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I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady From Rwanda by Sonja Linden
February 22 to March 18, 2007
Rwanda: Before and After the Genocide
by Andrea J. Dymond, Literary Manager/Resident Director. Victory Gardens Theatre
More than ten years after the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the country continues to struggle in the aftermath of the atrocities that took more than 800,000 lives in a mere 100 days. Though the genocide was planned, encouraged and initially carried out by the Hutu government militia, what explanation can there be for the overwhelming numbers of incidents in which neighbors who were friendly hacked those friends to death with machetes on the next day? And in a world in which the refrain, "Never again" has echoed since the Holocaust, how is it that so many people were murdered with so little outcry from the international community? Certainly there are no simple answers to a problem that has its roots in a long and tangled political history. The scale of the horrors unleashed in the genocide can hardly be explained in a cause and effect equation. Still, it will be helpful to know a little about the conflict if only to get some idea of the scope of the tragedy and its aftermath.
Rwanda: A Primer
Located in central Africa, Rwanda is one of the smallest countries on the continent. Its population of 7 million people is primarily made up of two ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Considered aristocrats, the Tutsi dominated the Hutu peasant population, despite being outnumbered by the Hutu, nine to one. These tribal differences were encouraged under Belgian colonial rule. In 1962 with their independence from Belgium, the Hutu majority took power, oppressing the Tutsi through systematic discrimination and violence. Over the next 30 years, nearly a quarter million Tutsi fled to neighboring countries and, in 1985, formed the rebel guerrilla force called the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
In 1990, the rebels invaded Rwanda and after 2 years of fighting, forced the Hutu president into signing an accord through which Hutus and Tutsis would share power. However, tensions remained high and many Hutu violently opposed the idea, seeing it as the opening gambit of a power grab by the Tutsi. When the popularly elected Hutu president in neighboring Burundi (a country of much the same ethnic make-up) was assassinated in 1993, ethnic tensions heightened in Rwanda. In response, the United Nations sent 2500 peacekeepers to Rwanda to help preserve what was always a fragile cease-fire between the Hutu government and the Tutsi rebels. On April 6th, 1994, returning from one of several peace treaty meetings with Tutsi rebels, the Rwandan president was killed when his plane was shot down on its approach to the capital city, Kigali. That night, the killing began.
Anatomy of a Genocide:
The Hutu militia ranged the countryside armed with machetes, clubs, hammers, guns and grenades indiscriminately killing Tutsi civilians and moderate Hutus. They quickly overwhelmed the U.N. peacekeepers, capturing 10 Belgians and torturing them to death. Despite pleas from the U.N. mission commander for 2000 reinforcements, the US, France, Belgium and Italy began evacuating their personnel, leaving the besieged Tutsis to their fate. Meanwhile, the government broadcast continuous hate propaganda on the radio, urging Hutus to slaughter Tutsis. By April 21st, three weeks later, Red Cross estimates of those murdered was in the hundred thousands. At this point, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to pullout of Rwanda, leaving only 200 troops behind and effectively abandoning the country.
Without even token opposition from the international community, the slaughter took on epic proportions. Hutus of every class and profession were among the murderers. Tutsis who sought refuge in churches or missions were killed en masse in some of the worst massacres. By mid-May estimates of the dead had reached a half million. Though the U.N. Security Council, when confronted with international media reports of genocide, finally voted to send 5000 troops, they did not act in time to stop the massacre. The killing ended in July 1994 when Tutsi rebel forces invaded from neighboring countries, defeating the Hutus and ending the genocide.
The total number of those reported killed ranges from 800, 000 to nearly a million.
Rwanda in the Aftermath:
The ten plus years after the genocide have brought exclamations of horror, apologies and recognition of culpability from those nations around the world who saw the storm clouds gathering, but did nothing to shelter the vulnerable from the storm. Inquiries have been held in individual nations as well as at the U.N., which has recognized that the protection of civilians, especially women and children, must be central to their mandate to manage peace and security across the globe.
Reconciliation and recovery is an ongoing struggle for Rwanda. Despite international assistance and substantial political reform, the region suffers from a deep instability, much of it exacerbated by, if not a direct result of, the genocide. There have been two wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo with deep ties to the trouble in Rwanda, as well as an insurrection in the north of the country and a civil war which officially came to an end earlier this year. Clearly repercussions of the genocide will be felt in Rwanda, central Africa and the international community for some time to come.
(Sources: Human Rights Watch Report - "Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda"; www.historyplace.com "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" by Philip Gourevitch)
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