RWANDA

‘’I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shooke hands with devil’’

Quote stated by Romeo Dallaire, general of the ‘blue helmet’ troops, after witnessing the terrible atrocities that shook Rwanda during its genocide.

‘Genocide’ is a legal term that tries to tag a ‘’systematic elimination of all, or a significant part, of a racial, ethnic, religious, cultural or national group. ‘’ But beside this word we know there are millions of people whose stories have been cut off before their time, hundreds of nations whose identity and dignity have been denigrated, multiple countries whose grounds have been shaken by the violence while their history was being stained with blood.

And what happened in Rwanda in the latests 1900’s tells us the saddest story ever. Within 3 months, some 800.000 rwandans were exterminated, not to mention the thousands of raped women and childred and another high amount of maimed in the most rudimentary ways. But to try to understand this heartbreaking scene, we better lay some history on the table.

The precolonial Rwanda was settled by three main ethnic groups: the hutus, the tutsis and a minimum percentage of twa. While the tutsis were in numerical disadvantage, the hutus represented the majority of the population; mainly dedicated to the agriculture. Despite this, the tutsis, who used to be shepherds, got to accumulate money and power and soon became an oppressive elite for the rest of groups. After I World War, Rwanda became a belgian colony, and along with Belgium blessing the tutsis instututionalised ethnic discrimination. After a period of progressive but hard policies, hutus were completely left behing public life.

By the arrival of the 60’s some voices start to claim for Independence, so Belgium decides to set democratic elections, widely won by hutus. This encourages them after years of alienation and suddenly the roles opressor – opressed are sharply exchanged. It is in 1962 when a warned Belgium gives its Independence to a hutu-controlled Rwanda; so the persecution of tutsis becomes harder. In the next decade, more than 20.000 tutsis are killed and much more flee to bordering countries. The exiled organise theirselves in Uganda around the RPF (Patriotic Rwander Front) and Paul Kagame; who will later become Rwanda’s first democratic president after the genocide. The country gets to know a period of debatable stability along with president Habyarimana, but 1980’s hunger and crisis will worsen the ethnic issue. Finally, the 1st of October 1990, wishful tutsis invades Rwanda by puring into Kigali and a cruel civil war breaks out. The tutsis are hardly targeted by the media and an anger speech versus all tutsis and even moderated hutus soaks through civilians. In fact, here there come two of the distinctive features of rwandan genocide: it is in Rwanda where the civilians get more involved in the slaughter tan anyone else in the world, being provided by the governement with white weapons and simple guns. And in the other hand, it’s neccesary to highlight the vital role of the media, radio overall, in this incitement. In fact, no one can write about rwandan genocide without mentioning RTML radio; one of the most lethal weapons of hutus ‘revolution’. It broadcasted for a mostly illiterate population fomenting the massive massacres while it dehumanized the potential victims calling them ‘snakes’ or ‘cockroaches’.

When president Habyarimana notices that the situation has gone too far, he manages to sign Arusha peace treaty, that would set the end of the hostilities and a kind of power sharing out with tutsis. The extremist sector of the hutus son feels betrayed so the 6th of April 1994 they shot down Habyarimana plane, killing him and some of their close advisors such as Burundi’s president, and blame the tutsis for that. This is the ‘cassus belli’ of the genocide, since when colonel Bengasora comes to power and civilian hutus give full play to their grudge and anger. These will be the days when horrible events like Emparama slaughter overcome. Thousands of tutsis looked for shelter in the local church, thinking that no agressor would dare to murder an innocent inside of a God’s temple… but they were wrong; and after being told that they would be respected inside the worship building and once it was full of tutsis, hutus attacked withoud misery. Some 5000 perished like cornered animals, entire families with grannies, children and pregnants between them. During the following weeks, the rebels cut off the lifes of more tan 200.000 people, and UN scarce forces desperately asked for reinforceent troopes, since Dallaire thought that 250 more troopes would make it possible to put the situation under control within 2 weeks. UN reluctantly accepted, so busy solving the Balcanic issue, but by that time Rwanda was sitting on one of the rotatory seats the security council has and firmly blocked any inkling of intervention. In May 1994, France finally offers to deploy her military help with some aid of the UN, who agrees the deal. But some tutsis, due to the long relationships that France held with the hutu Administration, see this as a posioned offer… and in fact, while the western troops calm down the situation, they help thousands of hutus to scape without penalti, frightened of the possible tutsis’ reprisals. When the RPF takes the power again, a brief new wave of anger batters the country. The exiled tutsis left, and those who were still hiding in the country, devastated and stunned, slowly come back to Kigali, finding a ruined and no-leadership country. By July, Rwanda was emptied of terrified hutus, who crowded together in bordership countries’ refugees camps. Then the second disaster started; the humanitarian crisis. In a refugees shelter in Zaire, for example, erupted a wild spread of cólera that killed thousands of hutus. Then will be when a remorsed UN will deploy the bigges humanitarian aid program ever.

The new elected president in 2003, Paul Kagame, starts up his reconciliation policies such as aboling the ethnic ID cards. The trials start; but Rwanda’s justice sytem soon floods. The felonies are divided in 4 levels depending on what kind of offenses the individual commited during the genocide. Then, a traditional system known as ‘gakaka, base don popular courts, is activated for the ‘minor’ crimes; nearly all convicted to comunitarian works. It won’t be until 1995 when the UN stablishes the International Penal Court for Rwanda in Arusha, iconic city since the peace was about to be signed there before the war officialy started. This court created ‘ad hoc’ along with the one of Yugoslavia, prosecuted the genocide ideologists.

Now some influential voices have been raisen for an amnesty, but for lots of victims it’s still too early to live together with their rapists or their families assasins. So maybe the reconciliation is up to those who don’t remember the genocide.