RWANDA 1By: Chandler Kuczynski, Meladie Roberson, Valentina Colon

Background◦On April 6th , 1994 a plane with Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and the President of Burndi was shot down as it approached Kigali, the capital of Rwanda

◦Between April and July 1994 500,000 to 1 million Tutsis were killed by RAF ( Rwandan Armed Forces )

◦Genocide was implemented by politico- military extremists in government

Important Groups◦RPF- Rwandan Patriotic Front (Tutsi)◦FAR- Rwandan Armed Forces ( Hutu)◦RPA- Rwandan Patriotic Army (Hutu)◦UN- United Nations◦MSF- Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders

◦Interahamwe- militia supporting Hutu led government

Genocide Definition◦Genocide- the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation

Major Ethnic GroupsHutus

◦ Descendants of Ham

◦ Round faced

◦ Flat nosed

◦ Darker

◦ Shorter

Tutsis

◦ Nomads

◦ People who live around the Nile River Valley

◦ Lighter

◦ Thinner noses

◦ More European features

◦ Taller

Relationship between Hutus and Tutsis◦ Belgians put racial categories on ID cards

◦ Without it, it would have been harder to determine who was Hutu and who was Tutsi

◦ 1957 Hutu Manifesto

◦ “Democratic” rule

◦ Majority rule Hutu rule

◦ Hamitic Hypothesis

PRE-GENOCIDE

Pre- Genocide◦Hutu violence against Tutsis had bee going on since 1959◦Rwanda became was granted independence from Belgium in 1962◦Tutsis are the minority but wealthy◦Government was majority Hutu◦Many massacres of Tutsis before 1994 but on a small scale (2000 total)◦UN set up a peace keeping mission on Rwandan border in 1993◦Between 1900 and 1993 RPF tries invading Rwanda◦RPF stops invasion with talk of Arusha Accords

President Habyarimana’s Death◦ August 1993, President Habyarimana was going to sign a peace agreement in Arusha,

Tanzania

◦ President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down

◦ Gave motivation to Hutus to eliminate Tutsis

◦ Majority of the 800,000 victims were Tutsi

◦ 75% of the Tutsi population

◦ Dehumanised

◦ ‘Cockroaches’

◦ Approximately 50,000 Hutus were also murdered

◦ Suspected of disloyalty

Two Paramilitary Organizations ◦ Interahamwe (‘those who work together’)

◦ Impuzamugambi (‘those who have only one aim’)

◦ Composed of:

◦ Young men

◦ Often unemployed/landless

◦ Reservists

◦ Students

◦ Officers included many professionals (doctors and teachers)

◦ Estimated that 200,000 took part in killings

Factors Influencing Genocide ◦ Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines

◦ Kangura (magazine)

◦ 1990 published Hutu ‘Ten Commandments’

◦ Instructions to see every Tutsi as a traitor

◦ Not to trust them

◦ No business with them

◦ Not allowing them to be teachers of their children

◦ Not allowing them to serve in the army or state

◦ Not to show them any mercy

OUTSIDE FORCES

UNAMIR◦ Canadian General Romeo Dallaire

◦ January 19, 1994, informant in Interahamwe told Dalliere plans to kill civilians

◦ Secrete weapon dumps

◦ Machetes were being shipped in large quantities

◦ Plan to kill Belgian troops

◦ Eventually force the UN to pull out

◦ Dalliere sent fax to NY with this information

◦ Request to seize weapons was rejected

Outside Powers◦ U.S.A and Britain avoided the use of the

word ‘genocide’

◦ Use of it would obligate them to act

◦ France backed the regime against the RPF

◦ Armed Hutu state

◦ Trained its soldiers

◦ Possibly its paramilitaries

During Genocide and RPF Movement◦ Hutu government started massacring

the Tutsi

◦ Paramilitaries

◦ RPF leader Paul Kagame said if killings didn’t stop he would attack

◦ RPF came down from Uganda in 3 fronts

MSF

‘Genocide’◦ MSF did not use the term ‘genocide’

◦ Wouter Van Empelen claims that “MSF did not know what was going on… I was not aware of information from MSF people that there was this tension in the country; that the Hutu were planning to kill the Tutsi.”

◦ MSF agreed on:

◦ Calling the international community to reinforce the UN presence in Rwanda as quickly as possible.

◦ Calling on the Security Council to block French offer.

Our Opinion

◦ MSF should have given better

reports to UN

◦ Could have called the killings

‘genocides’ sooner

◦ Numerous lives could have been

saved

◦ French should not have intervened

with this

◦ We would have intervened before it

got out of hand

◦ Would have saved more lives

◦ We would have insisted for other

nations to help and join in the efforts

to end these massacres that grew

into a genocide

K BYEEE!