Rwandan Genocide By: Olga Lara Sandy Sam Anna Sahakyan Rwandan Flag New Flag . The New Flag of Rwanda was effective since January of 2002. Unlike the old flag, it lacks the colors red and black which represented the blood split and the mourning of the Rwandan people. This new flag contains more hope and optimism and symbolizes the strength of the Rwandan people who, after the bloody genocide which took more than 800,000 lives, are able to be strong and united and see the sun shining with its golden Old flag Politicians President Juvenal Habyarimana President Habyarimara, a Hutu, widened the divisions among Hutus and Tutsi by attacks and propaganda. On April 6, 1994, the plane crrying president Habyarimana was shot down in Kigali. The very next day, after the president’s death, the Rwandan Genocide began. Colonel Théoneste Bagosora After the president’s death, colonel Bagosora took charge of the Presidential Guard and other troops and murdered Hutu government officials of the political opposition. Also, they began systematically slaughtering the Tutsi. Ferdinand Nahimana Founder and the director of the hate radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). Ferdinand used this hate radio in order to spread hared, as well as organize the genocide of the Tutsi by the Hutu people. He referred to Tutsis as cockroaches and, although his hatred of the Tutsi was quiet obvious in his speeches, he sometimes used phrases that had hidden meanings. Such one phrase was “cut the tall trees”, which was a sign for the Hutus to start the slaughter of the Tutsi. Jerry Robert Kajuga Picture Not Available Jerry Robert Kajuga was the President of the Interahamwe militia, which was responsible for committing the Rwanda Genocide. Ironically, Jerry Robert Kajuga, and his family, was Tutsi, but they pretended to be Hutu. In order to avoid any kind of suspicion about their family being Tutsi, Robert Kajuga kept his brother hidden at the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali. Roméo Alain Dallaire Romeo Alain Dallaire, a Canadian General who was in Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide as general of the UN peacekeeping group, tried to help the Tutsi and the Hutu who were being slaughtered, but did not receive any help from the UN. Later in his life he suffered post traumatic stress syndrome. The fact that his alarm was ignored and that the United Nations failed to prevent the killing of the 800,000 innocent people haunts General Dallaire to this day. He was told that he was a peacekeeper, not a peacemaker, which was the UN’s way for justifying their neutrality. Prudence Bushnell Prudence Bushnell, United States Associate Secretary of State for African Affairs, was shocked by the news she was getting from Rwanda. At a State Department press conference on April 8, she spoke about the violence in Rwanda, however, at that time Bushnell, and all the Americans, did not call it a genocide, only “violence” or a “civil war”. Newspaper Headlines Kangura Newspaper October, 1993 (n. 51, p. 14) The man in the uniform is Paul Kagame, who was the leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The man in the left is supposed to be the President Juvenal Habyarimana. The sentence on the left says, "They say that Kagame would refuse to shake the hand of a Hutu." Kagame says, "Let it be known that I cannot shake a Hutus hand." The sign "Kinihira" signifies a neutral "buffer zone" in Rwanda, which was settled between the RPF and Habyarimana at the Arusha Peace Accords in the summer of 1993. New York Times U.N. in Rwanda Says It Is Powerless to Halt the Violence April 15, 1994, Friday By DONATELLA LORCH, (Special to The New York Times); Foreign Desk http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40815FB355A0C768DDDAD0894 DC494D81 New York Times U.N. Commission Recommends Rwanda 'Genocide' Tribunal September 29, 1994, Thursday By RAYMOND BONNER, (Special to The New York Times); Foreign Desk http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40F10F63 A5E0C7A8EDDA00894DC494D81 Los Angeles Times Bloodshed Rwanda Continues in April 16, 1994 U.N. Airlifts Aid Supplies to Terrorized Rwandans April 17, 1994 Quotes From Survivors “When I came out, there were no birds… there was sunshine and the stench of death”. “I couldn’t believe that the international communities would sit and watch us being slaughtered”. *Both of these persons survived by hiding under dead bodies. Qutoes from General Romeo Dallaire "The genocide was brutal, criminal and disgusting and continued for 100 days under the eyes of the international community." "I don't think there's any justification for what happened, it was a shameful episode for collective shame." Map of Rwanda Geographic Map of Rwanda Rwandan Food Rwandan food is mainly simple food made of the locally grown vegetations such as sweet potatoes, beans, corn, peas, millet and fruit. Rwandans are famous for adding lots of sugar and milk to their tea, and tea is mostly common in urban areas, such as Kigali, for breakfast. Rwandans living rural areas don’t eat meet frequently because their Tropical fruits such as avocados, bananas, mangos and papaya are abundant in Rwanda. Rwandans brew their own alcohol, although men are the only ones who drink alcoholic beverages. cattle is their fortune. Languages Spoken Kinyarwanda (native language spoken by most Rwandans) French English Rwandan Writing Reporters and Photjournalsts Covering The Rwandan Genocide Fergal Keane Fergal Keane, an Irish reporter and a writer who was the BBC special correspondent in Africa in the early 1990s, reported on the Genocide in Rwanda. Philip Gourevitch Philip Gourevitch, and American author and journalist, is the author of the book We Wish to Inform You That tomorrow We Will Be Killed With our Families, which is about the Rwandan Genocide. The movie Hotel Rwanda is loosely based on this book. Starting from 1995, Gourevitch took frequent trips to Rwanda in order to write about the Genocide’s affects and inform the world about the atrocities that had taken place. "People talked about the situation being confusing, anarchy, and Rwanda being a failed state. Corinne Dufka Photos by Corinne Dufka A photojournalist and a humanitarian, who for years has been working in Africa, mostly covering war zones. In 1994, when the Rwandan Genocide took place, she was one of the few photojournalists who went to Rwanda to report on Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda was anything but a failed state because the killing was so well choreographed and highly organized“, wrote Corinne Dufka The Role of the U.N. The role of the U.N. in the Rwanda genocide was very neutral. Before and during the genocide, the United Nations only had 2,500 peacekeeping troops in Rwanda. A person named Masozera said, “ U.N. soldiers were here and left when the killings were happening,” the U.N troops really didn’t do anything to prevent the genocide from occurring or even stop afterwards. They were peacekeeper not peacemakers and their lack of action caused the death of many innocent Tutsis and Hutus. The Members of the U.N. That Had a Direct Role/Connection Kofi Annan Secretary-General of the United Nations. Roméo Alain Dallaire Lieutenant-General, Force commander of UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda) The International Response All the nations collectively failed to do anything about the Rwandan Genocide and remained silent while innocent Rwandans were being slaughtered. The Unites States did not even refer to it as a Genocide, but rather as “genocidal acts” or “killings”. Lack of political agreement, motivation, interest and economic profit in Rwanda were responsible for the international communities failure. As Romeo Dallaire said, Rwanda was a mission of “a lost priority” for the international community. Summary “The Rwanda genocide was a massacre of an estimated 800,000 to 1,071,000 ethnic Tutsi and Hutus in Rwanda. The two ethnic groups are very similar because they speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow the same traditions. But when Belgians colonist arrived in 1916, they saw the two groups as distinct entitles. The Tutsi were considered more superior than the Hutus, they had better jobs and greater educational opportunities. Once the Belgians gave Rwanda its independence the Hutus seized power and started committing acts of crime and violence against the Tutsi. The genocide started with the death of the Rwanda president Juvenal Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994…. …Throughout the massacre, both the U.N and the U.S had soldiers to establish control within the city, seeing the situation kept getting worst they decided to abandon Rwanda and remove its troops only leaving twohundred. The Hutu, now without opposition from the world community, engaged in genocidal mania killing Tutsi families with machetes. The Rwandan state radio, controlled by Hutu extremists, further encouraged the killings by broadcasting non-stop hate propaganda and even pinpointed the locations of Tutsis in hiding. Hutus who opposed the Hutu Power ideology were publicly dneounced as “accomplices” of the Tutsi and were among the first ones to be killed. Finally, in July, the RPF captured Kigali. The government collapsed and the RPF declared a ceasefire. In exactly 100 days the genocide was over and a new multi-ethnic government was formed promising all refugees from Rwanda a safe return”. Historical Emblem Symbolizing the Rwandan Genocide The golden sun represents the sun found on the new Rwandan flag. However, the tips of the rays are red, symbolizing the blood shed during the Rwandan genocide. Moreover, the center of the sun is red as well for the same reason mentioned above because the scars of the genocide remain deep down in every Rwandan’s heart. The pin in the middle, which has been created in honor of Rwandan people and in order to support them, bears the colors of hope (blue sky and peaceful green). In the middle of the pin the gold zigzag pattern signifies the wings of a popular Rwandan bird known as agasake. Works Cited "Country Profile: Rwanda." BBC News. 12 Oct. 2006. 02 Nov. 2006 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1070265.stm#leaders>. "Eating the Rwandan Way." Rwanda - Eating the Rwandan Way. 02 Nov. 2006 <http://www.cp-pc.ca/english/rwanda/eating.html>. Gourevitch, Philip. "The Triump of Evil." Front Line. 02 Nov. 2006 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/interviews/gourevitch.html >. Gourevitch, Phillip. “Stories from Rwanda.” 1998 <http://www.historyplace.com/pointsofview/rwanda.htm> "Interview Prudence Bushnell." Front Line. 01 Apr. 2004. 01 Nov. 2006 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh//pages/frontline////shows/ghosts/interviews/bushnell .html>. "Leave None to Tell the Story: Rwanda Genocide." Human Rights Watch. Mar. 1999. 03 Nov. 2006 <http://129.194.252.80/catfiles/1317.pdf>. "West 'Guilty' Over Rwanda Genocide." CNN. 06 Apr. 2004. 03 Nov. 2006 <http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/04/06/rwanda.dallaire/index.html>.