the slaughter. The organizers of the genocide similarly exploited the structures that already existedadministrative, political, and militaryand called upon personnel to execute a campaign to kill Tutsi and Hutu presumed to oppose Hutu Power. It had executed these efforts through the existing administrative and political hierarchies, requiring agents to go beyond their usual duties for a limited period of time for some national goal of major importance. In the past, the Rwandan government had often mobilized the population for campaigns of various kinds, such as to end illiteracy, to vaccinate children, or to improve the status of women. The Organization (HRW Report - Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, March 1999)
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