Rwandan genocide

The **Rwandan genocide** happened between April and July 1994. The genocide lasted for 100 days. 

In the Rwandan genocide, members of an ethnic group the Tutsi (*abatutsi*), were killed on the basis of their ethnicity. In 1959, the Hutus overthrew the Tutsi government and took power. Tens of thousands of Tutsis ran away to nearby countries.

Within a few hours after the Presidents' deaths, military leaders in Rwanda's different provinces called together militia and civilians. They told them that the Rwandan President was dead and that the Tutsi RPF had killed him. soldiers were tortured and killed.]]

### Prelude
Just after the Presidents' deaths, Hutu extremists assassinated the Rwandan prime minister. Between April 6 and April 7, Hutu militias and the Rwandan Army then got lists of people in the government who were political moderates.p.&nbsp;230 so that the moderates would not be able to stop the genocide.  

They also killed journalists and human rights activists who had spoken out against the Hutu government.  Philip Gourevitch from *The New Yorker* said the leaders of the clear and "planned" genocide wanted it to look unclear and "unplanned". and clubs used to kill Tutsis, now displayed in a museum.]]

#### Spread
The Rwandan genocide was well-organized.  

The militias also blocked roads to identify Tutsis to be killed, as identification cards in Rwanda then indicated the holder's ethnicity. When they found a Tutsi, the militias would kill the person. Following the rapes, the rapists would often mutilate the women's sex organs with weapons, boiling water, or acid.

Most victims of the genocide were killed in their own villages. Often, they were killed by their own neighbours.Roméo Dallaire asked the UN repeatedly for more troops but was ignored and so was not able to stop the genocide.]]

### Responses
#### United Nations Security Council
The UNAMIR's peacekeeping troops were being attacked more and more often. Countries began to pull their soldiers out of Rwanda. Some members of the UNSC, like the United States, argued strongly that the UN should take all of its peacekeeping troops out of Rwanda.p.&nbsp;308  However, France has been accused of letting war criminals escape Rwanda through the safe zone.

However, one day, the Belgian were ordered to leave so that they could take Europeans to the airport to get them out of the country.  Later, a Belgian colonel "said the young soldiers told him they saw the killers in their rearview mirrors" as they drove away. After they got to the school, the Tutsis had no food. The school's water was also cut off so that the Tutsis would be too weak to fight back.  

The Tutsis still fought back for a few days by using stones. However, on April 21, the school was attacked by the Interahamwe, which killed about 45,000 Tutsis at the school. The other 20,000 Tutsis ran to a nearby church to hide, but the militia found them there and killed almost all of them.
* Not having enough resources (such as well-equipped peacekeeping forces)
* International lack of political will to stop the genocide of the Tutsis since countries did not want to stop the genocide 
* International indifference to the scale of the genocide happening to the Tutsis

## End of the genocide
The Ugandan Army joined the RPF in fighting the Hutu extremists, who were gradually defeated across Rwanda. On July 4, 1994, the RPF–Ugandan forces took over Kigali to overthrow the extremist regime. Afterwards, about 2,000,000 Hutus fled to Zaire, a neighbouring country.

## Victims
 of the Rwandan genocide]]

In 1994, Rwanda's population was 7,900,000. The genocide caused the following:
* 2,000,000 people  to other countries – 25% of the population
* Up to 2,000,000 people were internally displaced (they had to leave their homes and escape to other parts of Rwanda) (another 25% of the population)
* 95,000 children became parentless

## Aftermath
### International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
In 1995, the UNSC set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Its goal was to prosecute people who took part in genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity, and punish the guilty ones.  The ICTR had the power to prosecute anyone who broke international laws about human rights.

The ICTR was the first international court ever to:

.]]

### Gacaca courts
In 2001, the Rwandan government launched a system of Gacaca courts (pronounced "GA-CHA-CHA").  In these courts, Rwandans elect judges to hear genocide suspects'  trials. Gacaca courts may hear cases about any crimes except planning genocide or rape, which must be heard by regular Rwandan courts. Between 2001 and 2012, 12,000 Gacaca courts tried over 1,200,000 cases across Rwanda. They finished their work on May 4, 2012. 

### 2010s
Two of the notable deniers were the American economist Edward S. Herman (1925 – 2017) and David Peterson, 

#### Trivia
Meanwhile, Edward S. Herman had published several books objecting to the genocide classification and doubting the confirmed death tolls of the Cambodian genocide and Bosnian genocide, which made him a subject of media criticism. He was ordered to pay €8,400, and his publisher was to pay €5,000, as French laws ban the denial of any genocide that is recognised by the French government.

## Related pages
* The Holocaust
* Bosnian genocide
* Cambodian genocide

## Notes
## References
## Other websites
* Facts about the Rwandan Genocide (in Simple English)
* Rwanda: How the genocide happened (from BBC)
* Genocides: Rwanda 1994  (from the Peace Pledge Union)