Genocide in Rwanda
• The genocide began on April 6, 1994, and for the next
hundred days, up to 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu
militia using clubs and machetes
• It was sparked by death of Rwandan President Juvenal
Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down
above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994
• It is important to recognize that Rwanda is one of
smallest countries in Central Africa, with just 7 million
people
• And that the nation is comprised of two main ethnic
groups, Hutu and Tutsi
• Although Hutus account for 90 percent of population;
in the past, the Tutsi minority was considered the
aristocracy of Rwanda and dominated the Hutu
peasants
• Ironically, the ethnic groups are very similar; sharing
the same language, similar traditions, etcetera
• But the Tutsis are taller and thinner, with some saying
origins lie in Ethiopia
• When the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they
produced identity cards
• Identity cards classified people according to ethnicity
• The Belgians also considered the Tutsis to be superior to
the Hutus and gave Tutsis better jobs and educational
opportunities
• Resentment among Hutus built up, culminating in a
series of riots in 1959
• Tutsi refugees in Uganda, supported by some
moderate Hutus, formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF)
• President Habyarimana exploited the ethnic tension
between Hutus and Tutsis and accused Tutsis living in
Rwanda of being collaborators for the Rwandan
Patriotic Front
• When Habyarimana’s plane was shot down at the
beginning of April 1994, it was the final nail in the
coffin
• Ethnic tensions exploded
• In Kigali, presidential guard initiated a campaign
of retribution
• Leaders murdered and slaughtered Tutsis and
moderate Hutus
• Since all individuals carried identification
cards specifying ethnicity, a practice left over
from colonial days, these ‘tribal cards’ now
meant life or death
• Some Tutsis turned to the U.N. for protection
• Ten United Nations peacekeeping soldiers from
Belgium were captured by Hutus, tortured and
murdered
• The United States, France, Belgium, and Italy all
began evacuating their own personnel from Rwanda
• No international effort was made to evacuate Tutsi
civilians or Hutu moderates
• They were left to die
• At U.N. headquarters, the killings categorized as a
breakdown in cease-fire between Tutsi and Hutu
• Labeling genocide would have demanded action
• No international action was taken
• Encouraged by the presidential guard and radio
propaganda, an unofficial militia group, the
Interahamwe (meaning those who attack together),
mobilized
• In some cases, Hutu civilians were forced to murder
their Tutsi neighbors
• Participants were often given incentives, such as money
or food, and some were even told they could
appropriate the land of Tutsis killed
• The Hutu, without opposition from the world
community, engaged in a genocidal mania; clubbing
and hacking to death Tutsi families with machetes
• Rwandan radio, controlled by Hutu extremists,
encouraged the killings by broadcasting hate
propaganda, and pinpointing locations of Tutsis in
hiding
• Many Tutsis took refuge in churches and mission
compounds
• These became the scenes of some of the worst massacres
• Finally, in July, the RPF captured Kigali
• The government collapsed and the RPF declared a
ceasefire
• As soon as it became apparent that the RPF was
victorious, an estimated two million Hutus fled to Zaire
(now the Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Refugees included many who have since been
implicated in the massacres
• Rwanda’s now Tutsi-led government has twice invaded
its twice much larger neighbor, saying it wants to wipe
out the Hutu forces