Genocide in Rwanda The genocide began on April
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
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