This week marked the two decade anniversary of one of 100 days that scarred and shaped the international community: the Rwandan genocide.
It was the 7th of April 1994 that marked the beginning of what would later become one of the world's biggest regrets. Approximately 800,000 Rwandans of Tutsi origin were killed by another Rwandan ethnic group, the Hutus.
The roots of the massacre go back to the colonization period: Rwanda has been under the control of the Belgians after WWI, and the Belgians introduced identity cards to separate the three ethnic groups of the country (the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa). The Tutsi were favored by the Belgians, in both economic and social terms, and given a higher status in comparison to the other two ethnic groups, but they were technically the minority. The Tutsi composed approximately 15 percent of the population, the Hutu 84 percent and the Twa 1 percent. This favoritism towards the Tutsi minority led the Hutus to foster anger and resentment, and when elections were held in 1962 in which the Parmehutu party won, the newly established Hutu government relinquished years of pent up anger against the Tutsi.
When thousands of Tutsis were being killed by the machetes of the Hutus, the international community spent too much time debating whether to intervene or not (mainly because Rwanda holds no resources or particular strategic value). Aside from that, the U.S. was extremely reluctant to put in danger any more of its men after it had been traumatized by the failure of the Black Hawk operation in Somalia.
By the time the international community had sent a mission into the country, it was too late. Now, two decades later, the country is still mourning the 800,000 lives that were lost. On Monday the streets of Kigali, the capital, was filled with various events to commemorate the day. Most importantly, a flame was lit in the capital, the "Flame of the National Battle", that will burn for 100 days, the same amount of time as the duration of the genocide.
The flame was received by President Paul Kagame but it was originally lit on the 7th of January and has, since then, passed by Rwandan villages in which educational training programs for peace have been given. Locals, government officials, and the families of the victims were invited to attend the official act of commemoration that took place in Kigali, which had an audience of 30,000 people present.
There was some tension in regards to the international envoys that attended the event; it seemed as if France refused to attend after it was reported that Kagame had accused the French military of having not only been involved in the massacre, but of protecting culprits that were also to blame, amongst others. In one of the interviews that Kagame gave to the magazine Jeune Afrique and the newspaper Libération, he stated that "France and Belgium played a disastrous role in the history of Rwanda and contributed to the rise of a genocide ideology."
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon attended the official acts for the commemoration of the genocide. All Monday, various events took place in the capital of the country, including a student march that began from the headquarters of the Parliament and ended in the sports stadium where films and vigils about the genocide were held.
Since the genocide, Rwanda has established itself as an example of transitional justice, with its creation of the local Gaccaca conflict-resolution trials. But despite the Gaccaca punishments, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and other mechanisms, there is still a lot of work to be done. The process of reconstruction, rehabilitation, and restoration of harmony in the country is a long and arduous one.
Photo: AP.
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Photo Friday: Rwanda Commemorates 20 Years After Genocide
April 11, 2014
This week marked the two decade anniversary of one of 100 days that scarred and shaped the international community: the Rwandan genocide.
It was the 7th of April 1994 that marked the beginning of what would later become one of the world's biggest regrets. Approximately 800,000 Rwandans of Tutsi origin were killed by another Rwandan ethnic group, the Hutus.
The roots of the massacre go back to the colonization period: Rwanda has been under the control of the Belgians after WWI, and the Belgians introduced identity cards to separate the three ethnic groups of the country (the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Twa). The Tutsi were favored by the Belgians, in both economic and social terms, and given a higher status in comparison to the other two ethnic groups, but they were technically the minority. The Tutsi composed approximately 15 percent of the population, the Hutu 84 percent and the Twa 1 percent. This favoritism towards the Tutsi minority led the Hutus to foster anger and resentment, and when elections were held in 1962 in which the Parmehutu party won, the newly established Hutu government relinquished years of pent up anger against the Tutsi.
When thousands of Tutsis were being killed by the machetes of the Hutus, the international community spent too much time debating whether to intervene or not (mainly because Rwanda holds no resources or particular strategic value). Aside from that, the U.S. was extremely reluctant to put in danger any more of its men after it had been traumatized by the failure of the Black Hawk operation in Somalia.
By the time the international community had sent a mission into the country, it was too late. Now, two decades later, the country is still mourning the 800,000 lives that were lost. On Monday the streets of Kigali, the capital, was filled with various events to commemorate the day. Most importantly, a flame was lit in the capital, the "Flame of the National Battle", that will burn for 100 days, the same amount of time as the duration of the genocide.
The flame was received by President Paul Kagame but it was originally lit on the 7th of January and has, since then, passed by Rwandan villages in which educational training programs for peace have been given. Locals, government officials, and the families of the victims were invited to attend the official act of commemoration that took place in Kigali, which had an audience of 30,000 people present.
There was some tension in regards to the international envoys that attended the event; it seemed as if France refused to attend after it was reported that Kagame had accused the French military of having not only been involved in the massacre, but of protecting culprits that were also to blame, amongst others. In one of the interviews that Kagame gave to the magazine Jeune Afrique and the newspaper Libération, he stated that "France and Belgium played a disastrous role in the history of Rwanda and contributed to the rise of a genocide ideology."
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon attended the official acts for the commemoration of the genocide. All Monday, various events took place in the capital of the country, including a student march that began from the headquarters of the Parliament and ended in the sports stadium where films and vigils about the genocide were held.
Since the genocide, Rwanda has established itself as an example of transitional justice, with its creation of the local Gaccaca conflict-resolution trials. But despite the Gaccaca punishments, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and other mechanisms, there is still a lot of work to be done. The process of reconstruction, rehabilitation, and restoration of harmony in the country is a long and arduous one.
Photo: AP.
