The Genocide Memorial Museum - Kigali, Rwanda
Hatred, Sadness, Anger, Depression, Distrust, Revenge! How does a country recover from one of the most horrific events in modern history?
To understand the reasons for genocide, one must first understand the catalysts. Identify the axis of evil and the methods instituted to nurture hatred strong enough to slaughter and torture your own countrymen. In Rwanda’s case, the same people who brought education, religion and agriculture also brought death. The colonists.
Rwanda did not choose to be colonized, it was claimed by Germany between 1895-1916. During WWI, Belgium troops moved in to liberate Rwanda and the League of Nations granted them permission to govern Rwanda-Urundi.
Belgian authorities immediately went to work securing power. Implementing an age-old war tactic, divide and conquer, they created a strategic ethnic divide between the two main tribes of Rwanda, the Tutsi’s (15%) and Hutu (85%). Tutsi’s were said to originate from North Africa while Hutus claimed more localized descendants. Tutsis also owned more cattle then Hutus (If you had more then 10 cows, you were Tutsi. Less then 10 cows, you were Hutu). The Welsh immediately sided with the Tutsi, considering them more intelligent and prosperous, relegating Hutu to a lower class. Hutu, the majority population, did not fare well with this demotion and instead of blaming the colonists, blamed their Tutsi neighbors. This is where the hatred began.
To understand the reasons for genocide, one must first understand the catalysts. Identify the axis of evil and the methods instituted to nurture hatred strong enough to slaughter and torture your own countrymen. In Rwanda’s case, the same people who brought education, religion and agriculture also brought death. The colonists.
Rwanda did not choose to be colonized, it was claimed by Germany between 1895-1916. During WWI, Belgium troops moved in to liberate Rwanda and the League of Nations granted them permission to govern Rwanda-Urundi.
Belgian authorities immediately went to work securing power. Implementing an age-old war tactic, divide and conquer, they created a strategic ethnic divide between the two main tribes of Rwanda, the Tutsi’s (15%) and Hutu (85%). Tutsi’s were said to originate from North Africa while Hutus claimed more localized descendants. Tutsis also owned more cattle then Hutus (If you had more then 10 cows, you were Tutsi. Less then 10 cows, you were Hutu). The Welsh immediately sided with the Tutsi, considering them more intelligent and prosperous, relegating Hutu to a lower class. Hutu, the majority population, did not fare well with this demotion and instead of blaming the colonists, blamed their Tutsi neighbors. This is where the hatred began.
In 1932, the Welsh introduced a mandatory Identification Card (to be carried at all times). This I.D. card included basic citizenship details but the main purpose, was to define your tribal affiliation, Tutsi or Hutu. When they were first implemented, the cards were nothing more then paper. Rwandans still intermarried, worked alongside each other and lived next door to whomever they pleased. There was no wedge between Tutsi and Hutu, until the Welsh created one. A crime that has yet to be admitted and atoned for.
30 years later, in 1962, Rwanda gained independence from Belgium and with it, their first Prime Minsiter, Gregoire Kayibanda, took control. The founder of the Parmehutu, party for the emancipation of Hutu, Kayibanda’s subsequent reign became an extremely repressive, single-party system, full of ethnic division and preliminary Tutsi cleansings. |
During this time a man by the name of Habyarimana established the “Interahamwe”. A dangerous Hutu youth militia advocating Hutu superiority and power at the expense of Tutsi life. This was only the beginning of an organization that, 40 years later, carried out the genocide.
Between 1959 and 1973, over 700,000 Tutsi were exiled to neighboring countries. A resistance military, known as the RDF - Rwanda Patriotic Front - banded together in a fight for equal rights and refugee return but their attacks on Hutu forces only fueled the Hutus repugnance of them. Hatred also grew because of intense propaganda. Radio networks like, Radio Television Libre des Mille Colliness, incited hatred and justified the killings of Tutsi. They convinced listeners their Tutsi neighbors, friends and even family member were evil and enemies of any Hutu.
Now fast forward to 1992, after years of fighting, concentrated propaganda, and small scale genocides, when a cease fire was signed between the RPF and President Habyarimana’s military. Not only was the war to end but a democracy to begin.
Habyarimana was not pleased with the treaty and viewed it as a surrender to the RPF. So he covertly entered into the largest arms deal in Rwanda’s history with the French. Over 12 million dollars, loaned by the French government, to not only supply arms (thus funding the war) but also troops.
This is where the timeline becomes cloudy. On January 10, 1994, President Habyarimana and Presient Ntaryamira of Burundi were flying to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, for what is assumed peace talks, when their plane was shot down. The reasons for the crash are still unknown. Did President Habyarimana organize his suicide, making it appear an act of Tutsi extremism, so to anger the Hutu enough to mobilize and kill? Or, was Habyarimana softening his political tactics and really leading Rwanda to peace? And if this was the case, who were the killers? Hutu extremists not ready to give up their brainwashed Hutu pride? No matter what the reason, the moment the plane crashed, everything changed!
Between 1959 and 1973, over 700,000 Tutsi were exiled to neighboring countries. A resistance military, known as the RDF - Rwanda Patriotic Front - banded together in a fight for equal rights and refugee return but their attacks on Hutu forces only fueled the Hutus repugnance of them. Hatred also grew because of intense propaganda. Radio networks like, Radio Television Libre des Mille Colliness, incited hatred and justified the killings of Tutsi. They convinced listeners their Tutsi neighbors, friends and even family member were evil and enemies of any Hutu.
Now fast forward to 1992, after years of fighting, concentrated propaganda, and small scale genocides, when a cease fire was signed between the RPF and President Habyarimana’s military. Not only was the war to end but a democracy to begin.
Habyarimana was not pleased with the treaty and viewed it as a surrender to the RPF. So he covertly entered into the largest arms deal in Rwanda’s history with the French. Over 12 million dollars, loaned by the French government, to not only supply arms (thus funding the war) but also troops.
This is where the timeline becomes cloudy. On January 10, 1994, President Habyarimana and Presient Ntaryamira of Burundi were flying to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, for what is assumed peace talks, when their plane was shot down. The reasons for the crash are still unknown. Did President Habyarimana organize his suicide, making it appear an act of Tutsi extremism, so to anger the Hutu enough to mobilize and kill? Or, was Habyarimana softening his political tactics and really leading Rwanda to peace? And if this was the case, who were the killers? Hutu extremists not ready to give up their brainwashed Hutu pride? No matter what the reason, the moment the plane crashed, everything changed!
Within minutes of the crash, every radio and news broadcast delivered the horrific news to stunned Hutus and after only 45-minutes, every street leading out of Kigali, the capital city, was road-blocked. The killings began instantaneously.
Years of hatred and planning, building for this one giant act of what Hutus considered, reclamation. A pre-orchestrated wave of violence so grave, 1 million innocent people perished in its wake. The first to be slaughtered were those Tutsi elites on a pre-prepared death list. Storming into peoples homes, Interahawme (Hutu militia group) began the mass killings with bullets but these would be considered, good deaths. Machetes, clubs, and any blunt tool were the most common weapon, accessible to all Hutu and inflicting the most pain. The bomb of violence detonated across Kigali and the militia roadblocks prevented Tutsis from escaping. And even for those few who did escape, they found no haven outside. No village, no community, no family (affluent or poor) were safe. The cleansing was aimed to eradicate every Tutsi. Men, women and children, no one was exempt. |
Tortured, raped, mutilated, and murdered, Hutus banded together to fulfill their duty as a “Hutu”. The doctor who once nursed you, now pursued you with a club. The teacher who once taught you A.B.C’s, now raped and mutilated students. Even religious priests gave up their Tutsi members in exchange for their own heads. And these were the easier circumstances to digest.
Neighbors turned on neighbors, friends on friends and family members on family members. Women and children becoming the direct targets in an attempt to eliminate any means of the Tutsi procreation.
For instance, if you were a Hutu husband married to a Tutsi wife, your children took your Hutu line meaning they were safe from harm (patriarchal society). But, since your mother was still Tutsi her rape and slaughter were inevitable, more often the not, performed in front of her Hutu husband and kids. If the father was Tutsi however and the mother Hutu, the children would claim Tutsi lines and be massacred with their father. Some husbands tried to save their loved one’s at the cost of their own lives while others conformed to the Hutu hatred and killed the mother of their children with their own two hands.
As for the children, deaths were no more humane. Infants and toddlers thrown against walls and skulls bashed with bricks. Other mass killings occurred by throwing dozens of people into latrines, left to trample each other to depth - bodies 10 high at times. Still others had ankle tendons slices so they could not run or limbs cut off before being thrown into Lake Victoria where it was said their bodies would be carried back to the source of the Nile (somewhere in Ethiopia where Tutsi’s were believed to originate). Cities were littered with bodies, the countryside smelled of death and rotting flesh fed the stray dogs and livestock.
Neighbors turned on neighbors, friends on friends and family members on family members. Women and children becoming the direct targets in an attempt to eliminate any means of the Tutsi procreation.
For instance, if you were a Hutu husband married to a Tutsi wife, your children took your Hutu line meaning they were safe from harm (patriarchal society). But, since your mother was still Tutsi her rape and slaughter were inevitable, more often the not, performed in front of her Hutu husband and kids. If the father was Tutsi however and the mother Hutu, the children would claim Tutsi lines and be massacred with their father. Some husbands tried to save their loved one’s at the cost of their own lives while others conformed to the Hutu hatred and killed the mother of their children with their own two hands.
As for the children, deaths were no more humane. Infants and toddlers thrown against walls and skulls bashed with bricks. Other mass killings occurred by throwing dozens of people into latrines, left to trample each other to depth - bodies 10 high at times. Still others had ankle tendons slices so they could not run or limbs cut off before being thrown into Lake Victoria where it was said their bodies would be carried back to the source of the Nile (somewhere in Ethiopia where Tutsi’s were believed to originate). Cities were littered with bodies, the countryside smelled of death and rotting flesh fed the stray dogs and livestock.
These sadistic merciless killings lasted for 100 days until finally, General Dallaire of the UNAMIR force, was permitted 5,500 troops to stop the violence. That’s all it took! 5,500 troops could have stopped the death of 1 million innocent people. Instead, the UN turned its back on Rwanda, claiming more urgent issues in Eastern Europe. The only troops they mobilized were used to extract dignitaries and humanitarian workers from Rwanda. If properly deployed, that same amount of people used for extractions could have ended the genocide all together! Even after the genocide, French troops provided genocidaries refuge and helped them flee from Rwanda and into Congo. The French’s reasons for aiding, funding and harboring such violence are still unknown. Both the Welsh and French have yet to take blame in the incidents.
The instant genocide ended it was as if people flipped on a light and saw the gaping wound inflicted on their own countrymen. 1/5 of a population annihilated. Suddenly, it didn’t matter if you were Hutu or Tutsi, people claimed Rwandan and began the long process of healing. No one can forget, no one should forget. Revisiting my opening question, “how does a country recover?” It doesn’t. It just moves on. There are no reparations that can bring back one’s family, dignity and pride. There are no doctors that can heal the mental scars. There are no words that can offer proper condolence. Rwandans have accepted this horrific event as a grim part of their history and have promised, NEVER AGAIN. Knowledge and education is the only way they can ensure it will never happen again! |