gencide unit 4 - Rwanda

colonialism

when a nation forcefully takes over territory that was not their own and subjugates their people who live there to their rule.

Racism

Belief that certain races are superior to others, results in false opinions and assumptions. Can be systemic/structural.

Which country first colonized Rwanda? when?

Germany, 1890s

what was the relationship between the Hutus and Tutsis before colonization?

lived in harmony (common culture, lang, etc)

which country colonized Rwanda after germany? when?

Belgium, after wwi

how did belgian colonizers divide the Rwandans?

3 distinct racial groups: Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa

why did the belgian colonizers deem the tutsis ‘superior’?

they had more ‘european’ features, eugenics

what postions in soceity did the tutsis hold when Rwanda was a belgian colony?

powerful ones, they were seen as natural leaders

how were hutus and twa treated when Rwanda was a belgian colony?

discriminated agaisnt (ex: not allowed into higher education, land ownership, or positions in the government)

what tensions did the belgian’s racial divison create?

resentment of the tutsi by the hutus and twa

what happened after Rwanda gained independance in 1959?

increase in violence between hutus and tutsi; mass killings of tutsis

interahamwe (‘those who stand together”)

civilian militia armed by the gov and instructed to kill tutsis

power triangle - individual discrimination examples

• hutus targeted by other hutus because they ‘looked tutsi’

• tutsis telling the colonizers false history to emphasize their ‘superiority’

• cultivators (tutsi) and pastoralists (hutu) historically not having kids together/getting married

power triangle - beliefs that enforced discrimination

• that power and wealth were based on the number of followers and cattle one had

• marriage with twas shunned by hutus and tutsis

• belief from the colonizers that the tutsi were superior because they were closer to being european (eugenics)

  • the idea that the tutsis ‘civilized’ them

power triangle institutional discrimination

During colonization:

• the colonizers restructuring the gov so that it favoured tutsis and disadvantaged hutus (ex: forbidden from higher edu and gov positions, courts biased agaisnt them, less freedom of movement, etc)

• false history widely taught in schools, idea of tutsi superiority also taught

Post-independance:

• repalcing of tutsi gov officials with hutus, tutsis no longer in positions of power

• media spreading idea that tutsis are traitors/dangerous/killers

• gov targeting tutsus to steal their land and posessions

classification examples

strict racial division between hutus and tutsis

president habyarimana and his government dividing the population into ‘rwandans’ (pro habyarimana) and ‘ibyitso’ (tutsi minority that opposed him)

symbolization examples

legally required to have ethnicity registered on you id card, and had to be carrying it at all times

discrimination examples

tutsis being fired from government postitions and forced to leave their homes

dehumanization examples

tutsis being referred to as cockroaches in radio propaganda

organization examples

formation of the interahamwe and other militias, arms like machetes imported en masse to arm hutu perpetrators

polarization examples

killings of hutu opponents

propaganda encouraging divison between hutus and tutsis (ex: Hutu power movement)

propaganda telling hutus to abandon partisan divides and focus on the true enemy (tutsis)

replacing, threthening, and harassing hutu officials (and some civillians) who opposed the killings, who were hesitant to participate, and/or who wanted calm

preparation examples

training of the interahamwe, other militias, and civilians

arming militas and civilians

having soldiers ready to attack targeted victims

persecution examples

driving tutsis from their homes into places where they would be easier to kill en masse, local administrators directing the division of looted proptery and stolen land

extermination examples

systematic mass slaughter of victims:

finding and killing individual targets (helped by radio broadcasts)

going house-to-house killing tutsis

mass killings by national police and soldiers, using weapons of war like marchine guns and grenades

mass killings by civillian assailants, using machetes, clubs, etc

denial examples

using pacification to avoid criticism from other countries

1918

belgium gets rwanda, they treat the tutsi as superior

1926

belgians introduce a system of ethnic id cards with hutu or tutsi

1957

PARMEHUTU (party for the emancipation of the hutus) is formed

1959

hutus rebel against the belgian colonial power and tutsi elite, 150 000 tutsi flee to burundi

1960

hutus win municipal elections organized by belgian colonial rules

1961-62

• belgians withdraw, rwanda and burundi become two seperate countries

• hutu rev in rwanda installs kayibanda as pres, fisghting continues and tutsis are forced to flee

1963

more massacres of tutsis, exiled tutsis in burundi start to fight back, more tutsis have to flee

1973

habyarimana seizes power, sets up one-party state, imposes ethnic quotas in public service jobs (tutsis restricted to small % of jobs)

1975

MRND is formed, hutus are given preference in jobs and tutsis are exculded

1986

tutsi exiles in uganda form the RPF

oct 1990

RPF invades rwanda, fierce fighting occurs (cease fire in early 1991)

1990/91

rwanda army begins to arm and train the interahamwe, massacres of tutsis continue, moderates and opposition are persecuted

feb 1993

RPF launches another wave of invaison, reach the outskirts of kigali, fighting continues for several months

august 1993

habyarimana and the RPF sign a peace accord, 2500 UN troops are deployed in kigali to oversee

sept 1993 - mar 1994

habyarimana stalls on setting up promised coalition gov with RPF, training of militias ramp up, RTLM starts broadcasting

april 6, 1994

habyarimana is killed, extremists blame the tutsi, genocial killing begins

april 7

• Hutu gunmen systematically start tracking down and killing moderate Hutu politicians and Tutsi leaders.

• The U.S. decides to evacuate all Americans.

• Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda, is told by headquarters not to intervene and to avoid armed conflict.

april 9, 10, 11

• Evidence mounts of massacres targeting ordinary Tutsis

• Gen. Dallaire requests a doubling of his force to 5,000

• Nearly 3,300 Americans, French, Italians and Belgians are evacuated by troops sent in from their countries

APRIL 15

• Belgium withdraws its troops from the U.N. force after ten Belgian soldiers are slain.

• Belgium asks the U.S. to support a full pull out.

  • some are in favour other not, comprimize: a dramatic cutback that would leave a token force in place.

APRIL 19

• Human rights watch estimates the number of dead at 100 000, urges UN sec council use the word genocide

• Belgian troops leave Rwanda; Gen. Dallaire is down to a force of 2,100

APRIL 21, 22

• The U.S. and the entire U.N. Security Council vote to withdraw 90% of the peacekeepers in Rwanda

• the White House issues a statement calling on four Rwandan military leaders to "end the violence." (the only time in the genocide that high level US attn is directed at the leaders of the genocide)

APRIL 25

• Dallaire is down to 450 ill-equipped troops from developing countries. He works to protect some 25,000 Rwandans who are at places guarded by U.N. forces.

late april + early may

the UN and US keep skiritng around the word genocide, and US doesnt want to step in or have to do anything

May 5

A Pentagon memo rejects a proposal from Gen. Dallaire and State Department officials to diminish the killings by using Pentagon technology to jam the extremists' hate radio transmissions.

May 13

• some members of the U.N. Security Council are ready to increase Gen. Dallaire's force.

  • Dallaire's plan is for 5,000 more troops to secure Kigali and create safe havens in the countryside.

  • The U.S. wants to create protected zones at Rwanda's border areas, a less risky option for intervening troops.

May 17

• the U.N. and U.S. finally agree to a version of Gen. Dallaire's plan: nearly 5,000 mainly African U.N. forces will be sent in and the U.N. requests that the U.S. provide 50 armored personnel carriers (APCs).

  • but actually getting them goes slowly bc of beuraucracy (dont arrive until july)

june 22

• still no sign of a U.N. deployment to Rwanda, the U.N. Security Council authorizes France to unilaterally intervene in southwest Rwanda

• French forces create a safe area in territory controlled by the Rwandan Hutu government. But killings of Tutsis continue in the safe area.

july 17

• RPF have captured kigali, and set up an intrim gov there

• The Hutu government flees to Zaire, followed by a tide of refugees.

• The French end their mission in Rwanda and are replaced by Ethiopian U.N. troops.

why was the radio and important way for the gov to get messages to the people?

many rwandans were illiterate, but most had easy access to a radio

when and who first broadcast something claiming that tutsis were planning to kill hutus and telling hutus to go kill them first?

march 1992, Radio Rwanda

why was RTLM widely listened to by the public?

played popular music, informal/witty/funny content, inteviews with people on the streets

what movement did RTLM become the voice of?

Hutu power movement

Hutu power movement

idea that the hutu majority would never again allow the tutsi minority to rule over them or threathen them

what did the RTLM repeatedly emphasize?

• hutu/tutsi differences

• foreign origins of tutsis (not true rwandans)

• horrors of past tutsi rule

• the need to be alert to tutsi plots and possible attacks

how did RTLM facilitate the killings of tutsis?

specific targets were identified, would provide their names and locations

how did RTLM encourage the killers?

congradulated those that were ‘working’ well and villified those who hesitated (sometimes they would be named as targets)

how did the RTLM try to make hutus see killing tutsi?

their responsability as rwandan citizens

how did the RTLM legitimize/normalize the killing?

has killers explain on air what they were doing and why they were doing it

how did the perpertrators describe the first time they killed?

in a frenzy, they didnt see the people they were killing as individuals and didnt noticed that they were their neighbours

how were the perpetrators organized?

taken to soccer fields and told what to do by a judge (kill)

who trained/instructed the civillian killers?

the interahamwe

why were machetes used?

the majority of hutus worked in agriculture/as farmers and were comfortable using it as a tool for that work

how did one perpetrator compare the original use of the machetes to the way they were used in the genocide?

said that killing people was basically the same as killing animals (same motion)

what was the role of women during the genocide?

looting (collecting possesions and clothes from the dead bodies)

initially, why/when did the perpertrators torture their victims?

if they resisted the killers/begged for their life/made the killer chase them

why did the perpetrators continue and increase the torture?

they began to almost get a high from it, and enjoyed it more than the killing itself

what was the role of food in the genocide?

killing takes a lot of energy, so the killers needed to eat big, heavy meals (lots of meat, that they got by buchering the cows that victims owned)

when was the ICTR (international criminal trial for rwanda) established and when did it end?

nov 8 1994 - dec 31st 2015

where was the ictr established?

arusha, tanzania (appeals court is in the hague)

when did Gacaca start and end?

march 2001 - june 2012

how was the ictr established?

UN security council resolution 955

who established the ictr and why?

the international community who were trying to bring perpetrators of genocide and crimes agaisnt humanity to justice (specifically punitive justice)

how and who established Gacaca?

the Rwandan government, on the advice of a human rights moniter who reaerched this tribal custom and suggested it to the government

what was the purpose of Gacaca?

reconciliation, forgiveness (to settle disputes and help people live together again)

what crimes was the itr trying people for?

genocide, crimes agaisnt humanity (murder, rape, torture), conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement of genocide

what crimes was gacaca trying people for?

material crimes like stealing and moral crimes

jurisdiction of the ictr vs gacaca?

international vs community-based (as sanctioned by the government)

what was the framework of the ictr?

9 independance judges hear cases, UN sec council chooses cheif procecutor and judges, 3 trial chambers

what was the framework of gacaca?

community met once a week for several hours, all citizens required to participate, gather together to name victims and perps, act as witnesses, prosecution, defence, and judges (gov developed rules and procedures)

how many cases has the ictr put on trial?

93 indicted, 62 sentenced with various jail times (incl high ranking gov officials, military members, businessmen, religious leaders, people in the media)

how many cases has gacaca put on trial?

1.2 million; ~1500 convicted (various punishments and jail times)

legacy of the ictr

part of broader interntaional system of justice, sets a warning to people who may plan genocide in the future, lots of firsts in terms of prosecuting people for genocide (ex: 1st to judge genocide post nuremburg, define rape as a way to carry out genocide, etc)

legacy of gacaca

allows for community based healing, so neighbours who may have been survivors and perps can find forgiveness and live side by side again

criticisms of the ictr

• very costly

• slow (UN - seen as ineffective and dysfunctional)

• meaningless (doesnt help rwandans, just existed to cleat the international community’s consiousness)

• didnt indict members of the RPF

• life imprisonment is the harshest penalty

• only limited to jan and dec 1994

• judges from other countries may be biased

• prison time is not served in rwanda

criticisms of gacaca

• witnesses memories can fade

• fears of retalitation if perps are identified or if testifying agaisnt them

• hard to re-live painful memories

• survivors sometimes face verbal and physical assaults

• fear that people could be identified as perps just because theyre hutu

  • no real ways to defend agaisnt false accusations

• not independant of gov (so is it really fair?)

• not prosecuting RPF crimes

• not protecting witnesses and survivors

• many rwandans don’t trust the process

who lead the “provisional governement” after Hayiramana’s death?

Colonel Theoneste Bagosora

operation turquoise

France had sent in troops in July. The goal was supposed to be to protect the Tutsis from being killed but many criticized the French government, saying it was only a cover for their real intentions to hold off the RPF.

what did the provisional gov tried to get the troops of operation turquoise to do? what did they actually do?

tried to convince the French to fight the RPF. Instead, the French created a “safe haven” where no fighting or killing would take place, but also, as it turned out, where many perpetrators could safely leave the country

when did the rpf take control of Rwanda?

by the end of july

what big things happened right after the rpf took control of Rwanda?

tutsi survivors could come out of hiding, but they (the rpf) killed civilians, government forces, and members of the militia

how has kagame been good for rwanda?

• abolishing ethnic identity labeling

• helping to reestablish Rwanda on the world stage (improved economy, life expectancy, local infrastructures and institutions)

• supporting the gacaca system

how has kagame been bad for rwanda?

• changed law so he could stay in power for longer

• ruled with an iron fist

• denying that the rpf did any crimes and refusing to prosecute them