Mainstream WeeklyAbstract
April 7, 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsis. The first author of this paper during his visit to Rwanda got the opportunity to interact with the survivors of the Genocide and the present-day administrators in the country. During the visit to Rwanda, the author came to know about the facts that led to the Genocide and got a first-hand experience and knowledge of Rwanda’s resurrection from the tragedy. The authors share the strategies and methods used by Rwanda including home-grown solutions and the role of decentralization in post-conflict reconstruction of a country to empower its citizens. This article is not merely a commemorative remembrance to all those who lost their lives. It is also a tribute to resilience of the Rwandan people who came together to reconstruct their nation through their determination and will power by aligning with democratic principles and ideals.
Keywords: Rwanda, Genocide, Home Grown Solutions, De-ethnicization, Peacebuilding, Reconciliation and Forgiveness
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Introduction
On April 7, 1994, exactly 30 years ago, a mass Genocide began in Rwanda [1]. Close to 800,000 people, one tenth of Rwanda’s population were killed in 100 days, making it one among the darkest moments in the human history. The immediate reason for the Genocide was the ethnic violence that broke out after an aircraft carrying the then Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi’s President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down by a missile near Kigali, the Capital of Rwanda. Habyarimana belong to the Hutu ethnic group. The ethnic groups in Rwanda are the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. The Hutus are majority, while the Tutsi and Twa are minority communities. Within hours of the plane crash, militants from the Hutu ethnic majority unleashed brutal and frenzied killings of Tutsis. Nearly 70 per cent of the Tutsi population was wiped out in the Genocide. The 100 days of slaughter saw neighbors turning on neighbors and friends turning on friends. Rape, sexual torture, mutilation, and enslavement were used as weapons to attack, terrorize and slaughter thousands of Tutsis. It has been estimated that more than 250,000 women were raped during the Genocide.
Though the Genocide against the Tutsis was an internal domestic conflict within Rwanda, it would not have escalated into the form of bloodshed and mass butchering of human lives had the international community intervened in the matter to mitigate the conflict. According to a comprehensive study by Human Rights Watch and International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, the authorities in the US, French and Belgium along with United Nations ignored dozens of warnings and intelligence inputs in the months before the Genocide and failed to act effectively (Human Rights Watch, March 31, 1999, Stanton, 2009). Lack of any strategic interest in Rwanda was another major reason for the ignorant attitude of the countries. It has been stated that “the Americans were interested in saving money, the Belgians were interested in saving face and the French were interested in saving their ally, the genocidal government,