Rwanda's Genocide

In 1994, Rwanda’s population of seven million was composedof three ethnic groups: Hutu (approximately 85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%). In theearly 1990s, Hutu extremists within Rwanda’s political eliteblamed the entireTutsi minority population for the country’s increasing social, economic, and political pressures.Tutsi civilians were also accused of supporting a Tutsi-dominated rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Throughthe useof propaganda and constant political maneuvering, Habyarimana, who was thepresident at the time, and his group increaseddivisions between Hutu and Tutsi by theend of 1992. The Hutu rememberedpast years of oppressiveTutsi rule, and many of them not only resentedbut also feared the minority.
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down. Violence began almostimmediately afterthat. Under thecover ofwar, Hutu extremists launched theirplans to destroythe entireTutsi civilian population. Political leaders who might have been able to takecharge of the situation and otherhigh profile opponents of theHutu extremistplans were killed immediately. Tutsi and peoplesuspectedof being Tutsi were killed in theirhomesand as they triedto fleeat roadblocks setup acrossthe country during thegenocide. Entire families were killed ata time. Women were systematically and brutally raped. It is estimatedthat some 200,000 peopleparticipated in the perpetration of the Rwandan genocide.
In the weeks afterApril 6, 1994, 800,000 men, women, and children perishedin the Rwandan genocide, perhaps as many as three quarters ofthe Tutsi population. At the same time, thousands of Hutu were murderedbecause theyopposed the killing campaign and the forcesdirecting it.
The Rwandan genocide resultedfrom the consciouschoice of the elite to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power. This small, privileged group first setthemajority against theminority to countera growing political opposition within Rwanda. Then, faced with RPF successon the battlefield and at the negotiating table, thesefewpower holders transformed the strategyof ethnic division into genocide.They believed that the extermination campaign would reinstate the solidarity of the Hutu undertheirleadership and help them win thewar, or at least improve theirchances of negotiating a favorable peace. They seized control ofthe stateand used itsauthority to carry out the massacre.
The civil war and genocide only ended when theTutsi-dominated rebel group, theRPF, defeatedthe Hutu perpetrator regime and President Paul Kagame took control.
Although the Rwandans are fully responsible for the organization and executionof the genocide, governmentsand peopleselsewhere all sharein theshame ofthe crimebecause theyfailed toprevent and stop this killing campaign.
Policymakers in France, Belgium, and the UnitedStates and at the United Nations were aware of the preparations for massive slaughter and failed totake the stepsneeded toprevent it. Aware from the startthat Tutsi were being targetedfor elimination, the leading foreign actorsrefusedto acknowledge the genocide.Not only did international leaders reject what was going on, but they also declined for weeks to usetheirpolitical and moral authority to challenge the legitimacy of thegenocidal government.They refusedto declarethat a governmentguilty of exterminating itscitizens would never receive international assistance. They did nothing to silence theradio that televised calls for slaughter. Even afterit had become indisputable that what was going on in Rwanda was a genocide, American officials had shunned the g-word, fearing that it would cause demands for intervention.
Wheninternational leaders finally voiced disapproval, thegenocidal authoritieslistened well enough to changetheir tacticsalthough not theirultimate goal. Far fromcause for satisfaction, this small successonly highlights thetragedy: if weak protestsproduced this resultin late April, imagine what might have been theresult if in mid-April the entireworld had spoken out.