History of the Rwandan Genocide

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them in the church. So they couldn’t escape. After they had done this they took a fattened cow that they have looted from someone’s house and had a party as if there was something to celebrate. Still drunk from the night before they came back the next day and finished of the remaining people.”

To the west this was the first blatant act of genocide all the previous acts could have bin slid under the rug of civil war. Even with this being classified as the first act of genocide the Tutsi people were left alone to look after themselves until the 18th of July more than 3 months later; when the RPF (Rwandan patriotic front) took control of the country not once throughout the genocide were the people properly helped by the west. They were given money and food to look after them-self’s by western people so they didn’t feel guilty or part responsible. however when you have a machete bearing down on your throat money and food and mental help means nothing. one of the things that I think annoys so many people now, is how French Belgian and American civilians were rescued for there governments by a military intervention however didn’t stay to help the actual people in trouble. The UN’s troops were given direct orders not to fire any weapons until fired upon. There for they had to stand and watch whilst thousands of people were being slaughtered and could not do anything. throughout this time the UN were withdrawing there numbers from Rwandan. They had dropped by more than 90% from the begging of the genocide, to just 270 troops throughout the whole country. This was also when many people started to flee to near by countries of Burundi Uganda and Tanzania it is thought that over 250,000 people fled to the neighbouring countries.

The RPF was the rebel organisation/ army that had been involved in the civil war with the FAR (Rwandan armed forces). They were also used by the high rank members of the Interhamwe as a scape-goat. The civil war which had broken out in 1990 and ended 1993 was according to the RPF a way to try and stop the political and racial segregation within the country. However this in affect just kick started the genocide whilst giving the right wing generals and leaders of the Interhamwe an excuse to gives awful orders. In the months leading up to the genocide the RPF had fortified there parliamentary building were they had been based, in case they were stuck in the city with no escape to neighbouring Uganda. Throughout the genocide they had fought to keep this building under there control as they had nowhere else in the country they could go. Once the rebel forces had secured the area around the building, They started to fight there way out and fight against the governmental forces that were based near the parliament buildings. However one problem with the country was there were two wars going on the first was a civil war between two armies, the second was a genocide to attempted to destroy a race of people. Yes the racial and political tension did start from the government the war the RPF were fighting had nothing to do with the Interhamwe who were the people who were doing most of the killings. So even when the RPF took control of the country the interhamwe were still killing in some areas for weeks.

Around a similar time as the PRF within the city were fighting their way back, the RPF sent a three pronged attack to try take power and counter the killings. One group moved west to Ruhengeri where they engaged government forces, although they would make little progress and were more likely a defensive force securing the right flank of the RPF advances to the south. The second group moved down the eastern border of the country towards Kibungo. The third group managed to make a major advance towards the capital by the evening of 11 April. Both sides began to reinforce and strengthen their positions, with the RPF beginning a slow but effective encirclement of the city where they would eventually squeeze in and take control of parliament and try, from this to stabiles the whole country. In the east, the RPF faced little government resistance and reached the Tanzanian border on 22 April. However, with almost all of the RPF’s heavy equipment focused on the battle for Kigali, the western advance on Ruhengeri became a bloody long drawn out stalemate with neither side having a foot hold in the town. The assault on the capital however was a lot more successful one of the contributing factors was shutting down the main transport routes. They shut down the airport and Kigali-Gitarama road (the main road into Kigali) this would stop there opposition being able to send the constant flow of reinforcements which is what had been slowing them down in other locations. The RPF started to apply the squeeze and push in again from a three pronged attack to take the control of the city. They did this by a constant bombardment of mortar and light artillery for three days. After this the they launched quick assault tactics which forced the government forces to retreat out of the city due to lack of ammunition and massive casualties on there side. With the fall of Kigali the government forces started to rout being pressed hard by the RPF who were on a mission to destroy any remains of the past government. With help from the French operation turquois by the 21st of august they had control of the whole control.

Over the 100 day period that the genocide took place over it is thought that over 800,000 thousand people were killed. During this period of terrible slaughter, more than 6 men, women and children were murdered every minute of every hour of every day and maintained for 3 months. The genocide was classified as a decimation this means the killing of every tenth person in a population. Between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped during the 100 days of genocide. One of the things that was so shocking about this genocide was the speed and efficiency of the killings they were the most efficient killings since the atomic bomb that was dropped