The Rwanda Genocide — 2.5 Million Rapes & 8 Million Were Slaughtered
The Brutal killings of the Tutsi community
We used to think about genocide as ancient history. We never consider it a modern event. Everyone says that Humanity should prevail everywhere.
Humanity should not die.
But in modern times, we have witnessed many genocides.
Have humans been the biggest danger to Humanity? Don't you agree with this?
Rwanda Ethnicity
There are two groups in Rwanda — Hutu and Tutsi. Hutu ethnicity is in the majority, and Tutsi is in the Minority. A significant difference between the two is that Hutus are farming and eating crops, whereas Tutsis raise and eat livestock.
The Genocide
In 1994, in just 100 gruesome days, Hutu extremists slaughtered approx 1,000,000 Tutsi people, as well as any sympathizers.
Hutu radicals nationalists urged on killing Tutsi whenever they are seen. This genocide spread in the country like wildfire. Hutu civilians were provided arms against their neighbors(Tutsi). These both communities were living together for centuries, without any conflicts or issues.
Then why all the bloodshed suddenly? What happened to the Hutu community, that they were quenched in the blood of the Tutsi people? Why they had to brutally slaughter Tutsis?
Men, women, old or child — no one was escaped.
When Rwanda Patriotic Front(RPF) occupied control of the country in July, Till that time, millions of Rwandans were killed.
Two Million Hutu refugees left the country
Rwanda is a small central African nation.
Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, and Burundi are the neighboring countries of Rwanda.
In 1994, Rwanda's total population was seven million, where 85% were Hutu, and 15% were Tutsi. Rwanda was also one of the densely populated countries among other African countries.
In 1918 just after the First World War, Rwanda, former German colony, was made a Belgium trusteeship by the League of Nations. During the colonization, Belgium always favored the minority Tutsis over Hutus. It caused tension and conflicts between both for decades.
In 1969, the Hutu Nationalist revolution forced more than 300,000 Tutsis to leave Rwanda to go anywhere in neighboring countries. This continued tension and resulted in making Tutsi a minority community of Rwanda.
Rwanda got independent from Belgium in 1962, after the United Nations Referendum.
This ethnic violence and tensions remain the same even after independence between both communities. Tutsi were treated as inferior people and were discriminated against by the new Hutu Government.
The biggest irony is, they speak the same language, practice the same religion as Christianity. Habyarimana came to power in 1983, and in 1988, he was the only candidate in power by the vote. He was the founder of the party National Revolutionary Movement for Development (NRMD).
RPF made Tutsi rebels equipped with weapons in 1990
In 1992, the ceasefire between Kigali and RPF led both to the negotiation table. Just before the genocide, Habyarimana agreed to include RPF in the government.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was established to assist in its implementation.
Hutu extremists infuriated on this — the hatred they carried for decades and discrimination they faced during Belgium's rule lit the fuse of genocide in Rwanda.
On the 6th of April 1994, General Habyarimana and Burundi’s president Ntaryamira were traveling by plane. The plane got shot down over Kigali, leaving no survivor.
Who was the culprit for this?
Hutu Extremists blamed RPF for this, and they started campaigning to kill Tutsi as an act of revenge. Whereas RPF said that Hutu extremists have shot down the plane to excuse the killings of Tutsi.
Just within an hour of the plane crash, members of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and 2 Hutu militia groups started barricading in Kigali. The killings of Tutsi and Moderate or we can kill sympathizer of Tutsi, Hutus got started.
The very next day of this incident, moderate Hutu Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana got killed. Even 10 Belgian Peacekeepers were also killed. It created a huge political vacuum in which Hutu extremist leaders quickly stepped in.
Belgium withdraws all its UN troops because of the killings of UN Peacekeepers.
The mass killings of Tutsi in Kigali quickly spread into wholescale slaughter in the entire Rwanda countryside.
Mostly the young ‘Hutu power’ men were provided arms by NRMD. These young men were the driving force to execute this genocide. Rwandan ID cards of citizens had the ethnicity stamped on them, which made it easy to identify Tutsi people across the country very quickly.
Militias slaughtered Tutsi with long machetes. Only the bloodied corpses were left behind.
Till April 18th, they had killed most of the government employees and regional resisters. Hutu militias rewarded their killing squads with women, money. Drugs and booze.
The military handed out the lists of Tutsi citizens.
Militias then went door to door, and dragged all the Tutsis out, and hacked them to death on the roads.
It included all the family members of the house, no matter children, senior citizens, or women. The long-bladed machete became the symbol of the Rwandan Genocide.
Hutu extremists established a radio station just to broadcast daily hate propaganda. Those extremists were urging Hutus civilians to “Squash the (Tutsi) Cockroaches.” The prominent names of Tutsi people and Hutu sympathizers were spoken out loud on the radio to be killed.
The hate propaganda was broadcasting such as “the discrimination Hutus people suffered under the Elite Tutsi’’.
The ordinary Hutus were urged to kill their neighbor Tutsi people.
“Every Tutsi must depart, else they will be wiped out from this country”
The government and army completely supported Rwanda Genocide. Civilian Hutus collaborated with the genocide, killing Tutsi, moderate Hutu neighbors, and any Hutu sympathizer.
Neighbors were killing their neighbors. Even some husbands killed their Tutsi wives by saying/assuming that they would also be killed if they do not kill their wives. Tutsi who took shelter in churches were also killed. No Tutsi were allowed to escape.
You cockroaches are made of flesh — We will kill you; The graves are not yet full
While this massacre was going on, the entire world was silent. Even so, many new agencies such as the Washington Post, BBC, and New York Times were covering the daily events of this genocide.
The world was aware of this genocide on the first day
The USA did not intervene in any other African conflict since they lost their troops in Somalia.
The Clinton Administration completed avoided calling this massacre a genocide to remain distant from their involvement. The administration said that there is no need for military intervention in Rwanda.
After the slaughter of 500,000 Rwandans, the UN finally recognize this as genocide. UN sent 5,500 troops a month later since the genocide was started.
It was too delayed because when UN troops reached Rwanda, the genocide was all over.
In their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda — Kofi Annan
When the Tutsi RPF resumed fighting, the civil war erupted alongside the genocide. After hundreds of days later, on July 4th, RPF took control over Kigali and most parts of the country.
Till this time, two million Hutus now left Rwanda for fear of reprisal. They took shelter and crowded in refugee camps in neighboring countries Burundi, Congo, and Tanzania. These Hutus left streets with piles of corpses, millions of dead bodies of Tutsi. Macheted bodies all over the country, in house, and ditches.
In those hundred-day killing sprees, 800,000 people were slaughtered.
Approximately 250,000 Tusti women were gang-raped and murdered. Many were taken away as sex slaves.
Estimated 100,000 children were abandoned, abducted, or orphaned. Still, Rwandan people have post-traumatic stress disorder.
Some Human rights groups claimed that after taking control by RPF over the country. RPF fighters killed thousands of Hutus in retaliation.
The mass graves were dug for those dead bodies.
Later in 1997, because of the worsening situation in the camps in Congo and Tanzania, more than a million Hutus refugees returned to Rwanda.
The Rwandan court was trying to give justice and reconciliation to 1.2 million cases. These genocide trials continued for more than 15 years.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13431486 https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/the-hindu-explains-frances-role-in-the-rwandan-genocide/article34666553.ece
