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On April 7, 1994, one of the most terrifying episodes in recent history began: the Rwandan genocide in which the country's Hutu majority exterminated 800,000 Tutsis in just 100 days. A massacre that has its origins in the hatred generated between these two groups during the colonial period in Rwanda and that occurred in the face of the passivity of the international community, which when it wanted to react had already reduced 75% of the Tutsi minority. Here is a historical review of a still open wound.
What happened in Rwanda between April and July 1994 shocked the international community due to the brutality of what was experienced in just 100 days and the responsibility that international organizations had for their inaction.
In this period, more than 800,000 people were murdered, which was equivalent to 75% of the Tutsi population living in Rwanda at that time.
A catastrophe that could not be understood without the role played for decades by Belgium, the colonial power that dominated Rwanda since the 19th century and that instigated the origin of racial hatred between Hutus and Tutsis.
A hatred that arose during Belgian colonization
When the humanitarian catastrophe surrounding the genocide shocked international public opinion, many wondered where such fierce hatred between Tutsis and Hutus arose. From the beginning, attention was drawn to Belgium, one of the cruelest colonizing powers in Africa.which was able to extend its dominion throughout several territories of this continent.
And the differentiation between Hutus and Tutsis was created by the dominance of this European kingdom since the 19th century. An ethnic separation that did not respond to ethnic, historical or religious classifications, simply class and political.
The Belgians used the Tutsi minority – which comprised around 15% of the Rwandan population – to co-govern with them and provide them with the simplest and best-paid jobs.
On the contrary, the remaining population – 85% – was considered Hutu and identified as such and was subjugated to the colonial power and that of the dominant Tutsi minority. They were in charge of the hardest and most degrading jobs, suffering unparalleled discrimination. It is here where the hatred between the two castes began to brew and explode after the departure of Belgian power in 1962.
Rwandan independence, Hutu takeover
The picture changed with the emancipation of Rwanda, as the Hutus came to power to govern. From the first moment, persecutions against Tutsis began to emerge and thousands of them fled to Uganda and other nearby countries in search of protection. Although the situation moderated relatively after the coup d'état of Juvenal Habyarimana in 1978, he was a Hutu but sought to accept Tutsis in Rwandan society.
Habyarimana fought for decades against the Tutsi guerrilla group of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which operated from Uganda. However, when the 1990s arrived, he sought through various means to reach a peace agreement with this insurgency, something that greatly upset the most radical Hutus, whom he needed to govern Rwanda.
But everything changed on April 6, 1994, when the Rwandan president was attacked while flying on a plane. and died along with his Burundi counterpart.
The assassination was a shock for Rwanda, and although to this day it is not known exactly who the perpetrators were, The most radical Hutu factions accused the Tutsi guerrillas and launched a series of hunts throughout Rwanda against the Tutsi minority.
The assassination of President Habyarimana, the origin of the genocide
Since April 7, chaos broke out in the country. Habyarimana's prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, was raped and murdered by Hutu radicals, who seized power. In that other assassination, 10 soldiers from the UN mission that existed in Rwanda since 1993 were also murdered and tortured. An event that precipitated the departure of international representatives and UN soldiers, who left the Tutsi population to their fate. .
In massacres such as Gikondo or Kibuye, thousands of Tutsis were murdered in the face of the passivity of the international community.. These deaths occurred in real hunts organized by Hutu military groups, but also by Hutu civilians radicalized by the propaganda of the moment.
Accounts from the time even speak of mass murders with machetes and other types of rudimentary weapons.
Added to these atrocious facts are the massive sexual assaults suffered by Tutsi women, many of them were raped before being murdered. According to the United Nations, some 250,000 women were raped, a crime that was used as a weapon of war by radical Hutus.
The objective of the Hutu radicals was clear from the beginning: eliminate the entire Tutsi population of Rwanda. And to achieve this they even murdered those moderate Hutus who refused to kill Tutsis or welcomed them to protect them.
Even having a Tutsi family while being Hutu was a reason for persecution. An extreme situation that caused hundreds of thousands of Tutsis to begin fleeing the country as best they could since the end of April, producing a humanitarian catastrophe of great proportions.
The reaction from the United Nations did not occur until the end of June 1994, when the Operation Turquoise, led by France, in which a contingent of several thousand soldiers arrived in the African nation to mediate and end the conflict. But by then only 25% of the Tutsis that existed before 1994 in Rwanda remained.
At the same time, the Tutsi guerrilla of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which was based in Uganda, managed to reduce the power of the Hutu Government until they took Kigali in mid-July 1994 and established their own mandate.
The end of the Hutu government brought another humanitarian crisis
The victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front ended the genocide of the Tutsis, but brought dire humanitarian consequences for the Hutus. The Tutsi victory produced a kind of rebound effect in which more than Two million Hutus fled in extreme conditions from Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for fear of reprisals.
The images from the time are devastating. Thousands of Hutus died along the way from hunger and numerous diseases. These people were rejected both in their country of origin and in the host country and were overcrowded in what was considered the largest refugee camp in the world in the Congolese border city of Goma.
A situation that continues to this day and caused the Rwandan conflict to extend to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
As the weeks passed, both the United Nations and the rest of the community and international opinion began to become aware of what happened in Rwanda during those 100 days. Criticism pointed in various directions due to the responsibilities of each actor in what happened.
From Belgium for its role as a colonial power and creator of the caste system, to France, which despite showing itself as a safeguard in Operation Turquoise, had sold weapons to the Hutus during the years prior to the genocide. Although the main person responsible was the UN itself, since despite having blue helmets deployed in the country before the genocide, they were not able to mediate in the barbarity and they even withdrew from it.
What the international community could do in November 1994 was create an International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which after years of investigations defined this episode as a genocide. In addition, it has so far been able to convict more than 700 people for the massacres that occurred between April and July 1994, 28 of them for the crime of genocide. Case that set a precedent in International Law.
