Genocide in Rwanda, 1994

Genocide in Rwanda, 1994

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Introduction

The genocide that took place in the tiny Central African country of Rwanda was one of the most intensive killing campaigns in human history. The Rwandan Genocide happened in 1994 when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers were killed. This genocide was mostly carried out by an extremist Hutu militia group called the Interahamwe during a period of about 100 days from April 6 through mid-July of 1994. The murderers did not usually use guns, but used machetes or hoes to kill their victims. Over 800,000 Tutsis and thousands of Hutu sympathizers died in the genocide, with some reports estimating the total number of victims to be over one million.

Background

The roots or cause of Rwanda's genocide come from its experience as a European colony. Rwanda was first occupied and colonized by the Germans from 1894 until about 1916. During World War I, however, the country was taken over by the Belgians, who ruled until they were forced to give Rwanda independence in 1962 because of boycotts and strikes. Using the classic strategy of "divide and rule," the Belgians granted prefered status to the Tutsi minority in Rwanda. They helped Tutsi land owners and gave the Tutsis jobs in the government as mayors, judges, soldiers, and police. In pre-colonial Rwanda, the Tutsis had already dominated the Rwandan aristocracy by owning the land and renting it out to the Hutus.

The Belgians then divided the people of Rwanda by their physical characteristics. The Tutsi were generally tall, thin, and more 'European' in their appearance because of their sometimes lighter skin as opposed to the shorter, stockier, darker skinned Hutu. The colonizers decided that the Tutsi and the Hutu were two different races even though in reality they weren’t. They were both African tribes. Because of the Europeans racial theories of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Tutsi, with their more 'European' appearance, were considered better and more intelligent than the Hutu. The Belgians started an identity-card system that designated every Rwandan citizen as Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa (the Pygmy minority group). The policy made it the law that every citizen had to carry the identity card, which said their ethnicity on it. The policy of carrying identity cards was kept by the Rwandan government even after the country gained independence from Belgium in 1962. This made it easier for the killers to identify the Tutsi, when the genocide started.

As Africa moved towards de-colonization after World War II, it was the better-educated and more prosperous Tutsis who led the struggle for independence from Belgium in Rwanda. To try to keep control of their colony the Belgians switched and started helping the Hutus who cooperated with them instead of the Tutsi. Eventually Belgium did give Rwanda independence and the Hutu became in control of Rwanda’s government. Radical Hutus who wanted revenge on the Tutsis for years of inequality and oppression murdered about 15,000 Tutsis between 1959 and 1962, and more than 100,000 Tutsis fled to neighboring countries such as Uganda and Burundi as refugees. The Tutsis remaining in Rwanda were stripped of much of their wealth, land, and status. Over time, an estimated one million Tutsis fled or left the country. After 1986, Tutsis in Uganda formed a guerrilla military organization called the Rwandan PatrioticFront (RPF), which planned to invade Rwanda and overthrow the new Hutu government and take back their land and power. This was the beginning of the ethnic conflicts that led to the genocide.

In 1990, the RPF launched its invasion, occupying zones in the northeast of Rwanda and starting a civil war. In August 1993, after three years of fighting, the Hutu finally accepted an internationally-mediated peace treaty which granted the RPF (the Tutsi rebels) a share of political power and a military presence in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali. Some 5,000 U.N. peacekeepers were sent to make sure the peace agreement was followed by both sides. Hutu extremists in the government did not accept the peace agreement even though the Hutu president of Rwanda did. Some of these extremists, who were high-level government officials and military personnel, had begun devising their own solution to the 'Tutsi problem' as they called it. Many of those involved in planning the 1994 genocide saw themselves as patriots, defending their country against outside aggression from the Tutsis who had invaded their country. Moderate Hutus who supported peace with the RPF (the Tutsi rebels) also became their targets. This so-called "Hutu Power" movement organized and supervised the genocide of April-July 1994.

The Genocide Begins

On April 6, 1994, the President of Rwanda’s plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile as it approached Kigali airport. The president of the neighboring country of Burundi was also on the plane. Responsibility for the assassination has never been confirmed, but the speed with which the genocide was subsequently launched strongly suggests that the Hutu extremists were responsible. The Hutu extremists assassinated the Hutu president so that they could carry out their plan for genocide. This assassination created enough chaos in the country for the extremists to implement a "final solution" to the “Tutsi problem" in Rwanda. They began civil war again and began killing all Tutsis and any Hutus who supported peace with the Tutsis.

Within 24 hours of the president’s jet being shot down, roadblocks sprang up around Kigali, manned by Interahamwe militia. Tutsis were separated from Hutus and hacked to death with machetes on the roadside. It has been reported that accidentally many taller Hutus were presumed to be Tutsis and were also killed. Doing murder with a machete is exhausting, so the militias were organized to work in shifts. At the day's end, the Achilles tendons of unprocessed victims were sometimes cut before the murderers retired for the night. This prevented the Hutu victims from being able to walk away. Meanwhile, death-squads working from carefully-prepared lists went from neighborhood to neighborhood in Kigali. They murdered not only Tutsis but also moderate Hutus who had supported peace with the Tutsis. This whole process was carefully thought out and planned by the Hutu extremists.

The genocide quickly expanded from the capital city of Kigali to the countryside of Rwanda. Government radio, controlled by the radical Hutus, encouraged Tutsis to meet at churches, schools, and stadiums, promising that these would serve as places of refuge or safety, but it was a trick. The helpless civilians who went to these places could be more easily targeted and killed. Some Hutus miraculously managed to resist and defend themselves with only sticks and stones for days or even weeks, until the forces of the Rwandan army and presidential guard were brought in to exterminate them with machine-guns and grenades instead of the machetes. By the end of April, the worst massacres had finished and perhaps half of the Tutsi population of Rwanda had been murdered.

Tutsis fight Back

After the genocide broke out, the Tutsi-led RPF milita, some of which had been waiting in exile in Burundi, Zaire, and nearby Uganda for many years, launched a counter-attack on Kigali. After months of fighting, the RPF crushed the Hutu resistance and brought a halt to the genocide first in Kigali and then in other areas of the country. After RPF forces based in Kigali took up arms, they succeeded in protecting a large number of residents from the holocaust. On July 4, 1994, the capital, Kigali, fell to the RPF, and the genocide and "war" finally came to an end on July 18. The Tutsi RPF forces took back control of the country. As the war ended there was a massive flight of Hutus who feared for their lives to neighboring countries, notably to refugee camps in Zaire (The Democratic Republic of the Congo). The RPF immediately began to take revenge against Hutus who were alleged or believed to have participated in the holocaust. Some sources say that between 25,000 and 45,000 Hutus were killed in all, though other estimates are higher.

How many died?

Because of so many people coming in and out of Rwanda as refugees it is hard to know exactly how many were killed but most experts believe the total was around 800,000 people. This includes about 750,000 Tutsis and approximately 50,000 Hutus who did not support the genocide and the killings. It is believed that only about 130,000 Tutsis survived the massacres. In February 2002, the Rwandan government released the results of the first major census that tried to establish the number of people killed in the genocide. It found that 1,074,017 people -- approximately one-seventh of the total population -- were murdered, with Tutsis accounting for 94 percent of the victims.

Who was responsible?

In Rwanda, some 120,000 people were jailed on allegations of participation in the genocide, and thousands died in the brutal and unsanitary conditions of the jails. As of April 2000, some 2,500 people had been tried in court, with about 300 of them receiving death sentences.

Controversy has raged since 1994 over the role of foreign governments and the United Nations in allowing the genocide to proceed. Some people blame the U.N. for not doing anything to help the Tutsis. During the early weeks of slaughter international leaders refused use the word "genocide," as if avoiding the term could eliminate the obligation to confront the crime. Instead they called it a civil war. The major international actors -- policymakers in Belgium, the U.S., France, and the U.N. -- all understood how serious the crisis was but did not take action. Even if they could not have predicted the massive toll that the slaughter would eventually take, they were aware that the killings had started. They could have used their own national troops or UN troops or a combined force to confront the killers and immediately save lives. Instead they focused only on evacuating their own citizens, but they refused any joint military intervention to save Rwandan lives.

The scars of the genocide will remain with Rwandans for generations, and may yet provoke another round of mass killing or another civil war. Rwanda's economy remains badly damaged, with little hope of a quick recovery. Many Tutsis still believe that the only way to ensure their survival is to repress the Hutus. Many Hutus who did not participate in the killings believe they have been proclaimed guilty by association and that no one cares about their past and current sufferings under the current Tutsi-led government. Extremists on both sides retain the belief that the only solution is the annihilation of the other. These groups are preparing for a future struggle, one that could include another wave of mass slaughter.