The Rwandan genocide was a mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda during the Rwandan Civil War. It was directed by members of the Hutu majority government during the 100-day period from April 7 to mid-July 1994. An estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans were killed, or an estimated 70% of the Tutsi population.
PBS explains that Hutus and Tutsis settled in the same area in Central Africa centuries ago and eventually shared a language, beliefs and customs. Economic differences between the groups began to form, however, with Tutsis as cattle-herders often in a position of economic dominance to the soil-tilling Hutus.
Belgian colonial rulers in the late 19th Century exacerbated the differences by forcing Hutus and Tutsis to carry ethnic identity cards. Furthermore, they only allowed Tutsis to attain higher education and hold positions of power. Many of the Hutus were made into forced laborers. The inequality and injustice helped create hatred between the tribes.
Following independence in 1962, Ruanda-Urundi split into two countries: Rwanda and Burundi. In Rwanda, the Hutus were in the majority, while in Burundi, the minority Tutsis maintained their control of the military and government through a campaign of violence against the Hutus.
But Rwanda was not peaceful either. The Hutu-dominated government led by Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana since 1973 faced increasing dissatisfaction by the Tutsis, who were discriminated against by the Hutu majority.
Habyarimana’s Rwanda had become a single-party dictatorship. His party, the Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement (MRND), was enshrined in the constitution. He relegated the Tutsi to the private sector. Regulations prohibited army members from marrying Tutsi. Habyarimana also maintained the ‘ethnic’ identity card and “ethnic” quota systems of the previous regime.
In addition, as the website E-International Relations (E-IR) reports:
Rwanda was faced with a critical food-people-land imbalance. In the years leading up to the genocide, there had been a marked decline of kilocalories per person per day and overall farm production. Famines occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s in several parts of the country. Emergency sources of food in neighboring countries also were limited. . . . Rwandan youths faced a situation where many (perhaps most) had no land, no jobs, little education, and no hope for a future. Without a house and a source of livelihood, males could not marry. . . . The political elites [contended] that Hutu farmers could have sufficient land if the Tutsi were eliminated.”
Tension between the Hutu and Tutsi flared in 1990, when the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels invaded from Uganda. A cease-fire was negotiated in early 1991, and negotiations between the RPF and the government began in 1992. An agreement between the government and the RPF was signed in August 1993 that called for the creation of a broad-based transition government that would include the RPF; Hutu extremists were strongly opposed to this plan.
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down over Kigali; the ensuing crash killed everyone on board. The identity of the person or group who fired upon the plane has never been conclusively determined, and both Hutu extremists and RPF leaders were suspected. But the result was the beginning of violence.
The next day Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, a moderate Hutu, was assassinated. Her murder was, as the Britannica Encyclopedia contends, part of a campaign to eliminate moderate Hutu or Tutsi politicians, with the goal of creating a political vacuum and thus allowing for the formation of the interim government of Hutu extremists that was inaugurated on April 9.
Over the next several months the wave of anarchy and mass killings continued, in which the army and Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe (“Those Who Attack Together”) and Impuzamugambi (“Those Who Have the Same Goal”) played a central role.
Gangs of Hutus, sponsored by the government, murdered approximately 800,000 Tutsis (along with pro-peace Hutus labeled as traitors).
The country’s media was critical in inciting ethnic hatred and the desire for revenge. The government itself organized neighborhood militias to carry out the killings, even importing a half a million machetes for the use of the Hutu. In addition, youth and alcohol were contributing factors.
Tutsi Pastor Anastase Sabamungu (left) and Hutu teacher Joseph Nyamutera visit a Rwandan cemetery where 6,000 genocide victims are buried. (©2008 World Vision/photo by Jon Warren)
Rape was also used as a weapon in the attempt not only to punish and humiliate the Tutsis but to impregnate the women with Hutu children. Hutu women who were considered “moderates” were also subject to rape. To some extent the effort backfired, since some 70% of the assault victims were infected with HIV. (Estimates on the number of women raped ranged from 250,000 to half a million.) The rapes also caused a spike in HIV infections.
The West did very little to respond to pleas for help, except to remove their own white citizens and take them to safety. Unfortunately, Rwanda had no oil or strategic interest, no diamonds or gold.
In the U.S., the Secretary of State under President Clinton refused even to acknowledge that the systematic murder of the Tutsis constituted “genocide.” [In March 1998, on a visit to Rwanda, U.S. President Bill Clinton said: “We come here today partly in recognition of the fact that we in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try to limit what occurred” in Rwanda.” He later stated that the “biggest regret” of his presidency was not acting decisively to stop the Rwandan Genocide.]
The RPF ultimately prevailed, and in late July of the same year established a transitional government with Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, as president and Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, as vice president. Kagame had commanded the rebel force that ended the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He now serves as President of Rwanda, having taken office in 2000 when his predecessor, Bizimungu, resigned.
Paul Kagame in August 2016
The genocide had a profound impact on Rwanda and its neighboring countries. The destruction of infrastructure and the severe depopulation of the country crippled the economy, as did the decimation of the population and family structures by HIV. The RPF military victory prompted many Hutus to flee to neighboring countries, particularly in the eastern portion of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), where the Hutus began to regroup in refugee camps along the border with Rwanda. Declaring a need to avert further genocide, the RPF-led government led military incursions into Zaire, including the First (1996–97) and Second (1998–2003) Congo Wars. Large Rwandan Hutu and Tutsi populations continue to live as refugees throughout the region.
Rwanda Refugee Crisis Map via U.S. Holocaust memorial Museum Exhibit
Today, Rwanda commemorates the genocide with a national mourning period beginning on April 7 with Remembrance Day, and ending on July 4, Liberation Day.
The United Nations has also named April 7 as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Rwanda Genocide to commemorate the people who were murdered during the 1994 genocide.
Those wanting a cinematic account of events are generally directed to “The Ghosts of Rwanda,” which is very educational but not easy to watch, rather than “Hotel Rwanda,” which paints a rosier picture than is warranted. In addition, the 2005 historical drama television film “Sometimes in April” depicts the attitudes and circumstances leading up to the genocide, and the struggle to adjust in the aftermath.
Legal Legacy 
Leave a comment