Three months of slaughter between April and July of 1994 resulted in 800,000 Rwandans being killed in the fastest and most brutal genocide in human history. Most of those murdered were members of the minority Tutsi tribe, whereas the killers belonged to the Hutu majority. Hutus used machetes, stones, and a variety of other blunt objects to carry out the murders. Thus, it is no wonder why the Rwandan genocide is often compared to the Nazi Holocaust.
There are various reasons why these killings have occurred. However, the event, which initiated the violence against the Tutsis, was the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, and his deputy Cyprien Ntaryamira, who were both Hutus. Members of the Hutu extremist groups were quick to blame the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) for the fact that the President’s plane was shot. As a result, this served as a flimsy yet somewhat legitimate excuse for Hutus to organize a campaign against Tutsis.
Despite the significance of the President’s assassination, it served as a mere excuse and not the primary reason for the genocide. In order to understand the real causes for such violent and brutal murders of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis, it is crucial to look back at the history of Rwanda and its ethnic tensions. First, although it was always a minority, the Tutsi tribe dominated the political arena in the area even during the pre-colonial period. Belgian and German colonizers contributed to the ethnic divide between Hutus and Tutsis. They supported the system, which treated the Hutu and other tribes as inferior to the Tutsis. Given all of these reasons, the motivations and hatred of the Hutu tribe are now many clear.
However, it is also important to acknowledge how the failure of the international community to intervene has contributed to the killings. European countries as well as the United States decided to ignore the Rwandan genocide due to each state’s own self-interest. The United States, for instance, did not want to engage in any military action after the failed mission in Somalia prior to the events in Rwanda. It is frustrating how the state’s fear of embarrassment in the global arena is the primary reason for its disregard of the violence in Rwanda. The United Nations provided only limited support to the region at the beginning of the slaughter. Most importantly, the organization ordered the peacekeeping units to leave Rwanda after the shocking reports of the Rwandan killings started to come in.
The most disappointing fact about the Rwandan genocide is that priests committed some of the killings and used churches to lure Tutsis and slaughter them there. Arguably, the Bible mentions that the authorities people govern themselves by are instituted by God. However, it does not mean that we should follow the government blindly. As Christians, we have to apply Christian principles to politics and follow the scripture first. Thus, I would make sure to engage as many Christian organizations, churches, and communities to pressure the international community to intervene and save hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.