Rwandan Genocide Ends
The Rwandan genocide, in which extremist Hutu forces and militias killed an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 people, most of them Tutsi, in roughly 100 days, ended in mid-1994 when the Rangers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took control of most of the country. The killing is remembered as one of the fastest and most thorough genocides of the twentieth century, and as a lasting indictment of the international community's failure to intervene.
The roots of the violence lay in Rwanda's colonial and postcolonial history. Under German and then Belgian rule, the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority were treated as rigid, racially defined categories, with Tutsi favored in administration. After a Hutu-led revolution around independence in 1962, many Tutsi were killed or driven into exile. Their descendants formed the RPF, which invaded from Uganda in 1990, beginning a civil war. The Arusha Accords of 1993 sought a power-sharing settlement, but Hutu hardliners opposed it, and extremist propaganda, notably on radio, increasingly portrayed Tutsi as enemies to be eliminated.
On 6 April 1994, a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, and Burundi's president was shot down near Kigali. Who was responsible remains disputed. Within hours, roadblocks went up and killings began, directed by officials, army units and the Interahamwe militia. Moderate Hutu politicians were also murdered, and ordinary civilians were pressured or compelled to take part. Massacres took place in churches, schools and hospitals where people had sought refuge, and sexual violence was widespread. A small UN peacekeeping force was reduced rather than reinforced, and major powers declined to act decisively.
The RPF, led by Paul Kagame, advanced through the country and captured Kigali in July, ending the genocide. In late June, France launched Operation Turquoise, a UN-authorized mission that created a safe zone in the southwest. It saved some lives, but critics have argued that it also allowed some perpetrators to escape, and France's earlier support for the Rwandan government remains controversial. Around two million Hutu fled, many to neighboring Zaire, fearing reprisals, and the refugee camps there became a source of later regional conflict.
The aftermath was profound. The UN established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, which convicted senior figures, including former prime minister Jean Kambanda, and established important precedents, such as recognizing rape as an instrument of genocide. Rwanda also used thousands of community-based gacaca courts to handle the enormous number of cases. The genocide shaped later debates about humanitarian intervention and the "responsibility to protect," while Rwanda itself has been rebuilt under a government praised for stability and development and criticized for limiting political freedoms.