A Genocide in Rwanda: Good People Gone Bad, the Dark History
Uncategorized March 16, 2015Why the Rwandan Genocide? The Lucifer Effect Sustained
Part 2
The Genocide of Rwanda, an international travesty, would go down in history as a failure for the UN and its major players. It put a dent in the ideals of society during the 20th century where, only fifty years after World War 2 and the Holocaust, the Geneva Convention was put into place to stop future crimes against humanity from happening. The 20th century marked a bloody era in the history books. Within Part 1 to this 2 part series the “Lucifer Effect” described situational forces that bred heinous outcomes, and the Genocide of Rwanda is a prime example of the Lucifer Effect integrated into mass culture. This Hub will travel through the irrational behaviour that took place in the genocide and how the International community failed to provide aide.
Rwanda, A History
The back story to Rwanda is important to understand the political and cultural motives played during the genocide. If one travelled back in time and stood upon the area where Kigali now stood, they would see green hill after green hill. The country lush with green and full of exotic animals. The Twa, hunter/gatherers of the early days of Rwanda were simple nomads. Their culture evolved and branched off to encompass have the Hutu and Tutsi denominations. Agriculture boomed and the migration of Hutu and Tutsi began. It was said that the Tutsi arrived in Rwanda from the Horn of Africa and were mainly a herding people. Twa still existed in certain parts of the country but made up only a small fraction of the population.
Source: BlogSpot
Source: BlogSpot
The history of Rwanda is muddled because it only exists within poems and stories. The land was ruled by a king called the Mwami who ruled over all the Earth. When Europeans first arrived they found that the population was divided into three separate people: the Tutsi, the Hutu, and the Twa. The Tutsi, to the Europeans, were those in power because they owned cattle and land – the European symbol of wealth.
Due to the nature of European ideas the Tutsi became the dominant political force in Rwanda, and, by association, became the “superior race.” This is misleading, however. Hutu’s commanded wealth and prosperity just as the Tutsi, and no significant difference existed between the two. Both the Tutsi and the Hutu celebrated the same holidays, preached the same religions, and spoke the same language. The only difference was that of wealth ownership. The Tutsi owned most of the cattle due to their roots as herders, and the Hutu, coming from hunter gatherers, felt less inclined to branch off into more prosperous roads. With this distinction, the problem that plagued the Rwandans was due to an age old class/caste system that put Tutsi on top of Hutu which was magnified by the appearance of the Europeans, who deemed to identify the specific differences between each group of people.
Enter the Belgians
Germany lost control of Rwanda after World War 2, giving rise to Belgium colonization. European influence produced a schism between the Tutsi and Huta to a greater extent due to the Tutsi’s natural tendency to be rulers. The Belgium’s dealt with only the Tutsi class since they were deemed higher on the social order, and, when it came to formulating a government, the Tutsi were appointed the positions of power. Within this structure, the Huta grew very hostile and in 1959 a revolt erupted. Hundredths of Tutsi died and thousands were exiled from their homes. The unrest lasted till 1961. This unrest also gave Rwanda its independence and in 1962 a Hutu dominated government stood in place of the once Tutsi controlled state. At this point in time a hundred and twenty thousand Tutsi were housed as refugees in neighbouring states.
Soon, Tutsi refugees became belligerent and loud about their lose of homeland. They pressured the Rwandan state to allow all Tutsi refugees to return but the President at the time, Juvenal Habyarimana, refused. He stated it would burden an already crumbling Rwandan economy. Tutsi, angry over the decision of the President, began to attack the Hutu controlled government. They staged about ten revolts from 1962 to 1967. These revolts incited retaliation from the Hutu government; Tutsi’s dead numbered hundreds and the refugee count imploded to the hundredths of thousandths. In 1980, Tutsi refugees were estimated at about four-hundred and eighty-thousand. Burundi, Uganda, Zaire, and Tanzania were the main countries affected by these refugees.
A Civil War in the Marking
1988 marked the year the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was founded. Its motives were political and military in nature and pursued the return of Tutsi refugees back to Rwanda. They also wished to return the Rwandan government to that of one that shares power. The RPF came into existence after the overthrow of the Ugandan government where many Tutsi refugees aided the Ugandan president of that time, Yoweri Museveni.
October 1, 1990, RPF forces attacked Rwanda from the Ugandan border. Seven thousand fighters engaged Huta extremist forces. This attack branded the Tutsi, in and out of the country, as RPF accomplices. Propaganda spewed from live radio shows across Rwanda denouncing the Tutsi class. In-fact, propaganda against the Tutsi started after the revolts of 1959 when the seed was planted for the uprising to come, and the RPF attacks solidified the extremist position.
RPF in uniform, marching.
Source: Rwanda Dang, Weebly
The Organization of African Unity (OUA), in August of 1993, signed the Arusha Peace Agreement which brought a temporary cease fire between the RPF and Hutu extremists. Shortly after, in October, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) were sanctioned a mandate for peacekeeping and support to the peace process of the Arusha Accords. Hutu extremists in the government fought against the implementation of the Arusha Accords creating problems that prolonged its adoption. Through political side-stepping, the Hutu government planned, armed, and manipulated the civilian population into a force bred for genocide. At this point, the Rwandan government was receiving millions of American dollars to jump-start the economy which, in-turn, was spent on arms: machetes, rifles, and grenades. The Hutu government hid the expenses but an audit report produced red flags that pointed towards militarization – the U.N ignored the evidence.
Genocide
April 6, 1994. A plane descended from the clouds. It is sunset, the sky an eery red. The plane approached Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, ready to deliver the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda. There is a noise from a far off field. Shouting, a hissing noise, a screech. Metal shrieked as a rocket teared into the side of the plane, an explosion erupted, and the plane exploded in a shower of metal hinges and handles. Rwanda’s President was dead; he, the only force able to keep the moderate Hutu and extremists at bay. Half an hour passed. Shooting echoed from Kigali as the presidential guard began the systematic slaughter of Tutsi. Manned roadblocks sprouted out of the concrete forest of Kigali’s buildings as if out of nowhere; militia and paramilitary together, ready for what was to come.
Most militia carried machetes and a good portion of survivors now have deep scars such as this mans.
Source: Time the Moment
Left to right: Tutsi male, Hutu male, Twa male
Source: Truman Web Design
All communications were cut. Rounded up into large groups, the Tutsi population of Rwanda were slaughtered. The Interahamwe, which stood for “those who fight with a purpose,” road the streets with machetes and rifles. At first, they designated Tutsi by the use of identification cards, but the process turned out to be slow, so they began to kill all people who resembled the sharp, elegant body
styles of the Tutsi.
Mass graves were dug and bodies were burned. One story from a survivor said that she was forced to watch her child, and many others, pushed into a huge hole. The Interahamwe began to shovel dirt on top of the poor children as they cried and tried to climb their way from the pit. Rifle butts and kicks greeted the poor souls as more and more dirt filled the hole. This mother watched her child get buried alive.
Pile of bodies.
Source: Dark Room, Baltimore Sun
People filled churches, hoping the religious buildings would save them, but that only forced them into a corner. Massive piles of bodies were discovered in public places like the library and the schools. People fled and as they fled they were rifled down. They were forced to walk until they were in large groups and paramilitary with flame throwers would torch the trapped men, women, and children while Hutu
circled around them, forcing them
back.
They machete-d those who tried to run. People sat in hospitals with gruesome lacerations, their wounds filling with bacteria and maggots. And the world retreated.
Leaving Rwanda, A Hopeless Cause
Many foreign government troops and civilians were placed in harms way. Belgium soldiers were killed which led to the airlifting of all Belgium personnel. On April 21, the UNAMIR force, deployed by the U.N, was reduced to two-hundred and seventy from two-thousand. Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian General and head of UNAMIR, reported the genocide constantly to the U.N back in New York. He pleaded for assistance and for the U.N to change their mandate from peace keeping to aggression. The mandate did not come till the final moments of the genocide after five-hundred thousand people were slain. Dallaire stated that if they had gotten authorization for force, and the extra man power he asked for, they could have stopped the genocide from sweeping into the south where the Tutsi were the most highly populated. It was in these last days, in the south of Rwanda, where majority of the deaths came from.
A memorial of bones put together for those who died at Redbrick Church in Nyarubuye.
Source: CBC
Leaving Rwanda, A Hopeless Cause
Many foreign government troops and civilians were placed in harms way. Belgium soldiers were killed which led to the airlifting of all Belgium personnel. On April 21, the UNAMIR force, deployed by the U.N, was reduced to two-hundred and seventy from two-thousand. Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian General and head of UNAMIR, reported the genocide constantly to the U.N back in New York. He pleaded for assistance and for the U.N to change their mandate from peace keeping to aggression. The mandate did not come till the final moments of the genocide after five-hundred thousand people were slain. Dallaire stated that if they had gotten authorization for force, and the extra man power he asked for, they could have stopped the genocide from sweeping into the south where the Tutsi were the most highly populated. It was in these last days, in the south of Rwanda, where majority of the deaths came from.
With the U.N ignoring the pleas of Dallaire, the media worked in the western world to underscore the events of Rwanda. Media outlets and government personnel alike refrained from the use of the word genocide when speaking about Rwanda and downplayed the spectrum of it by stating it was just another “civil war” between the RPF and extremists. It was not till the southern neighbor states of Rwanda began to have hundreds of bodies float into their borders by river that the world opened its eyes. Finally, on June 22, the French authorized a humanitarian mission and Dallaire was granted his new mandate.
The Aftermath
800,000-1,000,000 people were killed in the hundred days of genocide. That is 8,000 people killed everyday. The sheer brutality and efficiency of the genocide showed evidence that it was thoroughly planned out over years of Hutu rule. In fact, there is evidence to show that, since the fall of the Tutsi in the 1960’s, hate propaganda was spread through Rwanda against the Tutsi. This means that the civilian population were subject to massive amounts of hate messaging that spanned decades. Another shocking revelation that came to light after the genocide was the evidence to support that Egypt and France were the ones who supplied the majority of arms to Rwanda.
Once the killing ended, the country began to hold trials for those convicted of genocide crimes. By the year 2000 there were more than 100,000 genocide suspects: government and military personnel alike.
Source: United Human Rights
The Lucifer Effect, Group Think, and Propaganda
Rwanda, though tragic, has given the realm of psychology a new understanding of people going bad. The uniqueness of the population, a population bred out of hate propaganda, gives perfect insight into the world of group think. When asked why they did it and if they felt bad, a good majority of those who participated in the genocide showed no remorse. The hate was so infused into their way of life that it had become their culture. They truly saw Tutsi as dogs. To commit such terrible atrocities means you have to see the being you are tormenting as below you. And to those Hutu, the feelings of hate were very real. It goes to show how far our personalities, minds, and characteristics can be changed with the right situation.
Going back to the Stanford Prison Experiment, no one went against authority. In one interview with Hutu extremists, they stated, “I was handed a machete and was told to kill Tutsi. I walked over to my neighbours house, a man I had dinner with all the time, and cut him down. I knew him most of my life.”
Situational Awareness
These two Hubs have delved into many horrific stories, stories which bring the darkest side of mankind to the light. During the genocide, most people in the western world had little idea of its extent. The RTLMC radio broadcast-ed hate messages during the entire genocide, even going as far as to list names of people to kill for the interahamwe. The Western media, in turn, understated the problem. Was it in lack of sympathy? Lack of money incentives? In the end, people have to learn from situations such as this when dealing with organizations that work against humanitarian goals. Even sound governments can bring their own forms of propaganda, so knowledge of a problem is key to the right decision.
Rwanda Genocide Documentary
UPCOMING CAC EVENTS
