The events that took place in Rwanda in 1994 are rightly considered one of the worst mass crimes of the 20th century. The country was divided into two warring camps and actually began to destroy itself. In terms of the rate of crimes committed, the genocide in Rwanda surpassed even the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. In three months of massacres, about 1 million people were killed.
Between the representatives of the two peoples living in Rwanda, the Tutsi (they were victims) and the Hutus (they were the executioners), there were only the most insignificant differences, but this did not prevent them from starting to exterminate each other. So what is the Rwandan genocide of 1994, how did people of practically the same blood come to hate each other?
What is genocide?
In order to understand this terrible phenomenon, it is necessary to give the basic definitions that characterize the current events and what the country of Rwanda was like in 1994.
Genocide is the deliberate and deliberate destruction of a nation, race or nationality. Genocide can also mean systematic humiliation, psychological pressure that leads to a decline in morale.
Rwanda
Rwanda is a small, underdeveloped African state. The country is inhabited by several black peoples. Rwanda on the map of Africa is located in the eastern part of the mainland. The country has a very small part of the cities and urban population. The capital of Rwanda is Kigali.
Tutsis and Hutus
The Hutu people still make up the ethnic majority in Rwanda (about 85%). Tutsis, both at the time of the massacre and today, remain in the minority (14%).
Many researchers frankly do not understand why the genocide occurred in Rwanda. As at the time of the massacre, and today there are no linguistic or anthropological differences between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples. Even since the 15th century, the tribes lived quite peacefully: the Hutu cultivated the land, and the Tutus raised cattle. The Hutu had a slightly darker skin color than the Tutsis and were slightly shorter in stature. But in general, the peoples were close to each other. Only over time, the Tutsis began to stand out on social grounds and created the aristocratic elite of society, that is, they became more wealthy than the Hutus. This elite was a closed caste, and those who lost their fortunes moved into the category of the poorest strata of the population, the basis of which were the Hutus. But the massacre in Rwanda arose not along social, but along ethnic lines.
Background to the conflict
Rwanda, the country of the Hutus and Tutsis, according to the decisions of the Berlin Conference of 1885, came under the control of Germany. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, Belgian troops captured it and annexed its territory to the Belgian Congo. From this moment begins the history of Rwanda as a country.
From the beginning of 1918, according to the decision of the League of Nations, the country remained under the possession of the Belgians. But it is interesting that both the German and the Belgian colonialists appointed exclusively Tutsis as governors for managerial posts, considering them to be more educated and responsible.
It was in the first half of the twentieth century that the confrontations between the aforementioned peoples began, many Hutus were not satisfied with the social situation, and they began to oppose both the local Tutsi aristocrats and Belgian rule. Thus, by 1960, the monarch was overthrown in Rwanda. This was a direct consequence of the Hutu struggle.
In 1973, a coup took place in the country, as a result of which Minister Juvenal Habyarimana came to power (he was in office until the beginning of the tragic events). The new president began to establish his own rules in politics: he created a party - the National Revolutionary Action, took a clear course towards "planned liberalism", which involved state regulation of the economy and private initiative at the same time. He planned to develop the country through foreign investment. The capital of Rwanda has become a modern city.
Rwandan Patriotic Front
In the early 1990s, an extremist group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front emerged among Tutsi emigrants. Radicals in foreign policy were guided by the United States and NATO countries, and already in 1994 their number increased to 15 thousand people.
Beginning of the genocide
The event that triggered the genocide in Rwanda was the crash of a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. After that, massive crimes against the Tutsis began.
Another military coup immediately takes place in the country, as a result of which the Hutus come to power, subjugating the government, the army and the Interahamwe militia, which began the ethnic cleansing of the Tutsi people. The massacre in Rwanda was a kind of response to extremist RPF emigrants who wanted to take revenge on the Hutus for the constant protests in the country. About a million people were killed in three months of atrocities.
The role of the media
All the media, from newspapers to radio, actively fueled anti-human sentiments, which can only be compared with the fascist regime, calling for the extermination of the Tutsis. Even the then head of the country, Theodore Sindikubwabo, personally called for revenge on the enemies. Meanwhile, the Rwandan newspaper Kangura published a manifesto called "The Ten Commandments of the Hutus" that became a kind of inspiration for the crimes.
Fanatically minded Hutu armed themselves with machetes and clubs and went to destroy their fellow citizens, neighbors and even friends, calling them "cockroaches" who are not worthy of life.
A striking example is the situation of the former employee of the prestigious airline "Air Rwanda" Mkiamini Nyirandegei, who is still in prison for killing her husband and children. And there are a lot of such stories of fanatical patriotism and selflessness.
Even Catholic priests often acted as provocateurs and instigators in these tragic events. They gave out the places where the Tutsis were hiding, and called for massacres.
A striking example of such reprisals is the massacre in a psychiatric hospital - Hutu militias slaughtered hundreds of Tutsis, who took refuge here from the onset of misfortune. The same thing happened at the Don Bosco school, where about two thousand Tutsis were killed.
The genocide in Rwanda took on a climactic character, and the brutality only increased. Thousands of people were burned alive, boiled in molten rubber, cut off limbs and thrown into the river. Africa did not know such horror. Rwanda turned into a hell on earth in a few months.
So, in the Sowu monastery, 7,000 destitute Tutsis were burned, who were not saved even by the fact that they were in a religious building. Their place was given by the priests themselves, and according to some reports, they acted as executioners. Thus, the propaganda of cruelty even affected the ministers of the church.
Role of the UN
Since the beginning of the well-known events in Rwanda, the United Nations has taken a neutral, observant position, which suggests the effectiveness of the activities of this organization. The UN headquarters officially ordered not to intervene in the conflict. Although she knew about all the events taking place from war correspondents and informants.
Despite all the further cries for help from the national elites of Rwanda, the UN made absolutely no attempts, not only military intervention, but also the introduction of peacekeepers. All the time, the solution to the conflict was either delayed or even postponed.
But in the end, the Rwandan genocide was stopped by the advance of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which occupied cities such as Kigali, Gisenyi and Butare. About 2 million Hutu criminals fled the country, fearing revenge from the Tutsis.
What was the tragedy
Can ethnic conflict be considered the main reason for the massacre in Rwanda? As you know, not only the Tutsis were exterminated, but also the Hutu, who did not want to participate in the massacres. Some evidence says that the enraged "fighters" destroyed even those who were not their enemy. Therefore, the conflict has a more complex nature than the nationalist one.
Tutsi (Watutsi) - a mysterious people of 2 million people living in Central Africa, is very different from other Negroid peoples. Despite the fact that in our time many Tutsis profess both Catholicism and Islam, they also believe in the creator god Imaan, who bestows health and fertility. The spirits of their ancestors serve as messengers for God, transmitting his will to people. The Tutsis make sacrifices to the spirits, guess and believe that their monarch shares the power of a deity, for which he has a sacred fire and special royal drums, as well as sacred rituals to connect with.
Tutsis are tall, slender, handsome black men who bear some resemblance to Ethiopians. They have long heads and curly hair. The face is very interesting - the nose is long and narrow, and the lips are full, but not twisted. Some anthropologists believe that this type developed as a result of adaptation to the steppe or desert climate. It was believed that a thin nose could indicate the European origin of the people, but modern genetic studies of the y-chromosome have shown that the Tutsi are on 
100 percent are of local origin with a slight East African admixture.
The Tutsi themselves believe that their ancestors lived in Egypt. Indeed, in Egyptian frescoes there are images of cows with huge lyre-shaped horns, and tall black shepherds with classical features. There is also circumstantial evidence of their origin from the Arabs, as musical folklore works have survived that are closer to Arabic than to African music.
Perhaps the mixing occurred in the 15th century, during the invasion of the Arabs in Sudan and Ethiopia. The Tutsis migrated to Rwanda and Burundi. They began to build their own state, occupying a privileged position in it in relation to the indigenous people of the Hutu, as people are more developed and educated.
In 1959, the Tutsi king was overthrown, privileges were abolished, and the Hutu government came to power. Hundreds of thousands of Tutsis had to flee. Those who remained in Rwanda were destroyed, and the persecutors called them cockroaches, accusing them of serving the whites. Nevertheless, being in the minority, they again came to power. In 1994 in the Congo 
terrible events occurred, as a result of which 800,000 Tutsis and 200,000 Hutus died.
The plane with President Habyariman was returning from an international conference, but on approaching the capital of Rwanda, it was unexpectedly shot down by a rocket and exploded in the air. The President is dead. This was the signal for the beginning of the Tutsi genocide. Enraged Hutus set fire to Tutsi houses, raped and beat women to death. Crowds armed with clubs and machetes tortured and killed the sick, the elderly, and children. Tutsi babies were taken by the legs and smashed their heads against the stone walls with a flourish. The bandits even dealt with fellow tribesmen who refused to participate in the massacres.
On the river - the source of the Nile, thousands of corpses floated, completely clogging the channel. The Tutsis rebelled. They managed to install their own Minister of Defense. They began to take revenge on the killers, executed many instigators of genocide, 1.7 million Hutus became refugees - 2,000 people died daily from cholera in the camps. The inter-tribal feud reached its climax.
In March 1999, 150 Hutu militants surrounded a forest campsite in western Uganda. Sleepy Western tourists who had come to see local gorillas were kicked out of their beds and lined up in front of tents, their passports confiscated. The Hutu believed that the Tutsis were collaborators of the British, so four men and four women with English passports were beaten with clubs and chopped with machetes. One of the unfortunate people was also raped before that. Tourists with passports from other countries were robbed and beaten. They miraculously managed to escape.
Laurent Nkunda, a Tutsi military figure, accused the government of pandering to the Hutu militants. In 2004, he rebelled. The rebels were initially successful, but then the government troops drove them out. There was a split, but it was not until 2009 that the rebel General Nkunda was arrested. In 2012, Tutsi soldiers again rebelled and took control of the city of Goma. The conflict there continues to this day.
The Tutsis are not only warlike and conflicted. They are wonderful songwriters: hunting songs, lullabies. They also have "ibikuba" - laudatory songs for cattle. During the wedding, the bride must shed tears and pour out her soul in poetic form. Her friends console her with a song accompanied by dancing.
In addition, the Tutsis know many proverbs, fairy tales, myths and riddles. One of the tales is reminiscent of the Russian tale of the fisherman and the fish. It talks about the poor Sebgugugu. God helped him, providing his family with food and everything necessary, but the greedy Sebgugugu wanted more and more, and for his greed, God deprived him of everything.
From African folklore they took the tam-tom, which is more than an instrument. These people endow him with individuality, considering him alive. In addition, tom-tom inspires them with respect and fear as a symbol of the ruler. In the Tutsi language, there are such metaphors: “the sovereign gives tam-toms”, which means “the sovereign dies”; "eat tom-tom" - to come to power, "son of tom-tom" - the ruler of royal blood. A ceremony is still practiced when 24 high tom-toms are placed around the central one and drummers move around them, playing in turn, and each one has to knock on the main tom-tom.
Tam-toms are used during solemn rituals - weddings, funerals, naming ceremonies. The naming ceremony is held on the child's seventh birthday. If a woman's first son is born, then she glues a circle of sorghum straw, corn, or small red and white beads on his forehead.
The Tutsis have polygamy, and the parents and elders of the clan are usually looking for brides. They not only find suitable brides, but also try to use marriages to maximize their family's ties to other communities. This creates conditions for greater security and limits the possibility of incest.
Marriage is concluded after the payment of a bride price. It is transferred by the groom's family to the bride's family and serves as compensation for her offspring, which will henceforth belong to the husband's family. Marriage ransom - livestock. Previously, the Tutsis were the owners of large herds of cattle, were part of the aristocratic stratum of Rwanda. They had castes, between which marriage barriers were maintained. Tutsis rarely married Hutu women. Gradually, the differences between the two peoples were erased, the Tutsis became poorer. If it was impossible to pay the ransom, the groom worked for his father-in-law for 2 years.
Having created a family, the Tutsis settle in a separate estate. It includes several huts: “cambere” (bedroom), “kigonia” (pantry), “kagondo” (kitchen), granaries, small reliquary huts, receptacles for ancestral spirits. 20-60 estates are combined into settlements, which are located on the hills. The hut has a frame of wood and a braid of reeds and straw, shaped like a beehive. A high fence is placed around the dwelling. Modern wealthy Tutsis prefer to live in modern cottages.
Unfortunately, the history of many African countries (however, like the history of many European or Asian countries) has many dark spots: wars, disasters, epidemics, catastrophes, famine, and even such a terrible phenomenon in human history as genocide - the complete destruction of representatives of a certain people or ethnic group. The worst genocide in history was launched by Adolf Hitler against the Jews, the results of which are more than terrible - 6,000,000 Jews living in different countries of Europe were destroyed by the Nazis, died in concentration camps, were shot and tortured. This is a great tragedy, but there have also been smaller genocides, such as the Armenian genocide by the Turks in the early 20th century, or the terrible genocide of the people of Cambodia by the bloody communist dictator Pol Pot against his own people in the 60s of the last century. But there was one genocide that few people know about, and surprisingly, it was quite recently, some 20 years ago, in 1994 in one East African country - Rwanda.
The victims of this genocide were 800,000 Rwandans (almost the entire population of a large city), representatives of the Tutsi tribe, who were killed by their own fellow citizens, also Rwandans, but representatives of another tribe - the Hutu. But before you understand why this happened, you need to look into the history of this African country.
BACKGROUND
Rwanda is a small country in the central east. Since ancient times, it was inhabited by several tribes, the largest of which were actually the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. The Hutu tribes led a sedentary lifestyle, were engaged in agriculture, while the Tutsis, on the contrary, were nomadic cattle breeders, with large herds of cattle (cattle and horned) roamed here and there. And of course, like any decent nomads, the Tutsis were more warlike, and at some point in the ancient history of Rwanda, they conquered the settled agricultural Hutu tribes.
Further, the Rwandan society was divided into two castes - the ruling Tutsi, who occupied all the leading positions (including the position of the king of Rwanda) and the wealthiest part of the population and the so-called "proletariat" of the Hutus. And interestingly, for us, representatives of both the Hutu tribes and the Tutsis at first glance would have the same face, but in fact they differ in some subtle ways: the Tutsis, as a rule, have a slightly different nose shape. Also, for many centuries of Tutsi domination, mixed marriages between representatives of different tribes were prohibited, which led to the fact that these tribes did not dissolve into each other. (It's a pity, because then this tragic genocide might not have happened, as we see racism, even African, between different tribes, does not lead to good).
But then came the 20th century, white Europeans came to Rwanda. At first, the Tutsi kings swore allegiance to the German Kaiser, but during the First World War, Belgian troops attacked its territory and completely captured it in 1916. Further and until 1962, Rwanda was a Belgian colony. For the first time in the years of Belgian domination, representatives of the Tutsi tribe retained their privileges and aristocratic position, but starting from the 50s, the Belgian colonialists began to curtail Tutsi rights, and representatives of the “proletariat”, people from the Hutu tribe, were increasingly appointed to leadership positions. Among the latter, dissatisfaction with the centuries-old oppression of the Tutsi was also growing, which in 1959 turned into an open uprising against the Tutsi king. The uprising turned into a real small civil war, which resulted in the liquidation of the monarchy (in 1960), many representatives of the Tutsi tribe became refugees in neighboring countries: Tanzania and Uganda. Rwanda became a presidential republic and at the same time gained independence, the first president, and in fact the head of the state for the first time was a representative of the Hutu tribe, a man named Kaibanda.
However, Kaibanda did not stay as president for long, as a result of a military putsch, the then Minister of Defense of the country, Major General Juvenal Habyarimana (by the way, also Hutu) came to power. However, this is a typical situation for the African countries of the second half of the 20th century, where military coups have become common and even commonplace.
So the years went by, and the 20th century was already coming to an end, the 90s had come, the Soviet Union had already collapsed, the world was gaining more and more signs of globalization (the author of this article went to school at that time), in Rwanda, the descendants of the Tutsis, who became refugees back in the 60s, they decided to regain power and created the so-called National Front of Rwanda (hereinafter referred to as NRF), which, without thinking twice, began hostilities against the Rwandan Hutu government. As you know, one aggression causes even more aggression, and violence always breeds even more violence, therefore, among the Hutu tribes, hatred against the Tutsis began to actively grow, which in their imagination was presented in the form of centuries-old enslavers. In addition, the Tutsis were often the bosses of the Hutus (and who loves their bosses at all), often the Tutsis were richer (and envy since the time of the biblical Cain has been the cause of almost all crimes). At the same time, the Hutu extremist organization Interahamwe (in Rwandan - "those who attack together") was formed. She then became the main blade of the genocide.
THE BEGINNING OF THE GENOCIDE
But let's go in order: first, the president of Rwanda, the old warrior Juvenal Habyarimana, tried to peacefully settle everything with the Tutsi. This caused discontent among the radical Hutus. The latter made another coup on the “good” African one - on April 6, 1994, the president was returning by plane from some international African conference, already on the way to the ground, the presidential plane was shot down from a MANPADS (man-portable anti-aircraft missile system) by a paramilitary group of radical Hutus. The radical Hutu, who committed this crime themselves, blamed the hated Tutsis for the assassination of the president. From that moment on, a wave of violence swept across the country, Tutsis often living in the neighborhood of the Hutu, became victims of their own neighbors. The Interahamwe were especially rampant, killing not only the Tutsis, but also the moderate Hutus who did not support this bloody madness, or even hid the Tutsis. The Interahambwe killed all the Tutsis indiscriminately, women, old people, small children. The Tutsi killing rate in Rwanda was 5 times the killing rate in German concentration camps during World War II.
A dozen Belgian UN peacekeepers who guarded Rwandan Prime Minister Agatha Uwilingimanu, who belonged to the moderate Hutus and was a supporter of peaceful dialogue with the Tutsis, also fell under distribution. Therefore, after the death of the president, she became one of the first victims of the violence that soon swept the country. Her house was surrounded by members of the same notorious Interahamwe, the Belgian peacekeepers guarding the Prime Minister were offered to surrender, promising life, but then they were treacherously killed. Prime Minister Agatha Uwilingijmana also died along with her husband, but fortunately they managed to hide and save their children (now they have found political asylum in Switzerland).
RADIO 1000 HILLS AND ITS ROLE IN THE GENOCIDE.
A special role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide belongs to the radio station of the radical Hutu, known as Radio 1000 Hills. In fact, the activities of the Rwandan "Radio 1000 Hills" are very instructive for today's events taking place in Russia and Ukraine, when the media (rather disinformation) with their false reports (there about "crucified boys", "atrocities of the Kiev junta", "two slaves from Donbass”, etc.) purposefully escalate national enmity between the two peoples. Radio 1000 Hills did the same, inciting real hatred and enmity among the Hutu towards the Tutsi tribe, “eating Hutu children”, and “not even people at all, but cockroaches, which all decent Hutus need to exterminate.” And you know what's interesting, in remote Rwandan villages, where Radio 1000 Hills was not broadcast, the level of violence was either several times less, or even absent altogether.
In fact, the genocide in Rwanda is a very significant example of how the media (in this case, a seedy African radio station) can influence public opinion, causing real mass insanity, when a neighbor who has lived next to you all his life, and a seemingly quite normal person, now goes to kill you, just because you belong to a different tribal ethnic group, because you have a slightly different nose shape. And now admit who knows Russians, who also seemed to be quite normal people, and now they hate you for being a dill, pravosek, fascist-cannibal-Bandera and the list goes on. Now you understand why this happens, even if a radio station can really kill. So it was in Rwanda, the radio really killed, with a radio in one hand and a bloody machete in the other, members of the Interahamwe went from one house to another, killing all Tutsis, while being inspired by radio broadcasts calling for killing all Tutsis like cockroaches. The radio's DJ and founder are now serving life sentences for the crime against humanity of inciting genocide in Rwanda. It will be interesting to have the same fair punishment for representatives of the Russian media? Let's leave this question open.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
I wonder what the international community has done to stop the genocide. You know, absolutely NOTHING. Although, of course, at the meeting of the UN Security Council, representatives of different countries were very worried about these events, but we know what their concern is worth. Even Belgium, which lost its own peacekeepers, did not take any active steps, at most it was urgently evacuated from the country of all Europeans and Americans who were there at that time. And that's it.
Particularly shameful was the behavior of the UN soldiers in the Rwandan school "Don Bosco". There was the headquarters of a contingent of UN peacekeepers, and hundreds of Tutsis fled there under the protection of UN soldiers, fleeing the Interahamwe pursuing them. Soon, the UN soldiers were given an order to evacuate, and what they did was simply leave to the mercy of fate, in fact, to certain death, hundreds of people, women, Tutsi children, who found temporary shelter in the school. Immediately after the UN soldiers left the school, the Interhambwe staged a bloody massacre there.
THE END OF THE GENOCIDE
After the beginning of the bloody madness that swept Rwanda, the Tutsi paramilitary forces located in neighboring countries, their National Front of Rwanda, the NFR immediately began an active offensive against the country in order to save their fellow Tutsis. And since they learned to fight well, very soon almost the entire country was liberated from the radical Hutu, many of whom, in turn, began to flee Rwanda, fearing the now retaliatory genocide of the Hutu by Tutti.
The economic consequences of the genocide were terrible, soon after it came famine (after all, no crop was harvested) and all kinds of epidemics caused by terrible unsanitary conditions in the refugee camps, where Tutsis fled from the Hutus, and then the Hutus fled from the Tutsi. Let these terrible events become at least a dark, but instructive historical lesson for all of us.
GENOCIDE IN RWANDA IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
And finally, this event was embodied in the cinema, a good one about these events was filmed in 2005 called “Shooting Dogs” about the girl Tootsie who survived the aforementioned massacre at the Don Bosco school, about the shameful departure of UN peacekeepers, about a Catholic priest who ended up in epicenter of this nightmare.
But the best film shot after these events is “Hotel Rwanda”, I advise everyone to watch it, it shows how a simple employee of a Rwandan hotel, by the way, from the Hutu tribe, risking his life, saves his Tutsi compatriots from their own fanatical Hutu tribesmen. The film shows the humanity, courage and nobility of a simple person who has not lost his human face in this madness. This film, like Shooting Dogs, is based on real events, everything shown there is not fiction, but actually happened.
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In 1994, a million people were killed in Rwanda in just 100 days. 10,000 people a day! Women, children, old people - the whole Tutsi people were destroyed indiscriminately. This is impossible to imagine, especially since it all happened not once then, but during our lifetime, only 20 years ago. Unlike other acts of genocide, few people know about Rwanda, although the number of victims is simply incredible. It's just that no one cares about Africa. Many will not find Rwanda on the world map at all. Despite the fact that the plans for the complete extermination of the Tutsi were known in advance, neither the Americans nor the Europeans intervened. More precisely, the intervention was limited to the evacuation of its citizens. Here I recommend watching the movie "Shooting Dogs".
In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, there is a genocide museum. It is also a memorial to the memory of the victims of the tragedy. Those who survived come here, the last photographs of the dead are brought here. The heaviest room - with large children's photographs. Under each photo there is a short reference: the name of the child, age, what he loved, who he wanted to become and how he was killed.
WHO ARE THE TUTSI AND THE HUTU
The Tutsi and Hutu tribes settled on the territory of modern Rwanda many centuries ago. First, Hutu farmers came from the south of the continent in search of new arable land. Later, Tutsi pastoralists with their herds came from the north to the same territory. The situation developed in such a way that all power in their settlements was in the hands of the Tutsis represented in the minority. They collected taxes from the Hutu peasants, lived in abundance and did not engage in physical labor.
First the German and then the Belgian colonists supported the power of the Tutsis. The reason was the origin of the Tutsi: the Europeans reasoned that if this tribe used to live in the northern part of Africa, then it means that it is genetically closer to the Caucasoid race and has superiority over the Hutus. The position of the Hutus became worse and more powerless, and in the end, in 1959, this people staged an uprising and seized power in the country. Ethnic cleansing began, tens of thousands of Tutsis died, and about 300 thousand more were forced to flee to neighboring countries. In Rwanda, until 1994, Hutu rule was established.
CIVIL WAR IN RWANDA
The civil war in Rwanda began in 1990. By that time, the Tutsi, expelled from the country in 1959, organized the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) movement in neighboring Uganda and planned an invasion of their native country. Tutsi detachments hid in the forests and mountains, periodically attacking cities and waging a guerrilla war. In 1992, they agreed to negotiate with the authorities. In 1993, the Tutsi and Hutus signed an agreement under which members of the RPF entered the interim Rwandan government, all Tutsi refugees received the right to return to their homeland, and both sides ceased hostilities. A fragile peace was made. A special UN mission of 2.5 thousand Belgian military arrived to monitor the implementation of the terms of the agreement.
Radical Hutus were dissatisfied with the concluded peace. They continued to incite hatred of the Tutsis among the population and agitate for their complete destruction. Radical youth fighting groups of the Interahamwe began to appear in the country, the military trained them and armed them with firearms. In addition, the military "as a precaution" handed out machetes to the Hutu citizens.
Hutu army training
In Rwanda, propaganda magazines were printed, in which, in particular, the nationalist "Ten Commandments of the Hutus" were distributed. Here are the first 4 commandments. They say that any Hutu who has connections with Tutsi women is a traitor. It is also claimed that all Tutsis are unscrupulous in business and that the only thing they seek is national superiority over the Hutus.
There was also a radio in the country, which broadcast propaganda that the Tutsis wanted to regain their former position and make slaves out of the Hutus.
“Everyone listening to this: get up and fight for our Rwanda. Fight with any weapon you can find: if you have arrows, then with arrows, if you have spears, then with spears. We all have to fight the Tutsis. We must finish them off, exterminate them, sweep them out of our country.”
“Mercy is a sign of weakness. Show them mercy and they will make you slaves again.”
Propaganda on RTLM radio in Rwanda, 1994
CAUSE FOR GENOCIDE
The reason for the start of the mass extermination of the Tutsis was the assassination of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana. It happened on April 6, 1994. The plane in which he was flying was shot down by a rocket on approach to Kigali. The radicals blamed Tutsi detachments for the murder and refused to obey the orders of Prime Minister Agatha Uwilingiyimana, who, according to the law, was supposed to become acting. president. They explained this by the fact that they themselves will put things in order in the country. The Prime Minister, her husband and 10 Belgian soldiers accompanying them were soon killed. So did many other politicians who favored peace with the Tutsis and tried to pacify the radical military.
Soldiers from the Rwandan Patriotic Front found the body of former Prime Minister Agatha Uwilingiyimana
"Apparently, the plan is to destroy real and potential allies of the RPF and thus limit the ability of the RPF and the Tutsi to resist ... There is no end to the unprecedented bloodshed yet."
"The Roots of Violence in Rwanda", US Department of State, Office of Intelligence and Research, April 29, 1994
An official investigation into the death of the President of Rwanda found that his plane was shot down by Hutu radicals who did not want to make peace with the Tutsis and were looking for an excuse to exterminate them.
THE BEGINNING OF THE GENOCIDE
A few hours after the death of the president, the military formed a Crisis Committee and immediately gave the order to kill Tutsis. The order was not limited to the military: calls to take machetes and kill their Tutsi neighbors were broadcast on the radio to ordinary Hutu citizens.
RTLM radio broadcasts calls to exterminate Tutsi cockroaches
The atrocities of the Presidential Guard, the Gendarmerie, and the Interahamwe Volunteer Youth Squads served as examples for them. And if one of the Hutu refused to participate in this or sheltered the Tutsi, then he was also killed.
100 DAYS OF GENOCIDE
The military and volunteers combed the houses in search of Tutsis and killed them on the spot, sparing neither women nor children. Even before the start of the genocide, lists of Tutsi residents were compiled in many settlements, so it was not difficult for the military to look for new victims.“There was a terrible commotion: the Interahamwe broke into houses, slaughtered cows and killed people. First they killed my brother and his wife. Their bodies were hung by the legs from a tree. Then the killers led us to the well. They cut us with machetes and threw us into the pit. No one from my family survived except me.
Before I was thrown into the pit, I was raped. It was so painful and embarrassing that I wanted to die. I was only 25 and I thought my life was worth nothing anymore.
They abused me and threw me into a pit with corpses. Someone, like me, could still breathe, and when the killers left, we tried to get out. On the third day I succeeded, but that man was no longer able. He most likely died there."
eyewitness account
Hutu posted checkpoints on all roads. The documents of people passing through them were checked, since the Rwandan passports had a “nationality” column. If representatives of the Tutsis fell into the hands of the Hutus, then they were immediately chopped with a machete, and the bodies were thrown right on the side of the road. Later, the national identity of people began to be identified "by eye": the Tutsis were determined by the absence of traces of stubborn dirt on the palms, correct pronunciation, straight nose and tall stature.
“I managed to climb a mango tree. The soldiers didn't find me. But they went into my house and killed everyone who was there - mom, dad, grandmother. I did not see it, but I heard their cries, screams and moans. When they fell silent, I realized that my family was dead.
They dragged the bodies out of the house and left them in the yard. I couldn't recognize anyone. All the bodies were cut and dismembered.
I sat on the tree for many more hours. I was just numb and couldn't think of anything. But then the feral dogs came. They walked around the corpses and ate them. It was unbearable, I climbed down from the tree and rushed to run. I made a conscious decision that day that I needed to move forward and never stop.
I hadn't eaten in such a long time that when they finally gave me food, I couldn't even open my mouth.
The killers of my family were never punished. Because of this, I don't feel safe. I'm afraid the Hutus will come and continue what they started. People think the genocide is in the past, but I still live with it.”
eyewitness account
Many Tutsis huddled together and hid from the Hutus in churches and schools. The Hutus, who got used to it, crushed the buildings filled with people with bulldozers and finished off those who tried to escape with machetes. The Tutsis also sought help from the Belgian military, hiding at their checkpoints. In such cases, groups of brutalized Hutus were located around the shelter and guarded the Tutsis who tried to get out. If there were such, then they were killed right in front of the Belgians, taking advantage of the fact that the European military was forbidden to interfere in the internal affairs of Rwanda.
“I asked the soldiers to shoot me. Better to be shot than die with a machete. But instead they raped and beat me, then tore off all my clothes and threw me into a common grave. My whole body was covered in the blood of the people who lay in the grave. Many of them were still alive. There was a woman with her legs cut off, who was still breathing.
A man passing by pulled me out of the grave. He hid me from the Hutus and raped me, giving me food and water in return. He said: “What difference does it make, you will die soon anyway.”
eyewitness account
If the radical Hutu groups encountered resistance from the population, they called in military detachments, and they quickly dealt with the small Tutsis.
“In search of a safe place during the genocide, I passed through several communes. I met many killers and lost five children along the way. Then I was with the Tutsis, who organized resistance on the hill. The assassins couldn't defeat us, so they called in military reinforcements. After the military defeated us, they returned to finish off the surviving men and rape the women. I was raped along with my mother. They put us side by side. At first, two soldiers took turns raping us. Then they gave us to the rest. After the rape, they let my mother go, and they kept me with them as their "wife."
eyewitness account
It was relatively calm only in the north of the country, that is, in the territories captured by the RPF troops. Simultaneously with the events of the genocide, they continued to wage a civil war with government forces.
“I am the only one left alive [from a large group of Tutsis]. The head of the district gave the order to rape me. I was immediately picked up by a man whom I had never seen before, but now I know his name. He did whatever he wanted with me, beat and raped me every time he came home from the murders. He hid all my clothes and I was completely naked there. I wanted to kill myself in the toilet, I went outside to get to him, but instead I just ran away and hid in the bushes. In the morning, RPF soldiers found me.
Of the four most ruthless killers I met during the genocide, I know three. Now they still live among us and among many other murderers who will never be convicted.”
eyewitness account
Many Tutsis were killed by their own neighbors, colleagues, acquaintances, former friends or even relatives through marriage. Tutsi women were often taken into sexual slavery and killed after long periods of abuse, torture and rape. Many of those who remained alive contracted AIDS.
“I managed to sneak out of the house [where I was kept in sexual slavery], but my sister was not so lucky. She was killed. I was so distraught by this news that I myself went to the Interahamwa to have them kill me too.
But instead of killing me, one of them took me to an abandoned house and raped me. Then he showed me grenades and cartridges and told me to choose what kind of death I want to die. I grabbed a grenade and threw it on the ground, hoping it would blow me up, but it didn't explode. Then he called his friends to punish me. They all raped me.
They left me alone, torn, covered in blood and filth. I lay there for five days and I don't know how I survived. Then I left the house like a zombie in search of someone who could kill me. I didn't know that by that time the RPF had already liberated this territory from the Hutus. Soldiers dressed in uniform walked towards me, I shouted nasty things and insults at them, hoping that they would get angry and kill me. But instead they tried to calm me down and then took me to the hospital.
At the hospital, I found out that I was HIV-positive. But I don't want to talk about it."
eyewitness account
The bodies of the dead Tutsis were often dumped into the rivers that flow in a northerly direction so that they "returned to where they came from."
“The Kagera River flows through a deep gorge that forms the natural border between Rwanda and Tanzania. In the rainy season, the river gets fat and blows huge clods of grass and small trees from the slopes. In the late spring of 1994, the same thing happened to human bodies. They were all twisted and tangled, tossed around the rapids until they hit the calm water that carried them to Victoria. They didn't look dead. They looked like swimmers because the strong current gave the illusion that they were moving. They seemed so alive to me that I even shuddered when the waves hit them on the rocks. I even imagined the pain they might feel. The border guards told me that hundreds of corpses swim past them every day. Some of the dead had their hands tied behind their backs. They were shot, hacked to death, beaten, burned, drowned…”
eyewitness account
Many Hutus who participated in the massacre lost control and turned into real maniacs, who did not care who they killed. The authorities dealt with such people themselves, because they "discredited" the program of genocide.
THE OFFENSIVE OF THE RWANDIAN PATRIOTIC FRONT
With the beginning of the genocide, the RPF, which occupied the northern regions of the country, again opposed the Hutu army. By early July, he had captured most of the country and forced the Hutus to flee en masse abroad. A little later, he organized a coalition government with representatives of the Tutsis and Hutus and outlawed the party that started the genocide. The rise to power of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and its leader, Paul Kagame, marked the end of the genocide. Paul Kagame still rules Rwanda.
DURATION OF THE GENOCIDE AND NUMBER OF KILLED
The genocide lasted approximately 100 days - from April 6 to July 18, 1994. During this time, according to various estimates, from 800,000 to 1,000,000 people were killed. Despite the fact that the population of Rwanda according to the 1991 census was 7.7 million people. Another 2,000,000 people (mostly Hutu) fled the country fearing retribution from the RPF. Thousands of them died from epidemics that spread rapidly in overcrowded refugee camps.Names of dead Tutsis
Francine, 12 years old. She loved eggs, chips, milk and Fanta. She was friends with her older sister Claudet. Hacked with a machete.
Bernardine, 17 years old. Loved tea and rice. Did well at school. Killed with a machete in Nyamata's church.
Fidel, 9 years old. He liked to play football and eat chips. Played a lot with friends and watched TV. Shot in the head.
Chanel, 8 years old. She loved to run with her father, watch TV and listen to music. Favorite food is milk and chocolate. Hacked with a machete.
Ariana, 4 years old. Loved pies and milk. She danced and sang a lot. She died from stab wounds to the eyes and head.
David, 10 years old. He loved to play shootball and make people laugh. Wanted to become a doctor. Before his death, he said: "The UN will come for us." Tortured to death.
Patrick, 5 years old. Loved to ride a bike. Favorite food - chips, meat and eggs. He was quiet and obedient. Hacked with a machete.
Uwamwezi and Irene, 7 and 6 years old. Shared one doll for two. They loved fresh fruit and spent a lot of time with their father. Exploded by a grenade.
Hubert, 2 years old. Favorite toy is a car. The last memory is of how his mother was killed. Gunned down.
Aurora, 2 years old. She loved to play hide and seek with her older brother. She was very talkative. Burned alive in Gikondo Church.
Fabrice, 8 years old. She loved to swim and eat chocolate. She was best friends with her mother. Beaten to death with a club.
Yvonne and Yves, 5 and 3 years old. Brother and sister. Loved tea with milk and chips. Chopped to death with machetes at grandma's house.
Thierry, 9 months old. Was breastfed. I cried a lot. Her mother hacked her to death with a machete.
Philetta, 2 years old. She loved to play with dolls. Favorite food is rice and chips. Killed by hitting a wall.
ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES
In April, as the violence in Rwanda escalated, Western countries evacuated their citizens. At the same time, the UN ordered a peacekeeping group of Belgian soldiers to leave the country. They will return there only a few months after the end of the genocide.
Asked to intervene and stop the genocide, the US responded that "the traditional US commitment to free speech is not consistent with such measures." In fact, in the six months since then, the US troops have been very unsuccessfully involved in military operations in Somalia, so the authorities refrained from a new military intervention.
At the end of June, French troops arrived in Rwanda. They are based in Hutu-controlled territory and, according to many observers, supported the genocidal government. Of course, the French did not allow the Hutus to continue to kill the Tutsis (although there is another opinion), but at the moment when the RPF army approached them, they helped many high-ranking Hutus escape retribution.
French troops establish a "safety zone" between the advancing RPF troops and the remnants of the Hutu army
GENOCIDE COVERAGE IN THE WORLD
The genocide in Rwanda was actively covered in the media by Western journalists. The Hutus were not at all shy about what they were doing, and easily cut people with machetes in front of foreign observers. Later, the Rwandan authorities, who organized the massacre, will begin to worry about the possibility of international intervention and will turn to Hutu citizens with a request to continue killing, but not to leave corpses on the street. After that, for weeks, dead bodies decomposing on the streets began to be covered with banana leaves so that reporters could not shoot them from helicopters.Even after the genocide, governments of many countries tried to present what happened as a manifestation of "tribal violence" or "long-standing ethnic hatred." No one wanted to admit that this was a deliberate extermination of people of a different nationality in order to maintain political strength and power.
UN BEHAVIOR
Even before the assassination of the President of Rwanda, the UN peacekeeping mission knew about the preparation of radicals for genocide. She requested permission from the UN Security Council to start raiding them, but he forbade her to interfere in the internal affairs of the state. The ban was not lifted even after the start of mass atrocities and killings.
The UN for a long time refused to recognize what was happening as genocide, because if recognized, it would have to intervene, but it did not want to. In the United States, officials have also banned officials from using the word "genocide." It wasn't until mid-May that the UN recognized that "an act of genocide had been committed" in Rwanda and promised to send 5,500 troops and 50 armored personnel carriers there. By this time, the Hutus had already killed 500,000 people. The promised military never made it to Rwanda because the UN was unable to negotiate with the US on the cost of the armored personnel carrier. Until the end of the genocide, the UN did not intervene in the situation.
After the end of the genocide, the UN sent a second mission to Rwanda to help restore order in the streets and clean up thousands of dead bodies.
In 1999, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly apologized for the "regrettable inaction" and "political lack of will" of the organization's leadership.
EVENTS AFTER THE GENOCIDE
Of the two million Hutu who fled to neighboring countries after the RPF came to power, many soon had to return to Rwanda. The few surviving Tutsis watched them in profound silence as they returned to their homes. The new government of Rwanda took a very bold step and imposed a moratorium on arrests of genocide suspects. The then Minister of Defense and current President of Rwanda Paul Kagame said: “People can change. And some of them even get better after being forgiven and given a second chance.”
“The Rwandans have lived peacefully with each other for six hundred years, and there is no reason why they cannot live in peace again. Let me address those who have chosen to follow the deadly path of confrontation: I remind you that these people are Rwandans just like you. Renounce the path of genocide and destruction, join hands with other Rwandans and direct your energies towards good deeds.”
Message from the President of Rwanda, Pasteur Bizimungu, 1994
Despite calls for peace, for several months after the genocide, killings continued throughout the country: the Tutsis avenged the death of their relatives, and the Hutus got rid of witnesses who could testify against them in court.
In 1996, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda began its work in the city of Arusha in Tanzania. Its goal was to identify and punish the organizers of the genocide. During his work, he considered the cases of 93 defendants, of which 61 were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. Among them are the organizers of the radical youth movement Interahamwe, the leaders of the army who ordered the start of the genocide, and the host of the Rwandan radio station, who called on the air to kill Tutsis.
“The genocide radically changed my life. Now I am crippled and therefore I live in poverty. I can't bring myself water or plow the land. I suffer terribly from all trauma, grief and insomnia. I am isolated from other people. I am offended and sad. I want to cry all the time and I hate everyone. I have nowhere to live because they destroyed my parents' house. And the most monstrous thing is that they found HIV in me. I just sit and wait for death to come for me."
eyewitness account
“Now I feel ashamed that I did not resist the rapists. I have nightmares about what happened to me, and I find it difficult to maintain relationships with people. But the worst thing is that I gave birth to a child from my tormentor. The genocide is still ongoing for me: I can never forget him because I am raising his child.”
eyewitness account
“I don’t know why I was persecuted, but then it seemed to me that running was the only way out. Now I understand that I had to stay and share the fate of my family. My whole body was covered with batons and machetes, but I always ran away from those who held them. I was raped and dishonored, but I found the courage to run away and live on. You may think that I am brave and courageous. Yes, I did look death in the face. I paid a terrible price to survive. But on the other hand, I just got lucky. I didn't see them kill my family. I didn't see how they practiced shooting, using small children as targets. This should never happen to anyone.
I am one of that crowd of the dead, only I am not yet buried. I am a living reminder of what happened to a million other people."
eyewitness account
“I know the people who killed my family: my parents, three brothers and a sister. I am ready to forgive them, because my relatives will not be returned anyway. But it will depend on how they ask for forgiveness.
I would like to live in a stable Rwanda where children are not in danger. In Rwanda, where there will never be another genocide."
eyewitness account
“During the reconciliation process, the killer of my family came to me asking for forgiveness. At that time, I did not forgive him, because my heart was terribly bitter about what happened. But if he comes to me now, I will forgive him. The Lord said that if we forgive, they will forgive us. We must show the killers that we are not like them, that we are generous. I think they themselves realized that their actions did not lead to anything good. Let's treat them like human beings."
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On April 7, 1994, the largest genocide since World War II began in remote African Rwanda. Representatives of the Hutu people staged a massacre against another people who inhabited Rwanda, the Tutsis. And if the genocide in Rwanda yielded to the Holocaust in terms of the scale of atrocities, then in terms of its "effectiveness" it surpassed all previously known cases of genocide. In just a month and a half of the most active phase of the genocide, according to various estimates, from 500 thousand to a million inhabitants of Rwanda were destroyed. The nightmarish massacre took place right before the eyes of various international organizations and the UN peacekeeping contingent, which actually remained indifferent. The bloody events in Rwanda were one of the main failures of the international community, which could not prevent this terrible massacre.
Contradictions between the Tutsi and the Hutu arose even in pre-colonial times. Tutsi and Hutus had practically no ethnic differences and spoke the same language. The differences between them were more class than national. The Tutsis have traditionally been pastoralists, while the Hutus have been farmers. With the establishment of pre-colonial statehood, the Tutsi became a privileged class and occupied a dominant position, while the Hutus were still the poorest peasants. At the same time, the Tutsis were a minority, and the Hutu represented the majority of the population.
This is exactly the situation that the colonizers came to find. At first, this territory was ruled by the Germans, who did not change anything and retained all the privileges in the hands of the Tutsis. After the First World War, Germany lost all its colonies, and this territory, under the mandate of the League of Nations, came under Belgian control.
The Belgians also did not change anything, leaving the Tutsis a privileged group. All unpopular reforms, such as the removal of rich pastures formerly owned by the Hutus, were carried out at the behest of the Belgians, but carried out by the hands of the Tutsis, as a result, the hatred of the Hutu grew not towards the Belgian colonialists, but towards the privileged Tutsis.
In addition, the Belgians finally consolidated the ethnic rift between the two peoples. Previously, as already mentioned, the differences between them were more class than ethnic, and a wealthy Hutu automatically became a Tutsi. But the Belgians introduced nationality in its traditional European sense into the colonies, distributing passports to the inhabitants indicating nationality.
After the end of World War II, the gradual decolonization of Africa began. The Rwandan Tutsi elite, led by the king, began to show disloyalty to the Belgians and demanded independence. In response, the Belgians began to support the Hutus, who were already in the majority. Very soon, the Hutu began to dominate among the priests, who in the conditions of the colony were actually officials in the education system. Shortly before independence, the Belgians replaced a large number of Tutsi chiefs with Hutu chiefs. From that moment, the first bloody clashes between the two peoples began. The Belgians, not wanting to deal with this tangle of contradictions, simply left the colony. In 1962, the territory was divided into two independent states: the Kingdom of Burundi, where the power remained in the hands of the Tutsis, and the Republic of Rwanda, where the Hutus seized power.
But the colonialists not only drew resources from the colonies, but also created infrastructure, and also brought European systems of education and medicine to these lands. Thanks to European medicine, mortality among newborns has sharply decreased - the traditional scourge of Africa. This led to a real population explosion, the population of Rwanda has increased six times in less than half a century. At the same time, the territory of the state was small, and Rwanda became one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. This population explosion led to the collapse. There was a monstrous agrarian overpopulation, the Hutus did not have enough land, and they began to look unkindly at the Tutsis, who, although they were no longer the ruling elite, were still considered much richer than the Hutus.
Immediately after the declaration of independence, bloody ethnic clashes began in Rwanda. The Hutus began to rob the more prosperous Tutsis, who fled in tens of thousands to neighboring Burundi and Uganda, where they settled in refugee camps. In these camps, Tutsi partisan detachments began to be created, which the Hutus called "inenzi" - cockroaches. Later, this nickname spread to all Tutsis without exception. Tutsi detachments crossed the border of Rwanda and carried out acts of sabotage and attacks on patrols, after which they returned back.
By the early 1970s, violence was on the decline. As a result of the military coup, Rwanda was headed by Juvenal Habyarimana. Although he was a Hutu, he held relatively moderate views, because he believed that Rwanda could not exist normally without the help of Western countries, which clearly did not approve of severe discrimination and persecution of an ethnic minority. Habyarimana proclaimed a course to the West, began to receive financial assistance from developed countries and stopped the persecution of the Tutsis.
The conflict was frozen for a decade and a half. Meanwhile, in Uganda, where a significant number of Tutsi refugees moved, a civil war broke out. The Tutsis, who already had experience of guerrilla warfare in Rwanda, joined the rebel national resistance army. After her victory, Tutsi emigrants turned into an influential political and military force in Uganda and began to demand permission from the Rwandan government to return to their homeland.
However, in the late 1980s, Rwanda experienced a serious financial crisis, associated both with catastrophic agrarian overpopulation and with the fall in prices for the main export commodity - coffee. To prevent the return of emigrants, a special law was passed prohibiting Ugandan citizens from acquiring land in Rwanda. In fact, this meant a ban on the return of the Tutsis.
This sharply radicalized the Tutsi emigrants, who began to create the Rwandan rebel front. It was replenished not only by several generations of refugees, but also by emigrants who settled in Western countries and generously financed the RPF. Unable to win concessions from the Rwandan government, Tutsi rebels invaded Rwanda in October 1990.
Thus began the civil war. It is believed that the Tutsi rebels enjoyed the tacit support of Britain, while the official government of Rwanda was openly supported by France, which supplied weapons.
At first, the rebels were successful due to the surprise attack, they managed to advance inland, but the advance ended after France urgently transferred its troops to Rwanda (under the pretext of protecting French citizens), which blocked the advance of the rebels.
The RPF were not ready for such a turn and began to retreat. Instead of open conflict, they switched to guerrilla warfare and the tactics of small-scale skirmishes and attacks on government facilities. The guerrilla war lasted for about two years. In 1992, a ceasefire agreement was signed and peace negotiations began, which periodically broke down, and clashes resumed after each Tutsi pogrom that periodically occurred in the country. Neither side was willing to compromise. The Hutu claimed that the Tutsi, with the support of the British, wanted to enslave all the Hutus. And the Tutsi accused the Hutus of genocide and pogroms, as well as cruel discrimination.
In 1993, UN peacekeepers were brought into the country, but they were unable to stop the conflict. President Habyarimana, forced to maneuver between the Hutu ethnic majority, who demanded that nothing be ceded to the Tutsis, and the demands of foreign states, who demanded compromise for the sake of peace and stability, began to lose support.
The Hutu Power movement, which consisted of extreme radicals who demanded a "final solution to the issue" with the Tutsis, began to gain popularity. The movement consisted mainly of the military, as well as the Interahamwe, a Rwandan armed militia, which in the future became one of the most active participants in the genocide. The military began a mass distribution of machete Hutus under the pretext of agricultural needs.
The radicals created their own radio station, Free Radio of a Thousand Hills (Land of a Thousand Hills - one of the names of Rwanda), which was engaged in openly racist propaganda, calling for hatred of "cockroaches". One of the employees of this station was the ethnic Belgian Georges Ruju, who was later sentenced by the International Tribunal to 12 years in prison and became the only European convicted by the Rwanda Tribunal.
In late 1993, in neighboring Burundi, Tutsi military conspirators assassinated the country's president, who was recently elected and became the first Hutu head of state. This caused an outburst of indignation in Rwanda, which was used by the radicals who began preparations for the extermination of the Tutsi.
It is worth noting that the UN was warned about the impending massacre several months before it began. One of the high-ranking Hutus, in exchange for the removal of himself and his family to some of the developed countries and the provision of political asylum, offered to provide all the information he had about the suspicious actions of the military leadership, which is arming the militia and registering Tutsis, clearly planning some kind of operation. However, the UN was afraid to get into this tangle of contradictions of several countries and peoples and did not interfere in the course of events.
On April 6, 1994, a ground-launched rocket shot down a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, as well as a number of high-ranking military and political figures. All of them were returning from another round of talks on the situation in Rwanda. Until now, it remains unknown who is responsible for the assassination of presidents. For 20 years, many different versions have been published in the media, both Hutu radicals and Tutsis were blamed, and even the French secret services.
One way or another, within a few minutes after this event, the bloodiest genocide since the Second World War began. Colonel Bagosora proclaimed himself the new government, despite the fact that, according to the law, power should have passed to Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana, who had moderate views and was a follower of the deceased president. 
Bagosora immediately ordered the army and militia to attack the Tutsis and kill them wherever they were found, making no exception for women, old people, or children. At the same time, the military was sent to capture and kill moderate Rwandan politicians who could interfere with the plans of the radicals.
On the night after the president's death, the presidential guard, loyal to the radicals, went to capture Prime Minister Uwilingiyimane, who was guarded by 10 Belgian blue helmets. The Rwandan military surrounded the house they were in and they laid down their arms. The peacekeepers and the prime minister were killed.
At the same time, the military began a manhunt for all moderates, which resulted in the deaths of several members of the former government, opposition figures and journalists from major publications.
Murders of Tutsis began all over the country. Both the military and the militias, as well as civilians, who sometimes cracked down on their neighbors, took part in them. They were shot, cut with machetes, burned alive, beaten to death. All of them were encouraged by "Radio of a Thousand Hills", calling not to spare "cockroaches". Directly on the radio, reports were read about the places where the Tutsis who fled from the pogroms were hiding.
Since there were no visible differences between the Tutsi and the Hutu, the rioters acted at their own discretion. The media taught them to recognize Tutsi by their "contemptuous and haughty look" and "small nose". As a result, a considerable number of Hutus became victims of the rioters, who were mistaken for Tutsis (some of the victims of the genocide were Hutus killed by mistake). As a result, "Radio of a Thousand Hills" was even forced to address listeners with a warning: not everyone who has a small nose is a Tutsi, Hutu have such noses, do not kill them right away, but first check the documents and only then kill.
On the day the genocide began, RPF leader Paul Kagame declared that if the violence did not stop immediately, he would break the truce and launch an offensive. The next day, the rebels launched an offensive. Their army was constantly replenished by the Rwandan Tutsis who managed to escape, as well as volunteers from Burundi, outraged by the bloody massacres of their fellow tribesmen.
The Rwandan soldiers were so carried away by the reprisals against the Tutsis that they actually missed the offensive of the rebels, who managed to surround the capital very quickly, launching an offensive in three directions. In July, the entire territory of Rwanda was under the control of the RPF. This is considered the end of the genocide, however, it is worth noting that its most active phase lasted about a month and a half, since by mid-June almost the entire territory of Rwanda was already under the control of the Tutsi rebels.
The events in Rwanda were one of the major failures in the history of international politics. The Western states could neither prevent the genocide nor even mitigate it. The Blue Helmets were instructed not to interfere in the events and to use force only in case of self-defense. Only on the initiative of the commander of the contingent, Dallaire, were several thousand Tutsis rescued at the headquarters of the peacekeepers.
After the Hutus killed ten Belgian Blue Helmets, Belgium announced the evacuation of its contingent (which was the backbone of the Blue Helmets) and began to withdraw its peacekeepers. The UN was later heavily criticized for its inaction in the midst of the genocide. Only a month after it began, the UN finally stated that the events taking place in Rwanda could be called genocide, and it was decided to send an additional contingent of peacekeepers, who arrived in the country after it had been captured by the Tutsi rebels and the genocide had stopped.
The French were also heavily criticized. They were accused not only of supplying weapons and training future participants in the genocide, but also of not providing any assistance to the Tutsis. A few days after the start of the bloody bacchanalia, French troops landed in Rwanda in order to evacuate French and Belgian citizens from the country. However, they refused to evacuate the Tutsis or provide them with any assistance at all.
The Americans at that moment were completely carried away by the situation in Yugoslavia and did not interfere in the events at all, relying on France, in whose sphere of influence Rwanda was located.
The consequences of the civil war and genocide turned out to be unprecedentedly difficult for the country. The infrastructure was destroyed. Almost half of the country's population either died or fled. During the Tutsi genocide, according to various estimates, from 500 thousand to a million people were destroyed. Several tens of thousands of Hutu died during the retaliatory terror after the rebels seized the country. About 2 million Hutus (almost a quarter of the country's population) fled, fearing retribution from the Tutsis who had seized the country. They settled in refugee camps in neighboring countries. The situation of 30 years ago was repeated, only then the refugees who became partisans were the Tutsis, and now the Hutu, who created military detachments and made sorties into the territory of Rwanda.
Hutu refugees created their own army in Zaire, which led to the fact that Rwanda supported the local rebels in the civil war that began in the country. Although Zaire has now been renamed Congo, the Hutu army still exists under the name "Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda" and is waiting in the wings.
The President of the country is still Paul Kagame - the leader of the RPF. He declares that he does not divide the Rwandans into Tutsis and Hutu and cooperates with moderate Hutus, brutally persecuting radicals. 
In addition to the courts in Rwanda, in Tanzania, under the auspices of the UN, the International Tribunal for Rwanda was established, which condemned a number of high-ranking organizers and perpetrators of the genocide (about 100 people in total). The main organizer of the genocide, Theoneste Bagosora, was sentenced to life imprisonment, caught a few years after fleeing Rwanda in one of the African countries. Most of the defendants from among the officers of the army and the militia, as well as employees of the radical media, received terms ranging from five years to life imprisonment.
