Rwandan Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was one of the worst genocides in human history. What led to this massacre of about a million people in the tiny African country? In this article, you can read about the details of the genocide in Rwanda and its aftermath for the IAS exam international relations segment.

The Rwandan genocide is in the news because lately, French President Emmanuel Macron asked for forgiveness from the people of Rwanda for France’s alleged role in the genocide. 

What caused the Rwandan Genocide?

Rwandan genocide refers to the systematic killing of at least 800,000 Tutsi ethnic Rwandans by Hutu extremists in April – June 1994. It is important to know the history of Rwanda in brief to understand the causes behind this massacre.

• The Tutsi and the Hutu are the two major ethnic communities in Rwanda. Some believe that the Hutu are a Bantu people from the southwest and the Tutsi are Nilotic people who migrated from the northeast. But since the ancient history of the land is not recorded, these theories are chiefly speculative.
• While the Hutu form the majority of the population (about 85%), the Tutsi minority formed the aristocracy and the elite.
• Over the course of history, these identities had been fluid in nature. It was Belgian colonial rule that rigidified it and gave it racial overtones.
• During German and later Belgian colonial rule, the colonial governments followed a largely Tutsi-favouring policy at the expense of the Hutus.
  • No doubt to better control the colonised population, the colonial powers propagated a racist theory stating that the Tutsi were foreigners rather than an ethnic Rwandan minority. This theory was later used by the perpetrators of the genocide.
• It is to be noted that both the ethnic groups speak the same language and both are majority Christians.
• In 1959, there was a Hutu revolt in which the Tutsi monarchy was overthrown and many Tutsis fled to neighbouring countries including Uganda.
• There was widespread violence amidst which the Belgians handed over power to the Hutu elite.
• Belgian authorities organised elections in 1960 in which the Hutus won all major communes.
• In 1961, Hutu leader Grégoire Kayibanda declared Rwanda an autonomous republic. In 1962, Rwanda became independent.
• Kayibanda became Rwanda’s first elected President, while the Tutsis who fled the country formed armed insurgencies. 
• In the late eighties, Tutsi refugees in Uganda formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) with support from a few moderate Hutus. The RPF was led by Paul Kagame, the current Rwandan President.
  • The RPF’s objective was to overthrow the Hutu government led by President Juvénal Habyarimana and secure the right to return to their homeland.
• In 1990, the RPF invaded Rwanda. But a peace accord was signed in 1993 between the RPF and the government. However, the unrest continued.

Rwandan Genocide – What Happened?

The event that sparked the genocide was a plane crash.

• On 6 April 1994, a plane that carried Habyarimana and the Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down killing both of them. Both of them were ethnic Hutus.
• Hutu extremists blamed the RPF for shooting the plane down and immediately started the mass slaughter of Tutsis in Rwanda.
  • However, the RPF blames the extremist Hutus stating that they shot down the plane in order to have an excuse to perpetrate the genocide.
  • To this day, it is not clear who shot down the plane triggering the mass violence.
• A systematic campaign of brutal violence was unleashed against Tutsis starting from the country’s capital Kigali.
• Moderate Hutus who protested the killings were also killed.
• In the violence that included heinous slaughter and rapes, even children and infants were not spared.
• It is said that even priests participated in the ethnic cleansing.
  • In 2017, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for the role of the Catholic Church in the genocide.
• At that time in the country, people’s ID cards bore the ethnicity, and hence, militias would often blockade roads and single out Tutsis to kill them.
• Radio broadcasts were used to instigate ordinary citizens to kill Tutsis.
• The violence went on for about 100 days until the RPF captured Kigali and overthrew the Hutu government.

How did the violence end?

• After the RPF captured power, it ended the genocide.
• But it is believed that they carried out revenge killings in the civil war.
• When it was evident that the RPF was winning, an estimated 2 million Hutus fled Rwanda, mainly to the neighbouring Zaire (the Democratic Republic of Congo), where Hutu militias are still operating from. 
• The RPF established a multi-ethnic government in the beginning with a Hutu Pasteur Bizimungu as the President.
• Kagame was his deputy. In 2000, he assumed the presidency and has been in power since.
• Today, it is illegal to talk about ethnicity in Rwanda.

Rwanda today is ruled by Paul Kagame, the person who had led the RPF in the civil war. He has been credited with ushering in economic growth in the landlocked country and is also trying to turn Rwanda into a technological hub. However, he is also accused of not tolerating dissent.

Rwandan Genocide – Response of the International Community

Even though the United Nations and Belgium had forces present in the country during the time of the violence, they did not intervene to stop the violence. Even though there was intelligence about a Hutu plan to exterminate Tutsis in the country and the same was conveyed to the UN peacekeeping force headquarters, no action was taken to prevent the genocide from happening or even stop it as it progressed.

France also sent a force to evacuate its citizens but has been accused of not doing anything to stop the massacre. France, led by President François Mitterrand at the time, had good relations with the ruling Hutu establishment. In 2019, a committee formed by President Macron reported that the Mitterrand government was to be blamed for a failure of policy towards Rwanda in 1994. It is in this context that Macron has asked for forgiveness for France’s role in the genocide or more correctly, its ‘responsibility’ in not doing anything to curb it.

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