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On April 6, 1994, the plane carrying Habyarimana and Burundi’s president was shot down over the city of Kigali. Hutu Prime Minister and 10 Belgian peacekeepers were killed on April 7. The killings spread from Kigali to the rest of Rwanda. By early July, RPF (The Rwandan Patriotic Front) had gained control again. The genocide had lasted 100 days (Rwandan Genocide).

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There had been a long history of disagreements between the two groups. Although both alike in culture and religion they differ from their economic standpoint. The Hutus were the people who farmed crops while the Tutsis tended to livestock. Tutsis’ were thriving because cattle were more valuable than crops (Zack Beauchamp).

In 1917 Belgium took control of Rwanda after the Treaty of Versailles when they took control of the Tutsis over the Hutus. The Hutus were very upset and after some time they revolted and the Hutu forced the Tutsi monarch into exile and declared Rwanda a republic, that same year Belgium granted independence (History.com Editors).

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On April 6, 1994, the Rwandan President, Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down in his plane above the Kigali airport. The blame quickly was turned to Paul Kagame, the president after the assassination. This was because he was the leader of the Tutsi rebel group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front, RPF, and some members of his group was blamed for the assassination. Kagame denies and blames the Hutu’s for being too extremist (Rwanda: How the genocide happened). The Hutus got upset and quickly went out to exterminate all Tutsis.

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Who were the perpetrators and who were the victims?

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Who were the perpetrators and who were the victims?

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Within an hour of the plane crash the Hutus militia, known as the Interahamwe, meaning those who attack together, and the Impuzamugambi, meaning those who have the same goal, blocked the roads and began muring the Tutsis and punishing Hutus who didn’t participate (History.com Editors).

The mass killings spread everywhere in Rwanda, in the beginning, local administrators resisted, but after April 18th the national officials removed the resistors and killed some of them and punished others. Officials would reward the people who were killing others, and the radios started telling people to go out and kill their neighbors. People were given necessities if they killed Tutsis (History.com Editors).

After three months 800,000 Tutsis were killed, and Tutsi women were being sold as slaves. The RPF joined and started to attack the Hutus, so they fled Rwanda (History.com Editors).

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The Hutu extremists were targeting the Tutsi community and their political opponents. Rwanda has always been a tightly controlled society. Society was viewed by a social hierarchy from each district to the top government. The then-governing party, MRND, had a youth wing called the Interahamwe, which was turned into a militia to carry out the slaughter (Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter). In central and southern Rwanda, where most Tutsi lived, the fighting was resisted at first. After April 18, national officials removed the resistors and killed several of them. Other opponents were silent or actively led killings. Officials rewarded killers with food, drink, drugs and money. Government-sponsored radio stations started calling on ordinary Rwandan civilians to murder their neighbors and murder hit-lists were sent out to local groups with the exact address of people. The UN and Belgium had forces in Rwanda, but they were not instructed to fight or stop the killings. A safe zone was later set up, however, it is said that none of the allies tried to put an end to it all (Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter).

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The Rwandan Genocide was carried out in ten stages. The first stage was classification. The people were separated by ethnicity, Tutsi and Hutu. The Tutsi group consisted of the people the Belgians picked based on physical characteristics. The tutsi group was above or superior in comparison to the Hutu group, who made up the workforce in Rwanda. The second stage was symbolization. The Hutus and Tutsis were recognized through their physical features. However, the Hutus distributed ID cards that specified whether you were a Tutsi or Hutu. Discrimination was the third stage. Many Tutsis were exiled or denied services simply because of their race(OLCreate). The next stage was dehumanization which was carried out by radio stations who would refer to the Tutsis as snakes and cockroaches. Other metaphors were used to imply that the Hutus were going to kill the Tutsis(Ndahiro). Organization was the fifth stage. The genocide was well planned and thought out by the MNRD and Interahamwe who were the main perpetrators of the genocide. They organized shipments of weapons to come at specific times, effectively used propaganda, and had coordinated attacks on the Tutsis. The next stage was polarization. In this stage, the MNRD dispersed hate upon the Tutsis through any and all types of media. Their general message to the people was that Hutus were superior to Tutsis(Chen, Viswanathan). Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines, a private Rwandan radio station, was the largest contributor to hate media(OLCreate). The seventh stage was preparation where the MNRD and Interahamwe carefully planned and timed their attacks on the Tutsis. Following this stage was persecution which was when people were divided based on ethnicity or religion. Their rights were violated and they were deprived of basic necessities. Tutsi women were one of the main victims in this stage. Hutu men used sexual violence as a weapon with HIV, sterilization, and degradation against women(OLCreate). Stage nine was extermination which was basically the genocide and mass killing of the people. The Interahamwe and Hutus went through with an attack on the Tutsis when given the order to do so. This attack on the Tutsis lasted for 100 days and became known as the Rwandan Genocide(Chen, Viswanathan). The last and final stage was denial. While the genocide was taking place, the UN claimed it was not happening and a so called investigation of the incident was administered. However, after serious thought and discussion, the mass killings that took place in Rwanda were identified as genocide and the occurence of the Rwandan Genocide is no longer denied by the UN today(Chen, Viswanathan).

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Who were the victims and how were they affected?

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Who were the victims and how were they affected?

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Tutsis and Hutus were victims of the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan government gave the official number of 1,074,017 for those who lost their lives to the genocide. Over 90% of those one million were Tutsis. Men, women and children were murdered everyday in large numbers. Six men, women, and children were killed every minute for three months. Over the course of the 100 days, hundreds of thousands of women were raped and tens of thousands of children were born as a result of it. Of those women, more than half became infected with HIV and AIDS. There were 300,000 to 400,000 survivors of the genocide, and many remain without shelter, education, justice, and some still traumatized(SURF Survivors Fund).

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What ended the genocide? Did the UN or any other nations/groups help?

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What ended the genocide? Did the UN or any other nations/groups help?

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The genocide ended when the government of Rwanda was defeated by the Tutsis. The Tutsi rebel group, also referred to as the RPF, sent an attack on the government with the intentions of overthrowing the government. After about 100 days, the Rwandan government was overturned and Paul Kagame, leader of the RPF, was named vice president, however, he had control over the army. Over the course of the 100 days, the RPF increasingly took control of more territory until they reached Kigali, the capital of Rwanda(Beauchamp). Troops from Belgium and the UN were in Rwanda, however, the UN troops were never ordered to stop the killing that was happening. The US did not want to get intertwined into any further conflicts with Africa after their troops died in Somalia. Belgium and most of the UN withdrew after they had lost 10 Belgian soldiers. The Hutus ally, France, sent a special troop to help citizens escape to a safety zone. Kagame blamed France and said they needed to do more to stop the bloodshed in that area(Rwanda Genocide: 100 Days of Slaughter).

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What is the current status if the genocide did not end well? 

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What is the current status if the genocide did not end well? 

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The genocide did not completely end when the Rwandan government was defeated. About two million Hutu refugees escaped across the border to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Burundi when the tutsis invaded the capital. Human rights groups explain that fighters of the RPF group killed thousands of innocent Hutu civilians in their attack, and killed many more when they were in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The RPF later invaded the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa and took control of their government, giving Laurent Kabila the title of president. However, Kabila did not want to attack the Hutu militia, which resulted in another war that progressed through six countries. Multiple armed groups fought over the Democratic Republic of Congo because it was rich in minerals. This war lasted until 2003 and about five million died from the conflict. Kagame was praised for his transformation of Rwanda. The genocide is still a sensitive topic to many people in Rwanda to this day and speaking about ethnicity has been made illegal. The government claims this law is to prevent any further killing and hate, however it is believed by some that it is to prevent complete amends from being made. Kagame won his third term as president in 2017 winning over 98% of the people(Rwanda Genocide: 100 Days of Slaughter).

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Throughout the genocide over 800,000 civilians were killed, this consisted of mostly Tutsi (Britannica). The RPF captured Kigali and the government collapsed. The RPF then declared a ceasefire (BBC news). About 2,000,000 Rwandans fled from Rwanda, most went to the eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). Many of them returned to Rwanda in 1996 and 1997 (Britannica). A multi-ethnic government was set up, with a man named Pasteaur Bizimungu as president. Although eventually, Bizimungu was charged with inciting ethnic violence and was sent to jail. Rwanda’s Tutsi led government says they want to wipe out the Hutu forces. Also, a Congolese Tutsi rebel group remains active and say they if they don’t remain active their community would be at risk of genocide (BBC news). In the aftermath, millions of people have been killed, mostly in th eastern Congo throughout the last 25 years.

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Some short term effects from the Rwandan genocide was, many people were starving and homeless. There was a lack of food and housing. Most people also didn’t have very much money to pay for their children’s education (NCBI). The population significantly dropped in about 1990 but started to increase again in 1996 and 1997. Mainly the male Tutsi population was low.

Some long term effects were many people were traumatized and fearful. These people had seen things no one ever deserved to see. Many women developed HIV and many children developed AIDS. The depopulation had a major impact on the economy as well as widespread destruction of infrastructure (NCBI).

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Majority of the perpetrators have been brought to justice, the people that committed these terrible acts have faced repercussions. Over 120,000 people were imprisoned and accused of bearing criminal responsibility for their participation in the killings (UN 2). Many were tried in Rwandan courts although some have faced the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda or domestic courts in Europe and North America. “Rwanda's community-based gacaca courts finished their work in 2012; the ICTR is expected to complete its own in 2014; and with new momentum for prosecution of Rwandan genocide suspects in foreign countries…” (HRW 4). Trials were extremely challenged due to the fact that many judges and lawyers were killed during the genocide. The Rwandan government used conventional domestic courts as well as community-based gacaca courts. According to BBC news, “Gacaca means to sit down and discuss an issue. The hearings gave communities a chance to face the accused and give evidence about what really happened and how it happened.” It took them about 10 years to finish trying all of those accused. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was set up by the United Nations Security Council after the genocide. The ICTR had a mandate to prosecute “perons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and Rwandan citizens responsible for genocide and other such violations committed in the territory of neighbouring states between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994.” There were also trials in foreign countries, due to the fact that many Rwandans fled the country during as well as after the genocide, there were trials for refugees in Africa, Europe, North America, and a few other countries (HRW). Overall, there was justice after the genocide.

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