DISCUSSION : HISTORY IN FOCUS
We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families,
Philip Gourevitch
Genocide In Rwanda
What's The Story?
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was a dark chapter not just for that country but also for the international community. The latter failed to anticipate events of which there were clear warnings, or react in time to stop the slaughter of more than 900,000 people in just three months.
A token United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda was withdrawn as the killings started, leaving Tutsis and moderate Hutus at the mercy of murderous bands of Hutu extremists.
Where?
Rwanda is a small country, not much bigger than Wales, in east-central Africa (Africa's Great Lakes region). It's bordered on the north by Uganda, on the east by Tanzania, on the south by Burundi and on the west by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lake Kivu.
Before the genocide, Rwanda was most famous in the west for its endangered mountain gorillas (the 'Gorillas in the Mist'). It's a beautiful but poor country, with the great majority relying on subsistence agriculture. The 2003 population estimate was nearly 8 million. Kigali, the capital, is far and away the country's largest city.
The Historical Context
In the 15th century, the area of modern Rwanda was dominated by the Hutu people. About that time, they were subjugated by cattle-herding Tutsis, who imposed serf-like status upon the Hutus. In the 1880s Rwanda was colonised as part of German East Africa. After Germany's defeat in WW1, it was part of the Belgian colony of Ruanda-Urundi. The minority (c.14 percent) Tutsi elite were used by the colonials to govern the Hutu majority, and ethnic distinctions were reinforced for this purpose.
Ethnic identity cards, for instance, were introduced by the Belgians in 1926. After WW2 Rwanda was governed by Belgium on behalf of the UN. The Hutu majority was becoming increasingly politicised, adopting a manifesto and forming political parties. By now, the Belgians viewed Hutu grievances against their inferior status as legitimate, although it was a system Belgian colonials had encouraged and sustained for many years.
Tutsi supremacy, guaranteed by an alien colonial power, had brought ethnic tensions in Rwanda to boiling point. In 1959 a Hutu revolt targeted the resented Tutsi elite, and up to 200,000 Tutsis fled to neighbouring Burundi. In 1962 Rwanda became an independent republic, with governmental power in the hands of the Hutus. More Tutsis fled the country. In 1963, about 20,000 Tutsis were massacred in response to a raid by Tutsi rebels from Burundi.
In 1973 General Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, seized power in a military coup. In 1990, Habyarimana was pressurised into agreeing to make political reforms, but continually put off implementing them. That same year Tutsi exiles organised themselves into the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and invaded from bases in Uganda. A sporadic civil war began, during which there were several massacres of Tutsi civilians.
In 1993 Habyarimana and the RPF signed the Arusha Peace Accord, which provided for a Hutu-Tutsi coalition government, and the return of Tutsi refugees. The UN sent 2,500 troops (United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda – UNAMIR) to oversee the implementation of the accord. This never happened. Hutu extremists were already organising militias, distributing weapons, broadcasting ethnic hatred on the radio, and preparing to unleash a genocide on the Tutsi population.
Recent Events
On 6th April 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down over Kigali airport. Everyone on board was killed. That night, what emerged as the first acts of an orchestrated genocide occurred. Tutsis and moderate Hutus who opposed extremism were sought, caught and slaughtered by the army and Hutu militia. At roadblocks in the capital they were pulled from their cars and murdered.
The prime minister and the 10 UN soldiers sent to protect her were killed on 7th April. The UN troops based in Kigali were not given the authority to intervene in what was seen as a resumption of 'tribal warfare'. Most were withdrawn by the end of April. In the countryside, Hutu militias systematically slaughtered Tutsis, relying on crude weaponry like the machete. The Tutsi-dominated RPF immediately mobilised in a bid to end the killings, and by July had occupied Kigali and effectively won the war.
But they had not been able to prevent the murder of over 900,000 people in 3 months. Nor had the UN Security Council, which had not been able to agree whether events in Rwanda technically constituted genocide, nor on how much assistance to provide and how much it should cost.
The RPF victory created up to 2 million Hutu refugees (amongst whom many perpetrators of genocide hid). They, fearing reprisals, crossed into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire). It was their plight that finally helped mobilise international aid groups. Meanwhile the RPF established a coalition government with a Hutu president, and Tutsi refugees from Uganda and Burundi flooded back into the country. Then the fraught task of rebuilding Rwanda began. It remains a controversial, sometimes violent and deeply fragile process.