The Rwandan genocide is one of the most difficult moments in human history. A plane crash in 1994 involving the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi sparked an organized campaign of violence against Tutsi people and moderate Hutu civilians throughout the country.

Approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in a carefully orchestrated program of genocide in 100 days, making history as the fastest killing in world history.

Beginning of the Rwandan genocide

Civil War erupted in Rwanda in 1990, exacerbating existing tensions between the Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority. The civil war began when Rwandan exiles formed a group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and launched an attack on Rwanda from their base in Uganda.

The RPF, whose members were mainly Tutsi, blamed the government for not reaching out to Tutsi refugees. All Tutsis in the country were characterized as collaborators of the RPF, and all Hutu members of opposition parties were considered traitors. Despite opposition from forces to reach a peace agreement in 1992, political negotiations continued in an attempt to achieve harmony between Tutsi and Hutus.

On April 6, 1994, as Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana returned from a round of negotiations in neighboring Tanzania, he was killed when his plane was shot down outside the country's capital, Kigali.

Following the crash, US Deputy Secretary of State warned of “a strong possibility that widespread violence could break out.”

The President's death was the spark for an organized campaign of violence against Tutsis and moderate civilians

Hutus all over the country. In just a few hours, Hutu rebels surrounded the capital and took over the streets of Kigali. Within a day, the Hutus had successfully eliminated Rwanda's moderate leadership. As the weeks progressed, Tootsie and anyone suspected of having any connections with Tootsie were killed.

The political vacuum allowed Hutu extremists to take control of the country. Detailed Lists Tutsi targets were prepared in advance and government radio stations encouraged Rwandans to kill their neighbors. These specific listings included names, addresses and sometimes license plates. Through hate radio, he called on people to take to the streets and destroy those who fit the list.

Who are Hutu and Tutsi?

Rwanda is made up of three main ethnic groups: Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. Almost 85% of the population identifies as Hutu, making it the main group in Rwanda. Tutsi made up 14% of the population and Twa 1%.
The colonial power, Belgium, believed that the Tutsis were superior to the Hutus and Tuus and placed the Tutsis in charge of Rwanda. However, at the end of colonial rule, Belgium began to give more power to the Hutus. As the Hutu gained more leverage, they began to drive the Tutsi out of Rwanda and significantly reduced the Tutsi population in the country.

Harbingers of Genocide

Ethnic tensions have existed in Rwanda for centuries, escalating further after Rwanda gained independence from Belgium in 1962. In the 1990s, the Hutu political elite blamed the Tutsi population for the country's growing political, social and economic problems. They also linked Tutsi civilians to the rebel group Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF).

Many Hutus resented the Tutsis as they were generally considered the elite and had ruled the country for decades. As a result, they also feared the Tutsis and were determined to maintain their own power. When President Habyarimana's (Hutu) plane crashed, Hutu extremists suggested that it was a Tutsi who shot it down. Immediately the Hutus decided to destroy the entire Tutsi population and take revenge for the power that had always been considered the elite.

Answer

From the beginning, despite claiming ignorance of the killings, the United States and the international community were aware of the danger and unrest in Rwanda. But no measures were taken to stop the killings. Months before the killings began, General Romeo Daler, the commander of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda, sent the now notorious “genocide fax,” warning of a “extermination of the Tutsi” plot.

The media covered eyewitness accounts and direct accounts of missionaries who were unable to save their Rwandan friends from certain death. Stories would hit the front pages of newspapers from the Washington Post and the New York Times, even describing six-foot piles of corpses. There were Defense Intelligence Agency reports that said the killings were directly controlled by the state and intelligence notes that reported the instigators of the genocide.

United States

Despite these reports, President Clinton specifically avoided calling the massacre a genocide to avoid US involvement. The Clinton administration held to the idea that there were no US interests in Rwanda, so it was not their place to intervene. They also believed that the US's credibility would be diminished if it considered Rwanda to have committed genocide and then failed to intervene.

A senior US official described the decision not to intervene in Rwanda as “a foregone conclusion.” Military intervention was not on the table; he automatically noted that the United States was not involved in stopping the genocide in Rwanda.

International community

International leaders also refused to use their power to challenge the legitimacy of the government that committed the genocide. When disapproval finally came, those who committed the murder in Rwanda did not stop it. The whole world saw what was happening, but refused to intervene.

In April, a UN peacekeeping operation (UNAMIR) was sent to Rwanda. The mission, however, failed to be sufficient and was very poorly equipped. Lack of functioning vehicles and those that were available were hand-me-downs. Medical supplies quickly ran out without money to replenish supplies, and other supplies could rarely be replaced.

The United States was the main proponent of UNAMIR's withdrawal from Rwanda. American officials believed that a small peacekeeping mission would lead to a large and costly war for the Americans. Belgium joined the United States in calling for a full UN withdrawal in April 1994. The Security Council later voted in mid-May to return 5,000 troops to Rwanda following reports of widespread genocide. However, by the time the forces returned, the genocide was long over.

Those in power at the time argue that the information available overlooked the confusion of the civil war and the speed with which the genocide unfolded. But recently published archival materials about discussions in the US government and the UN Security Council suggest that more could and should have been done to prevent and respond to the genocide in Rwanda.

Consequences

When the killing stopped, the RPF established a coalition government with Pasteur Bizimungu (Hutu) as president and Paul Kagame (Tutsi) as vice president and minister of defense.
The UN also re-established and reorganized the UNAMIR operation in Rwanda, which remained there until March 1996. Following the genocide, UNAMIR provided humanitarian assistance.

The exodus of former genocidal parties across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo has long-lasting consequences that continue to be felt in the area today.

The consequences of the genocide for the people of Rwanda are immeasurable. People were tortured and terrorized as they watched those they loved die and feared loss own life. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 children were orphaned, abducted or abandoned. Twenty-six percent of the Rwandan population still suffers from PTSD today.

In 1994, the UN created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), designed to prosecute those responsible for the genocide. Despite its slow pace, the ICTR began trying and indicting those responsible in 1995.
The United Nations has conducted more than 70 trials, and Rwandan courts have tried up to 20,000 people. However, trying individuals in the courts proved difficult because the whereabouts of many criminals were unknown.

Dealing with thousands of accused and reconciliation, the traditional court system known as “Gacaca” was used, resulting in over 1.2 million cases. The ICTR also determined that widespread rape committed during the Rwandan genocide could also be considered an act of torture and genocide. The ICTR was closed at the end of 2014.

“Rwanda can be paradise again, but it will take the love of the whole world...and that is as it should be, for what happened in Rwanda to us all - humanity was wounded by genocide.”
— Immacuée Ilibagiza, Rwandan author

Facts about the Rwandan genocide

The Rwandan genocide took place between April and July 1994. Over the course of 100 days, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, systematically killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis.
The Rwandan people are collectively known as Banyarwanda. The Banyarwanda are linked historically, culturally and linguistically, but are composed of three ethnic subgroups with distinct historical socio-political roles. The three groups are Tutsi, Hutu and Twa.
The Rwandan genocide has profound historical roots, including long-term tensions in Rwanda's socially and ethnically divided population. These divisions were exacerbated in various ways by European colonialism.
Official name The Rwandan genocide is a “genocide against the Tutsi”, as decided by the United Nations in 2014.
Rwanda was partially colonized by Germany from 1897 to 1916. After World War I, the United Nations Charter designated Belgium as the colonial overseer of Rwanda, which remained in effect until 1961. Belgian colonialists elevated the already socially elevated Tutsi to a prominent place in local government, often profoundly changing long-standing Rwandan customs and social structures.
The differences between the three somatic groups in Rwanda—Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa—are the subject of much scholarly debate. Early European anthropologists viewed them as distinct races, although emerging opinion was much more ambiguous as to the precise nature of the gap between the three social/ethnic groups.
The relationship between the dominant Tutsi and Hutus were more populous historically formed social practice, known as ubuhake, which was similar to the ways of European feudalism. Ubuhaque was a kind of patronage system in which Tutsis would be allowed protection and chances of promotion social mobility for their Hutu clients who worked and fought on their behalf. Ubuhaque was outlawed in 1954, but its deep-rooted consequences remained.
After World War II, Hutu ideologues began to agitate for greater control over the Hutus and denounced what they called the socioeconomic monopolization of power held by European Tutsi supporters.
European colonizers largely favored Tutsis, who had lighter skin and finer features than their Hutu and twa compatriots. European anthropologists constructed complex explanations and racial theories to explain differences between groups and defend Tutsi superiority.
Rwandan power dynamics changed dramatically in 1959, when the Hutu uprising killed many hundreds of Tutsis and forced thousands more to flee the country. Between 1959 and 1961, the Hutus carried out a social revolution that led to Rwanda's independence from Belgian rule in 1962 and the establishment of a Hutu majority government.
Violence and unrest of the revolutionary period 1959-1961. created a large number of Tutsi refugees who fled to neighboring countries. These refugees began to seek ways to regain political power in Rwanda, stirring up racial and ethnic tensions and setting the stage for the 1994 violence.
In 1988, displaced Tutsis formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) with the goal of repatriating Rwandan refugees and reforming the government to share power between Hutus and Tutsis.
The spark that ignited the reservoir of ethnic hatred and provoked the genocide was the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana. On April 6, 1994, Habyarimana's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport. Both Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the president of neighboring Burundi, who was also on the plane, were killed.
Hutu officials were quick to blame the downing of Habyarimana's plane on the Tutsi-led RPF. Many Tutsis claimed that Hutu extremists shot down the president's plane as a pretext for the ensuing massacre of Tutsis. It is still not conclusively known who was responsible for Habyarimana's death.
Police and Hutu "Interahamwe", or militia-led killings during the month of the Rwandan genocide; however, the vast majority of the actual bloodshed was committed by Hutu peasants.
By 1994, ethnic tensions in Rwanda between Tutsi and Hutu were so high that even before the assassination of President Habyarimana, a Rwandan magazine was published with the headline: "By the way, the Tutsi could be extinguished."
French historian and Rwanda expert Gerard Prunier theorizes that the plan to completely exterminate the Tutsi people was planned by some extremist Hutu elites back in 1992.
Genocidal violence began with extreme rapidity after the death of President Habyarimana. His plane was shot down at 8:30; At 9:15 pm, Hutu police had already set up roadblocks and began searching Tutsi houses. This may be evidence of a common origin between the murder plot and the commission of genocide.

The Rwandan genocide is of a mixed nature - partly classical genocide with the systematic mass murder of an allegedly racially alien population, and partly political with the systematic murder of political opponents.
— Gerard Prunier

In the first hours after Habyarimana's assassination, Hutu agitators reported over Rwandan radio waves that Tutsi forces were invading and the need to rise up and destroy them. One radio presenter shouted: “The graves are not full yet. Who will do the good work and help us fill them completely?”
The 74-year-old Hutu, who participated in the genocide, confessed to the shame of what he had done to the RPF (a rival Tutsi military group). He defended his actions by saying: “Either you took part in the massacre, or you were killed yourself. So I took my weapon and defended the members of my tribe against the Tutsis." 247.
One of the first victims of the violence was Rwandan Prime Minister Agata Uwilingiyimana. Her Beligan guards were captured, tortured and killed, and she was killed.
Along with the Tutsis, liberal and moderate Hutus were destroyed, as well as many Hutus who simply refused to participate in the bloodshed.
Perpetrators of genocide—or genocide—killed many priests and nuns simply because they were trying to stop the killers from harming others.
Some people were killed simply because they “looked like Tootsies,” spoke good French, or owned nice cars, because these signs of social distinction marked them as possible liberals.
Hutu ideologues incited the Hutu peasantry to violence on the radio, calling on them to go out and destroy the "Tutsi cockroach."
The “genociders” sought to completely exterminate the Tutsis, killing both the elderly and infants.
Hutu militias and peasants used rape as a tactic of war and intimidation, raping hundreds of thousands of women during months of violence. Many women were subjected to gang rape, rape with guns or sharpened sticks, and genital mutilation.
Most machete killings were carried out by “herosiders,” a common tool in every Rwandan family.
During the period 1990-1994, much effort was made both within Rwanda and by the international community to promote peace between the Hutus and the Tutsis. While both sides were engaged in peace negotiations, extremists in the Hutu government were already planning the systematic murder of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
During the months of violence that led to the genocide, between 150,000 and 250,000 Rwandan women were raped
Most women raped during the genocide were killed immediately afterwards, although some were allowed to survive but were told this was only so they could "die of sadness".
Many Rwandan women were forced into sexual slavery or "forced marriages" with Hutu commanders.
In more remote areas of Rwanda, the corpses of victims were sometimes dumped four or five feet high; no one could bury them.
The genocide placed some people in positions of incredible social and moral complexity, especially in cases of Hutu-Tutsi intermarriage. Children of mixed descent were often rescued by Hutu relatives, while their Tutsi family was killed.
During the genocide, there were instances of extreme heroism among the Rwandan people. Many Christians fought to protect the Tutsis, and a number of Hutus risked their lives to save Tutsi friends, neighbors or loved ones.
The international community did little to stop the Rwandan genocide. Belgium withdrew its troops; France sent soldiers to create a "safe zone" which ultimately facilitated the escape of many Hutus; and the United States has actually done nothing.
The number of people killed during the Rwandan Genocide was five times higher than in the Nazi death camps.
During an interview, one of the Hutu killers said that the seed of genocide was planted in the Hutu mind in 1959, after the revolution against the Tutsi. The death of President Habyarimana was simply the signal to begin.
Many of the Hutu geociders speak in interviews about violence with the clinical squad, as if discussing the harvest.
Because it was nearly impossible to capture the killings on video, much of the Western world remained unaware of the extent of the violence in Rwanda.
Overall, the international community failed to assist Rwanda in its hour of need for a variety of reasons, not least of which was the desire to remain aloof from a situation in which internal tensions were not fully understood.
The violence ended in early July 1994 when the Tutsi military forces (RPF) took over Rwandan capital.
The RPF, the Tutsi military force that ended the genocide, was led by Paul Kagame, who became president of Rwanda in 2000.
Since 2004, it has been illegal to talk about ethnicity in Rwanda.

Genocide is the deliberate, targeted extermination of a nation, religious group, or race, aimed at its complete destruction.

Genocide may include systematic, gross, immoral degradation of honor and dignity, that is, psychological murder leading to the breaking of the spirit, and not just physical acts of violence and deprivation of life.

The events that occurred in the first half of 1994 in Rwanda are considered one of the most terrible crimes against humanity of the 20th century. The country, divided into two camps, essentially began to destroy itself. In terms of the rate of killings, the genocide in Rwanda surpassed the German death camps during World War II and many massacres: according to various sources, from 800 thousand to 1 million people (or more) were killed in 3 months, starting on April 6, 1994.

Although there were differences between representatives of the Tutsi people (the victims - they were a minority) and the Hutus (the executioners - they were the majority), they were not so significant as to consider each other enemies. What then happened between people of almost the same blood that made them kill their own kind without pity?

“Neighbor rebelled against neighbor, it got to the point where the husband killed his wife and killed each other. What happened in Rwanda is generally difficult to explain. You could have a nice conversation with a person and the next day he was already running after you with a machete like crazy..”

– from witness statements

Tootsie. Hutu. Rwanda

Rwanda is a small country in East Africa. Because of stereotypes and associations (specific names, black people, Africa), at first I wanted to designate nationalities as tribes, which would not be entirely true; tribes are a more primitive type of social association. “Unlike a tribe, a nationality is an ethnic group that managed to create its own state” (from educational literature). However, a nationality is not yet a nation.

Hutu - and on this moment constitute the numerical majority of the population of Rwanda (85%) and Burundi (84%). Tutsis are still in the minority - 2 million out of 12 million of the total population of Rwanda. The indigenous Twa people make up only 1.5% of the population.

At the moment, there are no special anthropological and linguistic differences between Tutsi and Hutus, mainly due to mixed marriages, but when in the 15th century the Tutsis who came from the North subjugated the people living in the territory, differences still existed. The Hutus were engaged in agriculture, the Tutsis in cattle breeding. And it seems that the Hutus were initially shorter and had a darker skin color, but in general both peoples are the closest to each other of all ethnic groups, both from an anthropological and linguistic perspective. The Tutsis constituted the ruling aristocratic elite of society and were wealthier than the rest of the inhabitants of Rwanda. A person who lost his fortune moved into the category of Hutu, who became richer - into the category of Tutsi, that is, these groups became more distinguishable social sign, rather than ethnically.

By decision of the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885, the lands of Rwanda came under German protectorate. At the beginning of the 20th century, Belgian troops captured the territory of the country by invading the territory of the Belgian Congo.

Since 1918, by decision of the League of Nations, Rwanda became a protectorate of Belgium. Both the German and the Belgian sides preferred to introduce Tutsis into managerial positions in the country, since they were of more aristocratic origin and more educated. But from the mid-20th century, when the Tutsis wanted autonomy for the country, the colonial administration decided to take the path of least resistance and low risks: it began to attract Hutu to power (perhaps because it was easier to influence them).

Subsequently, clashes between Tutsis and Hutus began to intensify, with the connivance and approval of the Belgian leadership, the Hutus actively acted against the Tutsis, however, the particularly violent Hutus were restrained - everything was under control. In 1960, the monarchy was overthrown in Rwanda, which became a logical continuation of the Hutu uprisings against the Tutsi king. Even then, many Tutsis emigrated to neighboring countries.

As a result of the 1973 coup, the Minister of Defense and State Security, Major General Juvénal Habyarimana, came to power (he remained in office until his death and the start of the genocide on April 7, 1994). The new leader established his own rules: he organized his own party, the National Revolutionary Movement, and “set a course for “planned liberalism” - a combination of state regulation with free private initiative. The development of the country was planned due to external sources financing (from Western countries).”

At the beginning of 1990, Tutsi emigrants created the rebel group RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front), some of whose members in the region foreign policy supported the USA and Great Britain, some preferred Marxist views. By 1994, the number of RPF members was 14 thousand people.

The RPF was advancing, the truce adopted in December 1993 implied the creation of an interim government,

"comprising representatives of five political parties, represented in the then government, as well as representatives of the RPF; unifying the armed forces of both sides into a national army and national gendarmerie, as well as ensuring the right of return for all refugees. To monitor the situation, a UN peacekeeping observation mission was created - UNOMUR, which later, in October 1993, became part of the military one - UNAMIR. Brigadier General Romeo Dallaire from Canada was appointed head of UNAMIR. The situation in the country in August 1993 - March 1994 was tense. Murders for political reasons continued, a transitional coalition government was never created, and a number of media outlets (RTML and Rwanda radio, Kangura newspaper, Thousand Hills Radio and Television) created an atmosphere of hatred and mistrust" (Wikipedia).

Genocide

On April 6, a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down. Immediately after this they begin massacres Tutsi.

As a result of the military coup, the Hutus come to power, the provisional government led by them, the army, the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias carry out “cleanses” of the population: they destroy the Tutsis and Hutus who adhere to the moderates political views. The Rwandan genocide is also a “retaliatory genocide” by the RPF in revenge for the killings of Tutsis.

During the 3 months of massacres, about a million Rwandans were killed, 10% of them Hutus.

Video:

Radio and newspapers actively fueled nationalist and fascist sentiments and called for the extermination of the Tutsis. Even the head of the “provisional government of Rwanda” Theodore Sindikubwabo personally called on the radio and ordered to kill enemies.

"1. Hutus must know that a Tutsi woman, whoever she is, serves the interests of her ethnic group. Therefore, any Hutu who does the following is a traitor:

- marries a Tutsi

- takes on a Tootsie lover

- hires a Tutsi woman as a secretary or other job

2. All Hutus should know that the daughters of our people are much more conscientious and worthy as women, wives and mothers. Aren't they more beautiful, more sincere, and better secretaries?

3. Hutu women, be vigilant and bring your husbands, sons and brothers to their senses.

4. All Hutus should know that all Tutsis are dishonest in business. Their only goal is national supremacy.

Therefore, any Hutu who does the following is a traitor

- having a Tutsi partner in business

- investing his own or government money in a company owned by Tutsis

- giving or borrowing from a Tutsi

- giving Tutsi privileges in business (issuing an export license, a bank loan, providing a site for construction, an offer to participate in a tender, etc.)

5. Strategic political, economic, military and security positions must be assigned to the Hutus.

6. Hutus should be the majority in education, both students and teachers

7. The Rwandan armed forces must consist exclusively of Hutus. The military actions of 1990 taught us this lesson. No military man can marry a Tutsi.

8. Hutus should stop feeling sorry for Tutsis.

9. All Hutus, no matter who they are, must be united, depend on each other and care about the fate of their Hutu brothers.

- Hutus in Rwanda and beyond must constantly seek friends and allies in the Hutu Cause, starting with their Bantu brothers

- they must constantly resist Tutsi propaganda

- Hutus must be strong and vigilant in the face of their Tutsi enemies

10. The Social Revolution of 1959, the Referendum of 1961 and Hutu Ideology should be studied by all Hutus at all levels

Every Hutu who participates in the persecution of his Hutu brothers is a traitor to the brothers who read, spread and studied this ideology."

Under suggestion, armed with machetes, clubs, Hutu (including civilians) went to kill their neighbors, who were friends only yesterday, and refugees. The Hutus called the Tutsis “cockroaches that should be exterminated.”

Mkiamini Nyirandegya, a former Air Rwanda employee now serving a life sentence in Kigali's 1930 Prison for her role in genocide, killed her own husband and, in an example of patriotic dedication, ordered militias to kill her own children. And there are many such stories...

Radio hosts, Catholic preachers, ordinary residents - many of them became provocateurs, instigators in this war: they said that the Tutsis are enemies of the Hutus, that the Tutsis want to kill the Hutus, etc., and also gave out information where the Tutsis were hiding.

Massacre at a psychiatric clinic in Kigali - Interahamwe militants killed several hundred Tutsis who were hiding there from reprisals.

Then the murder of 2,000 Tutsis at the Don Bosco Technical Clerk School.

People were gathered in churches and stadiums, where they were exterminated.

“April 15 - in the center of St. Joseph, in Kibungo, 2,800 Tutsi people were attacked by Rwandan army soldiers and Interahamwe militias and pelted with grenades.

April 18 - By order of the prefect of Kibuye, 15 thousand Tutsis were gathered at the Gatwaro stadium in the city of Kibu and killed by members of the Interahamwe. 2,000 people killed at the hands of Interahamwe members in the Roman Catholic Church in Mabiriza, Cyangugu Prefecture. April 18-20, 4,300 people killed at St. John's Asylum"

As the climax of the genocide grew, the victims were killed more and more en masse and cruelly: several tens of thousands of people in one place, burned alive, thrown into molten rubber, thrown into the river with their hands and feet tied, thrown with grenades, chopped off various parts of the body.

In the Sovu monastery, 5-7 thousand Tutsis were burned there, fleeing the “purge”. Their location was revealed by the nuns of this monastery, and, according to some information, they also supplied gasoline to the executioners. The propaganda of exterminating enemies had an effect on everyone.

Role of the UN

From the very beginning, the UN has taken a detached, observant position in this conflict, which leads to different thoughts. When in January 1994, the head of UNAMIR, Romeo Dallaire, and the commander of the Kigali sector, Colonel Luc Marchal, learned from an informant in government circles about an impending assassination attempt on the president and reported this to UN headquarters, they “were ordered not to interfere in the internal affairs of Rwanda and hand over the informant to the government."

While constantly informing the UN about events taking place in Rwanda - no attempts were made by the UN to bring peace; the resolution of the issue was constantly delayed and postponed...

The mass extermination of Tutsis was stopped by the advance of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. From July 4 to July 17, the detachments entered Kigali, Butare, Ruhengeri, and Gisenyi one by one.

More than 2 million Hutus fled the country, fearing revenge, many fearing genocide at the hands of the Tutsis.

Members of the RPF were ferocious in their reprisals, avenging murdered relatives, executing Hutu families, and the RPF was also proven guilty of a number of crimes against humanity.

No one was innocent except civilians and children, but they bore the brunt. They pitted two similar peoples who had a long-standing, almost forgotten grudge against each other. Africa is a poor, uneducated country... According to some data, 76% of men and 63% of women are literate (can read and write), according to others, more than half of all Tutsis cannot read or write even in native language. It’s not difficult to inspire, “charge” people who barely understand government issues and are tired of poverty to act without rights. But besides everything else - physical strength The Rwandans had more than enough aggression without inhibitions.

After the genocide

Can the cause of this genocide be called interethnic conflict? Hutus who did not want to participate in the genocide were also exterminated; a tenth of all killed people were “our own people.” That is, either, under the influence of the crowd, the angry “fighters for justice” swept away those who were not initially enemies, because they did not want to share their terror, or the conflict had a different idea than just a nationalist one.

It was encouraged, and in the process of carrying out the terror it became mandatory, to participate in the extermination of all Tutsis.

The corpses thrown into the river, which overflowed Africa, which was already not abundant in water resources, as well as the lack of normal conditions for burying the huge number of dead, led to a sanitary disaster - a cholera epidemic, infections, and poisoning. The lives of a large number of people were claimed by disease, hunger, and lack of medical care.

Mass rapes of Hutu and Tutsi women by militants—about 250 thousand “victims”—led to an increase in AIDS infections (in Rwanda, 2.3% of the population already has AIDS) and to the mass birth of “children of violence.”

“By 1994, Tutsis made up approximately 15% of Rwanda's population. 80% of them, or even more, were destroyed. But Tutsis still make up 15% of the country’s population, moreover, they are the ones who rule Rwanda - the Hutu’s chance of making a serious career in any field is approaching zero.

Rwanda is not only a land of a thousand hills, a million smiles and six hundred intelligent gorillas. This is a country where, just 20 years ago, approximately eight hundred and fifty thousand people—about one-seventh of the population at the time—were killed in just one hundred days. They killed without the use of extermination camps, gas chambers, crematoria and other technical innovations of the twentieth century - this was mainly done with machetes, clubs and other bladed weapons. This massacre remained virtually unnoticed by the world community, and the American public was told much less about what was happening in Rwanda. The events in Rwanda came into the spotlight only when the Tutsi army took full control of the country, stopped the genocide and forced the flight of one and a half million Hutus, including most of those who took part in the destruction of their neighbors.

— Livejournal

More than a million people involved in the Rwandan genocide were sentenced to life imprisonment, including execution. However, many who directly and actively participated in the bloody actions are alive and free to this day, and they in every possible way deny their involvement in the extermination of peoples. Those who are imprisoned for life give interviews in which they call their actions stupid... Stupidity, which resulted from following the commands of the media and fascists. So, it turns out that out of stupidity people became executioners - too little proof of their repentance. And is it possible for those who consciously went for it? But they were “performers.”

Those who were the “customer” or the connecting link are still hiding in a neutral country today under the guise of ordinary, unremarkable citizens X - they put on an icy face with glassy eyes and deny everything. A phrase from a documentary about the Rwandan genocide: “It’s like they don’t want to think about these three months from their lives, they erased this time from their memory and live as if nothing had happened...”.

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In 1994, Rwanda killed a million people in just 100 days. 10,000 people a day! Women, children, old people - the entire Tutsi people were killed indiscriminately. This is impossible to imagine, especially since all this did not happen some time ago, but during our lifetime, just 20 years ago. Unlike other acts of genocide, few people know about Rwanda, although the number of victims is simply incredible. It’s just that no one cares about Africa. Many people will not find Rwanda on the world map at all. Despite the fact that plans for the complete extermination of the Tutsi were known in advance, neither the Americans nor the Europeans intervened. More precisely, the intervention was limited to the evacuation of its citizens. Here I recommend watching the film “Shooting Dogs.”

In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, there is a genocide museum. It is also a memorial to the victims of the tragedy. Those who survived come here, the last photographs of the dead are brought here. The heaviest room is with large children's photographs. Under each photo there is a short information: the child’s name, age, what he loved, who he wanted to become and how he was killed.

WHO ARE TUTSI AND HUTUS

CIVIL WAR IN RWANDA

Hutu Army Training

“Everyone listening to this: stand up and fight for our Rwanda. Fight with any weapon you can find: if you have arrows, then with arrows, if you have spears, then with spears. We all must fight the Tutsis. We must finish them off, exterminate them, sweep them out of our country."

“Mercy is a sign of weakness. Show them mercy and they will make you slaves again."

Propaganda on RTLM radio in Rwanda, 1994

REASON FOR GENOCIDE

Soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front found the body of former Prime Minister Agatha Uwilingiyimana.

“Apparently, the plan is to destroy the real and potential allies of the RPF and thus limit the possibilities of resistance by the RPF and the Tutsis... There is no end in sight to the unprecedented bloodshed.”

“The Roots of Violence in Rwanda,” U.S. Department of State, Office of Intelligence and Research, April 29, 1994

THE BEGINNING OF GENOCIDE

Radio RTLM broadcasts calls to exterminate Tutsi cockroaches

100 DAYS OF GENOCIDE

“There was a terrible commotion: the Interahamwe broke into houses, slaughtered cows and killed people. First they killed my brother and his wife. Their bodies were hung from a tree by their feet. Then the killers led us to the well. They cut us up with machetes and threw us into a pit. No one from my family survived except me.

Before they threw me into the pit, I was raped. It was so painful and embarrassing that I wanted to die. I was only 25 and I thought that my life was worth nothing anymore.

They violated me and threw me into a pit with corpses. Some, like me, could still breathe, and when the killers left, we tried to get out. On the third day I succeeded, but that man was no longer able to do it. Most likely, he died there.”

Eyewitness testimony

“I managed to climb a mango tree. The soldiers didn't find me. But they came into my house and killed everyone who was there - mom, dad, grandma. I didn’t see it, but I heard their screams, screams and moans. When they fell silent, I realized that my family was dead.

They dragged the bodies out of the house and threw them in the yard. I couldn't help but recognize anyone. All the bodies were cut up and dismembered.

I sat on the tree for many more hours. I was just numb and couldn't think about anything. But then the feral dogs came. They walked around the corpses and ate them. It was unbearable, I climbed down from the tree and started running. I made a conscious decision that day that I needed to move forward and never stop.

I didn't eat for so long that when they finally gave me food, I couldn't even open my mouth.

The murderers of my family were never punished. This makes me feel unsafe. I'm afraid the Hutus will come and continue what they started. People think the genocide is in the past, but I still live with it.”

Eyewitness testimony

“I asked the soldiers to shoot me. It's better to be shot than to die from a machete. But instead, they raped and beat me, then tore off all my clothes and threw me into a common grave. My whole body was covered in the blood of the people lying in the grave. Many of them were still alive. There was a woman with her legs cut off who was still breathing.

A man passing by pulled me out of the grave. He hid me from the Hutus and raped me, giving me food and water in return. He said: “What difference does it make, you’ll die soon anyway.”

Eyewitness testimony

“In search of a safe place during the genocide, I passed through several communes. I've met many killers and lost five children along the way. Then I was with the Tutsis who organized resistance on the hill. The assassins couldn't defeat us, so they called in military reinforcements. After the military defeated us, they returned to kill the surviving men and rape the women. I was raped together with my mother. They put us side by side. First, we were raped by two soldiers in turn. Then they gave us to the others. After the rape, they released my mother and kept me with them as their “wife.”

Eyewitness testimony

“I am the only one left alive [of the large Tutsi group]. The head of the district gave the order to rape me. I was immediately taken away by a man whom I had never seen before, but now I know his name. He did whatever he wanted to me, beat and raped me every time he returned home after the murders. He hid all my clothes and I was completely naked there. I wanted to commit suicide in the toilet, I went outside to get to it, but instead I just ran and hid in the bushes. In the morning I was found by RPF soldiers.

Of the four ruthless killers I met during the genocide, I know three. Now they live like this among us and among many other murderers who will never be convicted.”

Eyewitness testimony

“I managed to sneak out of the house [where I was held in sexual slavery], but my sister was not so lucky. She was killed. I was so distraught by this news that I myself went to the Interahamwe so that they would finish me off too.

But instead of killing me, one of them took me to an abandoned house and raped me. Then he showed me grenades and cartridges and told me to choose what kind of death I wanted to die. I grabbed a grenade and threw it on the ground, hoping it would blow me up, but it didn't. Then he called his friends to punish me. They all raped me.

They left me alone, torn, covered in blood and filth. I lay there for five days and I don't know how I survived. Then I left the house like a zombie in search of someone who could kill me. I did not know that by that time the RPF had already liberated this territory from the Hutus. Soldiers dressed in uniform were walking towards me, I shouted nasty things and insults at them, hoping that they would get angry and kill me. But instead they tried to calm me down and then took me to the hospital.

At the hospital I found out that I was HIV positive. But I don’t want to talk about it.”

Eyewitness testimony

“The Kagera River flows through a deep gorge that forms a natural border between Rwanda and Tanzania. During the rainy season, the river becomes full and carries huge clods of grass and small trees from the slopes. In the late spring of 1994, the same thing happened to human bodies. They were all twisted and tangled, tossed about the rapids until they fell into the calm water, which carried them to Victoria. They didn't look dead. They looked like swimmers because the strong current created the illusion that they were moving. They seemed so alive to me that I even shuddered when the waves hit them against the stones. I even imagined the pain they might feel. The border guards told me that hundreds of corpses float past them every day. Some of the dead had their hands tied behind their backs. They were shot, hacked to death, beaten, burned, drowned..."

Eyewitness testimony

OFFENSIVE OF THE RWANDAN PATRIOTIC FRONT

DURATION OF GENOCIDE AND NUMBER OF KILLED

Names of the dead Tutsis

Francine, 12 years old. She loved eggs, chips, milk and Fanta. She was friends with her older sister Claudet. Hacked to death with a machete.
Bernardin, 17 years old. Loved tea and rice. I studied well at school. Killed with a machete in Nyamata Church.

Fidel, 9 years old. He loved to play football and eat chips. I played a lot with friends and watched TV. Shot in the head.
Chanel, 8 years old. She loved to run with her father, watch TV and listen to music. Favorite food is milk and chocolate. Hacked to death with a machete.

Ariana, 4 years old. She loved pies and milk. She danced and sang a lot. She died from being stabbed in the eyes and head.
David, 10 years old. He loved to play shootball and make people laugh. I dreamed of becoming a doctor. Before his death he said: “The UN will come for us.” Tortured to death.

Patrick, 5 years old. He loved to ride a bike. Favorite foods are chips, meat and eggs. He was quiet and obedient. Hacked to death with a machete.
Uwamwezi and Irene, 7 and 6 years old. We shared one doll between two people. They loved fresh fruit and spent a lot of time with their father. Blown up by a grenade.

Hubert, 2 years old. Favorite toy is a car. The last memory is of how his mother was killed. Gunned down.
Aurora, 2 years old. She loved to play hide and seek with her older brother. She was very talkative. Burnt alive in Gikondo Church.

Fabrice, 8 years old. She loved to swim and eat chocolate. She was best friends with her mother. bludgeoned to death.
Yvonne and Eve, 5 years old and 3 years old. Brother and sister. We loved tea with milk and chips. Hacked to death with a machete in grandma's house.

Thierry, 9 months. She was breastfed. I cried a lot. Her mother hacked her to death with a machete.
Philetta, 2 years old. She loved to play with dolls. Favorite food is rice and chips. Killed by hitting the wall.

ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES

At the end of June, French troops arrived in Rwanda. They were located in Hutu-controlled territory and, according to many observers, supported the government that carried out the genocide. Of course, the French did not allow the Hutus to continue killing Tutsis (although there is another opinion), but at the moment when the RPF army approached them, they helped many high-ranking Hutus escape from retribution.

French troops establish a "security zone" between advancing RPF troops and the remnants of the Hutu army

COVERAGE OF GENOCIDE IN THE WORLD

After the genocide, the governments of many countries tried to present what happened as a manifestation of “tribal violence” or “long-standing ethnic hatred.” No one wanted to admit that this was a deliberate extermination of people of a different nationality in order to maintain political strength and power.

UN BEHAVIOR

After the end of the genocide, the UN sent a second mission to Rwanda, which helped restore order to the streets and remove thousands of dead bodies.

In 1999, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly apologized for the “regrettable inaction” and “political lack of will” of the organization’s leadership.

EVENTS AFTER THE GENOCIDE

“The Rwandans have lived peacefully with each other for six hundred years, and there is no reason why they cannot live in peace again. Let me address those who have chosen to follow the murderous path of confrontation: I remind you that these people are Rwandans just like you. Give up the path of genocide and destruction, join hands with other Rwandans and channel your energy into good deeds.”

Message from Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu, 1994

In 1996, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda began its work in Arusha, Tanzania. Its goal was to identify and punish the organizers of the genocide. During his tenure, he tried the cases of 93 defendants, of whom 61 were sentenced to various prison terms. Among them are the organizers of the radical Interahamwe youth movement, the army leaders who gave orders to start the genocide, and the host of a Rwandan radio station who called on the air to kill Tutsis.

“The genocide radically changed my life. Now I am crippled and therefore I live in poverty. I can't bring myself water or plow the ground. I suffer terribly from all the trauma, grief and insomnia. I am isolated from other people. I'm offended and sad. I want to cry all the time and I hate everyone. I have nowhere to live because they destroyed my parents' house. And the most monstrous thing is that they found HIV in me. I just sit and wait for death to come for me.”

Eyewitness testimony

“Now I feel ashamed that I did not resist the rapists. I have nightmares about what happened to me and find it difficult to maintain relationships with people. But the worst thing is that I gave birth to a child from my tormentor. The genocide is still ongoing for me: I can never forget it because I am raising his child.”

Eyewitness testimony

“I don’t know why I was persecuted, but then it seemed to me that running was the only way out. Now I understand that I should have stayed and shared the fate of my family. My whole body was covered in wounds from clubs and machetes, but I always ran away from those who held them. I was raped and dishonored, but I found the courage to escape and move on with my life. You may think that I am brave and courageous. Yes, I really looked death in the face. I paid a terrible price to survive. But on the other hand, I was just lucky. I didn't see how they killed my family. I didn’t see how they practiced shooting using small children as targets. This should never happen to anyone.

I am one of that crowd of dead people, only I am not buried yet. I am a living reminder of what happened to a million other people."

Eyewitness testimony

“I know the people who killed my family: my parents, three brothers and a sister. I am ready to forgive them, because my relatives will never be returned anyway. But it will depend on how they ask for forgiveness.

I would like to live in a stable Rwanda where children are not in danger. A Rwanda that will never experience genocide again."

Eyewitness testimony

“During the reconciliation process, the killer of my family came to me to ask for forgiveness. At that time, I did not forgive him, because my heart was terribly bitter about what happened. But if he comes to me now, I will forgive him. The Lord said that if we forgive, they will forgive us. We must show the murderers that we are not like them, that we are generous. I think they themselves realized that their actions did not lead to anything good. Let's treat them humanely."

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The liberation of many African countries from colonial oppression in the 1960s initially caused euphoria among local population, and among supporters of democracy and progress around the world. However, subsequent events on the Dark Continent showed how dialectical history is, how erroneous the “straight paths” are sometimes. Without sufficient experience in state building, artificially separated by colonial borders, and burdened not only with feudal but also with tribal remnants, countries turned into “hot spots” on the planet. The departure of the colonialists revealed numerous problems, civil wars began, and the problem of tribalism - the division of society along tribal lines - was exposed.

Rwanda experienced all this to the fullest. This East African state was, until independence in 1962, part of Rwanda-Urundi, a UN trust territory administered by Belgium. The country's population in 1998 was about 8 million people, but before the events described in this essay, it was larger.

Rwanda is the most populous country in Africa. Only a small part of its population lives in cities. The people of Rwanda belong to three main ethnic groups: Hutu (Bahutu), Tutsi (Batutsi or Watutsi) and Twa (Batwa). According to the UN census in 1978, Hutus made up 74%, Tutsis 25% and Twa 1%. Half of the country's population are Catholics, the other half are adherents of local beliefs.

Since 1962, the ruling regime in Rwanda has changed several times. In 1973, as a result of a military coup, a military dictatorship was established. All political parties except the ruling one were dissolved. This one-party system remained in place until 1991, when the government finally allowed other parties to operate. From the first days of independence, the political situation in Rwanda began to be determined by the conflict between the Hutus, who make up the majority of the population, and the Tutsis. Often this conflict resulted in bloody clashes.

It is unknown when the Hutus appeared in these territories; the Tutsis arrived at the beginning of the 15th century. and created one of the most powerful states in the interior of East Africa. The Hutu recognized the dominance of the newcomers and paid them tribute. This hierarchy persisted for several centuries. The Hutus were mostly farmers, the Tutsis were pastoralists. The Germans, and then the Belgians who replaced them, decided to rely on the already existing elite - that is, the Tutsis, who received a number of social and economic privileges. But in 1956, the policy of the colonialists changed radically - the bet was made on the Hutus. Thus, using the principle of “divide and conquer,” the Belgians were already preparing the ground for a future confrontation that continues to this day. During the civil war of 1959-1961. The Tutsis defended the independence of Rwanda from the Belgians, the Hutus fought with the Tutsis. Pogroms and political assassinations became commonplace. It was then that the first mass exodus of Tutsis from Rwanda occurred. Over the next decades, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi refugees were forced to seek shelter in neighboring Uganda, Zaire, Tanzania, and Burundi. In 1973, the authorities ordered that all citizens carry identification cards of their ethnic origin. At the same time, fleeing persecution, thousands of Hutus moved to Rwanda from Burundi, which was also engulfed in an interethnic war.

On October 1, 1990, Tutsi refugees living in Uganda and creating the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwandan territory. They were stopped by the Rwandan army, which was assisted by French and Belgian formations. However, the authorities did not stop there, but staged an attack by RPF units on the capital of Rwanda, the city of Kigali. This explained the subsequent mass arrests and the need for the military presence of France and Belgium. RPF forces tried to repeat the invasion in December 1990 and early 1991. A new RPF offensive in February 1993 led to the emigration of another half a million Rwandans - both Hutus and Tutsis, who suffered equally from the actions of armed groups on both sides. In August 1993, an agreement was signed in the Tanzanian city of Arusha on the terms of a truce, which included the formation of a Hutu-Tutsi coalition government.

Hutu extremists who were part of the government during 1990-1994. repressions against Tutsi were constantly intensified, terror affected politicians, journalists, and others. On April 6, 1994, while landing at Kigali airport, a plane carrying the President of Rwanda Habyarimana and the President of Burundi exploded. It is unknown who - Tutsi or Hutu - was responsible for this act. But less than an hour later, the massacre began in Kigali. The next day, war broke out throughout the country. UN peacekeepers stationed in Rwanda did not dare intervene.

During the most severe ethnic cleansing, which was carried out using completely savage methods, the Hutus (primarily the police and the army) exterminated hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children. The victims of the genocide were not only Tutsis, but also Hutus disloyal to the regime. The total number of victims was just under a million people. The terror continued until July 1994. The government radio broadcast calls to destroy eternal enemies and reported places where Tutsis were hiding.

RPF troops entered the country. In July they captured Kigali. About 2 million Rwandans fled, mostly to Zaire and Tanzania. This time the majority were Hutus. They settled in refugee camps, which became resistance training centers.

The UN Security Council instructed France to send an armed humanitarian mission to the country. The French saw the situation differently. Most of all, they feared that Rwanda would pass from them to the control of the United States (which actually trained military personnel from the RPF). They created security zones in the southwest of the country where they sheltered soldiers and officials of the Habyarimana administration who had fled from the RPF. The United States opened a mission in Kigali, where the RPF was forming a coalition government in accordance with the Arusha Agreement. By July, more than a quarter of Rwanda's population had fled or died. The RPF appointed the moderate Hutu Bizimungu as president, and the head of the RPF militant organization, Kagame, became vice-president. The USA, Belgium, Great Britain and the Netherlands pledged to provide financial assistance to the devastated country. By the spring of 1997, refugee camps in Zaire were closed and approximately 1.5 million civilians returned to their homeland. Rwandan refugees still wander throughout the region, fighting with each other and with regular units of countries that do not want to accept them and are trying to force them back to their homeland.

Rwanda's population is over 7 million and consists of three ethnic groups: Hutu (85 percent of the population), Tutsi (14 percent) and Twa (1 percent).

Before the colonial era, Tutsis generally occupied a higher position in the social system, and Hutus a lower one. However, a change in social status was possible: a Hutu who acquired a lot of livestock or other property could assimilate into the Tutsi group, and an impoverished Tutsi would be treated as a Hutu. In addition, there was a clan system, and the Tutsi clan, called Nyinginya, was the most powerful. Throughout the 19th century, Nyinginya expanded his influence through conquest and the provision of protection in exchange for the payment of tribute.

Beginning of ethnic conflict

The former colonial power Germany lost control of Rwanda during the First World War, and the territory was transferred to Belgium. In the late 1950s, tensions in Rwanda increased during the broad process of decolonization. The Hutu political movement, which advocated the transfer of power to the majority, was gaining strength, while some of the Tutsis who held power resisted democratization and the loss of their privileges. In November 1959, a violent incident sparked a Hutu uprising during which hundreds of Tutsis were killed and thousands were expelled and forced to flee to neighboring countries. This marked the beginning of the so-called "Hutu peasant revolution" or "social revolution", which lasted from 1959 to 1961 and which marked the end of Tutsi rule and the escalation of ethnic tensions. By 1962, when Rwanda gained independence, 120,000 people, mostly Tutsis, took refuge in neighboring countries to escape violence during the gradual transition of power to the Hutu community.

After independence, a new phase of ethnic conflict and violence began. Tutsi refugees in Tanzania and Zaire, seeking to regain their former positions in Rwanda, began organizing attacks against individual Hutu representatives and against Hutu government institutions. Between 1962 and 1967, there were ten such attacks, each of which resulted in reprisals and reprisals against big amount Tutsi civilians in Rwanda and forced even more people to flee the country. By the end of the 1980s, about 480 thousand Rwandans were refugees, mainly in Burundi, Uganda, Zaire and Tanzania. They insisted on fulfilling their legal right to return to Rwanda; however, the then President of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, was of the opinion that the country's overpopulation was too great and economic opportunities too low for the country to be able to accommodate the numerous Tutsi refugees.

Civil War

In 1988, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was formed as a political and military movement in Kampala, Uganda, with the stated goals of ensuring the repatriation of exiled Rwandans and reforming the government controlled, in particular, the division of political power. The RPF consisted mainly of Tutsis living in Uganda, many of whom served in the National Resistance Army under President Yoweri Museveni, who ousted Uganda's previous government from power in 1986. Although there were Hutus among the RPF members, the majority, especially in the leadership, were Tutsi refugees.

On October 1, 1990, the RPF launched a large-scale offensive against Rwanda from Uganda with a force of about 7 thousand people. As a result of these offensives, which displaced thousands of people from their homes, and the government's targeted propaganda campaign, all Tutsis in the country were branded as collaborators of the RPF. And the Hutu who belonged to the opposition parties were declared traitors. The media, especially radio stations, spread baseless rumors that only exacerbated ethnic problems.

In August 1993, thanks to peace efforts by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and several governments in the region, the signing of the Arusha Peace Accords seemed to end the standoff between the then Hutu-dominated government and the opposition RPF. In October 1993, the Security Council established (UNAMIR), whose mandate included peacekeeping activities, humanitarian assistance and support for the peace process in general.

However, from the very beginning, the desire to achieve and consolidate peace encountered opposition from some Rwandan political parties that were parties to the agreements. The ensuing delays in their implementation led to even more widespread human rights violations and a deterioration in the security situation.

Subsequently, irrefutable facts became known that extremist elements belonging to the dominant Hutu group, while paying lip service to peace, were actually planning the extermination of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Genocide

On April 6, 1994, following the deaths of the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda in a plane crash caused by a rocket attack, widespread and systematic massacres began over several weeks. These killings, which resulted in the death of approximately one million people, shocked the international community and constituted clear acts of genocide. Additionally, it is estimated that between 150,000 and 250,000 women were raped. Members of the Presidential Guard began killing Tutsi civilians near the airport in Kigali. Less than half an hour after the plane crashed, road checkpoints were set up where Hutu militias, often with the help of gendarmes (militarized police) or military personnel, were identifying Tutsis.

April 7 radio and television station Libres Des Mille Collines (RTLM) aired a program in which responsibility for the plane crash was placed on the RPF and a contingent of UN troops, and also contained inflammatory calls to destroy the “Tutsi cockroaches.” On the same day, Prime Minister Agata Uwilingiyimana was brutally murdered along with ten Belgian peacekeepers assigned to protect her when government soldiers attacked her home. Other moderate Hutu leaders were also killed. After the death of the military personnel, Belgium withdrew its entire contingent. On 21 April, after other countries requested the withdrawal of their troops, UNAMIR force strength was reduced from 2,165 to 270 personnel.

The lack of commitment to national reconciliation on the part of some Rwandan political parties was one of the reasons for the tragedy, but the indecisiveness of the international community caused the situation to escalate. The ability of the United Nations to alleviate the suffering of the people in Rwanda has been severely limited by the reluctance of Member States to respond to the changing situation in Rwanda by strengthening the mandate of UNAMIR and providing additional military personnel.

22 June 1994 Security Council deployment of forces under French command to conduct a humanitarian mission. This mission, called " ", helped save the lives of hundreds of civilians in southwestern Rwanda; however, according to some accounts, its actions allowed soldiers, officials and militias involved in the genocide to flee Rwanda through territory under its control. In other areas, killings continued until July 4, 1994, until the RPF established military control over the entire territory of Rwanda.

Consequences of genocide

Government officials, soldiers and militia members implicated in acts of genocide fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), then Zaire, along with an estimated 1.4 million civilians, mostly Hutu, who were told they would be exterminated. RPF. Thousands of people died from waterborne infectious diseases. Refugee camps were also used by soldiers of the former Rwandan government to rearm and organize incursions into Rwanda. This was one of the reasons that led to the 1996 war between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Former Rwandan armed forces continued to operate in the DRC alongside Congolese militias and other armed groups, causing death, grief and suffering among civilians.

It was only at the end of 1996 that Rwandan authorities began to initiate cases on charges of genocide. The delay is due to the fact that the country has lost a large number of legal workers, not to mention the destruction of court buildings, prisons and other infrastructure. By 2000, over 100 thousand suspects of committing acts of genocide were awaiting trial. In 2001, to address the huge backlog of cases, the government began introducing a participatory justice system known as Gachacha. Communities elected judges to try genocide suspects and those accused of any crime except planning genocide and rape. The defendants whose cases were tried by the Gacaca courts were released while awaiting trial. The release from custody caused a storm of indignation among the victims, who considered such a step as a kind of amnesty. Rwanda continues to use the national court system to try those involved in the planning of genocide or rape under ordinary criminal law. These courts do not apply the practice of temporarily releasing those accused of the crime of genocide.

Gachacha courts commute sentences for those who have repented and are seeking ways to reconcile with society. These courts are designed to promote public participation in the process of justice and reconciliation in the country.

At the international level, the Security Council established the Security Council on November 8, 1994, which is currently located in Arusha, Tanzania. Investigations began in May 1995. The first suspects appeared in court in May 1996, and hearings in the first case began in January 1997. The jurisdiction of the UN Tribunal extends to all types of violations of internationally recognized human rights that were committed in Rwanda between January and December 1994. The tribunal has the power to prosecute senior members of the government and military, many of whom have fled the country and could thereby escape punishment. During the intervening period, the Tribunal sentenced Jean Kambanda, the country's prime minister at the time of the genocide, to life imprisonment. This Tribunal is the first to charge a rape suspect with a crime against humanity and the crime of genocide. The tribunal also examined the case of three media owners accused of using the media to incite ethnic hatred and genocide. By April 2007, the Tribunal had issued twenty-seven decisions involving thirty-three accused.