Rwandan Genocide 1994 – The Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda
The Rwandan genocide of 1994 also widely known as the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda was a mass massacring of Tutsi, Twa plus moderate Hutus in Rwanda. This countrywide anti Tutsi genocide happened between 7 April and 15 July 1994 in the times of the Rwandan Civil War.
It is said that close to a million people died during the 3-month mass massacres. After over 2 decades, various spots of massacre were made tourist attractions. The government has managed to set up Genocide Memorial centre in Rwanda in the various districts of the country with Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre being the main one.
In the year of 1990s, Rwanda was a small country with an devastating agricultural economy ,it was one of the extremely heavily populated countries in Africa. It consisted of of different compliments of which 85 percent were the Hutu the rest the Tutsi besides with the minimum number of the Twa who were the pygmies and the original residents of Rwanda. The country was colonized by the GERMAN after making the agreement with the League of Nations mandate of Belgium after the First World War. During Rwanda’s colonial government, the governing Belgians favoured the minority the Tutsi over the Hutu which created the affinity of the few to control the many. This caused pressure among the Hutu that further darned into serious violence.
The Hutu rebellion forced many of the Tutsi to move out the country which made the number of the Tutsi to decrease hence making it smaller. Later in 1961, the persuasive Hutus had forced Rwanda’s Tutsi leaders into exile and that’s when they declared the country a republic. After the referendum by the U.N, the Belgium reasonably granted independence to Rwanda in July 1962.
In 1973 years after the independence, Major general Juvenal Habyarimana was put into power by a small military group and he made apolitical party by names of the national revolutionary movement for development (NRMD).Later alone, he was elected as president under the new established constitution that was approved in 19978 and between 1983 and 1988 he was the only contesting candidate therefore re-elected as president .
The Tutsi refugee force from Uganda under Rwandese patriotic front (RPF) comprising of typically the Tutsi, attacked the new government of Rwanda that was in power by then to have negotiations about the Rwandan government. In 1993, Habyarimana while in in Arusha Tanzania allotted an agreement calling for the formation evolution government that would consider RPF. This created wrath among the Hutu who wanted to take dreadful action against it.
The genocide started on April 6, 1994 that started with killing of Habyarimana the president of Rwanda by then who was gunshot in the plane leaving no survivor. Instantly after the plane crash, the presidential guard in conjunction with members of the Rwandan armed forces and Hutu military group (Interahamwe)these attacked the Tutsi and the three groups with the same goal started blocking all the roads and begun slaughtering the Tutsi. Some of the Hutu were also crushed and Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingimana was among the first victims with her 10 Belgium body guards.
The mass slaying of people in Kigali scattered everywhere rapidly in the country. Within the next three month about a 1,000,000 people were murdered and all the Hutu left the country and joined the refugee camps in the neighboring country such as Zaire and Uganda.
During the course of this period, most of the Rwandan local officials together with the government sponsored all the radio stations named as ordinary Rwandan civilians calling upon all people to kill whoever was next to you.
In between that period, RPF sustained with a fight and the cival war stormed together with the genocide. Later in the month of July, RPF forces gained control in most the surrounding areas including Kigali. Unfortunately by this time, more than 2 million people had left the country and others murdered.
In the nextfew months, the RPF forces prospered and they created a coalition government that was almost similar to that agreed upon in Arusha –Tanzania with Hutu president Pasteur Bizimungu and Paul Kagame’s a Tutsi as a vice president and defense minister.
In 2003, in reference to ethnicity, a new constitution was approved and Habyarimana’s NRMD party that had done a big role of triggering the genocide was prohibited. Years later, a new constitution was implemented after Kagame’s election to 10 year term. Kagame’s became the first legislative Rwandan elected president.