Tutsi refugees in Tanzania and Zaire seeking to regain their former positions in Rwanda began organizing and staging attacks on Hutu targets and the Hutu government. Ten such attacks occurred between and , each leading to retaliatory killings of large numbers of Tutsi civilians in Rwanda and creating new waves of refugees.
By the end of the s some , Rwandans had become refugees, primarily in Burundi, Uganda, Zaire and Tanzania. They continued to call for the fulfillment of their international legal right to return to Rwanda, however, Juvenal Habyarimana, then president of Rwanda, took the position that population pressures were already too great, and economic opportunities too few to accommodate large numbers of Tutsi refugees. In , the Rwandan Patriotic Front RPF was founded in Kampala, Uganda as a political and military movement with the stated aims of securing repatriation of Rwandans in exile and reforming of the Rwandan government, including political power sharing.
While the ranks of the RPF did include some Hutus, the majority, particularly those in leadership positions, were Tutsi refugees. Because of the RPF attacks which displaced thousands and a policy of deliberately targeted propaganda by the government, all Tutsis inside the country were labeled accomplices of the RPF and Hutu members of the opposition parties were labeled as traitors.
Media, particularly radio, continued to spread unfounded rumours, which exacerbated ethnic problems. In August , through the peacemaking efforts of the Organisation of African Unity OAU and the governments in the region, the signing of the Arusha peace agreements appeared to have brought an end to the conflict between the then Hutu dominated government and the opposition Rwandan Patriotic Front RPF.
From the outset, however, the will to achieve and sustain peace was subverted by some of the Rwandan political parties participating in the Agreement. With the ensuing delays in its implementation, violations of human rights became more widespread and the security situation deteriorated. Later, evidence demonstrated irrefutably that extremist elements of the Hutu majority while talking peace were in fact planning a campaign to exterminate Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
On 6 April , the deaths of the Presidents of Burundi and Rwanda in a plane crash caused by a rocket attack, ignited several weeks of intense and systematic massacres. The killings - more than one million people are estimated to have perished - shocked the international community and were clearly acts of genocide.
An estimated , to , women were also raped. What happened in Rwanda in seems almost incomprehensible. In just days, government forces, militias and regular citizens carried out a genocide against the Tutsi social and ethnic minority population. An estimated , to one million Tutsi were killed, and mass sexual violence was committed against Tutsi women and girls. How could this have happened? A deliberate process of positioning the Tutsi as a dangerous and inferior minority group, and even as less than human, set the stage for the genocide that was to come.
Tensions had simmered for decades between the Hutu and Tutsi populations in Rwanda. The region had operated under Belgian colonial rule from after the First World War until The Belgians viewed the Tutsi minority as superior, and favoured Tutsi for leadership positions. This favoritism created ongoing and deeper tensions between Hutu and Tutsi. In the late s and early s, struggles for independence from Belgian rule gained strength in Rwanda.
These struggles included violence between Hutu and Tutsi as the two groups sought power. In , the nation achieved independence, with Hutu leaders assuming control of government. Many Tutsi were massacred. Others were forced to flee the country as the ruling government portrayed them as threats to Rwanda.
It was the first time he realized he was Tutsi. Although concerted violent attacks against Tutsi began to wane later in the decade, prejudice and suspicion against the minority group remained. Weapons and hit-lists were handed out to local groups, who knew exactly where to find their targets.
The Hutu extremists set up a radio station, RTLM, and newspapers which circulated hate propaganda, urging people to "weed out the cockroaches" meaning kill the Tutsis. The names of prominent people to be killed were read out on radio. Even priests and nuns have been convicted of killing people, including some who sought shelter in churches.
By the end of the day killing spree, around , Tutsis and moderate Hutus had been killed. The Belgians and most UN peacekeepers pulled out after 10 Belgian soldiers were killed. The French, who were allies of the Hutu government, sent a special force to evacuate their citizens and later set up a supposedly safe zone but were accused of not doing enough to stop the slaughter in that area.
Paul Kagame, Rwanda's current president, has accused France of backing those who carried out the massacres - a charge denied by Paris. The well-organised RPF, backed by Uganda's army, gradually seized more territory, until 4 July , when its forces marched into the capital, Kigali.
Some two million Hutus - both civilians and some of those involved in the genocide - then fled across the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo, at the time called Zaire, fearing revenge attacks. Others went to neighbouring Tanzania and Burundi. Human rights groups say RPF fighters killed thousands of Hutu civilians as they took power - and more after they went into DR Congo to pursue the Interahamwe. The RPF denies this. In DR Congo, thousands died from cholera, while aid groups were accused of letting much of their assistance fall into the hands of the Hutu militias.
The RPF, now in power in Rwanda, embraced militias fighting both the Hutu militias and the Congolese army, which was aligned with the Hutus. But the new president's reluctance to tackle Hutu militias led to a new war that dragged in six countries and led to the creation of numerous armed groups fighting for control of this mineral-rich country.
An estimated five million people died as a result of the conflict which lasted until , with some armed groups active until now in the areas near Rwanda's border. The International Criminal Court was set up in , long after the Rwandan genocide so could not put on trial those responsible.
A total of 93 people were indicted and after lengthy and expensive trials, dozens of senior officials in the former regime were convicted of genocide - all of them Hutus. In some cases, Hutu civilians were forced to murder their Tutsi neighbours by military personnel. Participants were often given incentives, such as money or food, and some were even told they could appropriate the land of the Tutsis they killed. On the ground at least, the Rwandans were largely left alone by the international community.
Most of the UN troops withdrew after the murder of 10 soldiers. The day after Habyarimana's death, the RPF renewed their assault on government forces, and numerous attempts by the UN to negotiate a ceasefire came to nothing. The government collapsed and the RPF declared a ceasefire. These refugees include many who have since been implicated in the massacres. At first, a multi-ethnic government was set up, with a Hutu, Pasteur Bizimungu as president and Mr Kagame as his deputy.
But the pair later fell out and Bizimungu was jailed on charges of inciting ethnic violence, while Mr Kagame became president. Although the killing in Rwanda was over, the presence of Hutu militias in DR Congo has led to years of conflict there, causing up to five million deaths. Rwanda's now Tutsi-led government has twice invaded its much larger neighbour, saying it wants to wipe out the Hutu forces. And a Congolese Tutsi rebel group remains active, refusing to lay down arms, saying otherwise its community would be at risk of genocide.
The world's largest peacekeeping force has been unable to end the fighting. Human Rights Watch report. Republic of Rwanda.
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