Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The 1994 Rwandan Genocide

Starting point is 00:00:00 In 1994, the nation of Rwanda endured a brutal 100-day spasm of violence that tore apart families and claimed the lives of over 1 million people. Members of the ethnic minority Tutsi group were hunted down and murdered by members of the larger Hutu group. While this was the worst episode of violence between them, it was not the first. What added to the tragedy was that while the horrific events unfolded, the rest of the world stood by and did nothing. Learn more about the 1994 Rwandan genocide, why it happened and how it unfolded on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Starting point is 00:01:30 To understand why it happened, we need to understand the history of the country and the events that led up to it. Rwanda, like the rest of Africa, was subject to European colonization in the 19th century. Germany was the first country to colonize Rwanda in 1897. However, it's 10 euros of German colony was short-lived because of World War I. Following the East African campaign in 2016, Belgium seized and occupied Rwanda. After taking the land, Belgium held onto it and colonized it until Rwanda gained its independence in 1962. Belgium's rule as a colonial power fundamentally changed Rwanda's societal structures, especially in terms of race. Believing in so-called race sciences, Belgium categorized Rwandans by identity groups and issued identity cards labeling

Starting point is 00:02:20 ethnicities. The Belgians identified three main racial groups, the Tutsi, who made up about 14% of the population, the Hutu who made up about 85%, and the TWA who made up about 1%. Although these groups were already present, it was Europeans who placed significantly more importance on them. The Belgians favored the Tutsis because they were perceived as being a superior race that they believed had migrated from Northern Africa, making them more closely related to Europeans. The perception was that this justified their leadership over the Hutus, whom they regarded as an inferior race. The final group, the Tuat, were treated as insignificant by the Belgians. The group was perceived to have been the region's original inhabitants and mostly kept to themselves living in the forests as hunter-gatherers. the Tuat were excluded from the political process and were largely ignored.

Starting point is 00:03:15 Belgium approached colonial rule in Rwanda with laziness and favored an indirect approach. So long as the Tutsis were willing to convert to Christianity, they were able to hold power in Rwanda. The adoption of Belgian racial science also made it nearly impossible for the previously more fluid movement between societal classes. In reality, there was no significant difference between Tutsi, Hutu, and Tutsi. They shared the same language, culture, and history. These were social and economic groups, not racial groups. The Tutsi were traditionally associated with cattle ownership and political power, while the Hutu were primarily agriculturalists.

Starting point is 00:03:55 Under colonial rule, these flexible societal categories were hardened into fixed ethnic identities, reinforced by identity cards and unequal access to education and power. As time went on, the Tutsi, like the Belgians, believe they were superior and began to implement colonial policies for Belgium. The native chiefs of the Hutu and Toh people were dismissed, and regulations on labor laws were also changed, allowing for severe corporal punishment like beating and whippings that were given out should agricultural quotas not be met.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Not surprisingly, this fueled widespread resentment towards the Tootsie. Under Tutsi rule, the Hutus endured multiple famines, could not receive education, and suffered brutal suppression through heart. punishments. The societal structure in Rwanda remained unchanged until 1959. In 1959, the Hutu's launched a rebellion not against Belgium, but against the ruling Tutsis. As a result, about 300,000 Tutsi fled Rwanda overturning the existing societal structure. In 1962, three years after the revolution against the Tutsi, Belgium granted Rwanda independence and left the government almost entirely

Starting point is 00:05:08 under Hutu control. Under Hutu control, those in power returned the discrimination once experienced at the hands of the Tutsis. Hutu leaders committed brutal acts of violence, forcing thousands more Tutsi to flee the country. The Tutsi were blamed by the Hutu extremists for being the cause of the economic, political, and social pressures the country is facing. This tension continued to brew until October of 1990, when a civil war broke out between the two ethnic groups. The war began when a group of Tutsi refugees living in Uganda crossed the border and tried to reclaim Rwanda. Over a decade, Tutsis had fled Rwanda to Uganda and organized the Rwandan Patriotic Front in response to the ongoing violence and discrimination.

Starting point is 00:05:52 Extremist Hutu leadership created a list of Tutsis and moderate Hutu leaders to assassinate during the war. They also trained and armed youth militias who carried out a few smaller-scale massacres during the war. The violence perpetrated by the Hutu was well documented by both local and international human rights organizations, including the UN Commission on Human Rights, but no action was ever taken against the Hutu. Internationally, authorities classified the massacres and violence as internal conflict. The Rwandan government called the killing spontaneous, uncontrolled actions, and never brought anyone to justice. The Civil War was brought to a brief end in August of 1993 with the signing of the Arusha Accords. This agreement said that, in exchange for peace, the two groups would create transitional power-sharing governments. Hutu extremists were furious with the terms of the accord.

Starting point is 00:06:46 The Hutu extremists began to place messages in the media about how the Tutsis were going to go on a killing rampage against the Hutus. The most important media station which spread this message was Radio Television Libbyrubes, Demil Colleen, or RTLM. The radio station used its platform to promote hatred towards the Tutsi. They began to expose a racist ideology, claiming that because the Tutsis were foreigners, they were inferior to the Hutu. It was the argument that the Belgians had originally used just turned on its head. Meanwhile, extremist Hutus Tutsi supporters,

Starting point is 00:07:23 painted Tutsis as subhuman and comparable to cockroaches, and imported large quantities of weapons. especially machetes for local militias. They claim that these were preparations for self-defense. At this point, Rwanda was a powder keg, and it was just waiting for the spark to blow it up. On April 6, 1994, someone shot down the Rwandan president's plane killing him and the president of Barundi, both of whom were Hutu.

Starting point is 00:07:53 RTLM announced their deaths on the radio and urged the Hutu to go to work. This was the call that triggered the start of the genocide. The first day saw key, tutzi, and moderate Hutu political and military leaders executed. In addition, checkpoints were created along roads. At the roadblocks, they had people checking identity cards that listed the person's ethnicity. Organizers meticulously planned the genocide. The government distributed lists of enemies and their families to local militia using information gathered at roadblock checkpoints.

Starting point is 00:08:25 By identifying identity cards, official compiled lists to some, systematically identify and call for the murder of different Tutsis. Hutu citizens were recruited or pressured into arming themselves with machetes or other weapons and were encouraged by the government to destroy or steal their neighbor's property and maim, rape, and kill them. The government incentivized the killing by promising rewards the people who traveled house-to-house and murdered anyone sheltering Tutsi refugees. Militias corralled victims into large open areas like stadiums and schools for mass executions.

Starting point is 00:08:58 Most of the violence was committed with hand weapons, specifically machetes. Machetes were chosen because they could easily be imported under the guise of agricultural use, facilitating stockpiling and distribution. Additionally, because the killings were carried out under the perception of self-defense, the murders were considered to be personal and not centrally organized. Using weapons like machetes helped maintain that illusion. The agony and terror inflicted upon the Tootsie defy comprehension. Hutu husbands in fear of the violent mob murdered their Tootsie wives as they slept.

Starting point is 00:09:33 Friends and neighbors turned into killers overnight. Those who desperately sought sanctuary and churches found betrayal and death at the hands of priests and nuns that they had trusted. A haunting legacy of the genocide was the tidal wave of sexual violence. Up to a half a million Tutsi women, who already lived in terror, suffered the additional trauma of rape. Houtu leaders orchestrated the use of rape as a systematic weapon during the general weapon. genocide. They forced men who had tested positive for HIV or who were hospitalized with the diseased into rape squads whose goal was to inflict slow, painful deaths on Tutsi women. In addition to this, women of reproductive age were often mutilated by machetes, knives,

Starting point is 00:10:13 and other weapons to prevent the possibility of future pregnancies. Men were also the victims of the rape squads and were often mutilated. An often forgotten victim of the genocide were the TWA people. Though not direct targets, they were accused of aiding and hiding the Tutsis. This led to an estimated 10 to 30,000 of them being killed during the genocide as well. The genocide led the Rwandan Patriotic Front in Uganda to quickly reform and begin an offensive against the government, desperate to end the mass killings. The civil war restarted as the RPF quickly made inroads into the country, eventually capturing the Rwandan capital Kigali after 100 days. After taking the capital, two million Hutus quickly fled the country.

Starting point is 00:10:57 country fearing Tutsi vengeance. There are reports that thousands of Hutus were killed and more were hunted down in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo following the Tutsi return to power, though, of course, they deny this. As a response to the genocide, the Tutsi opted to go into battle with the Hutu militia groups in the Congolese army, which had backed the Hutu government. This eventually led them to overthrow and install a new government in the DRC. The genocide took place over just 100 days. The number of Tutsi murdered during that time frame is estimated to be around 800,000, which was 77% of the total Tutsi population.

Starting point is 00:11:38 The total number of victims from the genocide is close to 1.1 million. In many ways, the Rwandan genocide is an international failure. Both Belgium and the United Nations had forces inside Rwanda, but were never given a mandate to step in and try to prevent the killings. In fact, the UN actively avoided using the word genocide due to pressures from countries like the United States, which were unwilling to get involved in another African conflict. France did attempt to get involved, but were allies of the Hutu government and power. Though they attempted to set up safe zones and evacuate at-risk citizens, they did nothing to stop the massacres from occurring.

Starting point is 00:12:19 An important question to ask is whether any of the U.S. was ever punished for the genocide. This is a complicated answer as the international criminal court wasn't even established until 2002, nearly a decade after the events occurred. There was an international criminal tribunal established in Rwanda that was used to prosecute the ringleaders of the genocide. Ultimately, just 93 people, all Hutus, were convicted of genocide, and these trials were often lengthy and expensive. An estimated 10,000 more people are believed to have died in prison before coming to trial. Additionally, community-based courts known as Gachacha courts were established.

Starting point is 00:12:58 These courts used community-level justice to try the massive number of genocide cases with the goal of reconciling the country. These courts encouraged confessions and allowed the community to determine the punishment for the convicted. These lasted from 2002 to 2012. Currently, Rwanda is doing fairly well, all things considered. The country is growing economically and is in a period of relative, political stability. The genocide still weighs heavily on people's minds and mentioning ethnicity

Starting point is 00:13:26 at all is now completely illegal. Yet much of the conflict in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo today can be traced back to the events of the early 1990s. In some respects, while Rwanda itself has stabilized, much of the trouble has simply been exported to its neighbors. The events of 1994 in Rwanda are one of the greatest losses of life. since the end of the Second World War, especially so if you consider how quickly it all transpired. The events of 1994 show us that even relatively peaceful countries can erupt into violence if divisions within the country are left unchecked.

Starting point is 00:14:10 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by the Olivia Ash. Today's review comes from listener S.L.L. 2422 on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, Family Friendly. This is a great podcast to throw in the car if you have kids in the car and you're on your way to from somewhere.

Starting point is 00:14:35 Our kids, 10 and 13, don't find all the topics interesting, but they generally like about one in every three or four. We're always searching for something we can put on that is generally clean. Well, thanks, SLR. If your kids aren't interested in every episode, make them listen to it anyhow. Think of it as eating your vegetables for your mind. and you never know when the information's going to come in handy. My standing philosophy for the show is that it will be as clean as history will allow. There are some unpleasant episodes in history, like this episode, for example,

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Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The 1994 Rwandan Genocide

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