The truth about the genocide in Rwanda. Tutsis vs. Hutus - a dossier on the national conflict
Massacre in Rwanda
Civil wars in Africa
The bloody conflict in Rwanda between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples began on April 7, 1994 and claimed the lives of about a million people in a hundred days.
On April 7, 1994, conflict broke out in Rwanda, killing up to a million representatives of the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. At this time, the President of the country, Juvenal Habyarimana, who belonged to the Hutu tribe, which made up the majority of the population, led fighting against the rebels from the Tutsi tribe - the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Relations between the Hutu and the Tutsi were very tense. On April 6, 1994, the plane of the country's president was shot down by a rocket (who launched it is not completely clear), the head of state died. The death of the president served, primarily in army circles, as a signal for the start of massacres of Tutsis.
Chronicle of the African Holocaust - in the photo gallery "Kommersant".
The massacre in Rwanda, which is called the African Holocaust, began in April 1994. At this time, the country's president, Juvenal Habyarimana, who belonged to the Hutu tribe, which made up the majority of the population, fought against the rebels from the Tutsi tribe - the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Relations between the Hutu and the Tutsi were very tense.
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At a time when Rwanda was a Belgian colony, the metropolis deliberately divided its inhabitants: Tutsi representatives were considered an elite and received better jobs and various privileges. After Rwanda gained independence in 1962, the situation changed dramatically: the oppressed majority, the Hutus, perked up and began to oppress the Tutsis in every possible way. The RPF, led by Paul Kagame, fought against the Hutu government in the early 1990s. On April 6, 1994, the plane of the country's president was shot down by a rocket (who launched it is not completely clear), the head of state died. The death of the president served as a signal for the “hawks”, primarily in army circles, to start the massacres of Tutsis.
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Not only ordinary people were involved in the conflict. In a matter of days, all moderate Hutu politicians who did not belong to the presidential clan were massacred. "Moderate" Prime Minister Agata Uwilingiyamane (pictured), who was five months pregnant, had her stomach ripped open by soldiers. Five ministers and the president of the constitutional court were also killed.
4.
Having done away with the "traitors" from among the tribesmen, the Hutu extremists proceeded to the "final solution" national question. The massacre was by no means spontaneous. The gathering of militia units was announced on the national radio. The mayors gave them pre-prepared lists, and the Tutsis were systematically massacred. The whole country took part in the massacre.
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Thus, in a hospital in the city of Butare, rioters forced Hutu doctors to kill their Tutsi colleagues with their own hands. In another case, on the orders of the Hutu, European sisters of mercy drove Tutsis into a barn and set fire to it. In three weeks, more than half a million people died, in a month - 800 thousand people.
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The genocide in Rwanda was particularly brutal. The victims were tortured for a long time before their death, cutting off their fingers, hands, feet, arms and legs. Often, not wanting to endure bullying, the victims asked to be killed, even offered them money. Sometimes the bodies of the victims were mocked after the murders.
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According to various organizations, about 250,000 women were raped during the genocide, including the murdered prime minister. Many of the women who survived contracted sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS. One of the survivors said: “I will not go to the gachacha (community court) because it is too difficult for me to testify. Yes, I don’t know who exactly killed my husband and who raped me ... I have seven children, but only two of them go to school, because we are poor. I have AIDS and I don't know who will take care of them when I die."
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But soon everything went in the opposite direction. The Tutsis, mobilized from neighboring countries, mainly from Uganda, took Kigali on July 4, 1994 and established their own government. The decisive role in the victory of the Tutsi was played by the support of the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, by the way, also a Tutsi by origin. Now the prisons are filled with representatives of the former Hutu political elite. According to official figures, about 300 people died there, according to unofficial data - 18 thousand people.
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When the Tutsi rebel army defeated government forces in 1996, the French units, according to a special commission, covered the withdrawal of Hutu militants, allowing them to take refuge in neighboring Zaire (now the DRC). Paris has always denied such accusations, which were previously unofficial, insisting that the French troops were trying to protect people and were acting under the sanction of the UN. The Rwandan government accused France of involvement in the 2008 genocide.
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The world community demonstrated indecision during the massacres, for which the responsible persons have repeatedly apologized to the people of Rwanda. By the beginning of the massacre, there were 2.5 thousand UN peacekeepers in the country. However, after ten Belgian soldiers were killed, the UN Security Council decided to withdraw troops and leave only 270 troops. Then, in mid-May, the Security Council changed its mind and decided to send 5,500 peacekeepers to Rwanda, which was done, but after the end of the massacre. Bill Clinton, who headed the US administration in 1994, and Kofi Annan, who in those years was responsible for peacekeeping operations, apologized to Rwanda. Their example was followed by representatives of a number of countries, including the former metropolis - Belgium.
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In the course of a well-organized massacre, which was carried out with extreme cruelty, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were killed in three months, as well as moderate Hutus who opposed the genocide (if the Hutus refused to kill the Tutsis, they themselves died). The genocide ended after the troops of Paul Kagame managed to capture Kigali, after which about 2 million Hutus fled to the Congo (at that time Zaire).
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Over the past 20 years, no unequivocal answer to the question of who is to blame for the tragedy has been found: the parties to the conflict continue to blame each other and global community. Rwanda's judicial system is overwhelmed by thousands of cases, many of the perpetrators of the massacres successfully hide abroad, and victims' relatives continue to seek vengeance after failing to obtain justice.
On April 7, 1994, the largest genocide since World War II began in remote African Rwanda. Representatives of the Hutu people staged a massacre against another people who inhabited Rwanda, the Tutsis. And if the genocide in Rwanda yielded to the Holocaust in terms of the scale of atrocities, then in terms of its "effectiveness" it surpassed all previously known cases of genocide. In just a month and a half of the most active phase of the genocide, according to various estimates, from 500 thousand to a million inhabitants of Rwanda were destroyed. The nightmare massacre took place right in front of various international organizations and the UN peacekeeping contingent, which actually remained indifferent. The bloody events in Rwanda were one of the main failures of the international community, which could not prevent this terrible massacre.
Contradictions between the Tutsi and the Hutu arose even in pre-colonial times. Tutsi and Hutus had practically no ethnic differences and spoke the same language. The differences between them were more class than national. The Tutsis have traditionally been pastoralists, while the Hutus have been farmers. With the establishment of pre-colonial statehood, the Tutsi became a privileged class and occupied a dominant position, while the Hutus were still the poorest peasants. At the same time, the Tutsis were a minority, and the Hutu represented the majority of the population.
This is exactly the situation that the colonizers came to find. At first, this territory was ruled by the Germans, who did not change anything and retained all the privileges in the hands of the Tutsis. After the First World War, Germany lost all its colonies, and this territory, under the mandate of the League of Nations, came under Belgian control.
The Belgians also did not change anything, leaving the Tutsis a privileged group. All unpopular reforms, such as the removal of rich pastures formerly owned by the Hutus, were carried out at the behest of the Belgians, but carried out by the hands of the Tutsis, as a result, the hatred of the Hutu grew not towards the Belgian colonialists, but towards the privileged Tutsis.
In addition, the Belgians finally consolidated the ethnic rift between the two peoples. Previously, as already mentioned, the differences between them were more class than ethnic, and a wealthy Hutu automatically became a Tutsi. But the Belgians introduced nationality in its traditional European sense into the colonies, distributing passports to the inhabitants indicating nationality.
After the end of World War II, the gradual decolonization of Africa began. The Rwandan Tutsi elite, led by the king, began to show disloyalty to the Belgians and demanded independence. In response, the Belgians began to support the Hutus, who were already in the majority. Very soon, the Hutu began to dominate among the priests, who in the conditions of the colony were actually officials in the education system. Shortly before independence, the Belgians replaced big number Tutsi chiefs Hutus chiefs. From that moment, the first bloody clashes between the two peoples began. The Belgians, not wanting to deal with this tangle of contradictions, simply left the colony. In 1962, the territory was divided into two independent states: the Kingdom of Burundi, where the power remained in the hands of the Tutsis, and the Republic of Rwanda, where the Hutus seized power.
But the colonialists not only drew resources from the colonies, but also created infrastructure, and also brought to these lands European systems education and medicine. Thanks to European medicine, mortality among newborns has sharply decreased - the traditional scourge of Africa. This led to a real population explosion, the population of Rwanda has increased six times in less than half a century. At the same time, the territory of the state was small, and Rwanda became one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. This population explosion led to the collapse. There was a monstrous agrarian overpopulation, the Hutus did not have enough land, and they began to look unkindly at the Tutsis, who, although they were no longer the ruling elite, were still considered much richer than the Hutus.
Immediately after the declaration of independence, bloody ethnic clashes began in Rwanda. The Hutus began to rob the more prosperous Tutsis, who fled in tens of thousands to neighboring Burundi and Uganda, where they settled in refugee camps. In these camps, Tutsi partisan detachments began to be created, which the Hutus called "inenzi" - cockroaches. Later, this nickname spread to all Tutsis without exception. Tutsi detachments crossed the border of Rwanda and carried out acts of sabotage and attacks on patrols, after which they returned back.
By the early 1970s, violence was on the decline. As a result of the military coup, Rwanda was headed by Juvenal Habyarimana. Although he was a Hutu, he held relatively moderate views, because he believed that Rwanda could not exist normally without the help of Western countries, which clearly did not approve of severe discrimination and persecution of an ethnic minority. Habyarimana proclaimed a course to the West, began to receive financial assistance from developed countries and ended the persecution of the Tutsis.
The conflict was frozen for a decade and a half. Meanwhile, in Uganda, where a significant number of Tutsi refugees moved, a civil war broke out. The Tutsis, who already had experience of guerrilla warfare in Rwanda, joined the rebel national army resistance. After her victory, Tutsi emigrants turned into an influential political and military force in Uganda and began to demand permission from the Rwandan government to return to their homeland.
However, in the late 1980s, Rwanda experienced a serious financial crisis, associated both with catastrophic agrarian overpopulation and with the fall in prices for the main export commodity - coffee. To prevent the return of emigrants, a special law was passed prohibiting Ugandan citizens from acquiring land in Rwanda. In fact, this meant a ban on the return of the Tutsis.
This sharply radicalized the Tutsi emigrants, who began to create the Rwandan rebel front. It was replenished not only at the expense of several generations of refugees, but also at the expense of emigrants who settled in Western countries and generously funded the RPF. Unable to win concessions from the Rwandan government, Tutsi rebels invaded Rwanda in October 1990.
Thus began the civil war. It is believed that the Tutsi rebels enjoyed the tacit support of Britain, while the official government of Rwanda was openly supported by France, which supplied weapons.
At first, the rebels were successful due to the surprise attack, they managed to advance inland, but the advance ended after France urgently transferred its troops to Rwanda (under the pretext of protecting French citizens), which blocked the advance of the rebels.
The RPF were not ready for such a turn and began to retreat. Instead of open conflict, they switched to guerrilla warfare and the tactics of small-scale skirmishes and attacks on government facilities. The guerrilla war lasted for about two years. In 1992, a ceasefire agreement was signed and peace negotiations began, which periodically broke down, and clashes resumed after each Tutsi pogrom that periodically occurred in the country. Neither side was willing to compromise. The Hutu claimed that the Tutsi, with the support of the British, wanted to enslave all the Hutus. And the Tutsi accused the Hutus of genocide and pogroms, as well as cruel discrimination.
In 1993, UN peacekeepers were brought into the country, but they were unable to stop the conflict. President Habyarimana, forced to maneuver between the Hutu ethnic majority, who demanded that nothing be ceded to the Tutsis, and the demands of foreign states, who demanded compromise for the sake of peace and stability, began to lose support.
The Hutu Power movement, which consisted of extreme radicals who demanded a "final solution to the issue" with the Tutsis, began to gain popularity. The movement consisted mainly of the military, as well as the Interahamwe, a Rwandan armed militia, which in the future became one of the most active participants in the genocide. The military began a mass distribution of machete Hutus under the pretext of agricultural needs.
The radicals created their own radio station, Free Radio of a Thousand Hills (Land of a Thousand Hills - one of the names of Rwanda), which was engaged in openly racist propaganda, calling for hatred of "cockroaches". One of the employees of this station was the ethnic Belgian Georges Ruju, who was later sentenced by the International Tribunal to 12 years in prison and became the only European convicted by the Rwanda Tribunal.
In late 1993, in neighboring Burundi, Tutsi military conspirators assassinated the country's president, who was recently elected and became the first Hutu head of state. This caused an outburst of indignation in Rwanda, which was used by the radicals who began preparations for the extermination of the Tutsis.
It is worth noting that the UN was warned about the impending massacre several months before it began. One of the high-ranking Hutus, in exchange for the removal of himself and his family to some of the developed countries and the provision of political asylum, offered to provide all the information he had about the suspicious actions of the military leadership, which is arming the militia and registering Tutsis, clearly planning some kind of operation. However, the UN was afraid to get into this tangle of contradictions of several countries and peoples and did not interfere in the course of events.
On April 6, 1994, a ground-launched rocket shot down a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, as well as a number of high-ranking military and politicians. All of them were returning from another round of talks on the situation in Rwanda. Until now, it remains unknown who is responsible for the assassination of presidents. For 20 years, many different versions have been published in the media, both Hutu radicals and Tutsis were blamed, and even the French secret services.
One way or another, within a few minutes after this event, the bloodiest genocide since the Second World War began. Colonel Bagosora proclaimed himself the new government, despite the fact that, according to the law, power should have passed to Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana, who had moderate views and was a follower of the deceased president. 
Bagosora immediately ordered the army and militia to attack the Tutsis and kill them wherever they were found, making no exception for women, old people, or children. At the same time, the military was sent to capture and kill moderate Rwandan politicians who could interfere with the plans of the radicals.
On the night after the president's death, the presidential guard, loyal to the radicals, went to capture Prime Minister Uwilingiyimane, who was guarded by 10 Belgian blue helmets. The Rwandan military surrounded the house they were in and they laid down their arms. The peacekeepers and the prime minister were killed.
At the same time, the military began a manhunt for all moderates, which resulted in the deaths of several members of the former government, opposition figures and journalists from major publications.
Murders of Tutsis began all over the country. Both the military and the militias, as well as civilians, who sometimes cracked down on their neighbors, took part in them. They were shot, cut with machetes, burned alive, beaten to death. All of them were encouraged by "Radio of a Thousand Hills", calling not to spare "cockroaches". Directly on the radio, reports were read about the places where the Tutsis who fled from the pogroms were hiding.
Since there were no visible differences between the Tutsi and the Hutu, the rioters acted at their own discretion. The media taught them to recognize Tutsi by their "contemptuous and haughty look" and "small nose". As a result, a considerable number of Hutus became victims of the rioters, who were mistaken for Tutsis (some of the victims of the genocide were Hutus killed by mistake). As a result, "Radio of a Thousand Hills" was even forced to address listeners with a warning: not everyone who has a small nose is a Tutsi, Hutu have such noses, do not kill them right away, but first check the documents and only then kill.
On the day the genocide began, RPF leader Paul Kagame declared that if the violence did not stop immediately, he would break the truce and launch an offensive. The next day, the rebels launched an offensive. Their army was constantly replenished by the Rwandan Tutsis who managed to escape, as well as volunteers from Burundi, outraged by the bloody massacres of their fellow tribesmen.
The Rwandan soldiers were so carried away by the reprisals against the Tutsis that they actually missed the offensive of the rebels, who managed to surround the capital very quickly, launching an offensive in three directions. In July, the entire territory of Rwanda was under the control of the RPF. This is considered the end of the genocide, however, it is worth noting that its most active phase lasted about a month and a half, since by mid-June almost the entire territory of Rwanda was already under the control of the Tutsi rebels.
The events in Rwanda were one of the major failures in the history of international politics. The Western states could neither prevent the genocide nor even mitigate it. The Blue Helmets were instructed not to interfere in the events and to use force only in case of self-defense. Only on the initiative of the commander of the contingent, Dallaire, were several thousand Tutsis rescued at the headquarters of the peacekeepers.
After the Hutus killed ten Belgian Blue Helmets, Belgium announced the evacuation of its contingent (which was the backbone of the Blue Helmets) and began to withdraw its peacekeepers. The UN was later heavily criticized for its inaction in the midst of the genocide. Only a month after it began, the UN finally stated that the events taking place in Rwanda could be called genocide, and it was decided to send an additional contingent of peacekeepers, who arrived in the country after it had been captured by the Tutsi rebels and the genocide had stopped.
The French were also heavily criticized. They were accused not only of supplying weapons and training future participants in the genocide, but also of not providing any assistance to the Tutsis. A few days after the start of the bloody bacchanalia, French troops landed in Rwanda in order to evacuate French and Belgian citizens from the country. However, they refused to evacuate the Tutsis or provide them with any assistance at all.
The Americans at that moment were completely carried away by the situation in Yugoslavia and did not interfere in the events at all, relying on France, in whose sphere of influence Rwanda was located.
Consequences civil war and genocide proved to be unprecedentedly difficult for the country. The infrastructure was destroyed. Almost half of the country's population either died or fled. During the Tutsi genocide, according to various estimates, from 500 thousand to a million people were destroyed. Several tens of thousands of Hutu died during the retaliatory terror after the rebels seized the country. About 2 million Hutus (almost a quarter of the country's population) fled, fearing retribution from the Tutsis who had seized the country. They settled in refugee camps in neighboring countries. The situation of 30 years ago was repeated, only then the refugees who became partisans were the Tutsis, and now the Hutu, who created military detachments and made sorties into the territory of Rwanda.
Hutu refugees created their own army in Zaire, which led to the fact that Rwanda supported the local rebels in the civil war that began in the country. Although Zaire has now been renamed Congo, the Hutu army still exists under the name Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and is waiting in the wings.
The President of the country is still Paul Kagame - the leader of the RPF. He declares that he does not divide the Rwandans into Tutsis and Hutu and cooperates with moderate Hutus, brutally persecuting radicals. 
In addition to the courts in Rwanda, in Tanzania, under the auspices of the UN, the International Tribunal for Rwanda was established, which condemned a number of high-ranking organizers and perpetrators of the genocide (about 100 people in total). The main organizer of the genocide, Theoneste Bagosora, was sentenced to life imprisonment, caught a few years after fleeing Rwanda in one of the African countries. Most of defendants from among the officers of the army and the militia, as well as employees of the radical media, received terms from five years to life imprisonment.
It is impossible to imagine that all this happened very recently. One can only hope that modern civilization will learn from the terrible lessons of the recent past.
Today we will talk about the genocide in Rwanda, a small state in the East. And even though you can often hear creepy stories about Africa (which is worth it), this story will impress anyone.
The Rwandan genocide, officially called the Tutsi genocide, is the massacre of Rwandan Tutsis by local Hutus on April 6-July 18, 1994, carried out by order of the Hutu government.
We will give terrible photos of this tragic event at the end of the article.
It's hard to believe, but according to various estimates, from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people became victims of the genocide in Rwanda! And this happened not in some gloomy Middle Ages, but at the very end of the 20th century. In just 100 days, the population of the country decreased by 20%.
Let's try to find out the causes and consequences of this terrible tragedy that occurred between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples.
Causes of the genocide in Rwanda
The genocide in Rwanda was the result of a long and stubborn confrontation between two ethnic groups: the Hutu and the Tutsi. The Hutu population made up approximately 85% of the citizens of Rwanda, while the Tutsi only 14%.
However, historically it so happened that it was the Tutsis who occupied leading position and were the ruling elite.
For 3 years, starting in 1990, a civil war continued on the territory of this state.
In 1994, a military coup took place in the country and representatives of the Hutus came to power.
With the help of the army and units of the People's Militia, the new government, consisting of members of the Hutus, began the destruction of their long-standing enemies - the Tutsis.
Moreover, those representatives of the Hutus who refused to kill the Tutsis were also persecuted.
On the side of the Tutsis was the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which, in turn, pursued the goal of destroying the Hutus.
On July 18, 1994, relative peace and order were established in the state. However, two million Hutu people had to flee their country for fear of retribution.
Facts about the genocide in Rwanda
The state, seeking to completely destroy the Tutsi people, resorted to the most different ways. Propaganda was constantly carried out on the radio, the purpose of which was to incite hatred of the Tutsi.
Thanks to this, the pogromists easily and simply found out where their potential victims were hiding. Real anarchy and disorder reigned in the country.
When the Hutu attacked the Tutsis, they brutally raped girls and women. Often, after the rape, the genitals of the victims were cut with a machete (50 cm, thin and wide knife), pierced with spears, or doused with acid.
Sometimes men were also sexually abused. Some of them had their genitals cut off.
As a result of all these monstrous violence, about 20,000 children were born. Subsequently, dishonored mothers, often infected with AIDS, were considered outcasts in society.
It is worth adding also the fact that during the genocide in Rwanda, many men and women were simply mutilated, cutting their mouths and causing various other facial injuries. Also, many unfortunate limbs were cut off.
Battle in the stadium
Less than 2 weeks after the start of the bloody events, about 15,000 Tutsis were gathered at the Gatvaro stadium. It is unbelievable, but they were collected in order to make it easier to kill.
The organizers of this atrocity fired tear gas into the crowd, and then began to shoot them with weapons and throw grenades at them. Something similar happened only during the Second World War, when the Nazis exterminated people with bestial cruelty.
Religious figures involved in the genocide
Sadly, the genocide in Rwanda did not take place without the "help" of the clergy. So in the UN, at the International Tribunal, the case against the Catholic priest Atanas Seromb was considered. He was charged with being one of the participants in the plot, which killed about 2,000 Tutsis, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Witnesses of those events claimed that it was this priest from Rwanda who called Tutsi refugees to his church, who were immediately attacked by the Hutus. When the helpless victims were finished, the clergyman ordered the destruction of the temple building with a bulldozer.
Atanasa Seromba is the first Catholic priest convicted by the International Tribunal. Three other colleagues are under investigation.
The most senior priest charged with the Rwandan genocide was Anglican Bishop Samuel Musabyumana, who died in prison in 2003 before the trial began.
Photo of the genocide in Rwanda
The conflict between the two African peoples Hutu and Tutsi has been going on for more than a century. Its reasons are very simple: after obtaining independence in two countries - Rwanda and Burundi - the unique "social agreement" that existed between the two African peoples for at least five centuries was violated.
The fact is that at the end of the 15th century, on the territory of modern Rwanda, early states Hutu farmers, and in the 16th century tall Tutsi nomadic pastoralists entered the region from the north. (In Uganda, they were called Hima and Iru, respectively; in the Congo, Tutsis are called Banyamulenge; Hutu practically do not live there). In Rwanda, the Tutsis were lucky. Having conquered the country, they were able to create a kind of economic system called ubuhake. The Tutsis themselves were not engaged in agriculture, it was the responsibility of the Hutus, and the Tutsi herds were also given to them for grazing. So there was a kind of symbiosis: the coexistence of agricultural and livestock farms. At the same time, part of the cattle from the grazing herd was transferred to Hutu families in exchange for flour, agricultural products, tools, etc. Kayumov, S. Tutsi Hutus are not a friend: A monstrous massacre in Rwanda / S. Kayumov // Exposed Africa. - 2000. - P.17
The Tutsis, as owners of large herds of cattle, became aristocrats. These groups (Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi, Iru in Angola) formed a kind of "noble" caste. The farmers did not have the right to own livestock, they were only engaged in grazing it under certain conditions. They also did not have the right to hold administrative posts. This went on for a long time. But the conflict between the two peoples was inevitable, because, despite the fact that both in Rwanda and in Burundi, the Tutsis make up only 10-15% of the population, it is they who form the basis of the military and economic elite of the region. Therefore, any free elections ensure the preponderance of the Hutus, who, in turn, begin to "recoup" on the Tutsi. "Lebedeva M. M. Interethnic conflicts at the turn of the century. Methodological aspect / M. M. Lebedeva // World economy and international relations. -2000. - No. 1. - S. 33
The result of constant civil strife and interethnic tension was the largest genocide of the Tutsi people in Rwanda since the Second World War. A former colony of first Germany and, after World War I, Belgium, Rwanda gained independence in 1962. The offended Hutus immediately came to power and began to push back the Tutsis. The mass persecution of Tutsis began in the late 80s and reached its peak in April 1994, when about a million Tutsis were killed in about a week, mostly with wooden swords and hoes. The signal for the beginning of such an unprecedented genocide in Africa was the death of the then President of Rwanda, Habyariman, when in April 1994 the plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.
Nevertheless, the Tutsis managed to quickly organize an army and, having invaded from the territory of Uganda, seized power in Rwanda.
The UN response to the genocide was, to put it mildly, peculiar. The then Secretary General Boutros Ghali, under pressure from the United States, decided to withdraw peacekeeping force from Rwanda - they were in too much danger there.
In Burundi, which gained independence in the same 1962, where the ratio of Tutsis and Hutus was approximately the same as in Rwanda, a chain reaction began. Here, the Tutsis retained a majority in the government and the army, but this did not prevent the Hutus from creating several rebel armies. The first Hutu uprising took place in 1965, but it was brutally suppressed. In November 1966, as a result of a military coup, a republic was proclaimed and a totalitarian military regime was established in the country. A new Hutu uprising in 1970-1971, which took on the character of a civil war, led to the fact that about 150 thousand Hutus were killed and at least one hundred thousand became refugees. And representatives of the Tutsi people have established themselves in Burundi.
While the war flared up, both peoples - both the Tutsis and the Hutu - quickly established cooperation with fellow tribesmen on both sides of the border between Rwanda and Burundi, since its transparency was quite conducive to this. As a result, the Burundian Hutu rebels began to provide assistance to the newly persecuted Hutus in Rwanda, and their fellow tribesmen, who were forced to flee to the Congo after Kagame came to power. A little earlier, a similar international trade union was organized by the Tutsis. Meanwhile, another state, the Congo, was involved in the inter-tribal conflict.
In 1997, important events took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The local Tutsis could not stand the presence of such a a large number hated by the Hutus, and made harsh accusations against the then President Mobutu Sese Seko. As a result, in May 1997, Laurent-Desire Kabila came to power, overthrowing the dictator Mobutu. In this he was helped by the Western intelligence services, as well as the Tutsis, who ruled both in Uganda and in Rwanda. Emelyanov, Andrey Modern conflict in Africa / A. Emelyanov // Journal of theory international relations and political processes. - 2011. - No. 12. - p. 25
However, Kabila fell out with the Tutsis very quickly. On July 27, 1998, he announced that all foreign military (mainly Tutsi) and civilian officials were being expelled from the country, and a unit of the Congolese army, staffed by persons of non-Congolese origin, was being disbanded. He accused them of intending to "restore the medieval Tutsi empire". In June 1999, Kabila turned to international Court in The Hague with demands to recognize Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi as aggressors, which violated the UN Charter.
As a result, the Hutus, who fled from Rwanda, where they were going to be tried for genocide against the Tutsis in the early 90s, quickly found refuge in the Congo, and in response to Kagame, their troops were brought into the territory of this country. The war that had begun quickly reached a stalemate until Laurent Kabila was assassinated on January 16, 2001. Subsequently, Congo's counterintelligence accused the president of the intelligence services of Uganda and Rwanda of killing. There was some truth in this accusation. Then the secret services of the Congo found and sentenced to death the murderers - 30 people. True, the name of the true culprit was not named. Laurent's son Joseph Kabila came to power in the country.
It took another five years for the war to end. In July 2002, two presidents - Kagame and Kabila - signed an agreement under which the Hutu, who participated in the destruction of 800,000 Tutsis in 1994 and fled to the Congo, will be disarmed. In turn, Rwanda pledged to withdraw from the territory of the Congo the 20,000-strong armed forces stationed there.
An interesting fact is that three of the four countries that participated in the conflict - Burundi, Rwanda and Congo - were controlled by Belgium until 1962. However, Belgium behaved passively in the conflict, and today many believe that it was its special services that deliberately overlooked the opportunity to end the conflict.
In December 1997, a special commission of the Belgian Senate conducted a parliamentary inquiry into the events in Rwanda and found that the intelligence services had failed in all work in Rwanda.
Meanwhile, there is a version that the passive position of Belgium is explained by the fact that Brussels has staked on the Hutus in the interethnic conflict. The same Senate commission came to the conclusion that although the officers of the Belgian contingent reported anti-Belgian sentiments on the part of the Hutu extremists, military intelligence SGR hushed up these facts. According to some reports, representatives of a number of noble families of the Hutu have long-standing and valuable connections in the former metropolis, many have acquired property there. In Brussels, the capital of Belgium, there is even the so-called "Hutu Academy".
So far, all ways to reconcile the Tutsi and the Hutu remain in vain. The method of Nelson Mandela, which was tested in South Africa. As an international mediator in negotiations between the government of Burundi and the rebels, former president South Africa in 1993, the "one person - one vote" scheme was proposed. He stated that a peaceful settlement of the 7-year-old ethnic conflict could only be possible if the Tutsi minority gave up its monopoly on power. He stated that "the army should consist, at least half, of another people - the Hutu, and voting should be carried out according to the principle of one person - one vote."
Today, the Burundian authorities believe that reintroducing the principle of "one man, one vote" will mean the continuation of the war. Therefore, it is necessary to create a system of alternating Hutus and Tutsis in power, removing extremists from one or another ethnic group from the active role. Now another truce has been concluded in Burundi, but no one knows how long it will last.
The situation in Rwanda is calmer - Kagame calls himself the president of all Rwandans, regardless of their nationality. But at the same time, it brutally persecutes those Hutus who are guilty of the Tutsi genocide in the early 90s.
An ordinary European who finds himself among the representatives of the African Tutsi tribe will feel like a dwarf, because the average height of local men is almost 2 meters, and women are not far behind them. We propose to make a trip to Central Africa, where the most tall people planets.
The Tutsi people, numbering about 2-2.5 million people, live on the territory of several Central African states: Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in some neighboring countries.
The ancestors of the Tutsis, who came to Central Africa from the territory of Ethiopia and Sudan in the 15th century, were engaged in cattle breeding. Later, they began to mix with the larger Hutu ethnic group, adopting their farming skills and language. Gradually there was also a mixture of these two peoples, as evidenced by their genetic closeness. But pastoralism is still considered the Tutsi's preferred occupation, and bride price is also measured by the amount of cattle handed over to the family.
The Tutsis speak two closely related Bantu languages, Rundi and Round. In addition to their native language, many Tutsis speak French, which is the official language of Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most modern Tutsi profess Catholicism, although traditional beliefs are still strong among the Tutsis living in the villages. This people has a very rich folklore, they know many fairy tales, sayings and legends. The traditional craft, which the Tutsis are fluent in, is the weaving of various products from dry straw and reeds. Tutsis make baskets, boxes and pieces of furniture from improvised plant material.
Distinctive feature The people of the Tutsi people are their tall stature, long legs and a narrow, elongated face. The average height of Tutsi women is 175 centimeters, and men - 193 centimeters, although it is not uncommon for Tutsi people to be over 2 meters tall. The researchers suggest that one of the factors that influenced the high growth of the Tutsis was their living in a semi-desert climate of the savannahs and traditional pastoralism, which involves significant daily foot crossings. This is also indicated by the fact that other tribes live in this region of Africa, whose representatives are taller than other peoples of the world. These are Dinka, Masai, Samburu, Luo and other peoples who traditionally inhabit East and Central Africa.
The last decades have been very difficult for the Tutsi people. Despite centuries of living next door to the Hutu people, an abundance of mixed marriages and a common language, inter-ethnic conflict broke out between these tribes. But these are the realities of post-colonial Africa: hundreds of thousands of Tutsis became victims of the conflict, many were forced to leave their habitats. One can only hope that soon peace will reign in this long-suffering region and the Tutsis will again lead their numerous herds of cows with graceful horns across the expanses of the savannah.
