The 100-day-long Genocide was a tragic chapter in human history that witnessed the death of over 800,000 people in 1994
As a mark of respect and solidarity with the people of Rwanda the Qutub Minar in Delhi was lit up last night in the colours of the Rwandan national flag. The infamous Rwandan Genocide was a tragic chapter in human history witnessing the death of over 800,000 people in 1994. Most of the deaths were among the Tutsi tribes, along with moderate Hutus , who were brutally and systematically massacred in a 100-day-long campaign.
As a tribal society, Rwanda’s majority population is of the Hutus. The Hutus make around 85 per cent while the Tutsis are a minority community. Christians, around 93.5 per cent, are the religious majority in the country. The ethnic tensions among these two tribes go back to the colonial period. These tensions were exploited by political elites, particularly in the aftermath of Rwanda’s independence, leading to cycles of violence and discrimination of the Tutsi population.
On 6th April 1994, the President of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana was assassinated along with his counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi. Both of them were flying together in a jet, when the aircraft was shot down with a surface-to-air missiles while landing at Kigali airport, resulting in their deaths. As both the leaders were of the Hutu tribe, the Hutu extremists started an ethnic rampage against the Tutsi population. The extremists blamed the assassination on the Patriotic Front (RPF) a rebel group led by the Tutsi tribal people.
Within days the entire country was turned into a battleground with thousands massacred daily. According to reports, people from every section of the country were involved in this killing; be it locals, members of the government or even religious heads. In about a 100 days around 800,000 people were killed, according to a BBC report.
The killings did not stop until the RPF, backed by the Ugandan army, marched into Kigali to take over control of Rwanda. Unfortunately, this led to revenge by RPF fighters who went about killing thousands of Hutu people. Many Hutu people took shelter in neighbouring countries.
The United Nations and the international community have been heavily criticised for not intervening and failing to stop the genocide.
Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations), Ministry of External Affairs, represented India at the 30th commemoration of the genocide in Kigali.
Team Bharatshakti
