The Rwandan Genocide

Overview of the Conflict

The 1994 Rwandan genocide that occurred between 7th April and 15th July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War and orchestrated by the Hutu extremists, saw the massacre of approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsi minorities along with some moderate Hutu and Twa individuals, over 100 days.  

The conflict stemmed from the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), primarily Tutsi refugees, invading Northern Rwanda from Uganda in 1990, sparking the civil war. 

Despite efforts to resolve the conflict through the Arusha Accords signed in 1993, the assassination of Hutu president Juvénal Habyarimana on 6th April 1994 led to widespread violence and genocidal killings began the next day, perpetrated by Hutu soldiers, police, and militias. 

The international community failed to intervene, allowing the brutality to continue unabated, with an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 women being raped during the genocide, influenced by misinformation spread through various media channels. 

In its aftermath, the RPF led an offensive into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1996, igniting the First Congo War and resulting in further 200,000 estimated casualties.

Background of the Conflict

Part of German East Africa from 1897 to 1918, Rwanda became a Belgian trusteeship under a League of Nations mandate after World War I, along with neighbouring Burundi.

Belgians favoured Tutsis over Hutus, deepening tensions between the two ethnic groups. 

The Hutu uprising in 1959 led to a mass Tutsi exodus, culminating in a republic Rwanda. 

After an UN referendum, Belgium officially granted independence to Rwanda in July 1962.

In 1973, Major General Juvenal Habyarimana, a moderate Hutu, was installed to rule who founded the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (NRMD).

He was elected president under a new constitution ratified in 1978 and reelected in 1983 and 1988 when he was the sole candidate.

In 1990, the RPF, comprised mainly of Tutsi refugees, launched an invasion from Uganda and Habyarimana accused Tutsi residents of being RPF accomplices thus prompting a government officials directed massacres of the Tutsi killing hundreds.

Ceasefire negotiations in 1992 led to the Arusha Peace Accords, aiming to establish a transitional government inclusive of the RPF.

By the early 1990s, Rwanda, with a predominantly agricultural economy, boasted one of Africa’s highest population densities, with 85% Hutu, the remainder being Tutsi and a small Twa group, a Pygmy group who were the original inhabitants of Rwanda.

In August 1993, Habyarimana reluctantly signed a transition government agreement in Arusha. 

However, this angered extremist Hutus, triggering swift and brutal reprisals to thwart the Accords.

This was the last act before the start of the genocidal massacre.

The Beginining and Spread of The Genocide

On 6th April 1994, a plane carrying President Habyarimana and Burundi’s President Cyprien Ntaryamira crashed in the capital city of Kigali, with no survivors, an incident of whose perpetrators remain unidentified.

Within an hour of the crash, the Presidential Guard, Rwandan armed forces (FAR), and Hutu militia groups erected roadblocks and began massacring Tutsis and moderate Hutus. 

Moderate Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana and 10 Belgian peacekeepers were killed on 7th April. 

This violence created a power vacuum, filled by an interim government of extremist Hutu leaders on 9th April. The killing of Belgian peacekeepers prompted Belgian troop withdrawal, and the UN mandated peacekeepers to only act in self-defence thereafter.

Following the initial massacre in Kigali, the violence quickly spread across Rwanda, with central and southern regions, where most Tutsi lived, initially resisting the genocide.

However, national authorities removed and killed those who opposed the genocide, coercing others into compliance.  

Killers were rewarded with incentives, while government-controlled media encouraged civilians to participate in the massacre. Within three months, around 800,000 people were killed.

Simultaneously, the RPF resumed fighting, leading to a civil war alongside the genocide. By early July, RPF forces had seized control of most of the country, including the capital.

As a result, over 2 million Hutus fled Rwanda, seeking shelter in neighbouring countries like Zaire (then Congo).

Following their victory, the RPF established a coalition government, similar to the Arusha agreement, with a Hutu president, Pasteur Bizimungu, and a Tutsi vice president and defense minister, Paul Kagame.

Habyarimana’s NRMD party, implicated in organising the genocide, was outlawed.

A new constitution in 2003 removed ethnic references. 

Kagame was subsequently elected president for a 10-year term, marking Rwanda’s first legislative elections.

International response

During the Rwandan genocide, similar to the events in the former Yugoslavia, the international community largely refrained from intervention. 

An UNSC vote in April 1994 led to the withdrawal of most UNAMIR peacekeeping forces, established to facilitate governmental transition under the Arusha agreement. 

The UNSC passed Resolution 918 on 17th May 1994 to supply a more robust force, including more than 5500 troops but by the time it arrived, the genocide had already ended.

In a separate initiative, French troops entered Rwanda from Zaire in late June under UNSC Resolution 929.

Focused on establishing a “humanitarian zone” in the southwest, they saved numerous Tutsi lives but also aided some of the genocide’s perpetrators in escaping.

Efforts to address this passivity included reinforcing the UNAMIR operation after the RPF’s victory, with its presence in Rwanda extended until March 1996, constituting one of the largest humanitarian relief missions in history.

Aftermath

Resolution 955 of the UNSC established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in October 1994 in Tanzania which was an extension of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. 

It marked the first international tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials and the first with a mandate to prosecute genocide.

Since its inception in 1995, the ICTR has prosecuted ninety-three individuals for grave breaches of the IHL during the 1994 genocide. 

It has also interpreted the definition of genocide in Geneva Convention, 1948 and recognised rape as a tool of genocide.

The ICTR declared that genocide includes “subjecting a group of people to a subsistence diet, systematic expulsion from homes and the reduction of essential medical services below the minimum requirement.”

Furthermore, it said that “sexual violence and rape constitute genocide as long as they were committed with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular group, targeted as such.”

The tribunal imposed only prison sentences, as it lacked the authority for the death penalty.

Its statute outlined a broad definition of war crimes, encompassing acts such as murder, torture, deportation, and enslavement.

The “Media case” marked a significant milestone, holding media professionals accountable for inciting genocide.

In September 1998, the ICTR issued the first conviction for genocide after a trial, declaring Jean-Paul Akayesu guilty for his acts as mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba.

Rwanda initially had the death penalty, but later introduced gacaca courts, traditional grassroots tribunals, to expedite over 115,000 pending genocide cases. By 2010, these courts had handled approximately 1.5 million cases.

Rwanda’s recovery efforts received significant support, including debt relief from the World Bank and the IMF.

Rwanda joined the East African Community in 2007.

Trials continued for over fifteen years, culminating in the 2008 conviction of three former senior Rwandan defense and military officials for orchestrating the genocide.