“Sometimes in April” – Remember the Rwandan Genocide of 1994

Rwandan Genocide Memorial (azad-hye.net)

April 6 is one of the darkest days in the history of the people of central-eastern African Republic of Rwanda, marking the commencement of one of the most tragic pages in history of mankind – the genocide of 1994, that claimed the lives of 800.000 to one million people.

From April 6 until mid-July 1994 one of the most criminal plans was put into practice aiming at wiping out an entire population in Rwanda as the Hutu ethnic group rebelled against the Tutsi, killing them with no mercy along with the moderate Hutus who were trying to protect them.

On April 6, 1994 president Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated when the plane he was in along with the president of Burundi was shot down near Kingali International Airport.

The circumstances of the crash remained unclear, but the Hutu Power media blamed it on the Tutsi and so they got a very strong reason to begin the ethnic cleansing of all the Tutsi in the country. At a point they even blaimed the UN peacekeepers for it.

Wanted for Genocide (en.wikipedia.org)

Ethnic problems in Rwanda had already been at their peak when this happened, given that the country was in the middle of a civil war as Rwandan Patriotic Front, an organization formed mostly of Tutsi nationals, invaded from Uganda and tried to topple the Hutu-led government.

Hutu Power ideology had a possibility to incite to resistance against Tutsi at all costs, saying that they were going to be destroyed if they did not resist.

The hatred between Tutsi and Hutu had been long nurtured by colonist powers, Germany and Belgium, who allowed a Tutsi monarchy to exist and to make use of the work of the Hutus, who were exploited.

According to the testimony before the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, assembled to judge what happened in 1994, of the Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, the massacre of the Tutsi had even been tabled at the government’s meetingsand officially planned.

Militias were formed, and by April 6, they were 30,000 in number, one for each ten families in the land.

Rwandan Genocide (flickr.com)

Generals, politicians, local mayors, police officers all took part in organizing the most “scientific” and serious extermination of an ethnic group the world had seen since WWII.

ID cards that specified ethnicity, the color of the skin (with Tutsi lighterly colored) were methods militias like Interhamwe (“those who strike together”) used to identify those who were to be condemned either to instant death or to slavery or sexual abuse.

Tutsi women were called “gipsies” and were often submitted to sexual abuse, while many men had to become the slaves of the Hutus.

Radio and newspapers, such as Kangura and Radion Television Libre de Milles Colines (RTLM), played a crucial role in inciting hatred and violence against Tutsis.

There were even “Hutu Ten Commandments” drafted, stating among others that the Hutu who married a Tutsi woman was a traitor to the cause, that the Hutu women must bring their men back to “reason”, that all positions in the state should belong to Hutus, that Hutus should show no mercy toward Tutsis, and that hate towards Tutsis should be taught in schools.

Tutsi people were designated with the term inyenzi (“cockroach”) and were presented like something to be loathed and crushed.

One of the most important aspects of this tremendous genocide was the passivity of the international community. The voice of the spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department Christine Shelly still ring in the ears of the entire planet as she was trying to explain the semantics of the word “genocide,” until she was asked the blunt question: “How many must die for a genocide to be called genocide”?

United Nations peacekeepers had a restricted mandate and could only carry out humanitarian missions for both sides, the Tutsi, as they were being exterminated, and the Hutu, as the had to flee the country to Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) after the RPF troops took over and removed the Hutu government.

A lot has been done in Rwanda since then to heal the wounds of that terrifying moment in history.

A few years ago, ignorant of the new atmosphere in the country, I asked a Rwandan friend whether he was Tutsi or Hutu. He replied to me, almost offended, that he was a Rwandan. That is a very important step forward.

Even so, the leadership of the country stands now accused (so far in press and UN reports) of implication in massacres against the Hutus in the late 1990s. The president of the country threatened to withdraw the country from the local common bodies of security in Africa, if the allegations were not dropped.

As the Rwandans are striving to put this moment behind, European and American cinema industry is attempting to compensate for the lack of action back in 1994 by making many movies about that genocide. My favorites (if the theme can allow one to have a favorite rendition of it) are Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April. But there are a lot more. Unfortunately, movies do not bring back those who died for the sole reason that their skin color was lighter than the one of their neighbors.

International Criminal Court is still investigating this huge crime against humanity.