1. Genocide in Rwanda

2. Map of Rwanda
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3. Pre-Colonial Rwanda
For many centuries Rwandan society was comprised of Tutsis--traditionally herdsmen who owned the land—and Hutus—the people who worked the land. The Tutsis represented approximately 15% of the population and the Hutus made up the other 85% of the population.
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4. Peaceful Co-Existence
For 600 years the two groups shared the business of farming, essential for survival, between them. They have also shared their language, their culture, and their nationality.
There have been many intermarriages.
Over this time, the two groups usually coexisted peacefully.
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5. Colonial Rule
In the ‘Scramble for Africa’, Rwanda fell under the control of Germany.
German colonial officials favoured the Tutsis in the dispensation of key positions in the colony, which served to build up resentment among the Hutu majority.
After WWI, Germany was forced to relinquish its claim on Rwanda to Belgium.
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6. Belgian Colonial Rule
The Belgians continued to allow Tutsis to hold key positions in the colonial administration of the colony.
The Belgians also helped to increase the ethnic divisions in the country by requiring all Rwandans to register themselves and carry identification cards which identified citizens as either Hutus or Tutsis.
An alien political divide was born.
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7. The Independence Movement
By the 1950s, an independence movement was beginning to gain momentum in some African colonies.
In 1959, the Hutus seized power of the government and were stripping Tutsi communities of their lands, which led to violent clashes between the two groups.
Many Tutsis retreated to exile in neighbouring countries such as Uganda and the Congo, where they formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), trained their soldiers, and waited.
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8. Independence for Rwanda
Rwanda gained independence from Belgium in 1962 and continued to be controlled by the Hutu government.
Tutsi resistance was continually nurtured by repressive measures against them (in 1973, for example, Tutsis were excluded by law from secondary schools and university).
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9. Civil War
In 1990, RPF rebels began invading the country and fighting for Tutsi involvement in the government.
After 3 years of fighting, a ceasefire was achieved in 1993, followed by UN-backed negotiations to develop a multi-party constitution.
However, Hutu leaders opposed any Tutsi involvement in government.
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10. Vocabulary Builder
Genocide– is the mass killing of human beings, especially a targeted group of people.
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11. Genocide Begins
With the political assassination of the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, on April 6th 1994, this triggered a call-to-arms by Hutu extremists.
Radio broadcasts and propaganda called on Hutus to kill all Tutsis and moderate Hutus who weren’t anti-Tutsi.
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12. International Ineptitude
Journalists and television cameras reported what they saw, but they were powerless to do anything to stop the violence.
There was a UN force (UNAMIR) monitoring the ceasefire of the civil war under the command of Gen. Romeo Dallaire, but they were now obliged to watch as people were killed in the street by grenades, guns and machetes.
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13. UNAMIR did their best to protect trapped foreigners, until they were pulled out of Rwanda altogether, but the UN refused to intervene in the massacres for fear of being seen as taking sides.
Meanwhile, Dallaire was pleading with UN officials to allow him to stop the carnage going on all around his small detachment of troops stationed in and around the capital, Kigali.
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14. The Interahamwe
The men who had been trained to massacre were members of civilian death squads, the Interahamwe ('those who fight together').
Where the killers encountered opposition, the Army backed them up with manpower and weapons.
Politicians, officials, intellectuals and professional soldiers deliberately incited (and where necessary bribed) the killers to do their work.
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15. Collusion
Local officials assisted in rounding up victims and making suitable places available for their slaughter.
Tutsi men, women, children and babies were killed in thousands in schools.
They were also killed in churches: some clergy colluded in the crime.
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16. Death Toll
Estimates on the number of people killed in Rwanda range from 800,000 to 1 million.
The vast majority of these killings occurred in a very short period of time—a hundred day period between April 6th and July 19th, 1994.
Most of the killings were carried out entirely by hand—often using machetes and clubs to beat the victims to death.
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17. Vocabulary Builder
Gacaca Courts– Community courts established in Rwanda to try low-level officials and ordinary people accused of taking part in the Rwandan genocide. The purpose of these courts was to speed up the process of bringing those people to justice who had participated in the genocide and to encourage reconciliation.
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18. Justice and Reconciliation
After the genocide in 1994, the UN security council created the International Tribunal for Rwanda to try high-ranking government and army officials accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Gacaca courts were also established to try low-level officials and encourage reconciliation.
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19. Lessons Learned?
The Rwandan genocide demonstrated a failure of the UN to act in a moment of international crisis.
It also raised questions about the effectiveness of the Security Council and the mandate of peacekeeping forces in such hostile situations.
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20. The ability to mete out justice after the genocide has also been a tremendous challenge.
The sheer number of those accused has made the process of trying the individuals responsible very difficult.
The traumatic experiences of a large proportion of the population of Rwanda will be a continuing legacy not easily forgotten for many generations to come.
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21. Take Home Points
The roots of the Rwandan genocide stem from its colonial past, in which ethnicity became an important aspect of colonial rule.
Favouritism towards the Tutsi minority by colonial officials bred resentment and sowed the seeds for future ethnic clashes between the Hutus and the Tutsis.
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22. They formed the RPF and began training to reassert their rights.
The Hutus seized power in the late 1950s and, when independence was achieved in 1962, they systematically discriminated against the Tutsis over the next several decades.
Growing resentment by the Tutsis led to violent clashes and eventually many sought exile in neighbouring countries.
They formed the RPF and began training to reassert their rights.
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23. Civil war broke out from 1990 to 1993 and resulted in UN intervention to begin the process of establishing a multi-party democracy.
During the cease-fire and peace negotiations, a political assassination sparked an orchestrated genocide of the Tutsi population, which, over a 100-day period, resulted in an estimated 800,000 – 1 million deaths.
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24. The lessons of Rwanda were an indictment of the UN and its inability or unwillingness to take decisive action to stop the atrocities.
Over the past decade, Rwanda has been reconciling the traumatic events of the genocide and attempting to convict those responsible for the most serious crimes against humanity.
The task of rebuilding Rwanda is monumental considering the horrific legacies of the past.
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