Rwandan Genocide 1994
By early in 1990s, Rwanda was a small country with an overwhelming agricultural economy ,it was one of the highly densely populated countries in Africa.it comprised of different tributes and about 85 percent were the Hutu the rest the Tutsi along with smallest number of the Twa who the pygmies and the original inhabitants of Rwanda. The country was colonized by the GERMAN after they had agreed to come under the League of Nations mandate of Belgium after the First World War. During Rwanda’s colonial regime, the ruling Belgians favored the minority the Tutsi over the Hutu which created the tendency of the few to dominate the many. This created tension among the Hutu that further blasted into serious violence.
The Hutu revolution forced many of the Tutsi to leave the country making the number of the Tutsi smaller. Around 1961, the winning Hutus had forced Rwanda’s Tutsi sovereign into exile and that’s when they declared the country a republic. After the referendum by the U.N, the Belgium legitimately granted independence to Rwanda in July 1962.
After the years following independence in 1973, Major general juvenal Habyarimana was put into power by a small military group and he formed apolitical party called the national revolutionary movement for development (NRMD).Later alone, he was elected as president under the new constitution approved in 19978 and later still reelected in 1983 and 1988 by then he was the only candidate.
The Tutsi refugee force from Uganda under Rwandese patriotic front (RPF) consisting of mostly the Tutsi invaded the government of Rwanda to have negotiations about the Rwandan government. In 1993, Habyarimana while in in Arusha Tanzania assigned an agreement calling for the formation transition government that would consider RPF. This created anger among the Hutu who wanted to take terrible action against it.
On April 6, 1994 that’s when the genocide started with killing of Habyarimana who was shot in the plane leaving no survivor. Immediately after the plane crash, the presidential guard together with members of the Rwandan armed forces and Hutu military group (Interahamwe)these attack together and( Impuzamugambi )these have same goal blocked all the roads and begun slaughtering the Tutsi. Other moderate Hutu were also crushed and Hutu Prime Minister Agatha Uwilingimana was among the first victims with her 10 Belgium body guards.
The mass killing of people in Kigali spread rapidly to the rest parts of the country. Within the next three month over 800,000 people were killed and all the Hutu fled Rwanda crowding into refugee camps in Zaire and other neighboring countries.
Throughout this age, all the Rwandan local officials and the government sponsored all the radio stations known as ordinary Rwandan civilians calling upon all people to kill whoever was next to you. In the meantime RPF continued with a fight and the cival war stormed in conjunction with the genocide. Later in the month of July, RPF forces had gained control in most the surrounding countries including Kigali. By this time, more than 2 million people had left the country and others killed.
Within few next month, the RPF forces succeeded and they formed a coalition government that was similar to that agreed upon in Arusha –Tanzania with Hutu president Pasteur Bizimungu and Paul Kagame’s a Tutsi as a vice president and defense minister.
In 2003, in reference to ethnicity a new constitution was approved and Habyarimana’s NRMD party that had played the big role of causing the genocide was forbidden. Year later, a new constitution was adopted after Kagame’s election to 10 year term. Kagame’s became the first legislative Rwandan elected president.
– Facts, Causes, Timeline, Pictures & Figures