The genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda

After the attempts to destroy the Armenians and the Jews of Europe, the genocide of the Tutsi in 1994 is the last of the genocides of the 20th century. Orchestrated by the ruling party in Rwanda, the genocide claimed one million victims within three months.

Like the previous genocides, that of the Tutsi began with a phase of stigmatization of the population, continued with persecution that would lead to death.
However, this mass murder characterized has the particularity that it is the first «genocide of proximity». Executioners and victims were in effect neighbours, as are today the Tutsi survivors and the Hutu convicted of crimes by the local courts set up by the new regime.
In terms of its scale and the mechanisms used, the genocide of the Tutsi poses crucial and ever-present questions for States, international organizations and citizens.

Hateful conditioning of the population

The genocide of the Tutsi is rooted in colonial politics and 19th-century ideology. The Belgian colonizer initially chose to rely on the Tutsi by creating the myth of their superiority over the other community, the Hutu.
The antagonism born of this hierarchy was exacerbated during the independence of Rwanda in the 1960s, marked by a reversal of power that then fell to the Hutu with the support of Belgium. The young Rwandan state reduces any form of political opposition to a racial struggle between so-called ethnic groups, in fact communities historically related to clans.

Hunted and killed like animals

In this context, while the multi-party system authorized in 1991 allows the opposition to manifest itself, the Hutu government develops hate propaganda that psychologically prepares the population for genocide. The role of media conditioning as the weight of words is decisive. The Tutsi are like pests that must be disposed of.
The process of animalization will culminate in April, when the genocide begins, in a «game» hunt followed by the killing of victims, slaughtered with cruelty and like cattle.

The international community’s inaction

The speed and scale of the killings partly explain the lack of reaction in the country where the actions that are then carried out relate more to rescue, including by Hutu hostile to genocide, than to armed resistance.
In this respect, the defection of the international community has been catastrophic. Disqualified by its support for the regime of Hutu president Juvénal Habyarimana, France withdrew its forces in 1993.

The involvement of the civilian population

Unlike the genocide of the Jews, the killing of the Tutsi is not concentrated in specific sites such as extermination camps. The planned assassination takes place in the space of everyday life. As of 7 April 1994, barriers were erected at all strategic junctions, in Kigali the capital and then throughout the country.
Holders of an ID card bearing the word “Tutsi” are shot on site. The involvement of the civilian population in the massacres is one of the striking features of genocide.
Grouped in small groups, called ibiteros, the murderers include young men, women and even children.

On 4 July 1994, the military victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, created by the Tutsi in 1987, marks the end of the massacres and the beginning of a civil and moral reconstruction that involves judging those responsible for the genocide, not only the perpetrators.

The Shoah Memorial dedicated an exhibition to the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda from 11 April to 5 October 2014.

EXHIBITION SITE

The Ibuka Association: Memory, Justice and Support for Survivors

The Ibuka association, officially "Ibuka – Memory, Justice and Support for the Survivors", is a non-governmental organization that works to commemorate the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda, Justice for those responsible for genocidal crimes and support for survivors of the 1994 massacres. “Ibuka” in Kinyarwanda means “remember”.

The association was founded in Belgium on 16 August 1994. On 28 May 1995, an association of the same name was established in Switzerland with the same objective as its Belgian counterpart. On 14 November 1995, the Ibuka association was established in Rwanda. In France, the association Ibuka Mémoire et Justice was later established in April 2002. These different structures bring together the survivors of the genocide, the relatives of the victims as well as all those working for the memory of the victims and the fate of the survivors of this genocide.

IBUKA FRANCE WEBSITE