Never Again Again The Rwandan Genocide Part 1

“Never Again”, Again? ? ? : The Rwandan Genocide

Part 1: Background…

Pre-colonial “Rwanda-Urundi” • 700 BCE -1500 CE: Bantu migrations into Rwanda/Burundi region • 2 Bantu groups, “Hutu” and “Tutsi”, lived together in region • by 1800: Kingdom of Rwanda (Tutsi) becomes dominant – Hutu (85%) forced to work for Tutsi élites (14%) Tutsi Hutu

Colonial Era (1860 -1914) • Rwanda-Urundi becomes colony of Germany (1884) • Germans rule through Rwandan monarchs • Europeans believed the Tutsi were more “Caucasian” in appearance • were therefore racially superior and better suited to carry out colonial administrative tasks

1919 and beyond • Belgium given control of Rwanda after WW 1 • Belgians continue German practice of favouring the Tutsi élites • Hutu disenfranchised and subject to large scale forced labour • missionaries convert Hutu to Catholicism • Church taught the Hutu to see themselves as oppressed - helped to inspire revolution

1935… • Belgians introduce identity cards labelling each individual as Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa • had previously been possible for wealthy Hutu to become honorary Tutsi but • identity cards prevent any further movement between classes

1956 - 1962: The “Social Revolution” • 1956: Hutu form nationalist party (Parmahutu) to fight for their rights • 1957: Hutu scholars write the “Bahutu Manifesto“; first document to label the Tutsi and Hutu as separate races • calls for the transfer of power from Tutsi to Hutu based on "statistical law"

• 1959: rumour of killing of Hutu chief by Tutsi; Hutu respond by killing 20, 000 Tutsi • 200, 000 Tutsi refugees flee to neighbouring countries

• 1960: Belgians replace Tutsi chiefs with Hutus • elections return overwhelming Hutu majority; Hutu- dominated republic created • country becomes independent in 1962; Belgians leave

“Cockroaches” and the RPF… • Tutsi refugees form the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) • Hutus call RPF’s armed groups inyenzi (“cockroaches”) • RPF launch attacks into Rwanda against Hutu targets; led to more reprisal killings of Tutsi and more Tutsi exiles (300 000 by 1964) • anti-Tutsi discrimination, violence continue into the 1970 s

The Rwandan Civil War • conflict between 1990 -1993 • Rwandan government of President Juvenal Habyarimana (Hutu) vs. • rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by Paul Kagame (Tutsi)

The Arusha Accords • 1993: negotiations result in peace agreement • RPF (Tutsi) to get positions in new Rwandan government and Rwandan army

UNAMIR… • United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda • UN peacekeeping force arrives in Kigali to supervise peace agreement

• Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire • UNAMIR Commander in Rwanda

Part 2: Prelude to Genocide

“Hutu Power” • Hutu extremists in President Habyarimana’s government oppose the peace agreement with RPF • “akazu”, “clan de madame” • Kangura: anti-Tutsi propaganda magazine publishes “Hutu Ten Commandments”

The “Hutu Ten Commandments”: 1. Every Hutu should know that a Tutsi woman, whoever she is, works for the interest of her Tutsi ethnic group. As a result, we shall consider a traitor any Hutu who • marries a Tutsi woman • befriends a Tutsi woman • employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine. 2. Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and conscientious in their role as woman, wife and mother of the family. Are they not beautiful, good secretaries and more honest? 3. Hutu women, be vigilant and try to bring your husbands, brothers and sons back to reason.

4. Every Hutu should know that every Tutsi is dishonest in business. His only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group. As a result, any Hutu who does the following is a traitor: • makes a partnership with Tutsi in business • invests his money or the government's money in a Tutsi enterprise • lends or borrows money from a Tutsi • gives favours to Tutsi in business (obtaining import licenses, bank loans, construction sites, public markets, etc. ). 5. All strategic positions, political, administrative, economic, military and security should be entrusted only to Hutu. 6. The education sector (school pupils, students, teachers) must be majority Hutu. 7. The Rwandan Armed Forces should be exclusively Hutu. The experience of the October 1990 war has taught us a lesson. No member of the military shall marry a Tutsi.

8. The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi. 9. The Hutu, wherever they are, must have unity and solidarity and be concerned with the fate of their Hutu brothers. • The Hutu inside and outside Rwanda must constantly look for friends and allies for the Hutu cause, starting with their Hutu brothers. • They must constantly counteract Tutsi propaganda. • The Hutu must be firm and vigilant against their common Tutsi enemy. 10. The Social Revolution of 1959, the Referendum of 1961, and the Hutu Ideology, must be taught to every Hutu at every level. Every Hutu must spread this ideology widely. Any Hutu who persecutes his brother Hutu for having read, spread, and taught this ideology is a traitor.

Militias & Paramilitaries • several radical youth militia groups emerge attached to Rwandan political parties; • Interahamwe (“Those who stand/fight together”): attached to Habyriamana’s party • Impuzamugambi (“Those who have the same goal”) attached to the extremist CDR (thought Habyriamana was too “soft” on Tutsis) • Rwandan army trained the militias, sometimes in conjunction with the French, who were unaware of their true purpose

“Death Lists” • March 1993: the Hutu Power began compiling lists of "traitors" whom they planned to kill

“Hutu Power Radio” • Hutu Power groups found a new radio station, Radio Télévision Libre des Milles Collines (RTLMC) • Milles Collines broadcasts racist propaganda, obscene jokes and music – popular throughout country

Still from the film “Hate Radio” about role of RTLM in inciting genocide “…it is almost time for us to cut down the tall trees. ” (code for, “it is almost time to kill all of the Tutsis. ”)

Weapons Caches • 1993, Hutu hardliners import machetes on a scale far larger than that required for agriculture • other tools which could be used as weapons, imported as well (razor blades, saws and scissors • distributed around the country, ostensibly as part of the “civil defence” network

• Kangura, 1991 • “Which weapons are we going to use to beat the cockroaches for good? ”

1993… • President of neighbouring Burundi (Hutu) assassinated by Tutsi army officers • reinforces fear among Hutus that all Tutsi are their enemy and can’t be trusted • Hutu Power leaders use this fear to prepare/convince Rwandan Hutus for mass killings of Tutsi (“…cut down the tall trees”, “crush the cockroaches”) • Power leaders begin arming the Interahamwe with AK 47 rifles and other weapons

“Our enemy is one We know him It is the Tutsi” song lyric

The “Genocide Fax” • Jan 11, 1994 • Gen. Dallaire notifies UN Headquarters (NYC) • high level informant told him of plans to distribute weapons to Hutu militias • goal - kill Belgian members of UNAMIR to guarantee Belgian withdrawal from Rwanda • informant (local politician) had been ordered to register all Tutsis in Kigali, probably for their extermination • informant estimated they could kill up to 1, 000 Tutsis in 20 minutes

• in spite of this information, UN forbids Dallaire’s troops from raiding weapons cache • “We have no mandate to intervene. ”

The Trigger… • Apr. 6, 1994 • plane carrying President Habyriamana shot down as it lands in Kigali • Hutu extremists believed to be behind the attack (did not want to share power with Tutsi as per Arusha Accords)

Hell Let Loose… • Hutu extremists begin killings that same evening (Apr. 6 -7) • Rwandan Army and interahamwe militias set up roadblocks - go from house to house killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus • thousands die on the first day • extremists surround and disarm 10 Belgian peacekeepers assigned to protect the moderate Hutu prime minister • Belgians are tortured and killed – “Camp Kigali Massacre”

Part 3: Genocide

"Neighbors hacked neighbors in their homes, and colleagues hacked colleagues to death in their workplaces. Doctors killed their patients, and schoolteachers killed their pupils. Within days, the Tutsi populations of many villages were all but eliminated. . . in Kigali prisoners were released in work gangs to collect the corpses that lined the roadsides. Drunken militia bands, fortified with assorted drugs from ransacked pharmacies, were bused from massacre to massacre. Radio announcers reminded listeners not to take pity on women and children. " from "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda“ by Philip Gourevitch