Lest We Forget: Remembering the Rwandan Genocide
Sometimes in April
When it hits April, we remember; we remember because we do not want to forget and because we want to commit ourselves to the covenant "never again". It all started on April 6, 1994, when
a presidential plane was shot down near Kigali. The plane crash led to the
death of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and the Burundian President
Cyprien Ntaryamira sparking ethnically targeted mass murder across Rwanda to
unimaginable scale. Orchestrated by Hutu
political and military extremists and led by the Intarahamwe, an anti Tutsi
militia, the genocide was to claim so many lives and a destruction of at least
three quarters of Rwanda’s Tutsi population in just a hundred days. Moderate
Hutus were also victims of the systematic mass killings.
For 100 days over 800,000 lives
(official) were lost in the genocide in Rwanda and the country was smelling
death and destruction, millions of refugees thronged roads to neighboring
countries and Rwanda was on the verge of annihilation. Apart from those
who lost their lives, millions of other Rwandese were affected by the genocide.
The impact has been huge and is still being felt more than 2 decades on as
demonstrated in various recent study findings. The Rwandan genocide affected
men and women differently and indeed quite uniquely, and it is one of the most
efficient and terrifying episodes of targeted ethnic violence in recent
history. Rwanda still reels from the aftermath of the genocide with more bodies
being discovered as late as 2013.
End of the Genocide
The genocide came to an end when the
dominant Hutu regime and the Intarahamwe militia was pushed away by the Tutsi
dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) which had been fighting the Rwandan
government from Uganda since 1990 when the civil war broke out. Whereas the RPF
is credited for having brought the genocide to an end, it has also been accused
of numerous revenge killings targeting the Hutu community. However, having
secured the ‘victory’ and ended the genocide the RPF faced a long and arduous
process of rebuilding a country that had been almost entirely destroyed. No
doubt, Rwanda has made significant strides. Although there is still pain and
loss, Rwandans have shown the world that forgiveness, healing, reconciliation and
progress are possibilities even after systematic mass murder.
Lest We Forget: Remembering the Rwandan Genocide
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
April 01, 2016
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