History of the Rwandan Genocide

History of the genocide

“i stepped up into the open doorway of a classroom. At least fifty mostly decomposed cadavers covered the floor. One woman wrapped in a cloth printed with flowers lay near the door. Her fleshless hip bones were high and her legs slightly spread, a Child’s skeleton extended in-between them. Her torso was hollowed out. Her ribs and spinal column poked through the rotting cloth. Her head was tipped back and her mouth was open. A strange image – half of agony, half repose. Later I found out that all the people in this room women and children had been raped”. This is a quote from Philip Gourevitch’s book about the genocide.

Many people argue when the genocide started, some have the view that it began in 1894 when Germany colonized Rwanda and forced the people into certain patterns that are still around today. Others say it was in 1990 when the RPF(Rwandan Patriotic Front the rebels) start the civil war. However I am going to start from what I think was the match that lit the fire. Which was the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana the president of Rwanda. He was returning from a meeting in Burundi to talk about the current situation and to agree to signing a peace treaty with the RPF His flight never landed, as he was coming into land the plane was shot by two SAM’s the first taking out one wing the second took out the tail which then lead to the whole plane exploding. Then after his death was confirmed the rally cry and killings started. The Hutu (the majority race) extremists blamed this on the RPF as act of vengeance and war. However logically this makes no sense the RPF were the side that were most beneficial from signing this peace treaty. The Hutu extremist then announced off there radio channel that the Tutsi’s ( the minoirty population) are “murders and if we do not take arms now they will kill us all”. This was obviously completely fabricated to get the Hutu majority panicking that if they don’t defend themselves no one will. However many years after the genocide we found that the shooting down of the plane was actually planned and executed by some of the president’s own inner circle and had bin planned many weeks even years in advance. They had everything in place so as soon as the plane was shot down the ante Tutsi propaganda would explode and the distribution of guns and machetes was instant. I good example of how well planned this move was that in 1993 when the Arusha conference had taken place business men close to Juvenal Habyarimana had bought 581,000 machetes in from china. This is a year before the assassination actually took place. No this was not tribal, mob warfare sparked on decade of tribal warfare, this was tactical well planned out destruction with one aim to destroy the Tutsi race.

The Rwandan genocide was not a chance incident. Nor did it arise solely in response to President Habyarimana's death. The genocide was the culmination of sweeping efforts that had been meticulously planned over a period of years. The participation of the broader population was a critical aspect of the Rwandan genocide; co-workers killed co-workers, neighbours killed neighbours, friends killed friends, husbands killed wives this information shows that the people thought that it was a necessary thing to kill each other. as soon as people believe this all hope despairs as man will do any thing it thinks necessary for the “greater good” . Rwandan theologian has argued that the genocide would have been inconceivable before the 1990s and that it took four years of preparation to make mass violence possible. To this end, the media participated in a "structured attempt to use media to influence awareness, attitudes, or behaviour." The intensive propaganda campaign fuelled and funded by Hutu extremists was perhaps the most effective element of this plan. Hutu extremists successfully spread hate speech that would prove remarkably essential and effective before, during, and after the genocide.

On April the 9th just 3 days after the president was killed was some of the worst killings in the genocide. This killings was called the massacre of Gikondo they were very influential as they were the first clear signs of the genocide. The people of the town called gikondo were all gathered in the church. They were all asked to produce identity cards once gathered they were all burnt so there would be no evidence of how many people were killed, all Hutus were asked to leave. Then came the interhamwe ( they are a hutu paramilitary organization) one hundred men strong all armed with machetes and some with AK-47s. The killings it is told went on for more than 2 hours. This is a discripition by a polish UN solider who was made to watch the killings. “methodically and with much bravado and laughter, the militia moved from bench to bench, hacking with machetes. Some died immediately, while others with terrible wounds begged for their lives or the lives of there children. No one was spared. A pregnant woman was disembowelled and her fetus severed.” This description goes on for a whole page more. over the 15-18th of April it is thought that in just 3 locations a minimum of 62,000 people were thought to be killed. These were the worst massacres of the genocide they were called “ the massacre at Nyarubuye”, “the kibuye massacres” and “ the hills of bisesero”. In nyarubuye when tutsis asked the hutu mayor how they might be sparred, he suggested they seek sanctuary at the church they did. A few days later the mayor came to kill them. He came at the head of a pack of soldiers, policemen, militia and villagers. He gave out arms and orders to complete “the job well” it was also said he killed some tutsis himself. It is thought that 20,000 civilians were killed within the area around the church. One man hiding in the shrub near the church said “that were so many people they had to take a break after a full day relentless killing. So they slit all the people left Achilles tendons and locked