NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Rwandan Massacre

The Rwandan Genocide was a genocide of 937,000 Rwandan Tutsis and Hutu moderates at the hands of Hutu militias and the Hutu-dominated government. It was a major factor in the destabilization of whole regions of Central Africa.

The Rwandan Genocide series

Rwanda
History of Rwanda

Initial events
Causes of the genocide
Rwandan Players
Role of the International Community
Peculiarities of the Rwandan Genocide
Consequences of the Genocide

Glossary and supplements
Bibliography

Contents

1 Background

2 Colonial history

3 Self-government

4 Other causes of the violence

5 Prelude to Genocide

6 Arusha Accords

7 Preparations for genocide

8 Initial assassinations

9 Genocide

9.1 UNAMIR
9.2 RPF renewed invasion
9.3 Relief efforts

10 Justice, reconciliation, reforms

11 See also

11.1 External links
11.2 References

Background

Main Article: History of Rwanda

Rwanda is one of the few states in Africa to closely follow its ancestral borders. The Kingdom of Rwanda, controlled by a Tutsi royal family, ruled the region for as long as recorded history. While the upper echelons of this society were largely Tutsi, racial divisions were not stark. Many Hutu were among the nobility and significant intermingling took place. The majority of the Tutsi, who made up 15-18% of the population, were poor peasants, as were most of the Hutu.

Colonial history

This area was colonized first by the Germans in 1894 during the Scramble for Africa, when European powers staked their claims in the continent. The Belgians were awarded some German spoils after the First World War, including Rwanda. They tended to simplify matters; transforming a majority Tutsi elite into a solely Tutsi elite, with position in society determined by ethnicity. The two ethnic groups are actually very similar - they speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow the same traditions. But when the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they saw the two groups as distinct entities, and even produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity. The Belgians considered the Tutsis as superior to the Hutus. Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than their neighbours.

Belgium controlled both Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi from the end of the First World War until independence in 1962. Belgian colonialism, in Rwanda and Burundi as well as the Belgian Congo, was marked by brutality and incompetence. Many have accused the Belgian system of leaving its colonies utterly unprepared for independence, and all three countries had violent and unhappy histories since their independence. The portion of the Great Lakes region controlled by Britain in western Tanzania and Uganda has not been marked by the same violence.

Self-government

In preparation for the Belgian pull out, elections brought the Hutu nationalist party Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement (PARMEHUTU) to power in 1959. They launched a program of advancing the power of the Hutu majority. This policy was largely condoned in the west. While the Tutsi had been the favourites of the colonial powers, perception shifted as the Tutsi became viewed as feudal overlords. It was thus seen as proper that the Tutsi leadership was ousted in favour of rule by the Hutu majority. This also led to a downplaying of the violence that was associated with this process. Some 20,000 Tutsi were killed and another 200,000 fled to neighbouring countries.

After independence, PARMEHUTU established a one party rule based upon Hutu nationalism. In 1964 and again in 1974, programs were initiated in which large numbers of Tutsi were killed and more were forced into exile.

In 1973 Juv�nal Habyarimana seized power in a military coup, ousting PARMEHUTU, but continuing to rely on Hutu nationalism to stay in power.

Other causes of the violence

Another school of thought argues that the violence in the region is a result of the same European theories of race that lead to the Holocaust. These ideas were propagated by John Hanning Speke. Unlike the other mixed states of Africa, Rwandans were considered by Europeans to be on the border between Blacks and the more noble Hamites. Tutsis were viewed as Hamites and Hutus as inferior Bantus. This ingrained racism was reversed upon independence when the majority Hutus took to viewing the Tutsis as foreign invaders and not true Rwandans. Similar divisions have led to violence in other parts of northeast Africa, most notably in Sudan.

Others see an economic explanation for the violence. The Great Lakes region, with rich soil and a more temperate climate because of its altitude, is one of the most densely populated parts of Africa. This has led to a great deal of competition for scarce land and resources. Slaughtering the Tutsis is thus seen as an attempt by some Hutu to gain more land.

Many Rwandans claim that there was little inter-ethnic rivalry until it was deliberately stoked by the Juv�nal Habyarimana government as a ploy to counter Paul Kagame and the Rwandese Patriotic Front's largely Tutsi invasion on October 1, 1990.

Jared Diamond, in his book Collapse, argues that overpopulation was part of the cause, as he notes that in one area of Rwanda, where only a single Tutsi lived, 5% of the 2000 Hutu inhabitants were also killed. Diamond claims this was because all the farmland was occupied, living conditions were cramped, and the mayhem of the genocide allowed Rwandans to kill richer neighbors to seize their land.

Prelude to Genocide

Another source of mounting tensions in 1990 were the grumblings of the Tutsi diaspora in refugee camps ringing the nation, particularly from Uganda. Rwanda had been given independence before Uganda, and the early Tutsi outcasts saw history played out in 30 years from Uganda's independence from Britain, fledgeling democracy, Idi Amin and successive military overthrows. Rwandans fought alongside Ugandans, where they had helped depose Milton Obote with Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army and saw his installation as president in January 1986.

The mainly Tutsi Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) was formed in 1985 under Paul Kagame and saw an opportunity in their own country demanding recognition of their rights as Rwandans, including the right of return. On October 1, 1990 RPF forces invaded Rwanda from their base in neighboring Uganda. The rebel force, composed primarily of Tutsis, blamed the government for failing to democratize and resolve the problems of some 500,000 Tutsi refugees living in diaspora around the world.

The Rwandan government portrayed the invasion as an attempt to bring the Tutsi ethnic group back into power, and the world was largely sympathetic to them. The violence increased ethnic tensions as Hutus rallied around the President. Habyarimana himself reacted by immediately repressing Tutsis and Hutus who were perceived to be in league with Tutsi interests. Habyarimana justified these acts by proclaiming it was the intent of the Tutsis to restore a kind of Tutsi feudal system and thus to enslave the Hutu race.

Arusha Accords

See main article Arusha accords

The war dragged on for almost two years. Talks began July 12, 1992, a cease-fire took effect July 31, and political talks began August 10, 1992. The Arusha accords were signed after protracted negotiations under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity, until June 24, 1993, with a meeting in Rwanda July 19 to July 25, 1993. Final signing was on August 4, 1993.

The accords fixed a timetable for an end to the fighting and a start of political talks, leading to a peace accord and power sharing, while authorizing a neutral military observer group under the auspices of the Organization for African Unity. However, the relations continued to be strained.

Preparations for genocide

During this period the rhetoric of Hutu nationalism escalated. Radio stations, particularly Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) and newspapers spewed hatred describing the Tutsi as subhuman, and pushing veiled calls for violence as radical Hutu groups amassed weapons. The nation became increasingly polarized as neighbourhoods became exclusively populated by only one group.

According to Linda Melvern [1] (http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/events/melvern/melvern.php), a British investigative reporter who was given access to official reports, much preparation had been made. By the time the genocide started, the militia in Rwanda was 30,000 strong and organized nationwide with representatives in every neighborhood -- one militia member for every ten families. Some of the militia was given Kalashnikovs but only after filling in the required requisition forms. The distribution of grenades did not require paperwork.

In order to finance the genocide money was siphoned from international funding, the funding provided by the World Bank and the IMF under a Structural Adjustment Program. It is estimated that Rwanda, one of the poorest and most troubled nations on Earth, spent $134 million on genocide preparation. Some $4.6 million were spent on machetes, hoes, axes, razors, and hammers. There was one new machete for every three Hutu males.

The Prime Minister of Rwanda, Jean Kambanda, revealed [2] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3572887.stm) that the genocide was openly discussed in cabinet meetings. Kambanda described, according to Melvern, how one cabinet minister said she was "personally in favour of getting rid of all Tutsi". "Without the Tutsi," she told ministers, "all of Rwanda's problems would be over".

Initial assassinations

On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying President Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of Burundi, was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali. Both presidents were killed when the plane crashed. The exact responsibility for this act is not known. Recent reports suggest it was radical Hutu nationalists in the presidential guard.

However, in January 2000 three Tutsi informants told the United Nations that they were part of an elite strike team that carried out the assassination of the Hutu president. They told UN investigators in 1997 that the killing of president Juv�nal Habyarimana was carried out "with the assistance of a foreign government" under the overall command of Paul Kagame (currently (2005) the president of Rwanda).

UN investigators had believed that Hutu extremists within the family circle of Mr. Habyarimana had killed him. At the time, Habyarimana was involved in talks that aimed at sharing power with the Rwandese Patriotic Front. The informants told the investigators that the front decided to kill Habyarimana because the group was not pleased with the slow pace of the talks.

The person charged by the UN with inquiring into the assassinations in 1994, Mr. Rene Degni-S�gui, affirmed in front of the Belgian senate [3] (http://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=/publications/viewPubDoc&TID=16778570&LANG=fr#1-611/7_185)

(google-translated and hand-edited) "Concerning the attack of the presidential plane, it is a Gordian knot. As soon as I took my functions, I went to Geneva. I had in audience the ambassador of France because my mandate specified well that I was to investigate this subject. I asked whether France could place at my disposal the black box of the presidential plane. They said to me:"I understand, I will refer about it to my government" Thereafter, they indicated to me that the government did not have this black box. I then went to Kigali, where I met the military staff. I asked them: "can I have the black box?" There were four soldiers, the head of staff and others. The head of staff said to me: "the black box is with the military" I said to him: "But yourselves, you are the military" And finally, he said to me: "We do not have it, ask France" I was thus returned one with the other, and finally, there was a certain Baril captain who claimed to have the box� and I asked the United Nations to place at my disposal a board of inquiry with an expert in ballistics, in order to make research. Indeed, meanwhile, it was said that the ICAO could not make the investigation, because the plane was not a civil aircraft, but a military aircraft. And one thus needed a board of inquiry. I requested it from the United Nations, and it was answered me that there was no budget for that. The Rwandan government had also asked me to investigate this subject. And in one of my reports, I precisely recall, I draw the alarm bell, for saying to make quickly before it is not too late. I even fear that it is too late now. So that, up to now, I did not achieve this task before I have to leave"

This high-level attack was an unambiguous signal to all Rwandans. Those who were going to kill knew what they had to do, those who were of Tutsi, or the moderate Hutu, understood at once that they would be attacked.

On the night of the 6 to April 7 the staff of the FAR and Colonel Bagosora, clashed verbally with UNAMIR Force Commander General Romeo Dallaire, who pointed out the legal authority of the Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana take the control of the situation as outlined in Arusha Accords. Colonel Bagosora disputed the authority. General Dallaire decided to give an escort of UNAMIR personnel to Mrs Uwilingiyimana to protect her overnight and to allow her to send a calming message on the radio the next morning. By then, the presidential guard occupied the radio station and Mrs Uwilingiyimana had to cancel her speech. In the middle of the day, she was assassinated by the presidential guard. The Belgian UNAMIR soldiers sent to protect her were later found massacred that day.

Other moderate officials favorable to the Arusha Accords were quickly assassinated. Faustin Twagiramungu escaped execution as he was passed to the safety of UNAMIR.

Genocide

As though the assassination was a signal, military and militia groups began rounding up and killing all Tutsis they could capture as well as the political moderates irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds. Large numbers of opposition politicians were also murdered. Many nations evacuated their nationals from Kigali and closed their embassies as violence escalated. National radio urged people to stay in their homes, and the government funded station RTLM broadcast vitriolic attacks against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Hundreds of roadblocks were set up by the militia in the capital Kigali and around the country. General Dallaire and UNAMIR, escorting Tutsis in Kigali, were unable to do anything as Hutus kept escalating the violence and even started targeting, via RTLM, UNAMIR personnel and General Dallaire.

The killing swiftly spread from Kigali to all corners of the country; between April 6 and the beginning of July, a genocide of unprecedented swiftness officially left 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead at the hands of organized bands of militias known as the Interahamwe. One such massacre occurred at Nyarubuye. Even ordinary citizens were called on by local officials and government-sponsored radio to kill their neighbours and those who refused to kill were often killed themselves. "Either you took part in the massacres or you were massacred yourself," said one Hutu who was forced to take part. The president's MRND party was implicated in organizing many aspects of the genocide.

Most of the victims were killed in their villages or in towns, often by their neighbors and fellow villagers. The Interahamwe mostly killed their victims by chopping them up with machetes, although some army units shot and killed the Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In some towns the victims were forcibly crammed into churches and school buildings, where Hutu extremist gangs then massacred them. In June 1994 about 3000 Tutsis sought refuge in a Catholic church in Kivumu. Local Interahamwe then used bulldozers supplied by the local police to knock down the church building. People who tried to escape were hacked down with machetes.

UNAMIR

For the next couple of weeks, many questionable decisions were made by members of the United Nations Security Council. The UN had a peacekeeping force in the country, UNAMIR (The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda).

UNAMIR's Force Commander General Dallaire became aware of the genocide taking place, and pleaded for reinforcements of 2000 soldiers and logistical support. The UN Security Council refused, several journalists laying blame on a gunshy Clinton administration who refused to provide requested material aid after the failed US efforts in Mogadishu, Somalia. The Security Council voted to reduce UNAMIR down to 260 men.

Following the Belgian forces' withdrawal after 10 soldiers were killed, General Dallaire consolidated his contingent of Canadian, Ghanian, and Dutch soldiers in urban areas and focused on providing areas of 'safe control'. His actions are credited with directly saving the lives of 20,000 Tutsis.

The new Rwandan government led by self-proclaimed President Sindikubwabo worked hard to minimize international criticism. Rwanda at that time had a seat on the Security Council and its ambassador argued that the claims of genocide were exaggerated and that the government was doing all that it could to stop it. Representatives of the Rwandan Catholic Church, long associated with the radical Hutus in Rwanda, also used their links in Europe to reduce criticism. France, which felt the United States and United Kingdom would use the massacres to try to expand their influence in that francophone part of Africa also worked to prevent a foreign intervention.

Finally, on May 17, 1994, the UN conceded that "acts of genocide may have been committed." By that time, the Red Cross estimated that 500,000 Rwandans had been killed. The UN agreed to send 5,500 troops to Rwanda which were to be provided by mostly African countries. The UN also requested 50 APCs from the United States. However, deployment of these forces was delayed due to arguments over their cost.

On June 22, with no sign of UN deployment taking place, the Security Council authorized French forces to land in Goma, Zaire on a humanitarian mission. They deployed throughout southwest Rwanda in an area they called "Zone Turquoise," quelling the genocide and stopping the fighting there, but often only arriving in areas after the Tutsi had been forced out or killed.

At the height of the conflict, United Nations employee Callixte Mbarushimana, a Hutu, took part in the murders of 32 people, including other U.N. employees.

RPF renewed invasion

The RPF battalion stationed in Kigali under the Arusha Accords came under attack immediately after the shooting down of the president's plane. The battalion fought its way out of Kigali and joined up with RPF units in the north.

The RPF renewed its civil war against the Rwandese Hutu government when it received word that the genocidal massacres had begun. Its leader Paul Kagame directed RPF forces in neighboring countries such as Uganda and Tanzania to invade the country, battling the Hutu forces and Interahamwe militias who were committing the massacres. The resulting civil war raged concurrently with the genocide for two months.

The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the genocide in July 1994, 100 days after it started, but approximately two million Hutu refugees - some who participated in the genocide and fearing Tutsi retribution - fled to neighboring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire. Thousands of them died in epidemics of cholera and dysentery that swept the refugee camps. The Rwandan genocide and presence of large numbers of refugees in the aftermath were major factors in the destabilization of Zaire, which plunged into chaos and civil war in 1998, with similarly horrible destruction and death: see Second Congo War

France and Belgium refused to recognize the new government, but it was supported by the United States and Germany.

Relief efforts

The international community responded with one of the largest humanitarian relief efforts ever mounted. The U.S. was one of the largest contributors. UNAMIR was brought back up to strength after the RPF victory (and was called UNAMIR 2 thereafter). UNAMIR remained in Rwanda until March 8, 1996.

Following an uprising by the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge people in eastern Zaire in October 1996, a huge movement of refugees began which brought more than 600,000 back to Rwanda in the last two weeks of November. This massive repatriation was followed at the end of December 1996 by the return of another 500,000 from Tanzania, again in a huge, spontaneous wave.

Justice, reconciliation, reforms

With the return of the refugees, the government began the long-awaited genocide trials, which got off to an uncertain start in the closing days of 1996 and inched forward in 1997. In 2001, the government began implementation of a participatory justice system, known as "gacaca" in order to address the enormous backlog of cases. Meanwhile, the United Nations set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, currently based in Arusha, Tanzania.

Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms - including Rwanda's first ever local elections held in March 1999 - the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output and to foster reconciliation. A series of massive population displacements, a nagging Hutu extremist insurgency, and Rwandan involvement in two wars over the past four years in the neighboring DROC continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts.

On April 7 2004, the President of the General Assembly, Julian Hunte of Saint Lucia, told a commemorative meeting which included the participation of the Security Council: "What a pity it is that the deliberate killing of the President of Rwanda, together with the President of Burundi, would not have caused a nation to mourn, but instead would have resulted in 100 days of terror and violence, in full view of the United Nations and the world". (Source: UN News Centre (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10344&Cr=rwanda))