The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass killing of an estimated 800,000 Government (TBBG).
rnment (TBBG). The TBBG would include the RPF as well as the five
people. Over the course of approximately 100 days from the assassination of
Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6 through mid-July, at least 800,000 people
were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate.[1] Other estimates
of the death toll have ranged between 500,000 and 1,000,000 [2] (a commonly
quoted figure is 800,000) or as much as 20% of the country's total population.
In 1990, a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees called the Rwandan
Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded northern Rwanda from Uganda. The Rwandan
Civil War, fought between the Hutu regime, with support from Francophone
nations of Africa and France itself,[3][4] and the RPF, with support from
Uganda, vastly increased the ethnic tensions in the country and led to the rise
of Hutu Power.
As an ideology, Hutu Power asserted that the Tutsi intended to enslave Hutus
and must be resisted at all costs. Despite continuing ethnic strife, including the
displacement of large numbers of Hutu in the north by the rebels and periodic
localized extermination of Tutsi to the south, pressure on the government of
Juvénal Habyarimana resulted in a cease-fire in 1993 and the preliminary
implementation of the Arusha Accords.
The assassination of Habyarimana in April 1994 was the proximate cause of
the mass killings of Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus. The mass killings were
carried out primarily by two Hutu militias associated with political parties: the
Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi. The genocide was directed by a Hutu
power group known as the Akazu. The mass killing also marked the end of the
peace agreement meant to end the war, and the Tutsi RPF restarted their
offensive, eventually defeating the army and seizing control of the country.
Background
In 1957, the Hutu Emancipation Movement (Parmehutu) published the Hutu
Manifesto (sometimes called "Bahutu Manifesto"), in which it alleged a
monopoly of power held by the Tutsi minority. In the 1960s, these
denunciations led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of
the Republic headed by Gregoire Kayibanda. This was a regime that
persecuted the Tutsi, who were forced to flee in many cases. The persecution
also went on under the regime of Juvénal Habyarimana, who had seized
power in 1973 and promised progress.
In neighboring Burundi, there were two preceding genocides since the
country’s independence in 1962: the 1972 mass killings of Hutu by the Tutsi
army [5] and the 1994 killing of Tutsi by the Hutu population.
[edit] Civil war
Main article: Rwandan Civil War
The Tutsi refugee diaspora was a coherent political and military organization
by the late 1980s. Large numbers of Tutsi refugees in Uganda had joined the
victorious rebel National Resistance Movement during the Ugandan Bush
War and made themselves a separate movement.
The journal Kangura, a Hutu counteraction towards the Tutsi journal
Kanguka active from 1990 to 1993, was instrumental in incitement of Hutu
disdain for Tutsis,[6] on the basis of their ethnicity rather than their previous
economic advantages. Hassan Ngeze, founder and editor of Kangura,
published the widely read Hutu Ten Commandments, which called for the
formal installment of Hutu Power ideology in schools and the establishment
of an exclusively Hutu army. Among the commandments was the dictum,
"The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi." Tanzania (with the support
of the West) brokered peace talks. In August 1993, the rebels and the
Government of Rwanda signed the Arusha Accords peace treaty to end the
civil war. The accords rolled back the authoritarian power of President
Juvénal Habyarimana, vesting authority in the Transitional Broad Based
political parties that had formed the coalition government, in place since April
1992, to govern until proper elections could be held. The Transitional
National Assembly (TNA), the legislative branch of the transitional
government, was open to all parties, including the RPF.
The extremist Hutu Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR),
nominally controlled by President Habyarimana, was strongly opposed to
sharing power with the RPF and refused to sign the accords. When at last it
decided to agree to the terms, the accords were opposed by the RPF.[citation needed]
UN Peacekeepers were deployed to patrol ceasefire and assist in
demilitarization and demobilization. A March 1993 report found that 10,000
Tutsi had been detained and 2,000 murdered since the RPF's 1990 invasion. In
August 1993, Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire, commander of the UN
forces, made a reconnaissance trip to evaluate the situation and requested
5,000 troops; he was given 2,548 military personnel and 60 civilian police.[7]
He saw the situation as a standard peacekeeping mission.
[edit] Preparations for the genocide
The killing was well organized,[8] and by the time it had started, the Rwandan
militia numbered around 30,000 — one militia member for every ten families
— and was organized nationwide with representatives in every neighborhood.
Some militia members were able to acquire AK-47 assault rifles by
completing requisition forms. Other weapons, such as grenades, required no
paperwork and were widely distributed. Many members of the Interahamwe
and Impuzamugambi were armed only with machetes.
Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda revealed in his testimony before the
International Criminal Tribunal that the genocide was openly discussed in
cabinet meetings and that "...one cabinet minister said she was personally in
favor of getting rid of all Tutsi; without the Tutsi, she told ministers, all of
Rwanda's problems would be over."[9] In addition to Kambanda, the genocide's
organizers included Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, a retired army officer, and
many top ranking government officials and members of the army such as
General Augustin Bizimungu. On the local level, the genocide's planners
included Burgomasters, or mayors, and members of the police.
Both Hutus and Tutsis were given ID cards which specified an ethnic group.
These cards served as symbols that the Interhamwe could check via the threat
of force.[citation needed] Skin color was a general physical trait that was typically
used in "ethnic" identification. The lighter-colored Rwandans were typically
Tutsi, the minority group, while the darker-skinned Rwandans were typically
Hutu, the majority group in Rwanda. In many cases, Tutsi men, women, and
children were separated from the general population and sometimes forced to
be Hutu slaves. As for the Tutsi women, they were often referred to as
"gypsies" and frequently fell victim to sexual violence.
Government leaders communicated with figures among the population to form
and arm militias called Interahamwe, "those who stand (fight, kill) together",
and Impuzamugambi, "those who have the same (or a single) goal". These
groups, particularly their youth wings, were responsible for much of the
violence.[10]
[edit] Media propaganda
According to recent commentators, the news media played a crucial role in the
genocide; local print and radio media fueled the killings while the
international media either ignored or seriously misconstrued events on the
ground.[11] The print media in Rwanda is believed to have started hate speech
against Tutsis, which was later continued by radio stations. According to
commentators, anti-Tutsi hate speech "...became so systemic as to seem the
norm." The state-owned newspaper Kangura had a central role, starting an
anti-Tutsi and anti-RPF campaign in October 1990. In the ongoing
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the individuals behind Kangura
have been accused of producing leaflets in 1992 picturing a machete and
asking "What shall we do to complete the social revolution of 1959?" - a
reference to the Hutu revolt that overthrew the Tutsi monarchy and the
subsequent politically orchestrated communal violence that resulted in
thousands of mostly Tutsi casualties and forced roughly 300,000 Tutsis to flee
to neighboring Burundi and Uganda. Kangura also published the infamous "10
Hutu Commandments," which regulated all dealings with Tutsis and how
Hutus are to treat them, and generally communicated the message that the
RPF had a devious grand strategy (one feature article was titled "Tutsi
colonization plan").[12]
Due to high rates of illiteracy at the time of the genocide, radio was an
important way for the government to deliver messages to the public. Two
radio stations key to inciting violence before and during the genocide were
Radio Rwanda and Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). In
March 1992, Radio Rwanda was first used in directly promoting the killing of
Tutsi in Bugesera, south of the national capital Kigali. Radio Rwanda
repeatedly broadcast a communiqué warning that Hutu in Bugesera would be
attacked by Tutsi, a message used by local officials to convince Hutu that they
needed to protect themselves by attacking first. Led by soldiers, Hutu civilians
and members of the Interahamwe subsequently attacked and killed hundreds
of Tutsi.[13]
At the end of 1993, the RTLM's highly sensationalized reporting on the
assassination of the Burundi president, a Hutu, was used to underline
supposed Tutsi brutality. The RTLM falsely reported that the president had
been tortured, including castration of the victim (in pre-colonial times, some
Tutsi kings castrated defeated enemy rulers). From late October 1993, the
RTLM repeatedly broadcast themes developed by the extremist written press,
underlining the inherent differences between Hutu and Tutsi, the foreign
origin of Tutsi, the disproportionate share of Tutsi wealth and power, and the
horrors of past Tutsi rule. The RTLM also repeatedly stressed the need to be
alert to Tutsi plots and possible attacks and called upon Hutu to prepare to
'defend' themselves against the Tutsi.[13] After April 6, 1994, authorities used
the RTLM and Radio Rwanda to spur and direct killings, specifically in areas
where the killings were initially resisted. Both radio stations were used to
incite and mobilize then give specific directions for carrying out the killings.
[13]
The RTLM had used terms such as inyenzi (cockroach in Kinyarwandan) and
Tutsi interchangeably with others referring to the RPF combatants and warned
specifically that RPF combatants dressed in civilian clothes were mingling
among displaced people fleeing combat zones. These broadcasts gave the
impression that all Tutsi were necessarily supporters of the RPF force fighting
against the government.[13] Women were part of the anti-Tutsi propaganda
prior the 1994 genocide; for example, the "Ten Hutu Commandments"
published in December 1990 by "Kangura" included four commandments
which portrayed Tutsi women as tools of the Tutsi people and as sexual
weapons that would be used by the Tutsi to weaken and ultimately destroy the
Hutu men.[14] Gender-based propaganda also include cartoons printed in
newspapers depicting Tutsi women as sex objects. Examples of gender-based
hate propaganda used to incite war rape include statements by perpetrators
such as "You Tutsi women think that you are too good for us" and "Let us see
what a Tutsi woman tastes like ".[14]
There were 50,000 civilian deaths in Burundi in 1993.
[edit] United Nations
On January 11, 1994 Canadian Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire (United
Nations Force Commander in Rwanda) notified Military Advisor to the
Secretary-General, Major-General Maurice Baril, of four major weapons
caches and plans by the Hutus for extermination of Tutsis. The telegram from
Dallaire stated that an informant who was a top level Interahamwe militia
trainer was in charge of demonstrations carried out a few days before. The
goal of the demonstrations was to provoke an RPF battalion in Kigali into
firing upon demonstrators and Belgian United Nations Assistance Mission for
Rwanda (UNAMIR) troops into using force.
Under such a scenario, the Interhamwe would have an excuse to engage the
Belgian troops and the RPF battalion. Several Belgians were to be killed,
which would guarantee a withdrawal of the Belgian contingent, which was the
backbone of the peacekeeping mission. The Tutsis would then be eliminated.
According to the informant, 1,700 Interhamwe militiamen were trained in
Governmental Forces camps, and he was ordered to register all the Kigali
Tutsis. Dallaire made immediate plans for UNAMIR troops to seize the arms
caches and advised UN Headquarters of his intentions, believing these actions
lay within his mission's mandate. The following day, headquarters stated in
another cable that the outlined actions went beyond the mandate granted to
UNAMIR under Security Council Resolution 872. Instead, President
Habyarimana was to be informed of possible Arusha Accords violations and
the discovered concerns and report back on measures taken. The January 11
telegram later played an important role in discussion about what information
was available to the United Nations prior to the genocide.[15] On February 21,
extremists assassinated the Minister of Public Works, and UNAMIR failed to
gain approval to investigate the murder.
On April 6, 1994, the RTLM accused the Belgian peacekeepers of having shot
down – or of helping to shoot down – the president's plane. This broadcast has
been linked to the killing of ten Belgian UN troops by Rwandan army
soldiers.[16]
The situation proved too "risky" for the United Nations to attempt to help[citation
needed]
. The RPF successfully brought the country under their sway although
their efforts towards a conclusion to the conflict were delayed after the UN-
mandated French-led force, under Operation Turquoise, established and
maintained a "safe zone" for Hutu refugees to flee to in the southwest.
Eventually, after the UN Mandate of the French mission was at an end,
millions of refugees left Rwanda, mainly headed to Zaire (Now the
Democratic Republic of Congo). The presence of Hutu refugees (see Great
Lakes refugee crisis) on the border with Rwanda was the cause for the First
and Second Congo Wars, with clashes between these groups and the Rwandan
government continuing.[1]
The UN's mandate forbids intervening in the internal politics of any country
unless the crime of genocide is being committed. France has been accused of
aiding the Hutu regime to flee by creating what is known as Operation
Turquoise. Canada, Ghana, and the Netherlands provided consistent support
for the UN mission under the command of Roméo Dallaire, although it was
left without an appropriate mandate for the capacity to intervene from the
U.N. Security Council. Despite emphatic demands from UNAMIR's
commanders in Rwanda before and throughout the genocide, its requests for
authorization to end it were refused and its intervention capacity was even
reduced.
[edit] Religion
Main article: Religion in Rwanda
The Roman Catholic Church affirms that genocide took place but argues that
those who took part in it did so without the permission of the Church.[17]
Though religious factors were not prominent (the event was ethnically
motivated), the Human Rights Watch reported that a number of religious
authorities, particularly Roman Catholic, in Rwanda failed to condemn the
genocide.[18] Some in its religious hierarchy have been brought to trial by the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and convicted.[17] Bishop Misago
was accused of corruption and complicity in the genocide but was cleared of
all charges in 2000.[19] The majority of Rwandans, and of Tutsis in particular,
are Catholic.
[edit] Catalyst and initial events
Main articles: Assassination of Habyarimana and Ntaryamira and Initial
events of the Rwandan Genocide
Memorial for the dead Belgian UNAMIR personnel in Kigali.
On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal
Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, was
shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali. Both presidents died when the
plane crashed. Responsibility for the attack was initially disputed, with both
the RPF and Hutu extremists being blamed. A later investigation by the
Rwandan government blamed Hutu extremists in the Rwandan army.[20] In
spite of disagreements about the identities of its perpetrators, the attack on the
plane is to many observers the catalyst for the genocide.
On April 6 and April 7, the staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and
Colonel Theoneste Bagosora clashed verbally with the UNAMIR Force
commander Lieutenant General Dallaire, who stressed the legal authority of
Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana to take control of the situation as
outlined in the Arusha Accords. Bagosora disputed the authority, and Dallaire
gave an escort of Belgian and Ghanaian personnel to Mrs. Uwilingiyimana to
protect her and to allow her to send a calming message on the radio the next
morning. By then, the presidential guard had occupied the radio station, and
Mrs. Uwilingiyimana had to cancel her speech.
When the Rwandan army stormed the building, the peacekeepers were taken
prisoner and their weapons were confiscated. In the middle of the day, Mrs.
Uwilingiyimana was assassinated by the presidential guard. The Ghanaian
soldiers were released, but the ten Belgian soldiers were led away and killed;
Major Bernard Ntuyahaga was convicted of the murders in 2007. Other
moderate officials who favored the Arusha Accords were quickly
assassinated. Protected by UNAMIR, Faustin Twagiramungu escaped
execution. In his book Shake Hands with the Devil, Dallaire recalled the
events from April 7, the first day of the genocide:
I called the Force HQ and got through to Ghanaian Brigadier General Henry
Anyidoho. He had horrifying news. The UNAMIR-protected VIPs - Lando
Ndasingwa [the head of the Parti libéral], Joseph Kavaruganda [president of
the constitutional court], and many other moderates had been abducted by the
Presidential Guard and had been killed, along with their families [...]
UNAMIR had been able to rescue Prime Minister Faustin, who was now at
the Force HQ.[21][22]
[edit] Genocide
Skulls in Murambi Technical School
Numerous elite Hutu politicians have been found guilty for the organization of
the genocide. The Rwandan Military and Hutu militia groups, notably the
Interahamwe, systematically set out to murder all the Tutsis they could
capture, irrespective of their age or sex, as well as the political moderates.
Hutu civilians were forced to participate in the killings or be shot and were
instructed to kill their Tutsi neighbours. Most nations evacuated their
nationals from Kigali and abandoned their embassies in the initial stages of
the violence.
National radio, with the exacerbation of the situation, advised people to stay in
their homes, and the Hutu power station RTLM broadcast vitriolic propaganda
against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Hundreds of roadblocks were put up by
the militia around the country. Lieutenant-General Dallaire and UNAMIR
were in Kigali escorting Tutsis and were unable to stop the Hutus from
escalating their attacks.
During this time, the Hutus also targeted Lieutenant-General Dallaire, and
UNAMIR personnel through the RTLM. On April 8, Dallaire sent cable to
NY indicating ethnicity was the driving force of killings. The cable detailed
killings of politicians and peacekeepers (Chairman of Liberal party, Minister
of Labor, Minister of Agriculture, and dozens more). Dallaire informed the
UN that campaign of violence is well organized and is deliberately conducted
primarily by presidential guard.
On April 9, UN observers witnessed the massacre of children at a Polish
church in Gikondo. The same day, 1,000 heavily armed and trained European
troops arrived to escort European civilian personnel out of the country. The
troops did not stay to assist UNAMIR. Media coverage picked up on the 9th
as the Washington Post reported the execution of Rwandan employees of
relief agencies in front of their horrified expatriate colleagues. On April 9–10,
US Ambassador Rawson and 250 Americans were evacuated.
Skulls of genocide victims in museum
Killings quickly took place throughout most of the country. The first person to
organize killings on a genocidal scale was the mayor of the northwestern town
of Gisenyi, who on the evening of April 6 called a meeting to distribute arms
and send out militias to kill Tutsis. Gisenyi was a center of anti-Tutsi
sentiment, both as the homeland of the Akazu and as a refuge for thousands of
people displaced by the rebel occupation of large areas in the south. While
killing occurred in other towns immediately after Habyarimana's
assassination, it took several days for them to become organized on a similar
scale.
The major exception to this pattern was in Butare Province. In Butare, Jean-
Baptiste Habyarimana was the only Tutsi prefect, and the province was the
only one dominated by an opposition party.[23] Habyarimana opposed the
genocide, resulting in the province becoming a haven of relative calm, until he
was deposed in lieu of an extremist, Sylvain Ndikumana.[23] Finding the
population of Butare unenthusiastic about the killings, the government
proceeded to fly in militia members from Kigali by helicopter, and the killing
began immediately.[23]
Murambi Technical School, where many victims were killed, is now a
genocide museum.
Most of the victims were killed in their villages or in towns, often by their
neighbors and fellow villagers. Militia members typically murdered their
victims by hacking them with machetes, although some army units used rifles.
Victims were often found hiding in churches and school buildings, where
Hutu gangs massacred them. Ordinary citizens were called on by local
officials and government-sponsored radio to kill their neighbors, and those
who refused to kill were often murdered themselves. "Either you took part in
the massacres or you were massacred yourself."[24]
One such massacre occurred at Nyarubuye. On April 12, more than 1,500
Tutsis sought refuge in a Catholic church in Nyange, then in Kivumu
commune. Local Interahamwe, acting in concert with the other local
authorities, then used bulldozers to knock down the church building.[25] People
who tried to escape were hacked with machetes or shot. Local priest Athanase
Seromba was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison by the ICTR for
his role in the demolition of his church and convicted of the crime of genocide
and crimes against humanity.[25][26][27] In another case, thousands sought refuge
in Ecole Technique Officielle school in Kigali where Belgian UNAMIR
soldiers were stationed. However, on April 11, Belgian soldiers withdrew
from the school and members of the Rwandan armed forces and militia killed
all the Tutsis who were hiding there.[28]
There is no consensus on the number of dead between April 6 and mid-July.
Unlike the genocides carried out by the Nazi Germany and by the Khmer
Rouge in Cambodia, authorities made no attempts to record deaths. The RPF
government has stated that 1,071,000 were killed, 10% of whom were Hutu.
Philip Gourevitch agrees with an estimate of one million, while the United
Nations lists the toll as 800,000. Alex de Waal and Rakiya Omar of African
Rights estimates the number as "around 750,000," while Alison Des Forges of
Human Rights Watch states that it was "at least 500,000." James Smith of
Aegis Trust notes, "What's important to remember is that there was a
genocide. There was an attempt to eliminate Tutsis — men, women, and
children — and to erase any memory of their existence."[29]
Out of a population of 7.3 million people - 84% of whom where Hutu, 15%
Tutsi and 1% Twa - the official figures published by the Rwandan government
estimated the number of victims of the genocide to 1,174,000 in 100 days
(10,000 murdered every day, 400 every hour, 7 every minute). Other sources
put the death toll to 800,000, 20% of whom were Hutus.[citation needed] It is
estimated that about 300,000 Tutsis survived the genocide. Thousands of
widows, many of whom were subjected to rape, are now HIV-positive. There
are about 400,000 orphans and nearly 85,000 of them have become heads of
families.[citation needed]
Several individuals were active in attempting to halt the Rwandan genocide,
or to shelter vulnerable Tutsis, as the genocide was being carried out. Among
them there are Pierantonio Costa, Antonia Locatelli, Jacqueline Mukansonera,
Paul Rusesabagina, Carl Wilkens, and André Sibomana.
[edit] War rape
In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda made the landmark
decisions that war rape in Rwanda was an element of the crime of genocide.
The Trial Chamber held that "sexual assault formed an integral part of the
process of destroying the Tutsi ethnic group and that the rape was systematic
and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women only, manifesting the specific
intent required for those acts to constitute genocide."[30] Although no explicit
written orders to rape or commit sexual violence have been found, evidence
suggests that military leaders encouraged or ordered their men to rape Tutsi as
well as condoned the acts taking place, without making efforts to stop them. [14]
Compared to other conflicts the sexual violence in Rwanda stands out in terms
of the organized nature of the propaganda that contributed significantly to
fueling sexual violence against Tutsi women, the very public nature of the
rapes and the level of brutality towards the women.[31]
In his 1996 report the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Rwanda, Rene
Degni-Segui stated that "rape was the rule and its absence the exception." The
report also stated that "rape was systematic and was used as a weapon" by the
perpetrators of the massacres. This can be estimated from the number and
nature of the victims as well as from the forms of rape. The Special
Rapporteur estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 Rwandese women
and girls had been raped.[32] A 2000 report prepared by the Organization of
African Unity’s International Panel of Eminent Personalities concluded that
"we can be certain that almost all females who survived the genocide were
direct victims of rape or other sexual violence, or were profoundly affected by
it".[32]
The victims were mostly Tutsi women and girls, of all ages, while men were
only seldom the victims of war rape.[14] War rape during the genocide was also
directed against Hutu women considered moderates, but also occurred
regardless of ethnicity or political affiliation, with young or beautiful women
being targeted based only on their gender.[citation needed] Sexual violence against
men was much less common, but frequently included mutilation of the
genitals, which were often displayed in public.[14] The perpetrators of war rape
during the Rwanda genocide were mainly members of the Hutu militia, the
"Interahamwe". Rapes were also committed by military soldiers of the
Rwandan Armed Forced (RAF), including the Presidential Guard, and
civilians.[14]
[edit] UNAMIR and the international community
Main articles: UNAMIR and Role of the international community in the
Rwandan Genocide
A school chalkboard in Kigali. Note the names "Dallaire", UNAMIR Force
Commander, and "Marchal", UNAMIR Kigali sector commander.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was
hampered from the outset by resistance from numerous UN Security Council
members, who were reluctant to become involved, first in the Arusha process
and then the genocide.[33][34] Only Belgium had asked for a strong UNAMIR
mandate, but after the murder of ten Belgian peacekeepers protecting the
Prime Minister in early April, Belgium pulled out of the peacekeeping
mission.[35]
The UN and its member states appeared largely detached from the realities on
the ground. In the midst of the crisis, Lt. General Roméo Dallaire was
instructed to focus UNAMIR on only evacuating foreign nationals from
Rwanda. The change in orders led Belgian peacekeepers to abandon a
technical school filled with 2,000 refugees, while Hutu militants waited
outside, drinking beer and chanting "Hutu Power." After the Belgians left, the
militants entered the school and massacred those inside, including hundreds of
children. Four days later the Security Council voted to reduce UNAMIR to
260 men in Resolution 912.[36]
Following the withdrawal of the Belgian forces, Dallaire consolidated his
contingent of Canadian, Ghanaian, and Dutch soldiers in urban areas and
focused on providing areas of "safe control". His actions directly saved the
lives of 20,000 Tutsis.[citation needed] The administrative head of UNAMIR, former
Cameroonian foreign minister Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh, has been criticized
for downplaying the significance of Dallaire's reports and for holding close
ties to the Hutu militant elite.[citation needed]
The U.S. government was reluctant to involve itself in the "local conflict" in
Rwanda and refused to label the killings as "genocide", a decision which then-
president Bill Clinton later came to regret in a Frontline television interview.
In the interview, five years after the genocide, Clinton stated that he believes
if he had sent 5,000 U.S. peacekeepers, more than 500,000 lives could have
been saved.[37]
The new Rwandan government, led by interim President Théodore
Sindikubwabo, worked 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.
The UN conceded that "acts of genocide may have been committed" on May
17, 1994.[38] By that time, the Red Cross estimated that 500,000 Rwandans had
been killed. The UN agreed to send 5,500 troops, mostly from African
countries, to Rwanda.[39] This was the original number of troops requested by
General Dallaire before the killing escalated. The UN also requested 50
armoured personnel carriers from the United States, but for the transport alone
they were charged $6.5 million (U.S.) by the U.S. Army. Deployment of these
forces was delayed due to arguments over their cost and other factors.[40]
[edit] French role
A French soldier, part of the international force supporting the relief effort for
Rwandan refugees, adjusts the concertina wire surrounding the airport.
In the analysis of U.K. Linda Melvern, documents recently released from the
Paris archive of former president François Mitterrand show how the RPF
invasion was considered as clear aggression by an Anglophone neighbour on a
Francophone country[41]. The documents are said to argue that the RPF was a
part of an "Anglophone plot", involving the President of Uganda, to create an
English-speaking "Tutsi-land" and increase Anglophone influence at the
expense of French influence. In Melvern's analysis, the policy of France was
to avoid a military victory by the RPF. The policy had been made by a
secretive network of military officers, politicians, diplomats, businessmen,
and senior intelligence operatives. At its centre was Mitterrand. French policy
had been unaccountable to either parliament or the press.[41]
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 arriving in areas only after genocidaires had expelled or killed Tutsi
citizens. Operation Turquoise was charged with aiding the Hutu army against
the RPF by Jacques Bihozagara, the then-Rwandan ambassador to France,
who later testified, "Operation Turquoise was aimed only at protecting
genocide perpetrators, because the genocide continued even within the
Turquoise zone." [42]
Following an investigation of the plane crash of 6 April 1994 that killed both
the Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President
Cyprien Ntaryamira and precipitated the genocide, and in which three French
crew had also died, the French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière indicted eight
associates of Rwandan president Paul Kagame on November 17, 2006.
President Kagame himself was not indicted, as he had immunity under French
law as a head of state. Kagame denied the allegations, decrying them as
politically motivated, and broke diplomatic relationships with France in
November 2006. He then ordered the formation of a commission of his own
Rwandan Justice Ministry's employees that was officially "charged with
assembling proof of the involvement of France in the genocide".[43]
The political character of that investigation was in turn further averred when
the commission issued its report solely to Kagame - symbolically on
November 17, 2007, exactly one year after Bruguière's announcement - and
the head of the Rwandan commission, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, stated that the
commission would now "wait for President Kagame to declare whether the
inquiry was valid."[43] In July 2008, Kagame threatened to indict French
nationals over the genocide if European courts did not withdraw arrest
warrants issued against Rwandan officials, which by then included broader
indictments against 40 Rwandan army officers by Spanish judge Fernando
Andreu.[44][45]
Findings of the commission were released at Kagame's order on August 5,
2008 and accused the French government of knowing of preparations for the
genocide and helping to train the ethnic Hutu militia members; named 33
senior French military and political officials of involvement in the genocide,
including then-President Mitterrand and his then general secretary Hubert
Védrine, then-Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, then-Foreign Minister Alain
Juppe, and his chief aide at the time, Dominique de Villepin[46][47][48]
A statement accompanying the release claimed that "French soldiers
themselves directly were involved in assassinations of Tutsis and Hutus
accused of hiding Tutsis... French forces committed several rapes on Tutsi
survivors", though the latter was not documented in the report.[46] A BBC
report commented that French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, denied
French responsibility in connection with the genocide but said that political
errors had been made.[46] Another BBC report delved into the motivations for
the Rwandan report and stated that
Chief among them has been an iron determination to keep the world's
attention focused on the genocide, rather than on the role of the Rwandan
Patriotic Front (RPF), the force that took power in 1994, bringing President
Paul Kagame to power. In recent years uncomfortable questions have been
raised about the war crimes the RPF are alleged to have committed during and
after 1994. While stressing there can be no equation between genocide and
war crimes, Alison Des Forges of Human Rights Watch says RPF leaders do
have a case to answer. "Their victims also deserve justice," she says.[49]
[edit] French Parliamentary Commission on Rwanda
There were no U.S. troops officially in Rwanda at the onset of the genocide. A
National Security Archive report points out five ways in which decisions
made by the U.S. government contributed to the slow U.S. and worldwide
response to the genocide:

Further information: French Parliamentary Commission on Rwanda
The suspicions about United Nations and French policies in Rwanda between
1990 and 1994 and allegations that France supported the Hutus led to the
creation of a French Parliamentary Commission on Rwanda, which published
its report on December 15, 1998.[50] In particular, François-Xavier Verschave,
former president of the French NGO Survie, which accused the French army
of protecting the Hutus during the genocide, was instrumental in establishing
this Parliamentary commission.
The commission released its final report on December 15, 1998. It
documented ambiguities and confusion in both the French and UN responses.
Regarding Operation Turquoise, it regretted that the intervention took place
too late, though it noted that this was better than the non-response from the
UN and the opposition by the U.S. and U.K. governments to such a response.
The report documented mixed success at disarming the Rwandan Army and
militias, but a definite and systematic attempt (though not fast enough as far
as then-General Paul Kagame of the opposing RPF forces was concerned, in
documentation of the latter's communications with the French forces).[50]
The Parliamentary Commission did not find any evidence of French
participation in the genocide, of collaboration with the militias, or of willful
disengagement from endangered populations, to the contrary. It documented
multiple French operations, all at least partly successful, to disable genocide-
inciting radio broadcasts, tasks which the UN and the United States had
rejected calls for assistance with.[50]
The report concluded that there had been errors of judgment pertaining to the
Rwanda Armed Forces, but before the genocide only; further errors of
judgment about the scale of the threat, at the onset of the genocide; over-
reliance on the UNIMAR mission without awareness that it would be undercut
by the United States and other parties; and ineffective diplomacy. Ultimately,
it concluded that France had been the foreign power most involved in limiting
the scale of the genocide once it got started, though it regretted that more had
not been done.[50]
In 2010, French President Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledged that France made
"mistakes" during the genocide, but did not offer an apology.[51]
[edit] American role
1. The U.S. lobbied the U.N. for a total withdrawal of
U.N. (UNAMIR) forces in Rwanda in April 1994;
2. Secretary of State Warren Christopher did not authorize
officials to use the term "genocide" until May 21, and
even then, U.S. officials waited another three weeks
before using the term in public;
3. Bureaucratic infighting slowed the U.S. response to the
genocide in general;
4. The U.S. refused to jam extremist radio broadcasts
inciting the killing, citing costs and concern with
international law;
5. U.S. officials knew exactly who was leading the
genocide, and actually spoke with those leaders to urge
an end to the violence but did not follow up with
concrete action.[55]
[edit] Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) renewed invasion
Main article: Rwandan Civil War
See also: Great Lakes refugee crisis
The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) battalion of Tutsi rebels 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.[56] The resulting civil war
raged concurrently with the genocide for two months. The nature of the
genocide was not immediately apparent to foreign observers, and was initially
explained as a violent phase of the civil war. Mark Doyle, the correspondent
for the BBC News in Kigali, tried to explain the complex situation in late April
1994 thus:
Look you have to understand that there are two wars going on here. There's a
shooting war and a genocide war. The two are connected, but also distinct. In
the shooting war, there are two conventional armies at each other, and in the
genocide war, one of those armies, the government side with help from
civilians, is involved in mass killings.[57]
The victory of the RPF rebels and overthrow of the Hutu regime ended the
genocide in July 1994, 100 days after it began.

Prior to the war, the U.S. government had aligned itself with Tutsi interests, in [edit] Aftermath
turn raising Hutu concerns about potential U.S. support to the opposition. Paul
Kagame, a Tutsi officer in exile in Uganda who had co-founded the Rwandese
Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1986 and was in open conflict with the incumbent
Rwandan government, was invited to receive military training at Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, home of the Command and General Staff College. In
October 1990, while Kagame was at Fort Leavenworth, the RPF started an
invasion of Rwanda. Only two days into the invasion, his close friend and
RPF co-founder Fred Rwigema was killed, upon which the U.S. arranged the
return of Kagame to Uganda from where he became the military commander
of the RPF.[52] An article in the Washington Post of August 16, 1997, authored
by its Southern African bureau chief Lynne Duke, indicates that the
connection continued as RPF elements received counterinsurgency and
combat training from U.S. Special Forces.[53][54]

In January 1994 NSC member Richard Clark developed formal US Refugee camp in Zaire, 1994
peacekeeping doctrine, Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD-25).
Approximately two million Hutus, participants in the genocide, and the
bystanders, with anticipation of Tutsi retaliation, fled from Rwanda, to
Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and for the most part Zaire. Thousands of them
died in epidemics of diseases common to the squalor of refugee camps, such
as cholera and dysentery.[58] The United States staged the Operation Support
Hope airlift from July to September 1994 to stabilize the situation in the
camps.[59]
After the victory of the RPF, the size of UNAMIR (henceforth called
UNAMIR 2) was increased to its full strength, remaining in Rwanda until
March 8, 1996.[60]
In October 1996, an uprising by the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge people in
eastern Zaire marked the beginning of the First Congo War, and led to a return
of more than 600,000 to Rwanda during the last two weeks of November. This
massive repatriation was followed at the end of December 1996 by the return
of 500,000 more from Tanzania after they were ejected by the Tanzanian
government. Various successor organizations to the Hutu militants operated in
eastern DR Congo until May 22, 2009.
[edit] Political development
After its military victory in July 1995, the Rwandan Patriotic Front organized
a coalition government similar to that established by President Juvénal
Habyarimana in 1994. Called The Broad Based Government of National
Unity, its fundamental law is based on a combination of the constitution, the
Arusha accords, and political declarations by the parties. The MRND party
was outlawed. Political organizing was banned until 2003. The first post-war
presidential and legislative elections were held in August and September 2003
respectively.[citation needed]
Graph showing the population of Rwanda from 1961 to 2003. (Data from
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization)
The biggest problems facing the government are reintegration of the more
than two million refugees, ending the insurgency among ex-soldiers and
Interahamwe militia fighters and the Rwandan Patriotic Army in the north and
southwest of the country, and the shift away from crisis to medium and long-
term development planning.[citation needed] The prison population will continue to
be an urgent problem for the foreseeable future, having swelled to more than
100,000 in the three years after the war. Trying this many suspects of
genocide will tax Rwanda's resources sorely.[citation needed]
The long-term effects of war rape in Rwanda for the victims include social
isolation (social stigma attached to rape meant some husbands left wives who
had become victims of war rape, or that the victims were rendered unsuitable
for marriage), unwanted pregnancies and babies (some women resorted to
self-induced abortions), sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis,
gonorrhoea and HIV/AIDS.[31]
The Special Rapporteur on Rwanda estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000
pregnancies resulted from war rape (between 250,000 and 500,000 Rwandan
women and girls had been raped).[32] Rwanda is a patriarchal society and
children therefore take the ethnicity of the father, underlining that war rape
occurred in the context of genocide.[31] The main issue involving reintegration
The current government prohibits discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race
or religion. The government has also passed laws prohibiting emphasis on
Hutu or Tutsi identity in most types of political activity.[citation needed]
In March 1998, on a visit to Rwanda, U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke to the
crowd assembled on the tarmac at Kigali Airport: "We come here today partly
in recognition of the fact that we in the United States and the world
community did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try
to limit what occurred" in Rwanda.[61] Four years after the genocide, Clinton
issued what is now known as the "Clinton apology," acknowledging his
failure to efficiently deal with the situation in Rwanda, but not formally
apologizing for inaction by the U.S. government or the international
community.[citation needed]
Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms, the country
continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output and to foster
reconciliation. In March 2000, after removing Pasteur Bizimungu, Paul
Kagame became President of Rwanda. On August 25, 2003 Kagame won the
first national elections since the RPF took power in 1994. A series of massive
population displacements, a nagging Hutu extremist insurgency, and Rwandan
involvement in the First and Second Congo Wars in the neighboring
Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts. [citation
needed]
[edit] Economic and social developments
This section requires expansion.
is the fact that the violence that had occurred often involved neighbors; people
lived next to rapists, murderers and torturers. It was very difficult right after
the genocide for Tutsis to trust Hutus, whether or not they had any
involvement in the genocide.
With the return of the refugees, the government began the long-awaited
genocide trials, which had an uncertain start at the end of 1996 and inched
forward in 1997. In 2001, the government began implementing a participatory
justice system, known as Gacaca, in order to address the enormous backlog of
cases.[62] Meanwhile, the UN set up the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda, currently based in Arusha, Tanzania. The UN Tribunal has
jurisdiction over high level members of the government and armed forces,
while Rwanda is responsible for prosecuting lower level leaders and local
people.[63]
Tensions arose between Rwanda and the UN over the use of the death penalty,
though these were largely resolved once Rwanda abolished the punishment in
2007.[64] However, domestic tensions continued over support for the death
penalty, and the interest in conducting the trials at home. In ten years the
Arusha tribunal only succeeded in sentencing 20 people.
In 2003, in an attempt to redress this mismanagement,[citation needed] the UN
appointed Hassan Bubacar Jallow chief prosecutor with exclusive jurisdiction
over Rwanda. Faced with the local criminal system's inability to cope with a
number of detainees awaiting trial in Rwandan jails reaching 90,000, in 2000
a series of popular tribunals called gacaca courts were setup. The convicted
are invited to admit their guilt in exchange for significant reductions in their million defenceless Tutsi, he says. Since the evidence completely contradicts
sentences. these assertions, Mr. Philpot churns out a strange, incoherent series of
assertions, rumours and speculation tied together solely by his unwavering
determination to deny the truth."
On Thursday, December 18, 2008, Theoneste Bagosora was found guilty of
crimes against humanity. He was charged by UN judge Erik Møse, and
sentenced to life in prison.[65] The court also found Bagosora responsible for • [
the deaths of former Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and 10
Belgian peacekeepers.

[edit] Media and popular culture

See also: Filmography of the Rwandan Genocide and Bibliography of the

Rwandan Genocide

Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire became the most well-known eyewitness

to the genocide after co-writing the 2003 book Shake Hands with the Devil:
The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda describing his experiences with
depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.[66] Another firsthand account of
the Rwandan genocide is offered by Dr. James Orbinski in his book "An
Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century."

The critically acclaimed and multiple Academy Award-nominated 2004 film

Hotel Rwanda is based on the experiences of Paul Rusesabagina, a Kigali
hotelier at the Hôtel des Mille Collines who sheltered over a thousand
refugees during the genocide.[67] It is listed by the American Film Institute as
one of the 100 most inspirational movies of all time. This same story is related
in Rusesabagina's autobiography An Ordinary Man. Gil Courtemanche, a
French-Canadian writer, authored "Dimanche à la piscine à Kigali" ("A
Sunday at the Pool in Kigali"), which also focuses on events in Kigali during
the genocide.

In 2005, Alison Des Forges wrote that eleven years after the genocide, films
for popular audiences on the subject greatly increased the "widespread
realization of the horror that had taken the lives of more than half a million
Tutsi".[13] In 2007, Charlie Beckett, Director of POLIS, made the following
observation: "How many people saw the movie Hotel Rwanda? [it is]
ironically the way that most people now relate to Rwanda."[68]

The song Rwanda by the punk-ska band Rancid from the album Rancid (2000
album) is about the Rwandan genocide.

In 2006, Immaculée Ilibagiza survived the genocide and documented her story
in Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (2006). Left
to Tell recounts how Immaculée Ilibagiza survived for 91 days with seven
other women during the holocaust in a damp and small bathroom, no larger
than 3 feet (0.91 m) long and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide.[69]

[edit] Accusations of revisionism

The context of the 1994 Rwandan genocide continues to be a matter of

historical debate.[70] There have been frequent charges of revisionism.[71] A
"double genocides" theory, accusing the Tutsis of engaging in a "counter-
genocide" against the Hutus,[72] is promulgated in Black Furies, White Liars
(2005), the controversial book by French investigative journalist Pierre Péan.
Jean-Pierre Chrétien, a French historian whom Péan describes as an active
member of the "pro-Tutsi lobby," criticizes Péan's "amazing revisionist
passion".[73]

Another person accused of genocide revisionism[74][75] with respect to Rwanda

is the Montreal writer Robin Philpot, whom Gerald Caplan identified in a
2007 Globe and Mail article as believing that "many people were killed in
1994 by both sides making those who carried out the genocide and their
enemies morally equivalent." He further charges that Philpot argued "[t]here
was no one-sided conspiracy by armed Hutu forces and militias against a