An outline, era by era

Rwandan genocide (1994)

20th Century · 1914 – 2000

The Rwandan genocide was the mass killing of Tutsi, and of moderate Hutu who opposed the killing, in Rwanda between April and July 1994. It began on 6 April 1994, after the plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down near Kigali. Over roughly one hundred days, soldiers, militias and many ordinary civilians killed hundreds of thousands of people, with most estimates falling between about 500,000 and 800,000.

The genocide ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a force led by Tutsi exiles, took control of the country in July 1994. Its roots lie in colonial rule, in the hardening of Hutu and Tutsi identities, in the violence of 1959 and after, and in a civil war that began in 1990. The killing also showed the failure of the international community to act, and it led to a refugee crisis and to wars in neighbouring Congo. It is now widely studied as a central case in the history of genocide.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Belgian rule and the identity cards

    Event

    What happened

    Germany rules Rwanda until 1916, and Belgium takes over after the First World War, with a League of Nations mandate from 1922. The Belgians rule through a Tutsi-dominated chiefly system and in 1931 deepen the divide between groups. In the 1930s they introduce identity cards that record each person as Hutu, Tutsi or Twa.

    The rest is history

    The cards turned fluid social categories into fixed, inherited identities. Historians broadly agree that colonial policy sharpened divisions that had existed in a looser form before. The cards remained in use after independence in 1962. In 1994 they were used at roadblocks to identify victims.

    Sources

    1. BookDes Forges, Alison. Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999.
    2. BookMamdani, Mahmood. When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

  2. The Hutu Revolution of 1959 to 1962

    Event

    What happened

    In November 1959, after the death of the Tutsi king Mutara III and attacks on Hutu political figures, violence spreads across Rwanda. Hutu parties, with Belgian backing, take over local government, and many Tutsi are killed or flee. Rwanda becomes independent on 1 July 1962 under a Hutu-led government headed by Grégoire Kayibanda.

    The rest is history

    Tens of thousands of Tutsi became refugees in neighbouring countries. Further waves of anti-Tutsi violence came in the 1960s, notably in late 1963. The exiles and their children later formed the base of the RPF. Habyarimana took power in a coup in 1973.

    Sources

    1. BookPrunier, Gérard. The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
    2. BookDes Forges, Alison. Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999.

  3. The Habyarimana regime and economic crisis

    Event

    What happened

    Juvénal Habyarimana rules Rwanda as a one-party state from 1975, with a party known as the MRND. Coffee prices collapse in the late 1980s, and the economy and the regime come under strain. Pressure for political change grows at home and from foreign donors.

    The rest is history

    Elites close to the president, often from the north-west, saw their position threatened by reform. Many scholars see this crisis as a context in which hardline groups turned to ethnic politics. Multiparty politics was allowed in 1991. Opposition parties and extremist factions then competed fiercely.

    Sources

    1. BookPrunier, Gérard. The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
    2. BookStraus, Scott. The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006.

  4. The RPF invasion and civil war

    Event

    What happened

    On 1 October 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front, made up largely of Tutsi exiles from Uganda, invades northern Rwanda. The government responds with arrests of thousands of Tutsi and opponents and with massacres of Tutsi civilians in some areas. Fighting continues until a ceasefire in 1993.

    The rest is history

    The war led the government to expand its army and to arm civilian militias, notably the Interahamwe. Extremist propaganda, including the newspaper Kangura and Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, portrayed Tutsi as enemies. The war is generally seen as a key part of the setting for the genocide, though historians differ on how far the killing was planned in advance.

    Sources

    1. BookDes Forges, Alison. Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999.
    2. BookStraus, Scott. The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006.

  5. The Arusha Accords

    Event

    What happened

    After talks in Arusha, Tanzania, the Rwandan government and the RPF sign a peace agreement on 4 August 1993. It provides for power sharing and a broad-based transitional government. The United Nations sets up a peacekeeping force, UNAMIR, in October 1993.

    The rest is history

    Hardliners in the government and army opposed the terms, and implementation stalled. UNAMIR, led by General Roméo Dallaire, had a limited mandate and few troops. In January 1994 Dallaire sent a cable reporting an informant's warning of plans for killings, and his request to act on it was refused by UN headquarters. The accords had not been implemented when Habyarimana's plane was shot down.

    Sources

    1. BookDallaire, Roméo. Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Toronto: Random House Canada, 2003.
    2. BookMelvern, Linda. A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide. London: Zed Books, 2000.

  6. The downing of the president's plane

    Event

    What happened

    On the evening of 6 April 1994, a plane carrying Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundi's president Cyprien Ntaryamira is hit by missiles as it approaches Kigali. All aboard die. Within hours, roadblocks go up in the capital and killings begin, first targeting political opponents and Tutsi.

    The rest is history

    Who fired the missiles is still disputed, and investigations by different countries have reached different conclusions. What is clear is that the killing spread quickly under an interim government. Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and ten Belgian peacekeepers were killed on 7 April. Belgium then withdrew its troops.

    Sources

    1. BookDes Forges, Alison. Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999.
    2. BookPrunier, Gérard. The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.

  7. The international response

    Event

    What happened

    On 21 April 1994 the UN Security Council votes to cut UNAMIR from about 2,500 troops to a few hundred, as the killing continues. On 17 May it authorizes a larger force, but few troops arrive in time. In late June France launches Opération Turquoise, a UN-authorized mission in the south-west of Rwanda.

    The rest is history

    The decisions reflected reluctance to intervene after the failed mission in Somalia in 1993. The Security Council did not formally use the word genocide in its early statements. A 1999 UN inquiry and a 2000 report by the Organization of African Unity both criticized the international failure. In 1998 US President Bill Clinton, visiting Kigali, apologized for not acting sooner.

    Sources

    1. BookMelvern, Linda. A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide. London: Zed Books, 2000.
    2. PrimaryReport of the Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations during the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. United Nations, S/1999/1257, 15 December 1999.

  8. The RPF victory and the aftermath

    Event

    What happened

    The RPF advances through Rwanda and takes Kigali in early July 1994. By about 18 July it controls the country and declares a ceasefire, ending the genocide. Around two million people, many of them Hutu, flee into neighbouring countries, especially Zaire.

    The rest is history

    The camps in Zaire held both civilians and former officials and militia. This contributed to the First Congo War from 1996. The UN set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in November 1994, and Rwanda later used local gacaca courts to try huge numbers of cases. Rwanda marks 7 April as a day of remembrance.

    Sources

    1. BookPrunier, Gérard. The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
    2. PrimaryUN Security Council Resolution 955. Establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, 8 November 1994.

  9. "Ancient tribal hatred"

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A common claim in 1994 news coverage is that the killing was an outbreak of age-old tribal hatred between Hutu and Tutsi. On this view it was spontaneous and could not have been foreseen or stopped.

    The rest is history

    Historians reject this. Hutu and Tutsi shared a language, religion and much of their culture, and the sharp ethnic divide was shaped by colonial rule and by political struggles in the twentieth century. The genocide was organized by officials and militia leaders, using radio, lists and roadblocks, although many ordinary people took part. The ICTR convicted Jean-Paul Akayesu in 1998, the first court judgment to find a defendant guilty of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

    Sources

    1. BookMamdani, Mahmood. When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
    2. BookDes Forges, Alison. Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999.

  10. The Hamitic myth

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A belief once widely repeated says that the Tutsi were a separate race who came from the north, perhaps from Ethiopia or Egypt, and were naturally fit to rule over the Hutu. It was often taught in colonial schools and later used by extremists to call Tutsi foreigners.

    The rest is history

    The idea came from nineteenth-century European theories, such as those of the explorer John Hanning Speke, about a superior 'Hamitic' people. It has no support in modern linguistic, genetic or historical research, which shows Rwandans as one people with a long shared history. Colonial administrators nonetheless used it to justify favouring Tutsi elites. It later fed the claims of Hutu Power propaganda in the early 1990s.

    Sources

    1. BookMamdani, Mahmood. When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
    2. BookSanders, Edith R. "The Hamitic Hypothesis: Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective." Journal of African History 10, no. 4 (1969): 521-532.

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