On April 7, 2024, Rwanda President Paul Kagame is hosting a week of commemorations
to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. With the presence of former U.S.
president Clinton and several other foreign dignities in Rwanda, remember those 100 days of
genocide, which took the lives of up to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus by the Hutu militias.
During the genocide that at least 250,000 women were raped, while the United States, France,
and other nations stood by, refusing to use the term “genocide” to avoid international
responsibility. After 30 years of the Rwanda genocide, Rwanda President Paul Kagame still
addressed the failure of the support of the global community as “failed all of us.” Since then, the
former U.S. President, Clinton, has admitted that not responding to the Rwanda genocide is one
of the biggest regrets of his presidency (Goodman, April 9, 2024).
To be able to understand why Rwanda went through this unimaginable event, it is
essential to go back to the roots of Rwanda’s conflicts between Tutsi and Hutus groups, which
started a century earlier with the arrival of German and later Belgian colonizers in the country.
Before the beginning of colonization, Rwanda was ruled by the monarchy of the Tutsi people.
Rwanda comprised the three major ethnic groups, Hutu (84%), Tutsi (15%), and Twa,
constituting less than 1% of the population. All three groups spoke Kinyarwanda. These three
groups shared the same language, culture, and customs; however, one fundamental question that
drives many historians of the genocide is: “If they speak the same language, share the same
culture, same country, how did we become different? This fundamental question can be
answered as we go back to the history of colonization by two important European nations:
Germany and Belgium (Britannica, accessed May 10, 2024).
Traditionally, there were profound social differences between the Hutu and the Tutsi, as
shown by the system of patron-client ties in which the Tutsi, who had a strong pastoralist
tradition, gained social, economic, and political ascendancy over the Hutu, who were primarily
agriculturalists. The identification between Hutus and Tutsis was clear. Regarding their physical
appearance, Tutsis were generally presumed to be light-skinned and tall, and Hutu dark-skinned
and short. Nevertheless, the difference between the two groups was not always evident because
of intermarriage and everyday language use (Britannica, accessed May 10, 2024). However, with
the influx of the initial German and later the Belgian colonizers, it assumed that ethnicity could
be differentiated by physical characteristics and then used the ethnic differences found in their
own countries as models to create a system whereby the groups of Hutu and Tutsis were no
longer clear. “The German colonial government, begun in 1898 and continuing until 1916,
pursued a policy of indirect rule that strengthened theGhegemonyGof the Tutsi ruling class and the
absolutism of its monarchy.” After World War, Belgium took over the colony from Germany but
continued with the same methodology, managing it indirectly under the guidance of theGLeague
of Nations (Britannica, accessed May 10, 2024). Subsequently, the obsession of Belgium with
racial and ethnic classification depleted the Hutus, who were unhappy with equal treatment. As
Richard said: “The Belgians believed that the Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda was racially superior
to the Hutu ethnic group because the Tutsi had more “European” features (Feb 18, 2019). The
treatment of the Tutsi as elite and the Hutus as ordinary farmers, over time, created intense
political hostility between the groups.
Decades before the actual genocide, Rwanda was living through years of violent attacks
and conflicts between the two groups. In November of 1959, a violent incident caused a Hutu
uprising, causing hundreds of Tutsi deaths and thousands of people living in Rwanda to their
neighboring countries. During 1960 and 1970, Rwanda experienced many attacks resulting in the
killings of many Tutsi civilians, including women, which led to a wave of Tutsi refugees. The
uprising continued, and by the end of 1980, almost half a million Rwandans, including moderate
Hutus civilians, had become refugees elsewhere. The world watched all these events take place
with little intervention from the international community and organizations. Eventually, in 1990,
from Uganda, Tutsi refugees started a military offensive against Rwanda called the Tutsi-Led
Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). While Hutu were spreading through radio and other ways of
communication anti-Tutsi propaganda, portraying Tutsis as dangerous enemies. The world war
watched as the tension grew and intensified among the two groups. On the evening of April 6,
1994, when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien
Ntaryamira, both Hutu, were assassinated by an attack on their plan, Tutsi were blamed for the
attack. It was the final trigger to launch the systematic slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in
the country (Center, July 7, 2023).
The Rwandan genocide was carefully organized, and it was mainly involved by
individuals using rudimentary weapons like machetes and knives. Guns and explosives to carry
out many killings were also used. The Hutu-controlled government and associated militias
performed the massacre of an estimated 800,000 to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus
within 100 days” (Center, July 7, 2023). Over the next 100 days, it is estimated that 200,000
Hutus participated in the massive killings of Tutsis, although some were forced to do so by the
militia. Rape also became another form of weapon as perpetrators infected with HIV/AIDS
carried out sexual assaults; as a result, many Tutsi women were intentionally infected with
HIV/AIDS (Britannica, accessed May 10, 2024).
The United States, one of the leading powers and part of the Security Council in the
United Nations, contributed even more to the indication of the U.N. and the international
community. At the time president, President Clinton refused to engage in another African
conflict following the death of U.S. troops in Somalia the previous year. Soon, Belgium
withdrew soldiers and UN peacekeepers after the death of 10 Belgian soldiers who bravely tried
to protect Tutsi civilians. Eventually, the UN Security Council voted to withdraw 90% of the
peacekeepers current in the country. Putting more attention to the millions of refugees fleeing
Rwanda to take away the attention of the world on the hundreds of Tutsis being slaughtered in
the country. The U.S. continued with its policy of “no intervention,” influencing other states to
hesitate to commit themselves politically and militarily to the Rwandan people (Britannica,
accessed May 10, 2024).
The United Nations carried a lot of responsibility after the genocide was over. Mainly
because they feel to act, prevent, and protect the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent
people in Rwanda. The UN, already present in the country for the motoring mission, United
Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda b(UNAMIR), failed to mediate a cease-fire. Eventually,
with the Security Council's vote, the UNAMIR peacekeeper troops were reduced from 2,500 to
270 on April 21st. Those left in the country were stretched too thin and could not find more
troops to reinforce the mission. On May 17, conversely, the UN reversed its decision and voted
to establish a force of 5,500, composed of soldiers mainly from African countries, but those
troops would take another three months to be trained and deployed. Following June 22, the UN
authorized deploying a French-led military force, Operation Turquoise, into Rwanda to establish
a safe zone. Resolution 929 was “to contribute to the security and the protection of displaced
persons, refugees and civilians at risk including the establishment and maintenance of secure
humanitarian crises” (Haspeslagh, accessed May 10, 2024).
The UN is one of the ones to be blamed for the genocide of almost a million Tusti and
moderate Hutus. Many scholars agree that the UN was not built to handle genocide. However, its
biggest failure was not identifying the existing factors in the countries. If they wouldn’t or
couldn’t intervene militarily, they could at least stop the radio broadcasts from transmitting false
anti-Tutsi ideas on the radio and punish those people responsible for spreading hate and ideas of
massive killings in the country. Tustin families were targeted for months, as their names,
addresses, and license plates were broadcasted over the air. This is one of the ways the world and
the United Nations cannot say they did not know. The genocide could have been stopped and not
allowed to take its course. Kneeland said: “The United Nations failed to successfully intervene
in the mass genocide because it lacked an objective or proper view of the crises, the funds,
supplies, and skills needed to intercede, relied too much on precedents, ignored precious
warnings and was (and is) a faulted structure system in general” (pg. 2, 2004). GAdditionally, had
the UN retained defensive diplomacy or, later, preventive operation of troops, it may very well
have been able to prevent the massive killings. Unfortunately, the UN failed to analyze or
synthesize important clues and proactively seek further information that could have interrupted
the massacre. Guns were sold in the open air alongside vegetables and meat under the watch of
UN soldiers, but nothing was done. The UN just ignored a range of information and evidence
and did not act to prevent the apparent genocide that was in the making (Dorn et al., accessed
May 10, 2024).
The decision of the international community to remove UN peacekeepers and leave the
people of Rwanda unsupported makes clear how they saw the African country, mainly as
second-class citizens. The UN went against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when it
says clearly in Article 3, “The peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their
faith in fundamental human rights, the dignity and worth of the human person and the equal
rights of men and women and… have pledged themselves to achieve… the promotion of
universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms (Kneeland,
2004).” As one can see the failure of the UN is traced back at its headquarters when leaders of
Security Council decided to close their eyes and ears to the “cry” of many African men, women,
and children on the other side of the planet.
GSource:
Center, G. (2023b, July 21). Understanding the 1994 Rwandan genocide: Facts, responses &
trials. Genos Center Foundation. https://genoscenter.org/understanding-the-1994-rwandan-
genocide-facts-responses-trials/
Dorn, A. W., & Matloff, J. (n.d.). View of preventing the bloodbath: Could the UN have
predicted and prevented the Rwandan genocide? Journal of Conflict Studies. View of
Preventing the Bloodbath: Could the UN have Predicted and Prevented the Rwandan
Genocide? | Journal of Conflict Studies.
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JCS/article/view/4333/4968
Encyclopedia Britannica, inc. (2024, April 7). Rwanda genocide of 1994. Encyclopedia
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Rwanda-genocide-of-1994
Haspeslagh, S. (n.d.). Safe Havens in Rwanda: Operation Turquoise by Sophie ...
https://www.beyondintractability.org/cic_documents/Safe-Havens-Rwanda.pdf
Johnson, B. (2020, February 13). Understanding the conflict between Rwanda’s Tutsis and
Hutus. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/location-of-conflict-tutsis-and-
hutus-3554918
Kneeland, E. (2004, June 1). The UN involvement (or lack thereof) in the 1994 Rwanda genocide
- panorama – taking it global. The UN involvement (or lack thereof) in the 1994 Rwanda
Genocide - Panorama - TakingITGlobal.
https://www.tigweb.org/youth-media/panorama/article.html?ContentID=3741
Press, T. A. (2024, April 7). Bill Clinton and other leaders join Rwandans in marking 30 years
since their genocide. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/04/07/1243277897/bill-clinton-joins-
rwandans-in-marking-30-years-since-their-
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Richard, K. S. (2019, February 18). The negative legacy of 19th and 20th century Belgian
colonialism. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/overview-of-belgian-
colonialism-1434364
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