Short History Of... - Rwandan Genocide

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

For hundreds of years, Rwanda’s Hutu and Tutsi groups had lived in relative harmony. But the arrival of European colonists enforced and exaggerated the differences between them, until, from the mid-twentieth century, resentment began to boil over. By 1994, the two groups were sworn enemies. Over 100 days, violence engulfed the country, as members of the Hutu majority worked systematically to exterminate the Tutsi. Spurred on by government and military officials, neighbour turned against neighbour, friend against friend, until hundreds of thousands lay dead.   But what precipitated this senseless mass killing? Why were so many ordinary people willing to participate? And what responsibility does the international community bear for the bloodshed? This is a Short History Of the Rwandan Genocide. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Allan C. Stam, Professor of Public Policy and Politics at the University of Virginia. Written by Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw | Fact Check by Sean Coleman Get every episode of Short History Of… a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions ⁠A Short History of Ancient Rome⁠ - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit ⁠⁠noiser.com/books⁠⁠ to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode contains content that some may find distressing. It's late September 2006. In a small village in Rwanda's eastern province, the day dawns bright and humid. A woman pulls open the creaking wooden door of her small house and steps out into the sticky heat. As she follows a familiar, dusty path through the village, a group of giggling school children rush past, and one of her neighbours calls a greeting. She raises her hand in acknowledgement, but does not stop. She has no time to linger and chat today.

The dirt road is fringed with lush green trees, home to a dazzling array of bird species. Their raucous cacophony singing into the vivid blue sky. Soon she comes to the wooden pens that house her two dairy cows, her main source of income, especially since the death of her husband. Usually the milking is the first job of the day, but today her daughter is doing it in her place. She calls out to thank her and continues towards the village centre.

In the main square, a long table has been set out in the shade, with six elders already sitting behind it, sporting distinctive green, yellow and blue-striped sashes. This is a Gachacha court, and these people, the judges, who will determine the fate of the accused due to stand trial today. Rows of straight-backed wooden chairs stand before the, them, already filled with many of the woman's neighbors.

She sits down beside an older villager in a vibrant lime-green dress and matching headwrap, who gives her a small smile and squeezes her hand. Today is going to be difficult for them all. Now the chatter of the crowd immediately dies down, as a young man in a brown shirt is brought to stand before the chief judge. Some members of the crowd jeer, shouting insults at the man until the chairman calls for quiet. In a booming voice, he lays out the crimes of which the man stands accused, the murder of four people during the 1994 genocide. The defendant hangs his head as the judge calls for the first witness.

One by one, villagers testify to the violent acts he committed. An old man claims he saw him wielding a bloody machete and entering the church. Someone sobs as they ask him why he killed their son. Soon it is the woman's turn to stand. Though her hands shake, her voice is firm as she asks him the questions that have tormented her for years. Did he kill her husband? And where is his body? The man looks straight at her.

He did not kill her husband, he tells her. But he did watch his body being thrown into the mass grave on the edge of town. Abruptly, the woman sits down. She barely hears as the judge pronounces the man's sentence and he is led away. All she can focus on is the ever-present bird song ringing out into the clear blue sky. For much of the rest of the world, the Rwandan genocide might be disappearing into history. But for her, the horror will never fade. For hundreds of years, Rwanda's Hutu and Tutsi groups had lived in relative harmony.

But the arrival of European colonists enforced and exaggerated the differences between them until from the mid-20th century, resentment began to boil over. By 1994, the two groups were sworn enemies. Over 100 days, violence engulfed the country, as members of the Hutu majority worked systematically to exterminate the Tutsi. Spurred on by government and military officials, neighbor turned against neighbor, friend against friend, until hundreds of thousands lay dead.

But what precipitated? this senseless mass killing. Why were so many ordinary people willing to participate? And what responsibility does the international community bear for the bloodshed? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is a short history of the Rwandan genocide. The twisted roots of the Rwandan genocide lie in the country's colonial past. Before 1858, this small, landlocked country in East Africa was unknown to Europe.

Although exact patterns of migration and settlement into the region are still debated, for several centuries it has been home to three groups. The Tuat, the Hutu, and the Tutsi. The Tutsi, with their large herds of cattle, gain economic and political power and found a monarchy in what is now the territorial heart of Rwanda. Alan C. Stam is Professor of Public Policy and Politics at the University of Virginia. The Hutu and the TWA, their agricultural and the TWA, their agricultural They don't have a particularly hierarchical or feudal-based society.

Some 400 years ago, groups of cattle herders, pastoralists arrive from what today we would think of as Somalia. Over the next couple of hundred years, those people, what we would call the Tutsi, they developed something that the Europeans who arrive in the 1800s recognize as a relatively modern feudal society. By the 19th century, the labels of Hutu and Tutsi have more to do with class position than ethnic or tribal identity. The Hutu are farmers and Tutsi are herders, though both groups speak the same language, Kenya Rwanda. They share a belief system and cultural practices, including ancestor worship, and there is frequent intermarriage and movement between the two groups. their identities are somewhat fluid. If you shift your employment, your identity shifts as well.

Now, we don't know for sure how much shifting back and forth there is, but it's certainly taking place. Anytime a Hutu would become a property owner, would begin to own cattle, they would essentially assimilate into the Tutsi identity, the Tutsi class. So these identities of Hutu and Tutsi, are more class-based at this point than what we would think of today as rigid ethnic identities.

And so there's also mobility the other way. You can go from being Trutzi into becoming a Hutu if you become a banana farmer. This fluidity is upset in the late 19th century during the period that becomes known as the Scramble for Africa.

At the 1884 Berlin Conference, the continent is carved up between avaricious European nations, many of whose representatives have never set foot on the continent. The geographic area that includes modern-day Rwanda is assigned to German control, and in 1890, the country is formally incorporated into German East Africa.

In the Tutsi monarchy and upper classes, the Germans see a way to govern the country remotely. Then, during the chaos of the First World War, Belgium invades Rwanda in 1916. They retain control over the territory after the end of the conflict. And for the Tutsi elites, cooperation with these new colonial powers

maintains their social position. The Europeans, and it doesn't really matter who they are, essentially just take over at the top this indigenous, sort of feudal, monarchy-based system. And there's a king, Rabugiri, who essentially is kept in charge,

and then there's a patronage paid to the Europeans. And so essentially, instead of having to overthrow and crush the entire system, all the Europeans have to do is co-opt it. During the period of colonial rule, Hutu and Tutsi are transformed from markers of socioeconomic status into ethnic labels. Under the influence of race science ideologies,

colonial administrators and missionaries see the upper-class Tutsi as necessarily racially superior to the agrarian Hutu. In 1931, the Belgians introduced identity, cards, marking Rwandans with an indelible ethnicity for the first time. The effect of this was that it essentially locks in place the ethnic identities of Hutu and Tutsi. Now, the impact of that is that over time, within the Hutu, we start to have landowners, we start to have business owners, we start to have people who previously would have been assimilated

into the monarchist class or what in England people would think of as the upper class, the upper class says. Well, now, ethnic identity and class identity essentially become very rigid. And this is the beginning of creating all kinds of really serious identity-based problems. The crystallization of what was once a more fluid class system would have dramatic and deadly consequences in the years to come. After the Second World War, the newly formed United Nations decrees that Belgium must begin preparing the country's path to independence. But this is complicated by the now inflexible divide between Hutu and Tutsi. So we have these rigid ethnic identities.

We have a political system that previously had allowed for the assimilation of new elites into this upper class. Well, now that's not possible anymore. And so we start to see demands for greater political representation. greater redistribution around, and here's where it gets really ugly, because these ethnic identities are locked in place through the colonial ethnic identity systems,

the demands are ethnic-based. By the 1950s, Rwanda's population is almost 90% Hutu and 10% Tutsi, with the Ito making up less than 1%. But for the Hutu majority, self-governance means not just liberation from European control, but the overthrow of the Tutsi upper class

and all who support them. A Tims donut and coffee is the original collab. And now any classic donut is a dollar when you buy any size original or dark roast coffee. Get a deal on the iconic duo with a Tins dollar donut. Plus tax at participating restaurants for limited time. Terms apply.

See app for details. It's time for Tims. This episode is sponsored by Incogni. You've probably seen stories like this in the news. After a major data leak, people start getting scam texts, fishing emails, even fraudulent loans taken out in their name. That's because huge amounts of our personal information, like addresses, phone numbers and work history, sit on PeopleFinder sites,

where data brokers can buy and sell detailed profiles about us. When your data is out there, scammers and identity thieves know exactly where to find you. But if they can't find you, they can't target you. That's where incogni comes in. Incogny comes in. incogni helps by automatically requesting the removal of your personal information from hundreds of data broker sites making your email phone number and address far harder to track sell or exploit as a listener to short history of you can get 60% off annual plans go to incogni dot com slash short history and use code short history to get your discount that's incogni dot com slash short history As the country prepares for independence, separate Hutu and Tutsi political parties form. In 1957, Hutu politicians and academics lay out their vision for the country's future. A group of Hutu intellectual leaders issue what becomes known as the Hutu Manifesto.

And this is explicitly, you know, modeled after Marx's Communist Manifesto, after the American Declaration of Independence. all of these essentially precursors of colonial or class-based systems saying the underclass, the colonies saying we're done, and we want democracy. Two years later, on the 1st of November 1959, the Hutu revolution begins. It is sparked by the public beating of Hutu politician and district mayor Dominique Mabonimatoa by a member of a Tutsi political group. Soon, reprisal attacks on the Tutsi begin. Between 1959 and 1961, as many as 20,000 Tutsi are killed.

The Belgians had intended to stall Rwandan independence for as long as possible, to protect their economic interests in the country. But in the face of large-scale public unrest, they now declare the support for democratic majority rule and abandon the absolutist Tutsi monarchy. Elections are soon held, and the result is unsurprising. Hutu parties win 83% of the vote, and a provisional government is established under Mubonimatu. A year later, a referendum sees 80% of Rwandans voting for the abolition of the monarchy.

The last king flees the country with thousands of his supporters, and in the face of increasing violence, many ordinary Tutsi civilians also seek refuge in neighboring countries. the majority head north into Uganda. But if anyone hopes the ethnic tensions will dissipate when Rwanda is finally granted independence on the 1st of July 1962, they will be sorely disappointed. Militant Tutsi refugees soon begin conducting attacks on Rwanda.

They are seeking a right to return to the country of their birth and for Tutsi governance over this new nation. The Hutu-dominated Rwandan government responds by forming militias to indiscriminately arrest or kill any Tutsi remaining in the country. In 1963 alone, some 10,000 Tutsi civilians are massacred, and tens of thousands more seek refuge in neighboring countries. It is a vicious cycle that will repeat in the decades to come. The Rwandan government remains Hutu dominated in the decades after independence.

Quotas are put in place to minimize Tutsi influence in educational institutions and governmental bodies, and large-scale massacres occur in 1967 and 1973. The latter is also the year that President Habiyah Ramana comes to power in a military coup, promising to end the corruption of the previous regime. But he will soon operate as a dictator, hoarding power for himself and among his trusted circle, and banning all other parties. In 1979, a military organization is formed among Tutsi refugees in Uganda, which will later take the name of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF.

But fearful of their growing power, Uganda's president, Musavani, soon turns against them. Late 80s, he says to the RPF leadership, you got to go. I'm kicking you out. So we get the first sort of modern era invasion from Uganda into Rwanda in 88,89. The Hutu armies manages to push back this Rwanda patriotic front invasion. The RPF continues to arm, continues to train, fast forward to the early 1990s, and now Musavani is like, no, you have to leave, or I'm going to destroy you. So they invade again.

They carve out an area in northern Rwanda that becomes essentially RPF controlled territory. This second incursion by the RPF in 1990 becomes nymph. known as the Rwandan civil war. As the RPF take control of the north of the country, some 600,000 civilians are displaced internally by the fighting. Among Hutu elites, the development prompts a hardening against ordinary Tutsi, who become seen as an internal threat. In December 1990, the Kangura newspaper publishes what it calls the Hutu Ten Commandments,

which condemns any Hutu collaboration with Tutsi people, and the propaganda against the Tutsi minority only intensifies as the fighting continues. After a ceasefire is negotiated in 1991, peace talks between the Habibiramana government and the RPF, led by a man named Paul Kagame, begin the following July. The next year, peace accords are signed in Arusha, Tanzania. In 1993, the United Nations says, all right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to restore a democratic system. In the meantime, what we're going to do is we will give the RPF,

five out of 21 government ministries. The Rwandan National Army will be roughly 20% RPF, 80% Hutu. And so it's going to be a power sharing agreement. And then the deal is, in two years, we'll have elections. But by now, Habia Ramana is fighting on multiple fronts. Externally against the RPF rebels, and internally against both moderate Hutu opposition-seeking democracy and Hutu radicals who oppose the power-sharing agreement. Only days after the peace accords are signed, the radio station RTLM begins broadcasting Hutu supremacy content, including virulent anti-Tutsi propaganda. Hardliner army officials start organizing, training and arming thousands of Hutu youth militias,

supposedly for self-defense in the event of another civil war. The reason for the foundation of such militias soon comes to light. Since the signing of the Arusha Accords, a UN peacekeeping force comprised of soldiers from Belgium, Bangladesh, Ghana and Tunisia, has been stationed in Kigali, Rwanda's capital. An informant now tells the commander, Romeo Dallaire, that target lists of Tutsi and political moderates are being drawn up by extremists in the government and army. He estimates that 1,000 Tutsi in Kigali could be found and killed in just 20 minutes. It seems that Hutu supremacists have decided the only way to ensure the peace and safety of the country is to eliminate the RPF and possibly all Tutsi. Later, those accused of genocide

will testify that the plan was intended as a deterrent against a feared incursion from the RPF stationed in territory they control in northern Rwanda. And so the Hutu essentially develop a plan where we tell the Tutsi, if you invade, we'll kill everybody. And that becomes the plan for the genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda. So the Hutu developed this under a guy named Bagasora,

the Hutu plan essentially has two parts. One, they're going to target the leadership class of the Tutsi identity group. At the same time, they're going to solve their problem once and for all. So the other part of the plan is to kill all the Tutsi. It's not only the Hutu extremists who are making plans. The RPF has signed the peace accords and in theory is preparing for power sharing and future elections. but later testimony suggests that the leadership is concerned that in a country where nearly 90% of the population is Hutu, Tutsi parties will never be voted in, even when free and fair elections are held.

Power may well have to be taken by force. So from the Tutsi perspective, they say to themselves, well, we have this window of opportunity. We have a little bit less than two years to completely restore ourselves to power. By the beginning of 1994, the stage is set for extreme violence. Rwanda is a tinderbox awaiting a spark. It is late evening on the 6th of April 1994 at Canombay military camp at the edge of Kigali. An off-duty soldier with the Rwandan National Army stands outside his barracks, enjoying the last faltering rays of sunlight as dusk steals in around him.

He digs around in his pocket for a packet of cigarettes. Striking a match, he lights up and breathes in deeply, enjoying the relative quiet after a busy day. Soon, the faint sounds of city traffic are interrupted by the distinctive roar of a plane. Not just any plane, but President Habi Arimana's jet. The man scans the darkening sky until he spots the aircraft's lights. It is circling low as it comes into land at the nearby Kigali Airport. idly watching its descent, he takes another drag on his cigarette. But now the plane's wing is hit by some kind of projectile.

As the soldier stands frozen, a fireball blossoms towards the back of the aircraft. The air is rent by the screech of tearing metal. Within moments, the entire plane is engulfed in flames. Shouts echo around him as soldiers emerge from various buildings to stand. in the parade ground. Every eye is trained on the fiery wreckage tumbling through the twilight sky, falling inexorably towards the presidential palace a few streets away. Suddenly realizing what this means, the soldier comes to his senses and runs over to his barracks. He slams open the door and hurtles up the stairs into his dormitory. He grabs his green uniform from his wardrobe,

and as he hops about getting the trousers on, he shouts to his bewildered comrades to do the same. Questions about what has happened come at him thick and fast from all corners of the room. Zipping the fly and jamming his berry onto his head, he turns to face them. The president's plane has been shot down, he announces. Everyone needs to get dressed and armed now. Suddenly a bugle sounds, the call to action, and the room bursts into life. Panicked men dragging uniforms out of cupboards. The soldier allows himself a grim smile of satisfaction.

of satisfaction before heading to the armory. They have to be ready for whatever may be coming. Among the passengers of the downed plain are not only President Habia Ramanah, but also the president of Burundi and several officials from the Ministry of Defense. When the first soldiers arrive at the scene of the crash inside the grounds of the presidential palace,

it is immediately clear that there are no survivors. What is less certain is who launched the two surface-to-air missiles that brought the aircraft down. Two possible perpetrators are identified, either the RPF or Hutu hardliners launching a coup against a president they see as too moderate. Now, question becomes obviously who shot it down.

The evidence today, best evidence, points to the RPF under the orders of Paul Kagami. How do we know this? A former member of the RPF flipped sides and testified against the RPF at the ICTR, Unsurprisingly, Paul Kagami and his people in Rwanda today say, no, no, no. It was essentially a coup within the Hutu, which there's precedent for. Even now, three decades on, blame cannot be conclusively assigned.

What is incontrovertible is what happens next. Hutu supremacists, the same figures who'd been spreading anti-Tutsi propaganda by radio and in the newspapers quickly work to seize control of the government. They then initiate the first part of the genocide plan, the killing of everyone on the target lists, predominantly elite Tutsi and moderate Hutu politicians. They first order the presidential guard to kill the moderate Hutu Prime Minister, Agateu Wulingi Yamana, the first woman ever to hold this post. Early in the morning of April 7th, she and her husband are murdered,

along with the 10 UN peacekeepers from Belgium who had been sent to protect her. Shortly afterwards, Colonel Bagasora, a hardliner in the Ministry of Defense, and perhaps the chief architect of the genocide plan, sends a press release informing the population that the army is now in charge. The situation escalates as elite military units work their way through the lists. The assassination of the president then triggers beginnings of the killings. What happens then? So first week of April,

the first thing we see is the killings off of the name lists that had been put together previously. The RPF then saying we're going to save all these people invades from northern Rwanda. The RPF launched their offensive from their northern stronghold on the 8th of April as militia members and soldiers in Kigali begin killing Tutsi civilians in the street.

The reasons why the RPF invade at this moment are still murky. Perhaps it is to try and prevent a genocide that they know is coming, as Paul Kagami claims. Or perhaps the chaos represents an opportunity for the RPF that Kagami cannot ignore, regardless of the cost that might be paid

by the Tutsi population. He knows that while this plan is going on, there will be just total chaos and they'll be able to take over control of the country. Everyone needs help with something. If investing is your something, we get it. Cooperators' financial representatives are here to help with genuine advice that puts your needs first. We got you. For all your holistic

investment and life insurance advice needs, talk to us today. Cooperators, investing in your future together. Mutual funds are offered through Cooperators Financial Investment Services Inc. to Canadian residents except those in Quebec in the territories. Segregated funds are administered by cooperators life insurance company. Life insurance is underwritten by cooperators life insurance company. This February on the Noiser podcast network, on short history of, we'll explore the Silk Roads, the ancient trade routes connecting east and west, and we'll meet Rasputin, one of the most colourful characters that history has to offer.

In Sherlock Holmes short stories, Holmes and Watson take up a case featuring a young doctor and a peculiar business arrangement in The Adventure of the Resident Patient. On real survival stories, were on the forested slopes of Queensland, Australia, among the wild orchids and hibiscus flowers, and we travelled to a tiny sun-soaked island

off the coast of East Timor, where a dark mountain looms over the jungle. And if you haven't already, be sure to check out ancient civilizations for fascinating tales from the ancient world. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noisa Plus. In the face of the escalating crisis in Kigali, the response of the international community is to withdraw from Rwanda. Having lost 10 of its peacekeepers defending the Prime Minister,

Belgium recalls all of its soldiers. France, which since independence has been the European country, with the greatest economic stake in the country, begins evacuating Hutu allies and French citizens. Within a few days of the presidential assassination, the United Nations has dramatically reduced the number of peacekeeping troops stationed in the country to a token force of just a few hundred,

despite Dallaire's objections. Nobody wants to do anything about it, because it seems very dangerous. Now, we know President Clinton, who afterwards, he claims, had I known I would have done something, communications were brought, We'd have no way of knowing. Well, it turns out we know that President Clinton knew very early on before the genocide begins,

that the risk of genocide was high, and then in the first two weeks of April, we know that he knew on a daily basis exactly what was going on. The international community is well aware that mass killings in Kigali have begun. Thanks to the informant who spoke to Dallé in January, they also know that a plan for widespread genocide exists. And yet, in April 1994, the United Nations and the leaders of the world's most powerful countries abandoned the Tutsi of Rwanda to their fate. Soon, the killings move from targeted attacks on named individuals to the indiscriminate murder of all Tutsi.

Military commanders begin calling on Hutu across the country to attack Tutsi everywhere. Anti-Tutsi propaganda continues to be pumped out over the airwaves through radio stations, R-T-L-M, which in the year since has been nicknamed Radio Genocide. Figuring out how important the radio effects were is very difficult. Anecdotally, it seems pretty important. The broadcast themselves are horrific. I mean, there's a DJ on the radio telling people, you know, here's tonight's news, and by the way, go on and kill your neighbors.

On RTLM, the Tutsis are referred to frequently as cockroaches. In mid-April, the broadcasts begin calling for a final war to exterminate them all. By the 14th of April, violence against the Tutsi is widespread throughout Rwanda. Within the span of another week, a systematic program of genocide has become the norm in almost every region of the country. As with atrocities committed in more recent years, women and children are targeted at the same rate as men. This is not an attack on potential RPF combatants. It is a campaign to wipe the tootsie off the face of the earth. Many of these attacks are carried out by the Hutu militias that were trained and armed in the months leading up to April 1994.

Prominent among these are groups known as the Interahamway, meaning those who attack together. Chillingly, they often target people seeking shelter in churches and other community spaces. We have mass killing at community centers. A majority of those types of killings are carried out by the Entera Hamway. During previous purges, coups, episodes of mass violence, community centers, churches, and monasteries had been safe places. If you were a Tutsi, if you were a Hutu, if you got to one of these community places, got inside, you were safe.

Well, part of the plan of the genocide in 1994 was, we're going to take control of the national radio system. We're going to encourage people to go to these communities. community centers, and then we're going to kill everybody in the community centers. Dozens upon dozens of these centers around the entire country, everyone inside is killed, regardless of identity. I just kill everybody. But it's not only the militias that carry out the campaign of extermination.

Neighbor turns against neighbor, and tens of thousands of civilians also take part in the atrocities. Groups comprising both militia members and ordinary people go house-to-house in the local area, hunting down Tootsie. The killings are often low-tech and intimate, involving machetes and blunt objects. Some victims are drowned or herded into buildings that are set alight. Roadblocks also play a crucial role in finding and murdering, fleeing Tootsie.

A lot of people get killed at these roadblocks at night. One of the exacerbating factors is a lot of the people at these roadblocks that are manning or staffing the roadblocks, they're teenagers, teenage males, and they're drunk. They've been given huge jerry cans of banana beer to get them through the night,

to help them stay awake. And so what happens is, Tutsi, Hutu, whatever, they're hiding during the day, and they're moving at night, and then they come upon one of these roadblocks. Now, a roadblock sounds very formal, but it could just be a, you know,

a bamboo pole across the road to stop people in the road is, you know, the road may be a trail. and if you can't produce your identification, if you can't convince these drunk 13 to 17-year-olds who they are, simply hack you to death. It is a slaughter of such immense proportions

that even the natural world is affected. Witnesses speak of black clouds of birds of prey, vultures and buzzards, an aerial map of the massacre sites as they gather to feast on corpses. By the end of April, the Njabaronga River is choked with bodies, and tens of thousands of decades.

Dead bodies are carried into Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake. Later, when asked to reflect on their motivations, Rwandans who took part in the massacres will provide different reasons for their actions. In some cases, ordinary Hutu civilians claim they were cajoled, coerced, or forced into participating by intra-Humway members or soldiers, or just by their peers. So there's people that want to essentially defect from this, just as in the case in the Holocaust, there are individuals that say, I don't want to participate in there.

Now, during the Holocaust in these police battalions, if somebody didn't want to participate, for the most part, they were allowed to just walk away, turn their back on what was going on. They were probably ridiculed for it, but they weren't killed. In the Rwandan case, in many of these circumstances, if you didn't participate in the killing, you would be considered complicit and you'd be hacked up to,

which increases the odds that people will participate. Perhaps, more disturbingly, a huge number take part willingly. They were motivated by personal grievances or the chance to gain economically by looting of the homes of the murdered. A majority had brought into the dehumanizing anti-Tutsi propaganda. They described the Tutsi as historic oppressors of the Hutu and saw them as an existential threat to the safety and peace of the nation.

A lot of ordinary people participate in this. I think the best comparison case is in Germany, in Poland, in Romania, the killing of the Jews in World War II starts with virulent, violent anti-Semitism in the 1930s. Well, that virulent, violent anti-Semitism sort of leading up to and culminating in Kristallnacht, of course, the participation of lots of ordinary Germans, lots of ordinary Poles. So the idea that ordinary people would participate in this kind of violence, there's more than

adequate precedent for it, particularly in the United States. in the German case. Hutu gangs do more than just kill the people they consider their enemy. They loot their homes, torture living people, and mutilate corpses. And Tutsi women, as well as Houti women with Tutsi husbands, are systematically subjected to sexual violence. We have horrific sexual violence that's used to intimidate women to find out where families are, to punish women.

literally tens of thousands of mass rapes. In many cases, perpetrators deliberately infect the Tutsi women they assault with HIV. According to a UN report, rape is the rule and its absence, the exception, with over a quarter of a million women falling victim to the crime. In the aftermath of the genocide, between 2,000 and 5,000 children are born as a result of these attacks. But amidst the horror, there are, glimmers of hope. It is the middle of May, 1994, in a small community called Rubona Hill. This high up, the air is chilly, especially after the warmth of the sun has gone. At a roadblock

set up on the main road into the village, a man named Ezekiel Cambanda yorns loudly and rubs his eyes. It is well past nightfall, and he will not see his bed before dawn. Ezekiel and four other men have been guarding this stretch of road for hours. It is not an elaborate roadblock, and the headlamps of the car that they have pulled horizontally across the path to impede anyone wishing to enter or leave the village. Now, Ezekiel's attention is drawn to the thick forest that lines the path. Something rustles in the undergrowth. Signalling to one of the men guarding the roadblock with him, they head towards the noise, straining to see anything in the inky blackness. Suddenly, a woman stumbles out of the trees and throws herself on the ground before them sobbing.

Ezekiel can see she has a deep gash across one shoulder, crusted with dark blood. Crying, she pleads for her life. She tells him she has lost her papers and begs him to let her disappear back into the forest. But Ezekiel shakes his head. She needs to come with him. Grabbing her arm, he hauls her to her feet, telling his companion that he's taking her into the village. The man nods and makes his way back to the roadblock. As they walk, the woman's sobs escalate.

But Ezekiel whispers to her to be quiet. They're not going to kill her. He is taking her to the local priest who will keep her safe. Soon they reach the village's church, and Ezekiel wraps smartly on its warped wooden door. It creaks open, just a crack. When the priest sees them, he sinks with relief. quickly opening up to hurry the woman inside, promising her a meal and a bed for the night.

Ezekiel thanks him, before heading back to the road. But as he approaches his team, he hears raised voices and hastens his step. A military jeep comes into view. It is parked in front of the roadblock, engine idling, while a soldier talks to the villagers manning it. Ezekiel calls out a greeting and asks what is going on. The soldier, stern and serious, tells him there are reports of Tutsi fleeing this way. They want to come into the village to search for them. As he speaks, his hand rests idly on the machete thrust into his belt.

In the light from their headlamps, Ezekiel can see the blade is stained red. With forced calm, Ezekiel explains that they have set up the roadblock for this very reason, to catch and kill any Tutsi who try to escape this way. He promises that he and his men are ready. There's no need for the soldiers to waste their time searching the village. Breaking out in a sweat, despite the cool evening, Ezekiel waits for the soldier's response. Until finally he nods.

Thanking them for their vigilance, he gets back into the jeep and drives away. When they are at last out of sight, Ezekiel lets out the breath he has been holding. Their plan, to save as many. Tutsi as possible remains a secret. They are safe. For now, a few individuals and organizations do what they can to save people during the genocide. Some schools and churches also hide Tutsi fleeing the violence. At the Sontra-Saint-Antoine orphanage, the priests in charge take in huge numbers. By the time soldiers come to find the Tutsi children who have evaded them, the priests have falsified the records to make it look like every child present had been living at the orphan.

prior to April 6th. Their actions represent the few bright spots amongst the carnage of the genocide. Against the backdrop of the mass murder, the RPF fight through Rwanda from the territory they hold in the north. As they advance, they commit a huge number of killings too, adding to the chaos. A lot of people die as a result of Tutsi RPF retribution as they fight their way through the country. There's a lot of ethnically oriented retribution violence at the local level. In June, the French military finally decide to intervene in Rwanda. The French begin what's known as Operation Turquoise, Blue Hats.

And so the French begin essentially an invasion of Rwanda coming out of the Congo. RPF realizes, oh gosh, the French, through Operation Turquoise, are going to take over most of the country. The RPF accelerates. And so essentially we see this race between the RPF trying to take control of much of the country as possible and the French expeditionary force is doing the same thing. And the first week of July, they meet, and that's the end of the war. 100 days of atrocities come to an end on the 18th of July when the RPF take control of the entirety of Rwanda.

The Hutu government and military officials orchestrating the genocide flee the country. The next day, a Hutu member of the Rwanda, RPF, named Pasteur Basimungu, is sworn in as president. RPF commander Paul Kagame is named vice president and Ministry of Defense. Once the dust is settled, the dead can finally be counted. The best estimates suggest the number is somewhere between half a million and 800,000, or 75% of Rwanda's Tutsi population. It is possible that up to 30% of the country's Tuar population are also among the murdered.

Though they bring peace of a kind, RPF control of Rwanda is not welcomed by all. In the aftermath of the genocide, more than 2 million flee to refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Although some of the refugees had taken part in the killing, a large number simply fear reprisal attacks against all Hutu. But though foreign aid is mobilized, the lack of infrastructure for such huge numbers at such short notice leads to outbreaks of disease. Soon, cholera alone is taking hundreds of lives per week, and overall 50,000 will die in these camps.

And the violence is far from over. Just as the exiled RPF had done in previous years, armed Hutu groups form in Zaire, what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and launch attacks on Rwanda, leading to more conflict and immense regional instability. Back in Rwanda, the social fabric of the country has been torn apart by the genocide. A process of reconciliation is required. There are also hundreds of thousands of citizens who stand accused of genocide, from those who killed their neighbors to those who planned and orchestrated the atrocities on a national level.

Justice must be served, and it takes two forms. The very serious genocide errors are tried, convicted, and imprisoned by the United Nations through the ICTR, precursor to the International Criminal Court. The lower level, genocide heirs, basically the people that actually carried out these plans, they're tried, convicted, and incarcerated inside Rwanda. The ICTR, or International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, is formed in November 1994. Its tenure includes some landmark achievements in global legal history, including the first conviction for the use of sexual violence as a war crime.

In December 2008, Colonel Bagasora is finally convicted for his central role in organizing the genocide. When the court closes, it has tried 93 suspects and convicted 62. But the majority of suspected perpetrators are tried within Rwanda, in revived pre-colonial local tribunals known as Gachacha or Grass Courts, which are brought back in 2001. As well as convicting and sentencing perpetrators, these courts play a vital community role as forums for gathering information on victims and grave sites. They allow relatives and survivors to speak publicly about the horrors they experienced

and provide a space for discussion and reconciliation within communities. Over the course of a decade, they handle around 1.9 million cases. Though they cannot impose the death penalty, they can hand out life sentences. Former RPF leader Paul Kagame becomes president of Rwanda in 2000. Under his leadership, various measures are taken at a national level to bring about reconciliation. The flag and national anthem, both associated with Hutu nationalism, are changed. A new constitution is promulgated in 2003, and the country is reorganized into five large, multi-ethnic provinces. From this point on, the official line is that Hutu and Tutsi has legal identities ceased to exist.

the only ethnic group is Banyarawanda, to which all Rwandans now belong. Nowadays, Rwanda's economy is stronger than many of its East African neighbors. Kagami government, to their credit, have emphasized economic development and have been successful at it in ways that very few other African leaders have been.

Yet Rwanda's stability comes in large part from the authoritarian nature of Kagami's rule. The country's elections are not considered free or fair by international observers, and he has been accused of arresting critics and political opponents and even involvement in the extrajudicial killings of his rivals. The genocide continues to have impacts far beyond the borders of Rwanda as well. In the immediate aftermath of the atrocities,

the international community received heavy criticism for its response. Its failures prompted the creation of the ICTR, which acted as a blueprint for the international criminal court. and catalyzed a movement to try to ensure such atrocities were never committed again. We see a movement within the United Nations to create what becomes known as R2P, the responsibility to protect. On the one hand, sovereignty grants great rights to the government and people of nation states. At the same time, the governments running the nation state have extraordinary responsibility

to provide for the security and welfare of their residents. When the state becomes the source of insecurity, according to the R2P doctrine, the international community has the right and obligation to essentially violate norms of non-intervention. But such intervention requires a vote at the United Nations Security Council. And in recent years, conflict and division

between powerful nations have meant that, once again, the international community struggles to respond to unfolding catastrophes. Even if it was willing to intervene in places like Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia today, you're never going to get the United States and Russia and China to agree to send United Nations peacekeepers. So I think there's a general sense of pessimism today about the feasibility of international intervention, that immediately following the Rwandan genocide and civil war, there had been a period of hope where no, actually, maybe we can do something. The Rwandan genocide remains one of the darkest periods in East Africa's post-colonial history.

A horrific crime that tore communities apart, the wounds it left are slow to heal, even three decades on. Yet Rwanda does not shy away from the events of 1994. The genocide is remembered annually in the belief that by facing and remembering the past, there is still hope for a different future. short history of will bring you a short history of the Falklands War. It was really quite a short war and quite a clear good ending. And partly that was because for both sides it was difficult to get people there. So it wasn't one of these conflicts where you can keep on pouring people in to continue the fight. You basically had to fight with what you had already taken with you.

And that meant that the war came to a pretty natural conclusion. That's next time. If you can't wait a week until the next episode, you can listen to it right away by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Head to www.noiser.com forward slash subscriptions for more information. With the RBC Avion Visa, you can book any airline, any flight, any time. So start ticking off your travel list. Grand Canyon? Grand. Great barrier reef?

Great. Galapagos? Galapago? Switch and get up to 55,000 avion. points that never expire. Your idea of never missing out happens here. Conditions apply. Visit rbc.com slash avion.