The Hutus are bigger, but the Tutsis are taller. In one short phrase - the essence of a conflict that has dragged on for many years, as a result of which millions of people have suffered. Today, four states are directly involved in this war: Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), however, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia are also actively involved in it.
The reason is very simple: after gaining independence in two countries - Rwanda and Burundi - the only “social contract” of its kind that existed between two African peoples for at least five centuries was violated.
Symbiosis of nomads and farmers
At the end of the 15th century, early Hutu farming states emerged in what is now Rwanda. In the 16th century, tall nomadic Tutsi herders entered this region from the north. (In Uganda they were called Hima and Iru, respectively; in Congo, Tutsis are called Banyamulenge; Hutu practically do not live there). In Rwanda, luck smiled on the Tutsis. Having conquered the country, they managed to create a unique economic system here, called ubuhake. The Tutsi themselves did not engage in farming, this was the responsibility of the Hutus, and the Tutsi herds were also given to them for grazing. This is how a kind of symbiosis developed: the coexistence of agricultural and cattle breeding farms. At the same time, part of the cattle from the grazing herd was transferred to Hutu families in exchange for flour, agricultural products, tools, etc.
The Tutsis, as owners of large herds of cattle, became an aristocracy, their occupations being war and poetry. These groups (Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi, Iru in Nkola) formed a kind of “noble” caste. Farmers did not have the right to own livestock, but only engaged in grazing under certain conditions; they also had no right to hold administrative positions. This went on for many centuries. However, the conflict between the two peoples was inevitable - in both Rwanda and Burundi the Hutus made up the majority of the population - more than 85%, that is, the cream was skimmed by the outrageous national minority. A situation reminiscent of the Spartans and Helots in Ancient Hellas. The trigger for this great African war was the events in Rwanda.
The balance is broken
Pre-colonial history. It is unknown when the first Hutus settled in what is now Rwanda. Tutsis appeared in the area in the early 15th century. and soon created one of the largest and most powerful states in the interior of East Africa. It was distinguished by a centralized control system and a strict hierarchy based on the feudal dependence of subjects on masters. Because the Hutus accepted Tutsi dominance and paid them tribute, Rwandan society remained relatively stable for several centuries. Most Hutus were farmers, and most Tutsis were pastoralists.
Rwanda during the colonial period. In 1899, Rwanda, as part of the administrative-territorial unit of Rwanda-Urundi, became part of the colony of German East Africa. The German colonial administration relied on traditional institutions of power and dealt primarily with issues of maintaining peace and public order.
Belgian troops captured Ruanda-Urundi in 1916. After the end of the First World War, by decision of the League of Nations, Ruanda-Urundi came under the control of Belgium as a mandate territory. In 1925, Ruanda-Urundi was united in an administrative union with the Belgian Congo. After the Second World War, Ruanda-Urundi, by decision of the UN, received the status of a trust territory under the administration of Belgium.
The Belgian colonial administration took advantage of the existing institutions of power in Rwanda, maintaining a system of indirect rule, the support of which was the Tutsi ethnic minority. The Tutsis began to work closely with the colonial authorities, receiving a number of social and economic privileges. In 1956, Belgian politics changed radically in favor of the majority of the population - the Hutus. As a result, the process of decolonization in Rwanda was more difficult than in other African colonies, where the local population opposed the metropolis. In Rwanda, the confrontation was between three forces: the Belgian colonial administration, the dissatisfied Tutsi elite, who sought to eliminate the Belgian colonial administration, and the Hutu elite, who fought against the Tutsis, fearing that the latter would constitute the dominant minority in independent Rwanda.
However, the Hutus prevailed over the Tutsis during the civil war of 1959-1961, which was preceded by a series of political killings and ethnic pogroms, which caused the first mass exodus of Tutsis from Rwanda. Over the following decades, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi refugees were forced to seek refuge in neighboring Uganda, Congo, Tanzania and Burundi. Rwandan authorities considered the refugees to be foreigners and prevented them from returning to their homeland.
Independent Rwanda. On July 1, 1962, Rwanda became an independent republic. The Constitution, adopted on November 24, 1962, provided for the introduction of a presidential form of government in the country. The first president of Rwanda was Gregoire Kayibanda, a former teacher and journalist, founder of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Hutu Party (Parmehutu), which became the country's only political party. In December 1963, a group of Tutsi refugees from Burundi invaded Rwanda and were defeated by units of the Rwandan army with the participation of Belgian officers. In response, the Rwandan government instigated a massacre of Tutsis, which caused a new wave of refugees. The country has turned into a police state. In the elections of 1965 and 1969, Kayibanda was re-elected as president of the country.
Over time, the Hutu elite in the northern regions of Rwanda began to realize that the ruling regime had deceived them. As a result, the ethnic conflict escalated into a confrontation between the region and the central government. In July 1973, two months before the scheduled elections in which Kayibanda was to stand uncontested, the country suffered a military coup led by the Hutu northerner Major General Juvénal Habyarimana, Minister of National Army and State Security in Kayibanda's government. The National Assembly was dissolved, and the activities of Parmehutu and other political organizations were prohibited. Habyarimana took over the functions of the country's president. In 1975, the authorities initiated the creation of the ruling and only party in the country, the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (NRDR). First elected president in 1978, Habyarimana was re-elected in 1983 and 1988. Although his regime purported to be democratic, it was in fact a dictatorship that ruled through violence. One of his first steps was the physical destruction of approx. 60 Hutu politicians from the previous government. Relying on a system of nepotism and not disdaining contract killings, Habyarimana officially announced the advent of peace between ethnic groups in the country. In reality, official policies, including in the field of education, in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s contributed to an even greater division of Rwandans along ethnic lines. Rwanda's historical past has been falsified. Tutsis who remained in Rwanda had limited access to education and government positions. In 1973, by order of the authorities, all citizens were required to carry certificates of ethnicity, which for Tutsis later became “passes to the next world.” From that time on, the Hutus began to consider the Tutsis as “internal enemies.”
In Burundi, which gained independence in the same 1962, where the ratio of Tutsis to Hutu was approximately the same as in Rwanda, a chain reaction began. Here the Tutsi retained a majority in the government and army, but this did not prevent the Hutus from creating several rebel armies. The first Hutu uprising took place in 1965 and was brutally suppressed. In November 1966, as a result of a military coup, a republic was proclaimed and a totalitarian military regime was established in the country. A new Hutu uprising in 1970-1971, which took on the character of a civil war, led to the fact that about 150 thousand Hutus were killed and at least one hundred thousand became refugees.
Meanwhile, the Tutsi who fled from Rwanda back in the late 80s created the so-called Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), based in Uganda (President Musaveni, a relative of the Tutsi by origin, just came to power there). The RPF was led by Paul Kagame. His troops, having received weapons and support from the Ugandan government, returned to Rwanda and captured the capital Kigali. Kagame became the country's ruler, and in 2000 he was elected president of Rwanda.
While the war was flaring up, both peoples - the Tutsi and the Hutu - quickly established cooperation with their fellow tribesmen on both sides of the border between Rwanda and Burundi, since its transparency was quite conducive to this. As a result, Burundian Hutu rebels began to help the newly persecuted Hutus in Rwanda, and their fellow tribesmen forced to flee to the Congo after Kagame came to power. A little earlier, a similar international trade union was organized by Tutsis. Meanwhile, another country was involved in inter-tribal conflict - Congo.
Heading to Congo
On January 16, 2001, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, was assassinated, and the Ugandan intelligence services were the first to disseminate this information. Subsequently, Congolese counterintelligence accused the intelligence services of Uganda and Rwanda of murdering the president. There was some truth in this accusation.
Laurent-Désiré Kabila came to power after overthrowing dictator Mobutu in 1997. In this he was helped by Western intelligence services, as well as by the Tutsis, who by that time ruled both Uganda and Rwanda.
However, Kabila very quickly managed to quarrel with the Tutsi. On July 27, 1998, he announced that he would expel all foreign military (mainly Tutsi) and civilian officials from the country and disband the units of the Congolese army staffed by persons of non-Congolese origin. He accused them of intending to "restore the medieval Tutsi empire." In June 1999, Kabila even appealed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague with a demand to recognize Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi as aggressors who violated the UN Charter.
As a result, Hutus, who fled from Rwanda, where they were going to be tried for genocide against the Tutsi in the early 90s, quickly found refuge in the Congo, and in response, Kagame sent his troops into the territory of this country. The outbreak of war quickly reached a stalemate until Laurent Kabila was killed. Congolese intelligence services found and sentenced to death the killers - 30 people. True, the name of the true culprit was not named. Laurent's son Joseph Kabila came to power in the country.
It took another five years to end the war. In July 2002, two presidents - Kagame and Kabila - signed an agreement under which the Hutu, who participated in the destruction of 800 thousand Tutsis in 1994 and fled to the Congo, would be disarmed. In turn, Rwanda pledged to withdraw the 20,000-strong contingent of its armed forces located there from Congo.
Today, wittingly or unwittingly, other countries have become involved in the conflict. Tanzania became a refuge for thousands of Hutu refugees, and Angola, as well as Namibia and Zimbabwe, sent troops to the Congo to help Kabila.
The USA is on the side of the Tutsi
Both Tutsis and Hutu tried to find allies in Western countries. The Tutsis did it better, however, they initially had a greater chance of success. Partly because it is easier for them to find a common language - the elite position of the Tutsis for many decades gave them the opportunity to receive education in the West.
This is how the current president of Rwanda, Tutsi representative Paul Kagame, found allies. At the age of three, Paul was taken to Uganda. There he became a military man. Having joined the Ugandan National Resistance Army, he participated in the civil war and rose to the position of deputy head of the Ugandan Military Intelligence Directorate.
In 1990, he completed a staff course at Fort Leavenworth (Kansas, USA) and only after that returned to Uganda to lead the campaign against Rwanda.
As a result, Kagame has established excellent connections not only with the American military, but also with American intelligence. But in the struggle for power he was hindered by the then President of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana. But this obstacle was soon removed.
Arizona trail
On April 4, 1994, a surface-to-air missile shot down a plane carrying the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda. True, there are conflicting versions about the reasons for the death of the President of Rwanda. I contacted the famous American journalist Wayne Madsen, author of the book “Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa. 1993-1999" (Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999), who conducted his own investigation of the events.
According to Madsen, at Fort Leavenworth, Kagame came into contact with DIA, the US military intelligence agency. At the same time, Kagame, according to Madsen, managed to find mutual understanding with French intelligence. In 1992, the future president held two meetings in Paris with DGSE employees. There, Kagame discussed details of the assassination of then Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana. In 1994, he, along with Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, died in a downed plane. "I do not believe that the United States is directly responsible for the terrorist attack of April 4, 1994, however, the military and political support provided to Kagame suggests that some members of the US intelligence community and military played a direct role in the development and planning of the April terrorist attack," he said. Madsen.
Belgian approach
Meanwhile, three of the four countries involved in the conflict - Burundi, Rwanda and Congo - were controlled by Belgium until 1962. However, Belgium behaved passively in the conflict, and today many believe that it was its intelligence services that deliberately overlooked the opportunity to stop the conflict.
According to Alexey Vasiliev, director of the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, after Hutu militants shot ten Belgian peacekeepers, Brussels ordered the withdrawal of all its military personnel from this country. Soon after, about 2 thousand children were killed in one of the Rwandan schools, which was supposed to be guarded by the Belgians.
Meanwhile, the Belgians simply had no right to abandon Rwanda. According to a declassified Belgian military intelligence report, SGR, dated April 15, 1993, the Belgian community in Rwanda numbered 1,497 at the time, of which 900 lived in the capital Kagali. In 1994, the decision was made to evacuate all Belgian citizens.
In December 1997, a special committee of the Belgian Senate conducted a parliamentary investigation into events in Rwanda and found that the intelligence services had failed all their work in Rwanda.
Meanwhile, there is a version that Belgium’s passive position is explained by the fact that Brussels relied on the Hutus in the interethnic conflict. The same Senate commission concluded that although officers of the Belgian contingent reported anti-Belgian sentiments on the part of Hutu extremists, the SGR military intelligence kept silent about these facts. According to our data, representatives of a number of noble Hutu families have long-standing and valuable connections in the former metropolis, many have acquired property there. There is even a so-called “Hutu Academy” in the capital of Belgium, Brussels.
By the way, according to UN expert on the illicit arms trade and director of the Institute of Peace in Antwerp Johan Peleman, the supply of weapons to the Hutus in the 90s passed through Ostend, one of the largest ports in Belgium.
Breaking the Deadlock
So far, all attempts to reconcile Tutsi and Hutus have been unsuccessful. Nelson Mandela's method, tried in South Africa, failed. Having become an international mediator in negotiations between the Burundian government and the rebels, the former South African president proposed the “one man, one vote” scheme in 1993, declaring that a peaceful resolution to the seven-year ethnic conflict was possible only if the Tutsi minority renounced their monopoly on power. He stated that "the army should consist at least half of the other main ethnic group - the Hutus, and voting should be carried out on the principle of one person - one vote." Actually, after such an initiative by Mandela, it is not surprising what happened next...
The authorities of Burundi tried to go for this experiment. It ended sadly. Also in 1993, the country's president, Pierre Buyoya, transferred power to the legally elected Hutu president, Melchior Ndaide. In October of that year, the military assassinated the new president. In response, the Hutus exterminated 50,000 Tutsis, and the army killed 50,000 Hutus in retaliation. The next president of the country, Cyprien Ntaryamira, also died - it was he who flew on the same plane with the President of Rwanda on April 4, 1994. As a result, Pierre Buyoya again became president in 1996.
Today, the Burundian authorities believe that reintroducing the principle of “one person, one vote” means continuing the war. Therefore, it is necessary to create a system of alternating Hutus and Tutsis in power, removing extremists from both ethnic groups from an active role. Now another truce has been concluded in Burundi; no one knows how long it will last.
The situation in Rwanda looks calmer - Kagame calls himself the president of all Rwandans, regardless of their nationality. However, it brutally persecutes those Hutus who are guilty of the genocide of the Tutsi in the early 90s.
Alexey Vasiliev, director of the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, international journalist for Pravda newspaper on Africa and the Middle East:
How different are Tutsis and Hutus today?
Over many centuries they have become related, but they are still different peoples. Their ancient history is not entirely clear. Tutsis are more nomadic and they are traditionally good soldiers. But Tutsi and Hutu have the same language.
What was the position of the USSR, and now Russia, in this conflict?
The USSR did not take any position. In Rwanda and Burundi, we had no interests. Except that, it seems, our doctors worked there. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo at that time there was Mobutu, an ally of the United States. This regime was hostile to the USSR. I personally met with Mobutu, and he told me: “Why do you think that I am against the Soviet Union, I eat your caviar with pleasure.” Russia also had no position regarding the events in Rwanda and Burundi. Only our embassies, very small and that’s all.
After the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, his son Joseph took his place. Are his politics different from his father's side?
Laurent-Désiré Kabila is a guerrilla leader. Apparently, guided by the ideals of Lumumba and Che Guevara, he took power in a huge country. But he allowed himself attacks against the West. The son began to cooperate with the West.
P.S. The Russian presence in Rwanden is limited to the embassy. Since 1997, the “Driving School” project has been implemented here through the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, transformed in 1999 into the Polytechnic Center.
On April 7, 1994, horrific events began in Rwanda, as a result of which a million people were brutally killed in three months in an area smaller than the Moscow region. But here's the strange thing: after one generation, Rwanda turned out to be one of the most peaceful and fastest growing countries in the region. We tell you how it all happened and what is happening now at the site of the massacre.
The history of most countries is a series of wars, civil strife, coups and genocide. The world still remembers the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide or the extermination of the people of Cambodia by dictator Pol Pot. But there was one genocide that Serj Tankian does not sing about, and which is almost never talked about in the media. It happened quite recently, in 1994, in small African Rwanda.
Background
The territory of Rwanda is inhabited by two tribes: Tutsi and Hutu. First, the Hutus came from southern Africa in search of land, since they were mainly engaged in agriculture. Then the Tutsi nomads came from the north of the continent.
At a certain period in Rwanda's ancient history, the Tutsis began to dominate the Hutu. After this, society was divided into two clans - the ruling Tutsi and the “working class” Hutu. Both tribes speak the same language and, at first glance, appear almost indistinguishable. In fact, there is one subtle difference: Tutsis have a slightly different nose shape. This feature guided the Belgian colonialists in the selection and selection of local elites.
Europeans supported the Tutsis because of their origin. It was believed that the Tutsis had roots in Ethiopia, so they are closer to Caucasians, therefore, they are racially superior to the Hutus, they are more intelligent and beautiful. Accordingly, it was they who were given the preferential right to occupy senior positions in leadership and constitute the elite of the state.
At the Berlin Conference of 1884, during the division of Africa between the European powers, the territory of Rwanda was given to the German Empire, and in 1916 the country came under Belgian rule. Until the declaration of its independence in 1962, Rwanda had the status of a Belgian colony.
The Hutus could not accept the status of “second-class” people and in 1959 they rebelled, seizing power. Tens of thousands of Tutsis were killed, and the rest fled to neighboring states.
Civil War
In 1990, the Tutsis decided to regain power and created the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which began to fight against the Hutu government. The RPF was led by the current President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.
Paul Kagame
The Tutsi waged an active guerrilla war. They did this so successfully that in 1993 both peoples signed an agreement, according to which the RPF became part of the interim government. The Tutsi could return to their homeland, and both sides laid down their arms.
Despite these agreements, the Hutu radicals were unhappy with the state of affairs. Youth militant groups emerged to train and arm the military. Chauvinist propaganda leaflets began to be distributed calling for the destruction of the Tutsis. But, since the majority of the country's population was illiterate, radio was much more popular. Propagandists actively took advantage of this. People were led to believe that the Tutsis wanted to regain their position in society and dominate the Hutus.
Genocide in Rwanda
On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down while approaching Kigali. He was just returning from negotiations in Arusha (Tanzania), where ways to resolve the conflict were discussed. It is unknown who carried out the terrorist attack, but it was after this event that massacres and chaos began.
Hutu radicals killed the prime minister, her husband and 10 guarding Belgian soldiers. In addition, politicians who advocated peace with the Tutsis were killed. The military came to power and created a propaganda network directed against the Tutsi, the strength of which Goebbels himself would have envied. The main propaganda slogan was: “Kill these cockroaches!”
Not only the military, but also representatives of the civilian population destroyed the Tutsis. The army even gave out free machetes for this purpose. On the roads, documents were checked, which at that time indicated their nationality. If a person belonged to a Tutsi, then, as a rule, he was killed on the spot. Neither children, nor old people, nor women were spared.
In fairness, it should be said that some citizens from the Hutu tribe turned out to be much more humane. Risking their own lives, they saved Tutsi refugees from certain death. There is a well-known story of hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who, using his high position in society and financial wealth, sheltered hundreds of people in the hotel. The events are described in the film Hotel Rwanda.
The thugs combed all the houses in search of Tutsis. Their homes were burned and their property was stolen. The Tutsis, in turn, tried to find refuge in schools and churches. The priests hid some, and handed over others. Many Tutsis were killed or turned over to killers by their neighbors, friends and colleagues. At the same time, it is important that they dealt with not only the Tutsis, but also the so-called “moderate Hutus” - those who sheltered the persecuted or sympathized with them. Tutsi women were usually raped first and then killed. Many of them, having survived violence, are now infected with AIDS.
End of genocide
The Tutsis sought help from UN peacekeepers. But, unfortunately, they could not use weapons, since according to the regulations this meant direct intervention. Hutu militants took advantage of this condition, catching people one by one (but in large numbers).
The Europeans and Americans evacuated their citizens and did not intervene in the conflict. The Clinton administration opposed the UN mission, after which the Security Council ordered the peacekeepers to urgently leave the country. Of the 2,500 soldiers of Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, only a couple hundred remained. Showing will and heroism (largely contrary to the orders of his superiors), the general and his soldiers defended the Tutsis to the last, creating special areas for shelter.
General Romeo Dallaire
Despite this, after the end of the genocide, Dallaire became depressed, blaming himself for the deaths of the Rwandans, and made several suicide attempts. Some of the UN troops, unable to live with the memories of the massacre, also committed suicide. In 2003, Dallaire published the book “Shake Hands with the Devil,” which was subsequently filmed.
The massacre stopped after RPF fighters led by Paul Kagame took Kigali in July, and the defeated Hutu government fled to Zaire. According to official data, about a million people died in one hundred days of massacre. Kagame subsequently took the post of Vice President of Rwanda and Minister of Defense, and in 2000 he became president. Having been re-elected several times, he achieved a doubling of GDP, economic development and technology. It is not surprising that in modern Rwanda, Kagame is considered a national hero by many.
In November 1994, the UN organized an international tribunal for Rwanda. The culprits are still being found and tried.
After the events described, a change of elites occurred, and a flow of Western investment and humanitarian aid began. The activities of charitable organizations have expanded widely. In accordance with the official ideology, there are no longer divisions into tribes in the country, there are only Rwandans - a single nation.
How modern Rwanda lives after the genocide
In order to understand how Rwanda lives in our time, it is best to ask a person who has been there, and not as a tourist. Natalya, an employee of the embassy of one of the Latin American countries, who spent some time in Rwanda on a charitable mission, helped us with this. She did this on her own initiative, coming here with the volunteer project Ubushobozi. Unfortunately, she asked not to give her last name.
The trip was in many ways not what Natalya expected, and life in modern Rwanda is not at all some stereotypical African darkness and horror. In reality, everything is much more complicated and interesting:
“A year and a half ago, I became interested in literature about the UN and other international organizations. One of the books published by the UN quite often referred to Rwanda as the most failed peacekeeping mission. To be honest, at that time I didn’t even know about the existence of such a country. I started looking for information on the Internet and immediately realized that I had to go.
I rushed to look for volunteer programs. The first thing that usually comes to mind for people looking for such organizations is programs related to children. I settled on the American project Ubushobozi, a volunteer organization created to help women survivors of genocide and victims of violence. Every day they come to a house, a community, where they sew and weave crafts. Products are offered for sale online. Part of the proceeds is their salary, part goes to the needs of the project. Being very religious, the women go to church together, where they pray and dance.
In Musanze, the second most important city after the capital, Kigali, the project is being led by local resident Seraphin. For these women, the community is the second, and sometimes the only family. Some have suffered from domestic violence, some are orphans, there is one woman with HIV. Most of them were orphans or lost someone close to them due to the genocide. In general, any person currently living in Rwanda suffered from the genocide - after all, very little time has passed.
The topic of genocide is a taboo among local residents. Until the last moment, I wanted to talk to the locals, but I hesitated for a long time. During one of my walks with Serafin, we met her sister on the street. I subsequently learned that her husband was killed during the genocide. From the conversation it became clear that she knew the killer, and he was walking free. A reasonable question was asked whether she was seeking revenge. They explained to me that in church they are taught to forgive.
The man who killed her husband repented, asked for forgiveness - and she forgave him! Now they periodically intersect in the city and even communicate. For a European this is nonsense, but here it is in the order of things. They say that in local courts there is a condition: if a person repents, then he is either released or his sentence is reduced. There really are people walking the streets who have killed. They interact calmly with others who have forgiven them. Many former Hutu fighters were afraid of justice and fled to Uganda and Congo. Perhaps because of this, crime rates have increased in neighboring countries.
Seraphin says that during the genocide, armed men broke into her family's home. They had to pay off to save their lives. This also happened: having taken everything valuable, people were still killed.
In the Ubushobozi community both Tutsis and Hutu live together and live together. In Rwanda, it is not customary to throw away food; there are many people on the street to whom you can simply give it. Therefore, when I was full and couldn’t finish my portion in a restaurant, there was always someone to feed.
Business is developing in the capital, Americans and Europeans are coming. The influx of Chinese investment is growing. The Chinese build a lot of buildings. Against the backdrop of slums, modern Chinese new buildings look colorful. One of the types of taxis is people in overalls on bicycles who will give you a lift on the trunk to any point. There are no cats or dogs in the city. They may have been destroyed after eating corpses during the genocide.
There is a kind of Facebook cult developed in Rwanda. Not everyone has a computer, which is why Internet cafes are still popular.
The local population became civilized. It is absolutely safe within the city limits. It is not customary to smoke on the streets; you eat on the go. Social programs have been developed. For example, in the main square of the city, citizens are given mosquito nets. The crime rate is low, you can safely walk in the evenings.
People respect the police and the law. They say that there is no corruption at the everyday level as such. There is no such thing as a bribe to a police officer.
During the last few days of the trip, I visited the Kigali Memorial Center, built on the site of a mass grave. Permanent exhibitions explain the causes of genocide and tell the history of genocides in the world.
The Children's Memorial is located on the second floor. This is where tears begin to well up in my eyes. Under the photographs of the children it is written who was interested in what, and next to them are the causes of death: chopped with a machete, stoned, shot.
The guest book contains entries from people from many countries. Unfortunately, I did not find any reviews from my compatriots. I would like Russians to pay attention to this country. There really is something to see here. There is its own reserve - Akazhera National Park, which is no worse than the Kenyan or the reserve in South Africa.
At first I thought that the spirit of genocide must still be hovering here. However, in reality the country turned out to be very cheerful. Today everyone lives in harmony, there is no difference between people. Smiling people harmonize with beautiful nature. Every corner is a picturesque panorama with magnificent landscapes: green hills, trees, rivers. Due to its topography, Rwanda is nicknamed the land of a thousand hills. Modern Rwanda is absolutely safe and harmless - with a dark past but a bright future.
Meeting such cheerful people is simply a balm for the soul, it cannot be described in words. I really hope that I did something useful for the women of the Ubushobozi project. I can say that this trip changed a lot in me.
Rwanda then and now are two different countries. After the trip, I began to think differently about material wealth. Locals enjoy everyday things, which we have in abundance. They are optimistic, love to dance and communicate. They have a great sense of humor. These people want to live and enjoy life.”
Modern Rwanda, compared to neighboring countries, looks almost like Europe. Having completely eradicated any discrimination and division between nationalities, Rwanda is moving forward. They actively care about the environment here. Plastic bags are prohibited. Every last Saturday of the month, the entire population of the country organizes a cleanup day. In addition to the native language, English and French are taught in Rwandan schools.
Naturally, the memory of the genocide is still fresh among local residents. It is very difficult to understand how victims live peacefully next to their former tormentors. But the way this small and inconspicuous people were able to deal with their problems, adapt and return to normal life at a time when the entire hypocritical world had turned its back on them evokes not just respect, but admiration.
The liberation of many African countries from colonial oppression in the 1960s initially caused euphoria both among the local population and among supporters of democracy and progress around the world. However, subsequent events on the Dark Continent showed how dialectical history is, how erroneous the “straight paths” are sometimes. Without sufficient experience in state building, artificially separated by colonial borders, and burdened not only with feudal but also with tribal remnants, countries turned into “hot spots” on the planet. The departure of the colonialists revealed numerous problems, civil wars began, and the problem of tribalism - the division of society along tribal lines - was exposed.
Rwanda experienced all this to the fullest. This East African state was, until independence in 1962, part of Rwanda-Urundi, a UN trust territory administered by Belgium. The country's population in 1998 was about 8 million people, but before the events described in this essay, it was larger.
Rwanda is the most populous country in Africa. Only a small part of its population lives in cities. The people of Rwanda belong to three main ethnic groups: Hutu (Bahutu), Tutsi (Batutsi or Watutsi) and Twa (Batwa). According to the UN census in 1978, Hutus made up 74%, Tutsis 25% and Twa 1%. Half of the country's population are Catholics, the other half are adherents of local beliefs.
Since 1962, the ruling regime in Rwanda has changed several times. In 1973, as a result of a military coup, a military dictatorship was established. All political parties except the ruling one were dissolved. This one-party system remained in place until 1991, when the government finally allowed other parties to operate. From the first days of independence, the political situation in Rwanda began to be determined by the conflict between the Hutus, who make up the majority of the population, and the Tutsis. Often this conflict resulted in bloody clashes.
It is unknown when the Hutus appeared in these territories; the Tutsis arrived at the beginning of the 15th century. and created one of the most powerful states in the interior of East Africa. The Hutu recognized the dominance of the newcomers and paid them tribute. This hierarchy persisted for several centuries. The Hutus were mostly farmers, the Tutsis were pastoralists. The Germans, and then the Belgians who replaced them, decided to rely on the already existing elite - that is, the Tutsis, who received a number of social and economic privileges. But in 1956, the policy of the colonialists changed radically - the bet was made on the Hutus. Thus, using the principle of “divide and conquer,” the Belgians were already preparing the ground for a future confrontation that continues to this day. During the civil war of 1959-1961. The Tutsis defended the independence of Rwanda from the Belgians, the Hutus fought with the Tutsis. Pogroms and political assassinations became commonplace. It was then that the first mass exodus of Tutsis from Rwanda occurred. Over the next decades, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi refugees were forced to seek shelter in neighboring Uganda, Zaire, Tanzania, and Burundi. In 1973, the authorities ordered that all citizens carry identification cards of their ethnic origin. At the same time, fleeing persecution, thousands of Hutus moved to Rwanda from Burundi, which was also engulfed in an interethnic war.
On October 1, 1990, Tutsi refugees living in Uganda and creating the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwandan territory. They were stopped by the Rwandan army, which was assisted by French and Belgian formations. However, the authorities did not stop there, but staged an attack by RPF units on the capital of Rwanda, the city of Kigali. This explained the subsequent mass arrests and the need for the military presence of France and Belgium. RPF forces tried to repeat the invasion in December 1990 and early 1991. A new RPF offensive in February 1993 led to the emigration of another half a million Rwandans, both Hutus and Tutsis, who suffered equally from the actions of armed groups on both sides. In August 1993, an agreement was signed in the Tanzanian city of Arusha on the terms of a truce, which included the formation of a Hutu-Tutsi coalition government.
Hutu extremists who were part of the government during 1990-1994. repressions against Tutsi were constantly intensified, terror affected politicians, journalists, and others. On April 6, 1994, while landing at Kigali airport, a plane carrying the President of Rwanda Habyarimana and the President of Burundi exploded. It is unknown who - Tutsi or Hutu - was responsible for this act. But less than an hour later, the massacre began in Kigali. The next day, war broke out throughout the country. UN peacekeepers stationed in Rwanda did not dare intervene.
During the most severe ethnic cleansing, which was carried out using completely savage methods, the Hutus (primarily the police and the army) exterminated hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children. The victims of the genocide were not only Tutsis, but also Hutus disloyal to the regime. The total number of victims was just under a million people. The terror continued until July 1994. The government radio broadcast calls to destroy eternal enemies and reported places where Tutsis were hiding.
RPF troops entered the country. In July they captured Kigali. About 2 million Rwandans fled, mostly to Zaire and Tanzania. This time the majority were Hutus. They settled in refugee camps, which became resistance training centers.
The UN Security Council instructed France to send an armed humanitarian mission to the country. The French saw the situation differently. Most of all, they feared that Rwanda would pass from them to the control of the United States (which actually trained military personnel from the RPF). They created security zones in the southwest of the country where they sheltered soldiers and officials of the Habyarimana administration who had fled from the RPF. The United States opened a mission in Kigali, where the RPF was forming a coalition government in accordance with the Arusha Agreement. By July, more than a quarter of Rwanda's population had fled or died. The RPF appointed the moderate Hutu Bizimungu as president, and the head of the RPF militant organization, Kagame, became vice-president. The USA, Belgium, Great Britain and the Netherlands pledged to provide financial assistance to the devastated country. By the spring of 1997, refugee camps in Zaire were closed and approximately 1.5 million civilians returned to their homeland. Rwandan refugees still wander throughout the region, fighting with each other and with regular units of countries that do not want to accept them and are trying to force them back to their homeland.
Unfortunately, the history of many African countries (as well as the history of many European or Asian countries) has many dark spots: wars, disasters, epidemics, catastrophes, famines, and even such a terrible phenomenon of human history as genocide - the complete destruction of representatives of a certain people or ethnic group. The most terrible genocide in history was started by Adolf Hitler against the Jews, its results were more than terrible - 6,000,000 Jews living in different European countries were exterminated by the Nazis, died in concentration camps, were shot and tortured. This is a great tragedy, but besides this there were smaller genocides, for example the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Turks at the beginning of the 20th century, or the terrible genocide of the people of Cambodia perpetrated by the bloody communist dictator Pol Pot against his own people in the 60s of the last century. But there was one genocide that few people know about, and surprisingly, it happened quite recently, some 20 years ago, in 1994 in an East African country - Rwanda.
The victims of this genocide were 800,000 Rwandans (almost the entire population of a large city), representatives of the Tutsi tribe, who were killed by their own fellow citizens, also Rwandans, but representatives of another tribe - the Hutu. But before you understand why this happened, you need to look into the history of this African country.
BACKGROUND
Rwanda is a small country in the central-eastern region. Since ancient times, it was inhabited by several tribes, the largest of which were the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. The Hutu tribes led a sedentary lifestyle, engaged in agriculture, while the Tutsis, on the contrary, were nomadic pastoralists, with large herds of livestock (cattle and horned) roaming here and there. And of course, like any decent nomads, the Tutsi were more warlike, and at some point in the ancient history of Rwanda they conquered the settled agricultural tribes of the Hutu.
Further, Rwandan society was divided into two castes - the dominant Tutsi, who occupied all leadership positions (including the position of the King of Rwanda) and the wealthiest part of the population and the so-called “proletariat” Hutu. And what’s interesting for us is that representatives of both the Hutu and Tutsi tribes would at first glance look the same, but in fact they differ in some subtle signs: Tutsis, as a rule, have a slightly different nose shape. Also, for many centuries of Tutsi rule, mixed marriages between representatives of different tribes were prohibited, which led to the fact that these tribes did not dissolve into each other. (It’s a pity, because then maybe this tragic genocide would not have happened, as we see, racism, even African, between different tribes, does not lead to good).
But then the 20th century came, white Europeans came to Rwanda. The Tutsi kings initially swore allegiance to the German Kaiser, but during the First World War, Belgian troops attacked the territory and completely captured it in 1916. Then and until 1962, Rwanda was a Belgian colony. During the first years of Belgian rule, representatives of the Tutsi tribe retained their privileges and aristocratic position, but starting in the 50s, the Belgian colonialists began to curtail the rights of the Tutsi, and representatives of the “proletariat”, people from the Hutu tribe, were increasingly appointed to leadership positions. Among the latter, dissatisfaction with the centuries-old oppression of the Tutsi was also growing, which in 1959 turned into an open uprising against the Tutsi king. The uprising resulted in a real small civil war, which resulted in the abolition of the monarchy (in 1960), many representatives of the Tutsi tribe became refugees in neighboring countries: Tanzania and Uganda. Rwanda became a presidential republic and at the same time gained independence; the first president, and in fact the head of state, for the first time became a representative of the Hutu tribe, a man named Kaibanda.
However, Kaibanda did not remain president for long; as a result of a military coup, the country's then defense minister, Major General Juvénal Habyarimana (by the way, also a Hutu), came to power. However, this is a typical situation for African countries in the second half of the twentieth century, where military coups have become commonplace and even commonplace.
So the years passed, and the 20th century was already coming to an end, the 90s had arrived, the Soviet Union had already collapsed, the world was increasingly gaining signs of globalization (the author of this article went to school at that time), in Rwanda there are descendants of Tutsi who became refugees back in the 60s, they decided to regain power and created the so-called National Front of Rwanda (hereinafter referred to as NRF), which without thinking twice began military operations against the Rwandan Hutu government. As you know, one aggression causes even more aggression, and violence always begets even more violence, therefore, among the Hutu tribes, hateful sentiments began to actively grow against the Tutsi, who in their imagination were represented in the image of centuries-old enslavers. In addition, the Tutsi were often the bosses of the Hutus (and who loves their bosses at all), often the Tutsis were richer (and envy, since the times of the biblical Cain, has been the cause of almost all crimes). At the same time, the extremist Hutu organization Interahamwe (in Rwandan language - “those who attack together”) was formed. It became the main blade of genocide.
THE BEGINNING OF GENOCIDE
But let's take it in order: first, the President of Rwanda, the old warrior Juvenal Habyarimana, tried to settle everything peacefully with the Tutsi. This caused discontent among the radical Hutus. The latter, in the “good” African way, made another coup - on April 6, 1994, the president was returning by plane from some international African conference; already on approach to the ground, the presidential plane was shot down by a MANPADS (man-portable anti-aircraft missile system) by a paramilitary group of radical Hutus. The radical Hutus, who themselves committed this crime, blamed the hated Tutsis for the murder of the president. From that moment on, a wave of violence swept across the country, with Tutsis often living next door to Hutus becoming victims of their own neighbors. The Interahamwe was especially rampant, killing not only Tutsis, but also moderate Hutus who did not support this bloody madness, or even hid Tutsis within themselves. The Interahambwe killed all Tutsis indiscriminately, women, old people, small children. The rate of killings of Tutsis in Rwanda was 5 times higher than the rate of killings in German concentration camps during the Second World War.
A dozen Belgian UN peacekeepers who were guarding the Prime Minister of Rwanda, Agatha Uwilingiyimana, were also targeted. She belonged to the moderate Hutus and was a supporter of peaceful dialogue with the Tutsi. Therefore, after the death of the president, she became one of the first victims of the violence that soon swept the country. Her house was surrounded by members of the same notorious Interahamwe; the Belgian peacekeepers guarding the prime minister were offered to surrender, promising life, but were then treacherously killed. Prime Minister Agata Uvilingiyimana and her husband also died, but fortunately they managed to hide and save their children (they have now found political asylum in Switzerland).
RADIO 1000 HILLS AND ITS ROLE IN THE GENOCIDE.
A special role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide belongs to the radical Hutu radio station known as Radio 1000 Hills. In fact, the activities of the Rwandan “Radio 1000 Hills” are very instructive for today’s events taking place in Russia and Ukraine, when the media (rather disinformation) with their false reports (about “crucified boys”, “atrocities of the Kiev junta”, “two slaves” from Donbass”, etc.) are purposefully stirring up national enmity between the two peoples. Radio 1000 Hills did the same thing, whipping up real hatred and enmity among the Hutu towards the Tutsi tribe, “eating Hutu children,” and “not even people at all, but cockroaches, which all decent Hutus need to exterminate.” And you know what’s interesting, in remote Rwandan villages where Radio 1000 Hills was not broadcast, the level of violence was either several times less, or even absent altogether.
In fact, the Rwandan genocide is a very significant example of how the media (in this case a seedy African radio station) can influence public opinion, causing real mass madness when the neighbor who has lived next to you all your life, and a seemingly completely normal person, now goes kill you just because you belong to a different tribal ethnic group, because you have a slightly different nose shape. Now admit it, who has Russian acquaintances who also seemed to be quite normal people, and now they hate you for being a dill, a pravosek, a fascist cannibal Bandera and the list goes on. Now you understand why this happens, even if a radio station can actually kill. So it was in Rwanda, the radio really killed, with a radio in one hand and a bloody machete in the other, members of the Interahamwe went from one house to another, killing all the Tutsis, while being inspired by radio broadcasts calling for killing all the Tutsis like cockroaches. Now the radio DJ and its founder are serving life imprisonment for a crime against humanity - inciting genocide in Rwanda. Would it be interesting to see the same fair punishment for representatives of Russian media? Let's leave this question open.
ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
I wonder what the international community did to stop the genocide. You know, absolutely NOTHING. Although, of course, at the meeting of the UN Security Council, representatives of different countries were very concerned about these events, but we know what their concern is worth. Even Belgium, which had its own peacekeepers killed, did not take any active action; at most, they urgently evacuated from the country all the Europeans and Americans who were there at that time. That's all.
The behavior of UN soldiers at the Rwandan Don Bosco school was especially shameful. The headquarters of the UN peacekeeping contingent was located there, and hundreds of Tutsis fled there under the protection of UN soldiers, fleeing the Interahamwe pursuing them. Soon the UN soldiers were given an order to evacuate, and what they did was simply leave to their fate, in fact to certain death, hundreds of people, women, Tutsi children who found temporary shelter in the school. Immediately after the UN soldiers left the school, the Interhambwe carried out a bloody massacre there.
COMPLETION OF GENOCIDE
After the beginning of the bloody madness that swept Rwanda, the Tutsi paramilitary forces located in neighboring countries, their National Front of Rwanda NFR immediately launched an active attack on the country in order to save their Tutsi fellow tribesmen. And since they learned to fight well, very soon almost the entire country was liberated from the radical Hutus, many of whom, in turn, began to flee from Rwanda, fearing now a retaliatory genocide of the Hutu by the Tutti.
The economic consequences of the genocide were terrible, soon after it came famine (after all, the harvest was not harvested) and all kinds of epidemics caused by terrible unsanitary conditions in the refugee camps, where Tutsis flocked to escape from the Hutu, and then Hutu to escape from the Tutsi. Let these terrible events become, at least dark, an instructive historical lesson for all of us.
GENOCIDE IN RWANDA IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
And in conclusion, this event was embodied in cinema, a good one about these events was filmed in 2005 under the title “Shooting Dogs” about the Tutsi girl who survived the aforementioned massacre at the Don Bosco school, about the shameful departure of UN peacekeepers, about a Catholic priest who found himself in the epicenter of this nightmare.
But the best film made behind these events is “Hotel Rwanda”, I advise everyone to watch it, it shows how a simple employee of a Rwandan hotel, by the way from the Hutu tribe, risking his life to save his Tutsi compatriots from his own fanatical Hutu compatriots. The film shows the humanity, courage and nobility of an ordinary person who, in this madness, has not lost his human face. This film, like “Shooting Dogs,” is based on real events; everything shown there is not fiction, but actually happened.
Why did the Rwandan authorities organize massacres of Tutsis in the spring of 1994, what role did the media play in this, and why after these events did Rwanda become English-speaking from a French-speaking country? Doctor of Historical Sciences, Deputy Director of the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Bondarenko told Lenta.ru about this.
“Lenta.ru”: What was the cause of the genocide in Rwanda, when about a million people were killed in three months in this small, little-known African state in three months?
Dmitry Bondarenko: Indeed, these were one hundred days that truly shook the world. By the spring of 1994, the majority of the Rwandan population (85 percent) was Hutu, and the minority (14 percent) was Tutsi. Another about one percent of the population were Twa pygmies.
The mystery of the deaths of presidents
Historically, in the pre-colonial period, the entire political, economic and cultural elite of Rwanda consisted of Tutsis. The state in Rwanda arose in the 16th century, when Tutsi pastoralists came from the north and subjugated the tribes of Hutu farmers. When the Germans arrived in the 1880s, replaced by the Belgians after World War I, the Tutsis switched to the Hutu language and mixed heavily with them. By that time, the concept of Hutu or Tutsi denoted not so much a person’s ethnic origin as his social status.
That is, the Hutus were in a subordinate position in relation to the Tutsis?
Not certainly in that way. In general, this statement is true, but by the time the Europeans arrived in Rwanda, the Hutu who had become rich had already appeared. They acquired their own livestock and raised their status to that of Tutsis.
The Belgian colonialists relied on the then ruling minority - the Tutsi. They introduced a system very reminiscent of Soviet registration - each family was assigned to its own hill (Rwanda is often informally called the “land of a thousand hills”), and it had to indicate its nationality: Tutsi or Hutu. The natural process of merging the two peoples was artificially interrupted.
In many ways, this Belgian divide-and-rule policy predetermined the 1994 massacre. The Belgians, leaving Rwanda in 1962, transferred power that had previously belonged to the Tutsi minority to the Hutu majority. From that time on, tension between them began to openly grow in the country. Clashes began, culminating in the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi.
That is, the events of 1994 did not happen spontaneously?
Certainly. Interethnic conflicts in Rwanda have flared up before: in the 1970s and 1980s, they just did not reach such proportions. After these pogroms, some of the Tutsis took refuge in neighboring Uganda, where, with the support of local authorities, the Patriotic Front was formed, which sought to overthrow the ruling Hutu regime by armed means. In 1990, it was almost possible to do this, but French and Congolese troops came to the aid of the Hutus. The immediate cause of the massacre was the murder of the country's president, Juvenal Habyarimana, whose plane was shot down while approaching the capital.
Do you know who did this?
It's still unclear. Naturally, the Hutu and Tutsi immediately exchanged mutual accusations of involvement in this crime. Habyarimana, together with the President of Burundi Cyprien Ntaryamira, was returning from Tanzania, where a summit of heads of state of the region was being held, the main topic of which was resolving the situation in Rwanda. According to one version, an agreement was reached on the partial admission of Tutsi representatives to govern the country, which categorically did not suit the Hutu leadership, who organized the conspiracy. This interpretation has a right to exist along with others, since the massacres of Tutsis began literally a few hours after the crash of the presidential plane.
Murderous Press
Is it true that most of the victims of the genocide were not even shot, but simply beaten to death with hoes?
Unthinkable things were happening there. In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, there is a Center for the Study of Genocide, which is essentially a museum. I visited him and was amazed at the sophistication the human mind can show in inventing ways to destroy their own kind.
In general, when you find yourself in such places, you inevitably begin to think about our nature. This establishment has a separate room dedicated to people who resisted the genocide. The massacre was organized by the state, local administrations received direct orders to exterminate Tutsis, and lists of unreliable individuals were read out over the radio.
Are you talking about the infamous Thousand Hills Free Radio?
Not only. Other media also provoked genocide. For some reason, many people in Russia believe that “Radio of a Thousand Hills” was a state structure. In fact, it was a private company, but closely associated with the state and receiving funding from it. On this radio station they talked about the need to “exterminate cockroaches” and “cut down tall trees,” which was perceived by many in the country as signals for the destruction of Tutsis. Although, in addition to indirect calls for massacres, direct incitement to pogroms was often heard on air.
But then many of the Thousand Hills Free Radio staff were convicted of inciting genocide?
Many, but not all. The main “stars” of the radio station, Anani Nkurunziza and Habimana Kantano, appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, calling for the killing of Tutsis on air. Then other journalists were convicted of similar crimes - Bernard Mukingo (to life imprisonment) and Valerie Bemericki.
How did the population of Rwanda react to these calls in 1994?
It is known that a real massacre began in the country, but, to the credit of the Rwandans, not everyone succumbed to mass psychosis and state propaganda. In one province, a local official who refused to carry out orders to kill Tutsis was buried alive along with eleven members of his family. There is a well-known story of a woman who hid seventeen people under her bed in her hut. She skillfully took advantage of her reputation as a witch, so the rioters and soldiers were afraid to search her home.
The manager of the capital's Thousand Hills Hotel, Paul Rusesabagina, became a symbol of resistance to the madness that then gripped Rwanda. He himself is a Hutu, and his wife is a Tutsi. Rusesabagina is often called the “Rwandan Schindler” because he hid 1,268 people in his hotel and saved them from certain death. Based on his memories, the famous film “Hotel Rwanda” was shot in Hollywood ten years ago. By the way, then Rusesabagina became a dissident and emigrated to Belgium. Now he is in strong opposition to the existing political regime in Rwanda.
Rwanda today
Did the 1994 genocide really affect not only Tutsis, but also Hutus?
This is true - approximately 10 percent of the victims of the massacres were Hutus. By the way, Paul Rusesabagina, being an ethnic Hutu, accused the government that came to power after those terrible events of precisely this.
How does Rwanda live now and has it overcome the consequences of the 1994 genocide?
After 1994, the situation in the country changed radically, there was a complete change of elites, and now it is actively developing. Now Rwanda is receiving large amounts of Western investment and humanitarian aid, primarily from the United States and the European Union. I myself saw that in local markets farmers sell potatoes in bags with the USAID label (United States Agency for International Development - approx. "Tapes.ru"), that is, in bags of humanitarian aid - its size is so large. Rwanda's economy is growing, but the country has a very harsh political regime. Although in reality Tutsis have been in power since 1994, the official ideology in the country is this: there are neither Hutus nor Tutsis, there are only Rwandans. After the genocide, the process of building a unified nation intensified.
Now Rwanda is trying to position itself as a modern state. For example, it is pursuing a policy of widespread computerization - fiber optic cables are extended even to the most remote villages, although the rural hinterland continues to remain patriarchal in many respects.
Today's Rwanda is oriented toward the West, primarily the United States. At the same time, China, as elsewhere in Africa, is active in this country. It should also be noted that several years ago Rwanda restored its embassy in Moscow, which was closed in the mid-1990s. She changed the official language from French to English. During the genocide, most refugees took refuge in neighboring English-speaking countries, where a new generation grew up speaking almost no French.
We have very difficult relations with France, which played a very unseemly role in the events of 1994. She supported the Hutu regime, which organized genocide, and many of its inspirers and ideologists fled the country on French planes. In modern Rwanda, it is still customary to have a negative attitude towards everything French.
Why did the world community come to its senses so late and actually missed the genocide?
Most likely, it underestimated the scale of the event. Unfortunately, massacres are not uncommon in Africa, and Rwanda was then on the periphery of international attention, preoccupied with the war in Bosnia. The UN caught on when the death toll reached hundreds of thousands. Initially, in April 1994, when the genocide had already begun, the UN Security Council decided to reduce the number of peacekeeping troops in Rwanda by almost twenty times - to 270 people. Moreover, this decision was made unanimously, and Russia also voted for it.