In 1994, in a small country in the very center of the African continent - Rwanda - a genocide occurred that can be ranked among the most brutal mass crimes in history. In three months (from April to June), from 800 thousand to a million people were slaughtered.
This became a kind of bloody record: such a rate of murder had not been seen in the entire 20th century.
Background to the disaster.
Hutu And Tutsi- two main nationalities that make up the population of this country. In an ethnic sense, it was difficult to separate them: they mutual language, before the outbreak of acute confrontation in Rwanda, mixed marriages were common. The difference was rather social. Tootsie originally nomads, and Hutu predominantly settled farmers who make up the majority. Due, probably, to a more mobile, “adventurous” way of life Tutsi turned out to be more enterprising and established themselves as the local aristocracy. The Belgian authorities (when Rwanda was a colony of Belgium) greatly contributed to this disunity, which is, in general, a typical policy of metropolises in relation to dependent countries and to the peoples - the same imperial principle of “divide and conquer”.
It is not surprising that the existing situation could not suit the quantitatively dominant Hutu. As one of the participants in the genocide later recalled: “Basically, the quarrel between Hutus and Tutsis began in 1959. Everything comes from our elders. Gathering around the fire in the evenings, they seemed to rant harmlessly about the weak and arrogant Tutsi, and the children listened to all these nasty things about the Tutsi and accepted them on faith. Since 1959, old people in all sorts of eateries constantly spoke about the need for the wholesale extermination of Tutsis and their herds, who trampled down crops... We, the youth, laughed at their grumbling, but did not object.”
In 1959, mass riots began, as a result of which Hutu received administrative control. And in 1962, the Belgians left Rwanda, and the apartheid era began in the country: those who came to power Hutu actually legitimized discrimination Tutsi. In 1973, children Tutsi was prohibited from studying in high school, not to mention the university.
Such an open policy of social disadvantage led to mass exodus Tutsi to neighboring countries. In neighboring Uganda, with the support of local authorities, the Patriotic Front was formed, which sought to overthrow the ruling regime in Rwanda by armed means. Hutu. In 1990, this was almost achieved: the civil war began and military success was quite concomitant Tootsi. Three years later, the President of Rwanda Juvenal Habyariman A ( Hutu) was forced to agree to peace and the creation of a coalition with Tutsi government.
The situation in the country remained extremely difficult. Radical Hutus, outraged by the agreements with the Tutsis, planned to remove President Habyarimana from power. The Blue Helmets, which were charged with monitoring compliance with the agreements and carrying out a peacekeeping mission, received information about this, but did not take any action.
On April 6, 1994, President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda and President Cyprien Ntaryamir of Burundi (also Hutu) returned to Kigali from international conference for reconciliation on one plane. On approach to Kigali airport, the airliner was shot down by a MANPADS, all passengers and crew members were killed. The death of President Habyarimana, for which the Rwandan media blamed Tutsis, became a signal for Hutu radicals to begin massacres.
Genocide.
For a hundred days the country was littered with corpses. The Hutus killed Tutsis wherever they were found, they were beaten to death with machetes - neighbor of neighbor, relatives of loved ones - men, women and children, and there was no mercy for them anywhere - not in the church, not in the school, not in the hospital. The militants' favorite weapon was the machete; axes, clubs and iron rods were also used. Some of the doomed people begged their executioners to save them from torment by simply shooting them, but few were so “lucky”). The most brutal scenes took place in places where refugees were temporarily concentrated in schools and churches. If a Tutsi caught up with a breathless pursuer after a long race, he would first be pierced with the edge of a machete, and the end would be terrible
It is simply amazing what sophistication the human mind can show in inventing ways to destroy their own kind. One of the participants in the massacre recalled: “Some were tired of this bloody monotony. Others took pleasure in inflicting suffering on the Tutsi, who made them sweat these days... some were raging, and nothing was enough for them. They were intoxicated by the killings, and they were disappointed when the Tutsi died in silence. Well, is this really fun? Therefore, they avoided delivering fatal blows in order to listen to the screams longer and get pleasure.”
State radio and affiliated with it private station, known as “A Thousand Hills” (Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines), fueled the situation with calls for murder Tutsi and read out lists of potentially dangerous persons, local burgomasters organized work to identify and kill them. Using administrative methods, both ordinary citizens and many Tutsi were killed by their neighbors.
The fertile country (“tropical Switzerland in the heart of Africa”), through which the Kigara River flows before falling like a waterfall into Lake Victoria, has turned into hell. With the words “go to your place in Ethiopia,” the corpses were dumped in Kigara, and they floated along it, week after week, until they disappeared into the most beautiful lake in Africa.
International Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda
In November 1994, the International Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda began operating in Tanzania. Among those under investigation are the organizers and instigators of the mass extermination of Rwandan citizens in the spring of 1994, among whom are mainly former officials of the ruling regime. In particular, a life sentence was imposed former prime minister Jean Kambanda for crimes against humanity. Among the proven episodes was the encouragement of misanthropic propaganda by the state radio station RTLM, which called for the destruction of Tutsi citizens.
In December 1999, George Rutagande, who in 1994 led the Interahamwe (youth wing) of the then ruling Republican Party, was sentenced to life imprisonment. national movement for the development of democracy"). In October 1995, Rutagande was arrested.
On September 1, 2003, the case of Emmanuel Ndindabhizi, who was Rwanda's Minister of Finance in 1994, was heard. According to the police, he is involved in the massacre of people in Kibuye Prefecture. E. Ndindabahizi personally gave orders to kill, distributed weapons to volunteers from the nationality Hutu and was present during the attacks and beatings. According to witnesses, he stated: “A lot of Tutsi pass through here, why don’t you kill them?”, “You kill Tutsi women who are married to Hutu?.. Go and kill them. They can poison you."
The role of the international tribunal is controversial in Rwanda, since trials are very lengthy and defendants cannot be punished with the death penalty. For trials of persons outside the jurisdiction of the tribunal, which tries only the most important organizers of the genocide, the country has created a system of local courts that have handed down at least 100 death sentences.
In just 100 days, up to a million indigenous people of the small town were killed African country Rwanda. The civil war escalated into genocide. The world community was inactive, and it was difficult to distinguish truth from lies in media reports.
Official account of the 1994 Rwandan genocide
Every first week of April, the front pages of Western media are filled with stories that begin with announcements of the anniversary 1994 genocide in Rwanda(East Africa).
Then almost 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus died at the hands of radical and extremist Hutus. Almost all stories about the “Rwandan genocide” focus on several key points that shocked people from all walks of life, different linguistic classes, economic classes and adherents of different political views:
- The death toll is at least 800,000 people (according to various sources, up to 1,000,000 people);
- Mainly the Tutsi and Hutus ethnic peoples died;
- Brutal methods of murder using machetes and other types of bladed weapons (picks, hoes, adzes...);
- Meaningless for the 20th century, primitive savagery (occurring in 1994);
- Hutu extremism;
- There are so many victims in just 100 days;
- The whole world was “eyewitnesses”, but no one did anything.
These key points have been canonized and systematically cemented in people's minds for more than 20 years through media propaganda, radio programs, photographs, videos and films. The official narratives of events were very stingy with the truth. Everyone only knows that the Tutsis were the victims and the Hutus the oppressors.
Twenty years have passed since the key events of 1994, and consumers of media news, incl. clergy, politicians, scientists and many others must accept responsibility for their own participation in the hysteria surrounding the issue of “Rwandan genocide”. What was the basis for the so-called “100 days of genocide” that began on April 6, 1994 and continued until July 15, 1994 in Rwanda?
Before mourning the lives and deaths in Rwanda, it is necessary to eradicate ignorance on the matter and know and understand some critical facts.
“Hutu” and “Tutsi” are not just wild tribes of indigenous Africans, they are socio-political and socio-economic categories.
Before the imperial occupation, the indigenous population of Rwanda and Uganda were Hutus, they led an agricultural lifestyle. After 1890, the Tutsi tribes, who were pastoralists, began to forcefully displace the Hutus and already made up 20% of the population of Rwanda.
First the Germans in 1916 and then the Belgians turned Rwanda into their colony, placing Tutsis in all power structures, gradually turning the Hutu masses into slaves.
The Tutsis served as colonial occupiers, using cruelty and terrorism to keep Hutus as slaves in the fields. Although language differences there was no inter-marriage between them, there were many mixed marriages, and the Tutsis were an ethnic minority, they were considered the elite.
The Hutus were shorter and had smaller skulls. During the time of Belgian colonization of Rwanda, the nationality of children was recorded according to the nationality of the father.
: Hutus become “oppressors” and Tutsis “victims”
By 1959, civil strife between Hutus and Tutsis began in Rwanda, the Hutu's patience ran out, they turned to guerrilla warfare, burning houses and killing Tutsis.
In the 1959-1960 revolution in Rwanda, with the support of Belgian Catholic priests, the Hutus overthrew the Tutsi monarchy. Many killed, thousands of Tutsi elite associated with former government, fled the country, mainly to Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. Those who remained fought guerrilla wars for the next 30 years.
The Belgian colonialists changed their support and, to protect their interests, placed some Hutu leaders in power. In 1962, Rwanda gained independence with a Hutu government at its head.
The Tutsi elite, believing that they were God's chosen people and born to dominate millions of Hutus, began to call themselves victims and the Hutus oppressors. Outside Rwanda, the Tutsis created the Non-Aligned Movement, they accumulated weapons and trained in terrorist methods.
From the mid-1960s and early 1970s they carried out the most flagrant terrorism in Rwanda. Attacking under the cover of darkness, Tutsis subjected French-speakers to reprisals, and Hutu representatives were blamed for punitive atrocities. Conducting partisan raids, they blew up cafes, nightclubs, bars, restaurants, and bus stops. In doing so, they demonstrated a very real picture of the suffering and oppression of French-speaking Tutsis inside Rwanda.
The largest diaspora of Tutsi refugees was in Uganda, where President Museveni came to power in 1986. There, in 1987, the political party Rwandan Patriotic Front emerged (now the RPF is the ruling party in Rwanda). In 1990, a small group of RPF (about 500 people) from Uganda crossed the border and attacked Rwanda.
The militants' attack was repulsed by the superior numbers of the Rwandan army. The Belgians helped establish a truce, which lasted from October until December. In 1991, weapons were being amassed, and the war was fought in small pockets.
Rwanda was ruled by Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana from 1973 to April 1994, with French support. He was a supporter of a one-party dictatorship, but made concessions to some French-speaking Tutsis who remained in small numbers in Rwanda.
The Hutus, who gained full control of Rwanda, were main reason hostility, they wanted to completely destroy all Tutsis and even some Hutus who sympathized with and justified the Tutsis. For their nightly attacks, extremist Hutus called the Tutsi cockroaches, against whom they began genocide.
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying two presidents, including Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down. The extremists received a reason to start a bloody massacre, in which 500 people were killed in one day. They brutally massacred Belgian peacekeepers at the airport when they were ordered to lay down their arms.
The time came to escape, and many foreigners, mainly French and Belgians, began to leave the country. Radical Hutus have become mortal enemies and the target of thousands of terrorists in Uganda.
The Tutsi, who considered themselves victims of genocide, launched an offensive again on April 7, 1994, by which time the RPF already numbered more than 15 thousand people. They burned entire villages, created crematoria, contaminated water in camps and poisoned thousands of people. The murder rate was five times higher than in German concentration camps (in which the Nazis also carried out).
The killings were brutal. To save ammunition, Tutsis and Hutu fought with machetes; they cut off the limbs of their opponents, subjected them to severe torture, and then cut off their heads and stored the skulls as trophies. In total, losses on both sides over the next three months amounted to more than 800,000 people.
The nightmare ended in July 1994, after RPF forces took complete control of the entire country.
It is impossible to imagine that all this happened just recently. We can only hope that modern civilization will draw conclusions from the terrible lessons of the recent past.
Today we will talk about the genocide in Rwanda, a small state in Eastern Europe. And even though you can often hear terrible stories about Africa (for what it’s worth), this story will impress anyone.
The Rwandan genocide, officially called the Tutsi genocide, was the massacre of Rwandan Tutsis by local Hutus from April 6 to July 18, 1994, carried out on the orders of the Hutu government.
We will provide terrible photographs of this tragic event at the end of the article.
It’s hard to believe, but according to various estimates, from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people became victims of the genocide in Rwanda! And this happened not in some dark Middle Ages, but at the very end of the 20th century. In just 100 days, the country's population decreased by 20%.
Let's try to find out the causes and consequences of this terrible tragedy that occurred between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples.
Causes of the Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide was the result of a long and persistent confrontation between two ethnic groups: the Hutu and the Tutsi. The Hutu population made up approximately 85% of Rwandan citizens, while the Tutsis made up only 14%.
However, historically it happened that it was the Tutsis who occupied a leading position and were the ruling elite.
For 3 years, starting in 1990, civil war continued on the territory of this state.
In 1994, a military coup took place in the country and Hutu representatives came to power.
With the help of the army and the People's Militia, the new government, consisting of members of the Hutu, began the destruction of its long-time opponents - the Tutsis.
Moreover, those Hutu representatives who refused to kill Tutsis were also persecuted.
On the side of the Tutsis stood the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which, in turn, pursued the goal of destroying the Hutus.
On July 18, 1994, relative peace and order were established in the state. However, two million Hutu people had to flee their country for fear of retaliation.
Facts about the Rwandan genocide
The state, which sought to completely destroy the Tutsi people, resorted to the most in different ways. There was constant propaganda on the radio, the purpose of which was to incite hatred towards the Tutsi.
Thanks to this, the pogromists easily and simply found out where their potential victims were hiding. There was real anarchy and disorder in the country.
When the Hutus attacked the Tutsis, they brutally raped girls and women. Often, after rape, the victims' genitals were cut with a machete (a 50-centimeter, thin and wide knife), pierced with spears, or doused with acid.
At times, men were also subjected to sexual abuse. Some of them had their genitals cut off.
As a result of all these monstrous violence, about 20,000 children were born. Subsequently, dishonored mothers, often infected with AIDS, were considered outcasts in society.
It is worth adding the fact that during the genocide in Rwanda, many men and women were simply mutilated by cutting their mouths and inflicting various other facial mutilations. Also, many unfortunates had their limbs cut off.
Massacre at the stadium
Less than 2 weeks after the start of the bloody events, about 15,000 Tutsis were gathered at the Gatvaro stadium. It’s impossible to believe, but they were collected to make it easier to kill.
The organizers of this atrocity fired tear gas into the crowd, and then began to shoot them with weapons and throw grenades at them. Something similar happened only during the Second World War, when the Nazis destroyed people with bestial cruelty.
Religious figures involved in genocide
Sadly, the genocide in Rwanda could not have happened without the “help” of the clergy. So at the UN, at the International Tribunal, the case against the Catholic priest Atanas Seromba was considered. He was charged with being one of the participants in a conspiracy in which about 2,000 Tutsis were killed, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Witnesses of those events claimed that it was this priest from Rwanda who invited Tutsi refugees to his church, who were immediately attacked by the Hutus. When the helpless victims were finished, the clergyman ordered the temple building to be destroyed using a bulldozer.
Atanasa Seromba is the first Catholic priest convicted by the International Tribunal. Three more of his colleagues are being investigated.
The most senior priest accused of genocide in Rwanda was Anglican bishop Samuel Musabumana, who died in prison in 2003 before the trial began.
Photos of the Rwandan genocide
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 took place 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 Hutu were initially shorter and had more dark color skin, but in general both peoples are the closest to each other of all ethnic groups from both 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 the 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. The killings continued political reasons, the transitional coalition government was never created, a number of media (radio RTML and Rwanda, newspaper Kangura, Radio and Television of a Thousand Hills) whipped up 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, massacres of Tutsis begin.
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 Tutsis and Hutus who adhere to moderate 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. Armed forces Rwanda should be made up entirely 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, refugees, who were friends only yesterday. 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, the Rwandans had more than enough physical strength, 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.
Corpses thrown into the river, overflowing Africa, which was already not abundant in water resources, as well as the lack normal conditions for the burial of a huge number of dead led to a sanitary disaster - a cholera epidemic, infections, poisonings. Life large quantity people were carried away 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. Phrase from documentary film about the genocide in Rwanda: “It’s as if 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...”.
The liberation of many African countries from colonial oppression in the 1960s initially caused euphoria both among the 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 for 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 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 civil war 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 Hutu. 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 supply the devastated country financial assistance. 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.