After 4 days in
Kigali, I can officially say that I love it. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming, my internship (more
on that later) is going smoothly, and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. If someone were to visit the city for a
few days, she or he might never even guess that, just 18 years ago, genocide
had just taken place.
Trying to
summarize the causes and events of a genocide could take hundreds of pages (if
not more!). Nevertheless, before
explaining my study, my internship, and showing you pictures of different
memorial sites and sites of major massacres that I’ll visit around the country (as well as some more cheerful pictures of weddings and maybe even gorillas),
some more background information is necessary.
On April 6,
1994, a plane carrying the President of Rwanda and the President of neighboring
Burundi was shot down as it was preparing to land in the capital of Rwanda. At the time, Rwanda, a land-locked
country in Central Africa that is roughly the size of Maryland, had experienced
decades of violence and war, political unrest, and economic hardship. Members of the government had
deliberately engendered animosity between the two main ethnic groups at the time—Hutu and
Tutsi—and strife between Hutu and Tutsi in Burundi had further exacerbated
inter-ethnic group relations.
The plane crash
killed the occupants of the plane immediately, and that same night, targeted
killing of Tutsi and those associated with them began. Over the next 100 days, between 500,000
to 1 million people (estimates of those killed vary widely; the official
government figure is slightly over 1 million) were killed in one of the worst
genocides of the twentieth century.
In addition, over 2 million people fled the country, creating the
greatest refugee crisis in history.
It’s important
to note that this genocide was not tribal warfare, as much of the Western media
portrayed at the time. Rather,
decades of colonial history, economic inequalities, and many, many other
factors were at play—far too many for me to get into, but I’d be happy to
provide some resources for anyone interested.
While the international community was
slow to react to the genocide, several post hoc mechanisms were enacted to hold
those who planned and participated in the genocide criminally responsible. In late 1994, the United Nations
Security Council created an ad-hoc international tribunal, known as the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), to prosecute individuals who
were responsible for the genocide and other serious violations of international
humanitarian law committed in Rwanda during 1994.
As the ICTR
was created to prosecute those most responsible for the genocide, the Rwandan
government sought additional measures for justice and reconciliation within
Rwanda. In 2001, the Rwandan
Government created Gacaca courts, which were semi-local courts specifically
designed to prosecute individuals involved in the genocide. The Gacaca courts were established at
all administrative levels and, after several pilot phases, were in operation
until their official closure on June 18, 2012.
Hollie! I just wanted you to know that I am following your blog and looking forward to your updates! And looking forward to learning more about Rwanda. I will be joining you on that side of the world in just 2 weeks!
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