Rashomon Goes to Rwanda
29
the worst affected by the genocide, but which African Rights could
not reach during April-June 1994. Other material has also been
included and the lists of killers have been substantially expanded...
For the revised edition, three months’ additional research was
conducted in Rwanda from January-April 1995 (African Rights 1995:
xvi-xvii).
vi
Within personal interviews with the one individual that conducted this
study, we identified that the researcher obtained most of the information
through in-person interviews. In something of a loose “snow-ball sample,” and
the researcher moved from one group to another and then another. This has
several advantages in that the sheer amount of information obtained was
significant. At the same time, limitations exist. Snowball samples are particularly
prone to bias, as the sample is not random (Van Meter, 1990; Kaplan et al,
1987). In addition, the biases of the interviewer likely affect who enters the
sample and who does not. As a result, a snowball sample reveals as much
about the researcher who employs it as it does about the object under study
(Groger, Mayberry and Straker, 1999). We also have no way of knowing the
sampling error associated with samples such as this.
Community Sources
There is a non-governmental group known as Ibuka that represents the
surviving Tutsi’s interests. Ibuka members differ from the Tutsi that currently run
Rwanda in that most are native born Rwandese. From 1996 to the present,
Convention