Genocide in Rwanda

• The genocide began on April 6, 1994, and for the next hundred days, up to 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia using clubs and machetes

• It was sparked by death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994

• It is important to recognize that Rwanda is one of smallest countries in Central Africa, with just 7 million people

• And that the nation is comprised of two main ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi

• Although Hutus account for 90 percent of population; in the past, the Tutsi minority was considered the aristocracy of Rwanda and dominated the Hutu peasants

• Ironically, the ethnic groups are very similar; sharing the same language, similar traditions, etcetera

• But the Tutsis are taller and thinner, with some saying origins lie in Ethiopia

• When the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they produced identity cards

• Identity cards classified people according to ethnicity

• The Belgians also considered the Tutsis to be superior to the Hutus and gave Tutsis better jobs and educational opportunities

• Resentment among Hutus built up, culminating in a series of riots in 1959

• Tutsi refugees in Uganda, supported by some moderate Hutus, formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)

• President Habyarimana exploited the ethnic tension between Hutus and Tutsis and accused Tutsis living in Rwanda of being collaborators for the Rwandan Patriotic Front

• When Habyarimana’s plane was shot down at the beginning of April 1994, it was the final nail in the coffin

• Ethnic tensions exploded

• In Kigali, presidential guard initiated a campaign of retribution

• Leaders murdered and slaughtered Tutsis and moderate Hutus

• Since all individuals carried identification cards specifying ethnicity, a practice left over from colonial days, these ‘tribal cards’ now meant life or death

• Some Tutsis turned to the U.N. for protection

• Ten United Nations peacekeeping soldiers from Belgium were captured by Hutus, tortured and murdered

• The United States, France, Belgium, and Italy all began evacuating their own personnel from Rwanda

• No international effort was made to evacuate Tutsi civilians or Hutu moderates

• They were left to die

• At U.N. headquarters, the killings categorized as a breakdown in cease-fire between Tutsi and Hutu

• Labeling genocide would have demanded action

• No international action was taken

• Encouraged by the presidential guard and radio propaganda, an unofficial militia group, the Interahamwe (meaning those who attack together), mobilized

• In some cases, Hutu civilians were forced to murder their Tutsi neighbors

• Participants were often given incentives, such as money or food, and some were even told they could appropriate the land of Tutsis killed

• The Hutu, without opposition from the world community, engaged in a genocidal mania; clubbing and hacking to death Tutsi families with machetes

• Rwandan radio, controlled by Hutu extremists, encouraged the killings by broadcasting hate propaganda, and pinpointing locations of Tutsis in hiding

• Many Tutsis took refuge in churches and mission compounds

• These became the scenes of some of the worst massacres

• Finally, in July, the RPF captured Kigali

• The government collapsed and the RPF declared a ceasefire

• As soon as it became apparent that the RPF was victorious, an estimated two million Hutus fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo)

• Refugees included many who have since been implicated in the massacres

• Rwanda’s now Tutsi-led government has twice invaded its twice much larger neighbor, saying it wants to wipe out the Hutu forces