Our new geoblog, a partnership with Google Earth, documents and maps genocide and related crimes against humanity.
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This guest post was written by Enough Project staffer Ledio Cakaj. Read more posts about Sudan at Enough’s blog, Enough Said. “Tell them about our suffering here,” said the Bishop… More»
Rwanda
Overview: Rwanda
In 1994, Rwanda's population of 7 million was composed of three ethnic groups: Hutu (approximately 85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%). Between April and July 1994, at least 500,000 Tutsi were killed when a Hutu extremist-led government launched a plan to murder the country's entire Tutsi minority and any others who opposed the government's policies.
Current Situation
Top Rwanda Genocide Suspect Arrested
One of the most wanted suspects in the 1994 genocide was arrested in Uganda this week and extradited to Tanzania to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The head of intelligence and military operations at Rwanda’s elite military training school during the genocide, Idelphonse Nizeyimana was indicted by the ICTR in 2000 and charged with crimes against humanity, as well as complicity in genocide and direct and public incitement to commit genocide. The indictment charged that:
From late 1990 until July 1994, military personnel, members of the government, political leaders, civil servants and other personalities conspired among themselves and with others to work out a plan with the intent to exterminate the civilian Tutsi population… In executing the plan, they organized, ordered and participated in the massacres perpetrated against the Tutsi population and moderate Hutus. Idelphonse Nizeyimana elaborated, adhered to and executed this plan.
Nizeyimana was also specifically accused of establishing “secret units of extremist elements” to help carry out the genocide.
Hiding out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the genocide, Nizeyimana served as a top commander in the FDLR, a rebel army comprised of perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide and responsible for countless atrocities across eastern Congo.
15 Years Later
April 7, 2009 marked the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Joined by an international audience, Rwandans across the country gathered to commemorate the deaths of at least 500,000 people over 100 days in 1994. President Paul Kagame spoke about the need to remember, but also of the future he is trying to build for the country: “This is the constand underlying message: that while we must remember the past, history, events, and facts — we must also remember to shape our future.”
Rwanda’s progress over the last fifteen years has been marked by these two poles: the memory of unimaginable violence and the imperative to focus on the future and building a strong, self-sufficient country. The effort to recover from the genocide has included far-reaching justice reforms and innovative legal processes for cases related to the genocide. Resilient surviviors have created networks across the country, and the government has focused on educational reform, strengthening the health system, and security economic advances. These remarkable achievements have transformed the country.
To advance social and economic goals, the Rwandan government has opted to prioritize security and stability over freedom of expression and political organization. After the experience of the genocide, it is a bargain that the population seems ready to embrace for now. While reconciliation is difficult to measure, Rwandans are certainly providing a remarkable example of coexistence in the aftermath of genocide, as survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators find ways to live together and move forward as a country.
Visit World is Witness to read a first-hand account of the commenoration ceremonies from Museum staff in attendance.
The Search for Justice
With the gacaca courts set to close in December 2008, the Rwandan government is trying to streamline and expedite the process. In March, the government expanded the jurisdiction of the gacaca courts to include cases of alleged rapists and planners of the genocide. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have expressed concerns that the increased pace and caseload of the traditional courts have come at the expense of fairness.
Tasked with trying the most high level genocide cases, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has secured the arrest of over seventy people and concluded twenty convictions and five acquittals. It recently upheld the war crimes and genocide conviction of Father Athanase Seromba, a Roman Catholic priest. When 1,500 parishioners took shelter in his church in the town of Nyange, Father Seromba had the church leveled by bulldozers and ordered gunmen to shoot anyone who tried to flee. There were no survivors.
In July, the Security Council extended the mandate of the ICTR for another year. Originally due to conclude at the end of 2008, the ICTR needs the additional time to clear its trials: six cases involving nineteen people are ongoing; two are scheduled to commence; and four more are preparing for trial. Thirteen war criminals remain at large. In the next year, Tribunal officials especially hope to capture and try: Augustin Bizimana, a former defense minister; Felicien Kabuga, a businessman accused of buying machetes used in the genocide; and two former army officers, Protais Mpiranya and Idelphonse Nizeyimana.
This September, Rwanda will hold its first parliamentary elections since 2003, when women achieved 48% of the seats in the National Assembly, the highest proportion of women legislators in the world. Out of a total eighty seats, the National Assembly reserves twenty-four seats for women, two for youth, and one for the disabled.
The Legacies of Genocide
Thirteen years after the genocide, Rwanda has done much to rebuild internally, but remains scarred. The legacy of genocide touches almost every sector of Rwandan society: survivors, the government, perpetrators and refugees who returned to Rwanda after 1994. In addition to recurring trauma suffered by many from their experiences, survivors of the genocide face multiple difficulties. Many are impoverished and face complex health problems, such as HIV/AIDS, as a direct result of the violence perpetrated against them during the genocide. Some survivors are threatened with violence, attacked or killed by former perpetrators, and for many in the Tutsi minority a climate of fear persists. Rebuilding their lives alongside individuals responsible for murder and rape is a difficult reality faced by all survivors in Rwanda.
The post-genocide government, which has pursued a policy of unity and reconciliation, has made considerable advances. Among these is gacaca, a form of local justice inspired by tradition, established to handle the hundreds of thousands of those accused of crimes during the genocide. The government has also empowered women through legal reforms and by promoting participation in government, increased economic growth and stability, and adopted a new constitution. But power remains concentrated in the hands of former leaders of the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and freedom of speech is restricted. The first post-genocide elections occurred in August 2003, resulting in a seven-year presidential term for former RPF general Paul Kagame. The government has been accused of human rights abuses against potential political rivals and of misusing the fight against divisionism (rhetoric or action that promotes social separation along ethnic lines) for political reasons.
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
To bring those accused of high-level crimes to justice; the planners, leaders, and organizers of the genocide; the international community established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Arusha, Tanzania. The ICTR oversaw the world’s first conviction of genocide when the judgment was announced for Jean-Paul Akayesu on October 2nd, 1998. Despite this and many other convictions, including a landmark case trying media leaders for their role in inciting genocide, the court has come under fire from the Rwandan government and others for its high cost, slow pace and physical distance from Rwanda. In June 2006, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights urged the ICTR to address war crimes and crimes against humanity alleged to have been committed by the Rwandan Patriotic Army during reprisals following the genocide. This suggestion has been vigorously countered by the government of Rwanda.
