The desire to recapture Tutsi power in Rwanda led to genocide and more

I know some Bahutu (Hutu) and Bairu (Iru) in diaspora who supported Tutsi return to Rwanda, by force if necessary, because they had been rejected in neighboring countries – witness their expulsion from Uganda in 1982 – and Rwanda government did not want them because there was no room for more people. Habyarimana government described Rwanda as a country unsustainably overpopulated and recommended that Tutsi should stay where they had been given asylum.

In recognition of Tutsi suffering in exile, the international community put pressure on Rwanda government to negotiate a settlement with the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) for a government of national unity and the return of Rwandan refugees. The RPF had a different idea – the restoration of their supremacy over Bahutu as they had done until 1959 when Bahutu ‘Social Revolution’ through Batutsi out of power and out of the country.

Although they were aware that the invasion of Rwanda would lead to casualties (you cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs (M. B. Umutesi 2000), RPF perhaps did not understand the extent of the outcome. As Abbas H. Gnamo has observed “Moreover, it is doubtful whether the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) and its leadership, coming from Rwandan Tutsi refugees of three decades ago, imagined that their invasion would lead to such a tragedy, although they were determined to oust the Hutu-dominated government and re-conquer state power. Neither could the RPF have predicted that the calculated risk of launching a war would affect the lives of millions in neighboring countries. But it did, radically and unalterably, as Africa Confidential underlined (Africa Confidential 9 May 1997, 38:10)” (Howard Adelman & Astri Suhrke 2000). Although opinions differ as to who helped and shot down the plane carrying the Hutu Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi (Europa, Africa South of Sahara 1999:855 & African Link, Volume 4 No. 3, 1994:10), genocide began immediately after the death of President Habyarimana, resulting in the death of 800,000 to 1 million moderate Hutu and Tutsi who opposed the government. It also resulted in some two million Hutus fleeing the country for fear of revenge genocide.

Instead of sending a message of reconciliation, massive revenge massacres of Hutu men, women and children by RPF occurred throughout the country and in the neighboring eastern part of DRC where 1, 244,000 Hutu sought refuge (850,000 in Goma of North Kivu province, 332,000 in Bukavu and 62,000 in Uvira of South Kivu province) (Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke 2000).

RPF then invaded eastern DRC with the official intent of tracing and killing genocidaires and end their attempt to regain power in Rwanda. Instead Rwandan army activities resulted in massive revenge killings of many innocent Hutus, both Rwandese and Congolese. Initially the Rwandese government denied revenge killings in Rwanda and DRC but eventually accepted responsibility except that the numbers had been exaggerated (Europa 1999).

However, information increasingly becoming available shows that not only many Hutus have been killed but the manner in which they are killed is shocking, to say the least. As noted already killings started in North West Rwanda where RPF entered Rwanda from Uganda and continued to Kigali and beyond.

Sadako Ogata, former head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported in one incident that “In southern and southeastern regions of Butare, Kibungo, and parts of Kigali prefectures, the situation was much more drastic. Gersony’s team uncovered shocking evidence of new killings that had occurred in the spring and early summer immediately following the expulsion of former government and militia elements. Butare and Kibungo included vast deserted areas. Ten thousand Tutsi returnees from recent and older times armed with spears and bow and arrows were present. These RPF actions were consistently reported to be conducted in areas where opposition forces of any kind, other than attempts by victims of these actions to escape, were absent. Large-scale indiscriminate killings of men, women and children, including the sick and the elderly, were consistently reported. Particularly random and violent were mass killings at meetings. Local residents, including whole families, were called to community meetings to receive information on security, food distribution, etc., and once a crowd assembled, they were assaulted with sudden sustained gunfire or locked in buildings into which hand grenades were thrown. There were also house-to-house killings, pursuits of hidden populations, and disposals of large numbers of bodies by RPF” ( Sadako Ogata 2005).

Then there is the sad story of Kibeho internally displaced persons camp (IDP). According to Gregory Salter, Kibeho camp accommodated 100,000 Hutu displaced persons (Africa Report: America’s Leading Magazine on Africa May-June 1995). They were all killed by RPF.

Revenge massacres continued in Eastern DRC and many reporters and authors including by Alison Des Forges in Debra Liang-Fenton (2004), Edna G. Bay and Donald L. Donham (2006), Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja (2002) and Yaa-Lengi M. Ngemi (20000) give information about the extent of massacres or genocide of Hutu people. The latter author went to great length to provide pictures and to describe the cruel manner in which the victims were killed – it is really heart-breaking.

While I was in DRC early this year I heard formally and informally horrendous stories about how the Rwandese army had decimated Hutu people, Congolese and Rwandese alike, in Eastern DRC. This ‘genocide’ was committed by people who had pledged that genocide or its equivalent would “Never Happen Again” to a Rwandese after the 1994 tragedy. But it has!

Lusoke Willy has sent a message (April 2010) to Ugandans-at-Heart detailing the massacre of Hutu and where the mass graves are to be found in Rwanda. Here is what he wrote.

“Let me lead you through Rwanda where we have mass graves of Hutu. Start from Kibungo. All those new houses along the plain just before you reach Kibungo University 9 I think they call it UNATEK, are constructed above Hutu mass graves. In Rwangamana, that woman association centre is on top of a huge mass grave. Go to Butare. There are millions of Hutu dead bodies in Rwasave. There are millions of Hutu dead bodies in that forest just before you reach the Seminary (Nyakizu). Move into Nyanza …gone are the days of Tutsi extremists. If we want to build a country in which all the people will leave in harmony, we must say the truth and even apologize. Lies will not help us at all. … I want to say sorry to the Hutu. I also want them to say sorry (those who killed my people)!!!”

And Prof. Allan Stam and Prof. Christian Davenport of the University of Michigan and University of Notre Dam respectively have concluded in their report that “the vast majority of people who died in the 1994 Rwanda Genocide were Hutus” (Black Star News April 11, 2010). Add on those Hutus that were killed before and after 1994 genocide by Tutsis and you have an idea of how many Hutus have lost their lives. And yet Hutu innocent survivors and those born after 1994 are systematically referred to by Tutsi as genocidaires or assassins. The whole question of genocide in Rwanda needs to be revisited and set the record straight.

Meanwhile, just as the international community put pressure on Habyarimana to make changes to accommodate Tutsi people, time has now come for the same international community to put pressure on the Rwandese government to accommodate Hutu that are innocent.