Wikipedia

Rwandan genocide

1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

The Rwandan genocide happened in 1994. It started in April and lasted for 100 days, when approximately 800,000 people were murdered.[2][3]

Rwandan genocide
Human skulls at the Nyamata Genocide Memorial.
LocationRwanda
Date7 April  – 15 July 1994
TargetTutsis and moderate Hutus
Attack type
Genocide, mass murder, genocidal rape
DeathsAt least 800,000[1]
PerpetratorsHutu-led regime, Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias
External video
via
YouTube
Coming To Terms With The Rwandan Genocide (2003), Journeyman Pictures

In a genocide, many or all people of a group are killed on the basis of their ethnicity, skin colour, religion, ideology or social affiliations.[4] In the Rwandan genocide, members of an ethnic group called the Tutsi (abatutsi) were killed on the basis of their ethnicity.[2] The murderers were extremist members of another ethnic group called the Hutu (abahutu). The Hutu killers also killed other Hutus whose beliefs were not as extreme as theirs.[2][3]

Background

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Map of Rwanda

In 1994, 85% of Rwandans were Hutus.[1] But for many years, the Tutsi minority had more power and ran the Rwandan government.[5] In 1959, the Hutus overthrew the Tutsi government and took power. Tens of thousands of Tutsis ran away to countries near them.[5]

A group of the Tutsis in exile (outside Rwanda) made a rebel group. They called it the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The RPF invaded Rwanda in 1990, starting the Rwandan Civil War. The Tutsi rebels and the Hutu government fought until 1993, when the two sides signed a peace agreement.[5]

But on April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down and destroyed. Both presidents were Hutus. No one knows for sure who destroyed the plane. The RPF said the Hutu extremists had shot down the plane, as they wanted to justify killing people.[6]

The Hutu extremists pointed to the Tutsi RPF as people who may have destroyed the plane.[a] Right away, Hutu extremists started slaughtering Tutsis.[6] In a half an hour, Hutu militias had blocked roads all over Kigali, Rwanda's capital. They stopped every car that came by, and killed every Tutsi they saw.[6] The Rwandan genocide began that day.[2][3]

Events

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External video
 
via YouTube
  Rwandan genocide: Hiding from death

In the following 100 days, members of the Hutu government's army, militias, and even civilians would kill 800,000 people – an average of 8,000 people per day.[2][3] This makes the Rwandan genocide one of the most horrifying genocides in history.[2][8]

The two main militias that carried out the killings were the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi.[2][3] These were youth organizations of two pro-Hutu political parties. However, the government turned them into militias to carry out the genocide.[2][6]

Within a few hours after the Presidents' deaths, military leaders in Rwanda's different provinces called together militia and civilians. They told them that the President was dead, and that the Tutsi RPF had killed him.[2][3] Then they ordered the crowd to kill Tutsis, saying things like: "Begin your work!" and "Spare no one!" – including babies.[9]

 
The building where ten Belgian soldiers were tortured and killed.

Prelude

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Just after the Presidents' deaths, Hutu extremists assassinated the Rwandan prime minister.[2][3] They also tortured and killed the ten Belgian soldiers that had been assigned to protect her.[10]

After that, throughout the night of April 6-7, Hutu militias and the Rwandan army got lists of people in the government who were political moderates.[2][3] They found these people in Kigali and killed them.[11][12]p. 230 They did this so the moderates would not be able to stop the genocide.[13]

They also killed journalists and human rights activists who had spoken out against the Hutu government. But there were so many on the list, it was not important.[dubious – discuss][source?] Philip Gourevitch from the New Yorker said the leaders of the clear, "planned" genocide wanted it to look unclear and "unplanned".[14]

Genocide of Tutsis

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On the night of April 6, Hutu militias also went house to house in Kigali, killing Tutsis. By the morning of April 7th, the killings had got worse. Interahamwe killed and looted however they wanted. Other countries' journalists were able to film many of these things.[2][3] In a few days, the genocide had spread across Rwanda.[2][6]

As the genocide spread out into the rural parts of Rwanda, the killers paid less attention to slaughtering moderate Hutus and more attention to massacring Tutsis.[2][15]

 
Machetes and clubs used to kill Tutsis, now displayed in a museum.

Spread

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The Rwandan genocide was well-organized.[2][3] For instance, the genocide's ringleaders circulated lists of people who were against the Hutu-led regime.[2][3] They gave these lists to militias, who went and killed those people, along with their families.[2][14]

The militias also blocked roads to identify Tutsis to be killed as identification cards in Rwanda back then indicated the holder's ethnicity. When they found a Tutsi, the militias would kill the person.[2][6] Machetes were widely used as murder weapons.[16] When Tutsis tried to hide from the killers, the militias would search every building in an area, inch by inch, until they found the people who were hiding.[6] Buses even drove the killers from massacre to massacre.[source?]

The army and militias were very brutal towards women. They raped between 150,000 and 250,000 Tutsi women.[2][3] They also kidnapped women and forced them to be sex slaves.[1] Following the rapes, the rapists would often mutilate the women's sex organs with weapons, boiling water, or acid.[2][17]

Most victims of the genocide were killed in their own villages. Often, they were killed by their own neighbors.[2][3] Government radio stations encouraged regular people to kill their Tutsi neighbors.[2][3] Hutus who refused to kill Tutsis were often executed immediately. Husbands killed their Tutsi wives because they were scared of being killed if they refused.[2][3] There were even priests and nuns convicted of killing people who were trying to hide in churches. As historian Richard Prunier explained,[12]p. 247

[E]ither you took part in the massacres or you were massacred yourself.

Propaganda

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Dehumanization

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The killers used propaganda to encourage the genocide.[2][3] They set up radio stations and newspapers which were full of hate speech.[2][3]

Often, they incited people to "weed out the cockroaches," meaning "kill all the Tutsis." The killers would read out the names of people they wanted to be killed over the radio.[5] Radio stations told their listeners to make sure they disemboweled pregnant Tutsi women.[14][b]

United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda

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See the main article: United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda

In October 1993, the United Nations Security Council created the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR).[2] It was supposed to help put the 1993 peace agreement into place. However, UNAMIR did not have permission from the Security Council to protect civilians or try to stop the genocide.[1][11] Back then, the UNAMIR soldiers were only allowed to shoot their weapons in self-defence, if somebody was attacking them personally.[11] They were not allowed to use their weapons or get involved to protect civilians who were being attacked.[18]

 
Roméo Dallaire, the UNAMIR Commander, asked the UN repeatedly for more troops, but was ignored, thereby not being able to stop the genocide of the Tutsis.

Responses

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United Nations Security Council

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More and more, UNAMIR's peacekeeping troops were being attacked. Countries began to pull their soldiers out of Rwanda. Some members of the UNSC, like the United States, argued strongly that the UN should take all of its peacekeeping troops out of Rwanda.[19] Eventually, the Security Council decided to decrease the number of troops UNAMIR was allowed to have. On April 21, 1994, as the genocide was spreading across Rwanda, the Security Council decreased the number of allowed UNAMIR troops from 2,548 to 270 – a decrease of almost 90%.[20]

UNAMIR's Commander, Roméo Dallaire, kept asking the United Nations for more troops.[13] On May 15, the Security Council increased UNAMIR's allowed number of troops to 5,500. However, it took almost six months for UN member countries to volunteer this many troops.[20] Meanwhile, the genocide continued.

Operation Turquoise

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France offered to lead a humanitarian mission in southwest Rwanda while UNAMIR was trying to gather more troops. The Security Council approved this mission on June 22, 1994. France called the mission "Operation Turquoise." During this operation, soldiers from France and other countries set up a "safe zone" in southwest Rwanda. This was meant to be an area where people could come to be protected from Hutu attacks. Historians think that Operation Turquoise saved 13,000 to 14,000 lives.[12][19]p. 308 However, France has been accused of letting war criminals escape Rwanda through the safe zone.[19][20]

Massacres

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Because UNAMIR's troops were not allowed to use their weapons to protect civilians, the militias were able to massacre civilians even when UNAMIR troops were nearby.[2]

Kigali

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For example, on April 7, 1994, Belgian soldiers were staying at a school outside Kigali. Thousands of Tutsis ran from Kigali to the school, hoping that the soldiers would protect them from the massacres that were happening in Kigali. Hutu militia surrounded the school, but they did not enter because they were afraid of the Belgian soldiers.[21]

However, one day, the Belgian soldiers left. They had been ordered to leave so they could take Europeans to the airport to get them out of the country. Later, a Belgian colonel "said the young soldiers told him they saw the killers in their rearview mirrors" as they drove away.[21] After the soldiers left, the Hutu militia killed thousands of Tutsis.[21]

Murambi Technical School

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Skulls of people killed at Murambi Technical School.

Another massacre happened in Murambi, a town in southern Rwanda. When the genocide reached Murambi,Tutsis tried to hide at a church. However, the bishop and mayor tricked them by telling them to go to the Murambi Technical School. They said the French soldiers there would protect them. On April 16, 1994, about 65,000 Tutsis ran to the school. One survivor said: "They gave us four [French soldiers] for protection, but from 17 April we never saw them again."[22]

After they got to the school, the Tutsis had no food. The school's water was also cut off, so the Tutsis would be too weak to fight back.[23] The Tutsis were still able to fight back for a few days, using stones. However, on April 21, the school was attacked by the Interahamwe. They killed about 45,000 Tutsis at the school. The other 20,000 Tutsis ran to a nearby church to hide, but the militia found them there and killed almost all of them.[2][23]

The school is now a genocide museum. The museum displays claim that merely 34 people out of 65,000 survived the massacre.[23] It also says that after the massacre, the French soldiers came back and buried the bodies in mass graves. Then they put a volleyball court over the mass graves to hide what happened.[23]

Independent investigations

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In 1999, Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, asked for an independent report about the Rwandan Genocide.[2] He wanted to know why the United Nations and the world had "failed" to stop the Rwandan Genocide.[2] The report said that the major failures were:[20]

  • Not having enough resources (e.g. well-equipped peacekeeping forces)
  • International lack of political will to stop the genocide of the Tutsis, i.e. countries did not find stopping the genocide of the Tutsis beneficial
  • International indifference to the scale of the genocide happening to the Tutsis

End of the genocide

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The Ugandan army joined the RPF in fighting the Hutu extremists, who were gradually defeated across Rwanda. On July 4, 1994, the RPF–Ugandan forces took over Kigali to overthrow the extremist regime. Afterwards, about 2,000,000 Hutus fled to neighboring country Zaire.[16] This group included 1,400,000 Hutu civilians who had nothing to do with the genocide, but had been told that the RPF would kill them just for being Hutus.[1][dubious – discuss][better source needed] According to the BBC, "Human rights groups[who?][clarification needed] say the RPF killed thousands of Hutu civilians as they took power – and more after they went into [Zaire] to [follow] the Interahamwe. The RPF denies this."[16]

Victims

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A quote from a young survivor of the Rwandan genocide.

In 1994, Rwanda's population was 7,900,000. After the genocide:[1][16]

  • 800,000 people had been killed (10% of the population)[2][3]
    • 300,000 children inclusive[24]
  • 2,000,000 people fled to other countries – 25% of the population
  • Up to 2,000,000 people were internally displaced (they had to leave their homes and escape to other parts of Rwanda) (another 25% of the population)
  • 95,000 children became parentless[24]

Before the genocide, about 1,100,000 of Rwandans were Tutsis. After the genocide, only about 300,000 Tutsis remained in the country. Almost 75% Tutsis in Rwanda had been killed during the genocide.[25]

Aftermath

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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

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In 1995, the UNSC set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Its goal was to prosecute people who took part in genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity, and punish the guilty ones.[26] The ICTR had the power to prosecute anyone who broke international laws about human rights.

The ICTR was the first international court ever to:[26][27]

  • Find people guilty of genocide
  • Find that rape and sexual assault are ways of committing genocide
  • Find members of the mass media guilty for broadcasting propaganda that incited genocide

Out of 93 people indicted by the ICTR, 61 were found guilty and sent to prison. Another ten cases were sent to Rwanda so their own courts could hear the cases. Three people indicted by the ICTR are still fugitives.[26] The ICTR closed on December 31, 2015.[26]

Rwandan courts

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The Rwandan government was not able to start trying genocide suspects until 1996. This was because so many judges had been killed in the genocide, and because so many court buildings and jails had been destroyed.

By 2000, there were over 100,000 suspects waiting for trials. The regular Rwandan courts could not handle this many cases. To help with this problem, the government set up a new and different system of courts to help the regular Rwandan courts.[1] By mid-2006, the Rwandan courts had tried over 10,000 genocide suspects.[27]

 
A Gacaca trial.

Gacaca courts

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In 2001, the Rwandan government launched a system of Gacaca courts (pronounced "GA-CHA-CHA"). In these courts, Rwandans elect judges to hear genocide suspects' trials. Gacaca courts may hear cases about any crimes except planning genocide or rape. These cases must be heard by regular Rwandan courts.[27]

When a suspect is found guilty, the Gacaca courts hand out less serious sentences. When the suspect pleads guilty and asks for forgiveness.[clarification needed][source?] The goal of the Gacaca courts is to get justice while also moving towards reconciliation. It also gives perpetrators chances to admit what they did and the victims chances to learn of what happened to their loved ones respectively.[27][better source needed] Between 2001 and 2012, 12,000 Gacaca courts tried over 1,200,000 cases across Rwanda. These courts finished their work on May 4, 2012.[27]

Denial

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See the main article: Rwandan genocide denial

Since the end of the Rwandan genocide, there have been deniers of the genocide worldwide across the political spectrum.[28]

2010s

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Two of the notable deniers were American economist Edward S. Herman (1925–2017) and David Peterson,[28] who published two books in 2010 and 2014 respectively accusing Western media of "selling" the Rwandan genocide as a genocide for the sake of "promoting" what these two scholars claimed to be "economic and intellectual agendas of the U.S.",[28] despite the actual lack of Western media attention to the events during the Rwandan genocide.[29]

Trivia

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Meanwhile, Edward S. Herman had published several books objecting to the genocide classification and doubting the confirmed death tolls of the Cambodian genocide[30] and Bosnian genocide,[31][32] making him a subject of media criticism.[31][32]

2020s

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In December 2024, French-Cameroonian writer Charles Onana was convicted of downplaying the Rwandan genocide.[33] He was ordered to pay €8,400, while his publisher to pay €5,000, as the laws in France ban the denial of any genocide recognized by the French government.[33]

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Notes

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  1. ↑ Later, the Rwandan government investigated and said that Hutu extremists in the Rwandan army shot down the plane.[7] In January 2012, a French investigation reported that the missile fire which brought down the plane "could not have come from a military base occupied by Kagame's [Tutsi] supporters."[8]
  2. ↑ When a person is disemboweled, their abdomen is cut open and their intestines are pulled out. When militia disemboweled pregnant women, they often cut open her uterus, took out her fetus, and killed it in front of the mother.[14]

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Rwanda: A Brief History of the Country". Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations. United Nations. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 2.29 2.30
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Hymowitz, Sarah; & Parker, Amelia. History of the Tutsis and the Hutus (PDF) (Report). American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. pp. 1–5. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 22, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2016.{{cite report}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Immigration and Naturalization Service Resource Information Center (August 14, 2001). "RIC Query – Rwanda: The Role of the Interahamwe Militia During the 1994 Rwandan Genocide". U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. United States Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved April 11, 2016.[permanent dead link]
  7. ↑ "Rwanda inquiry concludes Hutus shot down president's plane". The Guardian Online. Guardian News and Media Limited. January 12, 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "French probe exonerates Rwandan leader in". Reuters. Thomson Reuters. 10 January 2012. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  9. ↑ Melvern, Linda (2004). Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide. London: Verso Books. pp. 164, 169. ISBN 978-1-85984-588-2.
  10. ↑ Gourevitch, Philip (2000). We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (Reprint ed.). London: Picador. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-330-37120-9.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Dallaire, Roméo (2005). Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. London: Arrow Books. pp. 231-3. ISBN 978-0-09-947893-5.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Prunier, Gérard (1999). The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (2nd ed.). Kampala: Fountain Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-9970-02-089-8.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Other Genocides in the 20th (and 21st) Century.(PowerPoint.) Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Gourevitch, Philip (December 18, 1999). "After the Genocide". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  15. ↑ Stover, Eric; Weinstein, Harvey M. (December 2, 2004). My Neighbor, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity. Cambridge University Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0521542647.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 "Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter". BBC News Online. BBC News. April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  17. ↑
  18. ↑ Kimani, Mary (July 2006). "Protecting civilians from genocide". Africa Renewal. p. 4. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Shalom, Stephen R. (April 1996). "The Rwanda Genocide: The Nightmare that Happened". Department of Political Science. William Paterson University. Archived from the original on November 14, 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 "Rwanda – UNAMIR Background". Peacekeeping Missions. United Nations. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Warner, Gregory (April 6, 2014). "How Abandonment in Rwandan Genocide Changed Peacekeepers' Role". NPR. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  22. ↑ "Murambi Memorial". Genocide Memorials: Murambi. Institute of National Museums of Rwanda. Archived from the original on April 8, 2008. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 "Murambi Memorial". Genocide Archive of Rwanda. AEGIS Trust. Archived from the original on July 17, 2022. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Rwanda: Ten years after the genocide". UNICEF. September 4, 2012. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2016.
  25. ↑ Immaculee Illibagiza (November 30, 2006). "Rwandan Genocide Survivor Recalls Horror" (Television interview). Interviewed by Bob Simon. Retrieved April 11, 2016. 60 Minutes
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 "The ICTR in Brief". Legacy Website of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. United Nations. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 "The Justice and Reconciliation Process in Rwanda" (PDF). Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations. United Nations. March 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2
  29. ↑ Kuperman, Alan J (2000). "How the Media Missed Rwandan Genocide". International Press Institute (1). Retrieved December 18, 2024. Western media [...] failed to report that a nationwide killing campaign was under way in Rwanda until almost three weeks into the violence [. ...] some 250,000 Tutsi had already been massacred.
  30. ↑
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1

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