A small country... with a big story.. and future!
Trip Start
Jan 30, 2010
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Trip End
Jun 07, 2010
Kigali, Rwanda
Monday, April 19, 2010
Rwanda unfortunately is still only associated with 1 historical event– the 1994 genocide. The country is small and insignificant compared to other African states- they have no precious minerals or oil and primarily rely on agriculture and tourism. There is no one page executive summary of the genocide and even the 2 books I’ve read and the Oscar nominated movie 'Hotel Rwanda’ fail to paint a real picture of what went down in those 6 weeks following the death of Rwandan President Habyarimana (who’s plane was blown up by a missile 800m away from Kigali airport on 6 April 1994) As soon as his plane was shot down, orders were carried out to ‘start killing all Tutsi people’ (put in a South African context would basically be like President Zuma gets killed and all the Zulus go on the rampage to kill all the Xhosa’s) In a country of only 7 million people - over 1 million people died in 6 weeks – at about 30,000 people a day.
It was a well planned and executed mass murder where best friends turned upon each other and neighbouring families would fight till the bitter end over ethnicity. A day after the plane crash, 10 Belgium troops and the Prime minister were murdered, giving the UN an excuse to leave the country – estimates after the event say that it would have taken just 2000 troops to prevent this massacre, instead- the UN and the United States (who were still bruised from their losses in Ethiopia and Somalia) withdrew their troops and watched a country try halve its population through ethnic cleansing.
It was simple – if you met someone of the opposite tribe – you killed them, if you didn’t – you would probably be killed. The propaganda was orchestrated to perfection and the message fell on fertile soil because political tensions had been building ever since colonial times – where the French and the Belgian colonists always favoured the ‘superior’ Tutsi’s over the Hutu’s. Many journalists who arrived after most of the killing had already occurred remember crossing the Kagera River and seeing hundreds of bodies floating into Tanzania. Dumping bodies in the river was the easiest way to get rid of them. In some areas there were so many Tutsi’s to be killed that they would have their Achilles tendon slashed with a panga so they could not run away – and then one by one be murdered. The photos and video in the memorial complex are not for the faint hearted.
In one of my previous entries you would have read about Ami Mpungwe- here. Ami was the chief negotiator at the Arusha Accords which successfully arranged the ceasefire prior to the genocide and brought the parties together to discuss their differences- this ultimately led to a power sharing agreement and much hope for Rwanda as a nation. The failure of the international community to react and implement this quick enough led to the demise of the accord and as Mr. Mpungwe points out in his summary report- many actions to try stop the Genocide were as effective as ‘feeding aspirin to a dying patient’ For a great analysis of Mr. Mpungwe’s involvement go here http://www.wilsoncenter.org/subsites/ccpdc/pubs/words/8.pdf and if you prefer reading stuff with pictures then the Genocide Memorial site is here http://www.kigalimemorialcentre.org/old/index.html
Following the genocidal killings, the Hutu murderers feared an uprising from the remaining Tutsis still alive. Hundreds of thousands fled Rwanda into the Congo and set up mass refugee camps. By then the media had woken up and latched onto the Rwanda story. The mass migration made for wonderful television and the aid agencies flourished from international donor funds. But the people in the camps were not the suffering victims of the genocide, they were the perpetrators!!! Much of the food supplies were re-sold on the international market and traded for more guns and ammunition. In yet another ‘FAIL’ by the international community – The UN, UNICEF, OXFAM, World Vision and the Red Cross all contributed to the continuation of the genocide.
I visited the Memorial site today – it was pretty hectic because it is April and the time of the year when many family members come and pay respects to the 250,000 people buried there.
Considering the above it is truly amazing to see how Rwanda is flourishing today – sitting in your hotel looking down on the city you would never think that this traumatic event was only 16 years ago. The population growth and GDP contribution is growing rapidly- people are getting educated and it is one of the most stable and peaceful nations on the continent. They are also taking their commitment to technology seriously. The one laptop per child campaign http://laptop.org/en/children/countries/rwanda.shtml is one such initiative and the availability of free WiFi pretty much anywhere in Kigali is testament to their commitment. The country has a lot of catching up to do- it’s GDP is 1/3 that of Botswana’s yet its population is almost 7 times bigger. They need to and will catch up- the numbers scream opportunity and it is a country to watch!
Comments
Fascinating. Super Jealous. i have forwarded your learnings about what racial hatred can do to a country to my friend Julius.
Thats impressive Brett, your knowledge on the country and the happenings is awesome. Wish I could be there learning about the continent with you. All the best man, keep going!