TRIVIALIZATION OF GENOCIDE: THE CASE OF RWANDA.
Alexandre Kimenyi

From: Anatomy of Genocide: State-Sponsored Mass-Killings in the 20th Century, eds.Alexandre Kimenyi and Otis L Scott. 2002.
The Edwin Mellen Press. Lewiston: New York.

I. The planning of genocide

Evidence for a long planning of genocide comes from 9 specific early warning signs provided in this section namely: (1) the existence of the death squads, (2) the creation of the militias, (3) the distribution of weapons to the killers, (4) the census of Tutsi in Kigali, (5) genocide pilot projects, (6) the use of churches and soccer stadiums, (7) the set-up of roadblocks, (8)the destruction of Tutsi homes and (9) the use of the medias.(2)
1. The creation of death quads. The creation of death squads known as Zero Network (3) and which consisted mostly of very high ranking officials close to President Habyarimana was created initially to assassinate political opposition leaders but also to coordinate the killings and distributions of weapons to the killers all over the country. Later on, it was responsible for the training of the Hutu militias responsible for Tutsi genocide.
2. The training of militias. Before genocide started, many Rwandan newspapers had reported the training of the militias known as "Interahamwe" on military camps. At least 150 Interahamwe from each of the 141 communes had been sent to military camps where they received extensive military training and these trainees in turn had to go back and train more on their respective hills in their home communes.
3. Machetes, hand grenades and nail-studded clubs which were used in the killings had been distributed to the militias by the government before the killings.
4. In October 1994, just after the RPF attack, the government hatched a scheme, and many gunshots were heard in the middle of night, in the capital city, Kigali. This fight was simulated to convince people that the RPF fighters had infiltrated the capital with help from Tutsi traitors. This was of course an excuse to round up thousands of Tutsi under the pretext that they were collaborating with the enemy! (ibyitso). The mayor of the city, Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, did a census of the Tutsi living in the capital and all the Tutsi houses were identified and marked. Since the government was accusing all Tutsi as being collaborators and sympathizers of the enemy "ibyitso", people found this practice by the government normal as a preemptive measure to discourage RPA guerrillas from infiltrating and using Tutsi homes for raids on government forces.
5. Genocide pilot-projects. Prior to 1994 genocide, local massacres of Tutsi were done in Bugogwe, Kibirira, Kibuye and Bugesera in which the Italian missionary Antonia Locatelli was murdered. These "pilot-projects" were done to test the weapons that were going to be used, to find out which were the most efficient methods in mass killings, to see the reactions of the victims, and finally to see how the international community would react. The non-retaliation by the Italian government in the slaying of Antonia Locatelli sent a clear message to the genocidal regime that killing foreigners sympathetic to the Tutsi minority will not cause condemnation from their respective governments. It is the reason why, the first day of genocide, 8 Belgian UN blue hermits were gunned down in broad day light by the Presidential Guards.
6. Use of churches and soccer stadiums as butchering places. 95% of Rwandan churches were used as killing places. (4) This was not accidental or coincidental. It had been planned. First, the government knew that many people would run to these churches to seek sanctuary because in the previous massacres these places of worship had saved many Tutsi being hunted down by Hutu killers. Churches were indeed considered by many Rwandans who the majority happens to be catholic as sacred places and desecration was considered sacrilegious, ensuring hell for eternity! In the 1993 Bugesera genocide pilot project in which the Italian missionary was also killed, Tutsi had run to these churches. This time, with the conspiracy of many church leaders, the victims were lured into these killing places. Killing people in the church was no longer taboo, because this time the Revolution had to be completed by an "a final solution". Putting Tutsis in one place would facilitate mass killings and as well as dumping them, some of them alive, in mass graves. Those who did not go to these gathering places were ordered to do so by the local authorities and the military using the ruse that it was for their own protection from the killers. Had the Tutsi refused to go to churches and soccer stadiums, many lives, for sure, could have been spared.
7. Setting up roadblocks and sealing borders. In the previous massacres, Tutsi were able to hide or flee the country. When the 1994 genocide started, many roadblocks were set up in all the Rwandan roads at every half a mile. The borders were sealed as well. Obviously, this could not have been spontaneous. It had been pre-planned.
8. The destruction of Tutsi houses. As soon as Tutsi families were slaughtered, their houses were immediately destroyed in order not to leave any single trace or memory of the victims. This again demonstrates that genocide had been planned for a long time.
9. The media: Kangura, the extremist Hutu newspaper edited by Hassan Ngeze and the infamous radio, Radio Télévision des Milles Collines, which were very efficient during genocide, started writing and broadcasting hate messages inciting to Tutsi killings way before the April genocide. This vilification of Tutsi and hate messages were sanctioned by the government. Many human rights organizations complained but the government replied that it could not stop them for the sake of protecting their freedom of speech

II. Genocide Trivialization

The number of genocide victims is by all accounts more than one million people. At least 95% of Tutsi residing in Rwanda were slaughtered and all their houses were destroyed. What is shocking and troubling , however, is that until today, many respected international newspapers, major news services, politicians, academics and diplomats still stubbonly stick to the 500, 000 figure as the number of the 1994 genocide victims. This figure was arrived at around the end of April 1994 by the US State Department .(5) These mass killings did not stop in April, however. They continued in the months of May, June and July. July was the month when RPA defeated the genocidal regime but it failed to stop the killings. The massacres of survivors continued and have not stopped because murderers want to kill all the witnesses and destroy testimony as the new leadership is made of Tutsi from the diaspora.(6) Reducing the number of victims is belittling genocide.
Calling the Tutsi genocide just "massacres" without mentioning ethnicity is also trivialization and negation because this implies indiscrimate killings. This is the strategy that has been taken by the Vatican which refers to the Tutsi genocide as "the dramatic ethnic massacres". Similarly, the French National Assembly exculpated the Mitterand government in the Tutsi genocide after a parliamentary inquiry into the French government's role in the "Rwandan tragedy". When the American Embassador to Rwanda, David Rawson, on his way back with the embassy staff, was asked by reporters about the identity of the killers, he answered that he was aware of the massacres but did not know who was killing whom. The "Rwanda massacre" label doesn't differ very much from the so-called "double-genocide" theory, created by François Mitterand. According to him, RPA committed genocide of Hutu as well. When I was in Paris on my way to Rwanda after the seizure of Kigali by RPA, I turned on TV on Antenne 2 while Mitterand was being interviewed by the anchorman of the station about genocide in Rwanda. His response was: "Which genocide are you talking about?". René Lemarchand, who seems to have espoused the Hutu Power ideology, echoes Mitterand's statements when in the paper he presented at Yale University entitled: "Genocide? Which genocide? (7) This theory continues today. The Interahamwe and defeated FAR are still claiming that the present government is also systematically killing Hutus! The solution to the post-genocide Rwanda, according to the Vatican is forgiviness and reconciliation. Repentance, acceptance of guilt are not are a prerequisite because the Holy See believes that both Tutsi and Hutu are victims and criminals.(8)
RPA is said to have "massacred" Hutus in the combat zone. Even if this were true, this situation would not qualify for genocide. There are indeed some Hutu civilians who were victims of the war because the government was using them as human shields, forcing them to fight with the rebels without providing them weapons or military training. There are some RPF soldiers, revenging themselves, who killed Hutus who they were told had participated in the killings if their families like the soldier who killed the archibishop of Kigali Vincent Nsengiyumva. Those soldiers who took justice in their own hands either killed themselves or were executed by the government soldiers or incarcerated. In Kibeho, many people died in the exchange of bullets between RPA soldiers and former government army and militias when the new government was trying to close down the camps in the former Zone Turquoise that the French set up for defeated government soldiers and militias. In Ruhengeri and Gisenyi, former government soldiers and militias who were forced to return from Zaîre had been terrorizing that part of the country, killing genocide survivors and RPA soldiers. Again, Hutu civilians were caught in the crossfire. The killing of innocent Hutu by RPA soldiers was due to the fact of being held hostage by former government soldiers and Interahamwe militias. This fact which is deplorable by itself because it involves the loss of human lives doesn't qualify to be labeled genocide.
The double genocide theory follows the same logic as the "ancient ethnic hatreds" school of thought. According to Rwandan experts, the genocide was a climax of ancient deep-rooted hatreds which have existed from times immemorial between Hutus and Tutsis. This is not true, however, because there was a very high intermarriage between the two groups which have lived as neighbors for centuries. There were no segregated areas for Hutus or Tutsis. There was no such as thing as Tutsiland or Hutuland. This notion of cyclical and incessant internecine feud between the two groups is a distortion of Rwandan history. Rwanda was a stable and a strong kingdom before the arrival of Europeans. It is the only country which was able to defeat Arab slave traders. People didn't live on cliffs, villages or fortified compounds to protect themselves against any kind of enemy. They were dispersed on the thousands rolling hills which characterize the Rwandan landscape. Genocide in Rwanda did not occur as a result of "civil war" either. Civil war implies two groups fighting each other to settle a national problem. Only two civil wars pitting members of the royal families against each other have been recorded. The casualities of these wars were members of the Tutsi aristocracy. (9) Civil war is universal and can occur any time, anywhere, and therefore the international community doesn't have any business interfering in internal affairs because people have a right and a responsibility to settle their own domestic and internatl conflicts. Many countries have also gone through this painful experience. People are thus expected to die and there is no moral judgement because civil wars are like other wars where casualties are expected. Calling Tutsi genocide in Rwanda civil war is really belittling it and therefore a deliberate refusal to condemn the perpetrators. The Tutsi genocide was one-way killing where defenseless civilians (men, women, children, etc.) in non-combat zones were brutally and savagely slaughtered because of their ethnicity.
This trivialization is also seen in the insensitivity of politicians who refuse to understand the pain and suffering of survivors. After the defeat of the genocidal regime, survivors have been trying to collect bones of their loved ones and give them a decent burial. This ritual is still going on. Three months in this office, however, Mr. Faustin Twagiramungu, then Prime Minister of the Broad-Based Government, declared that three months of mourning was too much and too long , that people should forget what happened, go on with their lives and put their energy together to rebuild the country.For some reason, the present RPF-led government of National Unity, has been appointing to high positions some Hutu with a suspicious past. When Boniface Rucagu who had been identified as a member of the death squads by Professor Reytjens was named governor of Ruhengeri and his selection was questioned by IBUKA, the association of genocide survivors, it was immediately labeled a Tutsi extremist group. When Mr Elysée Bisengimana, was selected to be a member of Parliament representing the Rwandan Patriotic Front from the prefecture of Cyangugu and genocide survivors asked why a genocide suspect was appointed, the Secretary General of RPF, Mr. Charles Murigande, sent a communique to the media which was also broadcast on National Radio, stating that "... genocide survivors are using genocide as a strategy to stop a certain section of Rwandese people [HUTU] from doing well and having access to promotion." The two people who accused him were put in jail before investigation was made to find out whether their accusations were valid or false.(10) General Paul Kagame, Vice President and Minister of Defense, when he was asked on National Radio on July 1, 1999 about IBUKA's complaints on the government's appointment of genocide suspects to important positions, he replied: "Who Genocide survivors and IBUKA think they are? They think they are so important... They should put their feelings aside. They sould find a place where to put them, a cupboard, and lock them inside. They should not be sentimental." (11)
This trivialization was started by the Clinton administration which refused to call it genocide. The State Department officials were instructed not to utter the word genocide in the Tutsi killings in Rwanda but use "acts of genocide" instead. This was motivated, apparently, by the fact that the administration understood the legal, political and moral implications of the acceptance of this term as signatory of UN Geneva Convention on Genocide. Had it admitted that genocide was taking place, The United States, the only superpower today, would have to intervene immediately to stop it . It thus refused to utter the word because the physical extermination of Tutsi in Rwanda did not jeopardize US interests. The trivialization of Tutsi genocide is epitomized by many individuals and organizations who preach forgetting, forgiveness and reconcialiton as the only viable solution to post-genocide Rwanda. Christophe Mitterand, François Mitterand's son who was responsible for African Department during his father's government, has also categorically denied that Tutsi genocide took place. "Massacres, yes, but genocide, no," he said. (12)

III. Justification and rationalization of genocide

All attempts to jusfify and rationalize genocide in Rwanda by social scientists and others not only trivialize genocide, but also do they condone it because doing so removes the responsibility and minimizes this despicable act. Genocide is seen as either a self-defense reaction, a natural behavior in this dog-eat-dog world, a continuation of the Hutu Revolution and an attempt to get rid of evil.
The 1994 Tutsi genocide is said to have been a natural spontaneous violent reaction of Hutus triggered by the mysterious crash of their "beloved president"! To them, the mysterious plane crash which killed both the president of Rwanda and Burundi, both Hutus, was masterminded by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi armed political opposition, which ousted the genocidal regime. To its sympathizers, massacring all the Tutsi was seen as normal. Habyarimana, however, who was supposed to be the President of all Rwandans not just Hutu was not the only beloved leader of this century, who has been assassinated. The victims of political assassinations include the Kennedy brothers, the Gandhis, mother and son, both prime ministers of India, Polome the prime minister of Sweden; the attempted assassination of Pope Jean-Paul II and the US president, Ronald Reagan. The governments did not bother the families and relatives of the murderers because they did not have any responsibility in the killings. Only individual killers were apprehended. Africa itself has had many popular leaders murdered and this didn't result in the mass-killings of people related to the murderers. We have the mysterious death of King Charles Mutara III Rudahigwa in Rwanda , the assassination of Prince Louis Rwagasore in Burundi, the assassination of the Congoles Premier Patrice Lumumba, the mysterious plane crash of Mozambique's president Samora Machel, the assassination of Thomas Sankara, the young Pan-aAricanist president of Burkina Faso, the Congolese president Mariam Ngouabi, the Nigerian president Murtala Muhamad, the Guinea Bissau president Amilcar Cabral, the Egyptian president Anuar Sadat,etc. To attempt to explain this beastly behavior is obviously a case of justification and rationalization and thus trivializing genocide as a natural behavior.
The 1994 genocide was seen also as a legitimate continuation and "completion" of the Hutu Revolution. The desire to return from exile to their motherland by Tutsi who had
been stateless for more three decades and the invasion of RPA were seen by Hutu Power as a threat to the fruits of the Hutu Revolution. The extermination of Tutsi was thus seen as the only logical solution to this problem. According to this view, there was nothing wrong killing thousands and thousands of civilians in the name of the Revolution. Revolutions are always celebrated and commemorated because they are seen as the unerdogs liberating themselves from tyrannical regimes. Previous massacres of Tutsi were called revolutions and there was no condemnation from the church and the international community. Those who organized the killings were hanndsomely rewarded in the previous two Hutu republics. The 1959 Tutsi massacres are still referred to as the "Hutu Revolution". To the Belgian authorities of that time and the Catholic Church, there was nothing wrong for Hutus mass-slaughtering innocent civilians, men, woman, children, the elderly, burning down their houses and killing their cattle as long as they were Tutsi because the French had done the same. The Russians likewise. These senseless massacres are not only called Hutu revolution but also 'social' and 'moral revolutions'. Jean-Paul Harroy, the Belgian Resident of Rwanda and Colonel Logiest, in their self-congratulatory autobiographical books boast of having "assisted" this revolution. They are not ashamed, remorseful or apologetic about their involvement in these senseless massacres. The criminals in the eyes of the international community were seen as heroes and the victims were demonized as enslavers, who had denied the majority their human, civil and constitutional rights. Tutsi, a numerical minority, write the experts, had been able to dominate and subjugate the Hutu majority because of their superior intelligence, the use of ruse, their physical size and their military prowess. When in 1973, Tutsi massacres took place again, a New York Times article read: "Hutu have slaughtered again their former giant Tutsi masters!". This title didn't arouse sympathy for the victims. The murderers were seen as heroes instead. When Mitterand was asked why he was sending the French troops to help the genocidal Hutu regime, he replied that: "Tutsi are known to be great warriors". The Tutsi during the colonial period didn't have any power, however, since all decisions came from the Belgian authorities. Indeed between 1924-1931, the Belgians in what is known as Mortehan's Plan, changed the whole traditional government system and removed traditional leaders. They could name or remove anybody anytime they wanted. In 1930, for instance, they removed King Yuhi IV Musinga who had refused to convert to christionality and banished him to exile in Congo where he died, not being able to come back and see his country again. It is they who coronated his son Mutara III Rudahigwa who died mysteriouly when they found out that he was seeking independance for his country. It is also they who decided that only the Tutsi aristocracy should exercise administrative functions.It has been exaggerated by even Rwandan scholars when they write that during the colonial regime only Tutsi had educational and administrative privileges. This is far from the truth. It is only the Tutsi aristocracy, less than 1% of the entire population which were beneficiaries of these privileges. Only sons of chiefs could be admiited to the administrative school in Butare high school known as Groupe Scolaire or Ecole de la Charité. There were 44 chiefdoms in the whole country. Children of subchiefs went to Nyanza in what was known as Bwanakweri's school where they were taught reading and writing and Kiswahili.(13) Otherwise both Tutsi and Hutu children could attend other schools which the majority happened to be vocational schools without a normal complete high school education. Students who graduated from these schools received certificates of assistant doctor, assistant veternary, assistant agronomer, assistant to the clerk of the court (greffier), office clerk (commis), and monitor (teacher). Only Europeans could be doctors, agronomers, veternerians, teachers. During the colonial period, Tutsi even suffered more than Hutus. All Rwandans were forced to pay body tax. Every male adult who was 18 years old, whether he had a job or not, land or any other property, had to pay body tax. Every male also had to do forced hard labor called uburetwa in Kinyarwanda to build roads, administrative buildings, churches, schools, hospitals, etc. Those who failed to show up received corporal punishment. In addition to that, those who had cows, who were mostly Tutsi, not only did they have to pay cow taxes, but also provide milk for free to whites and other government officials! This milk that all cattle owners had to give to whites was called umugogoro.(14) The cow owners had also to give their cows to count Bertrand de Burgrave for butchery, to provide meat to whites in the country and for exportation to Belgium. For this reason, many Tutsis especially the ones who lived near the borders, fled to British colonies, mostly in Tanzania and Uganda. The tsé-tsé fly which killed thousands of cows in Bugesera and Kibungo is believed to have been brought by Belgians to punish residents of these areas who were also hiding from the forced labor duties to tend to their cattle.(15) The humiliation, the exploitation and the oppression of both Hutu and Tutsi inside Rwanda by a vicious and ruthless Belgian colonial regime was blamed on Tutsi who were victims themselves.(16)
Ubuhake, a system that was used by offering one's services to somebody to receive cows from him, called "feudalism" by Europeans, was not seen as bad by Rwandans because it was the only way that time one could accumulate wealth. Cows had a very important value in the Rwandan society and represented wealth. Ubuhake was also the only schooling system that existed. It was there that people learned manners, history, poetry, oratory, dance, etc. Ubuhake affected Tutsi more than Hutus. Nobody was forced to be subjected to this system. Only people who needed cows did it. It was mostly Tutsi whereas Hutus preferred to go into agriculture. There was a worse system, however, which continued even after independence during the two Hutu republics which was practiced in the North known as ubukonde. The land belonged to the Hutu aristocracy and the majority of Hutus to survive had to work for these landlords who in turn would loan them some lots to plant their own crops. It is this ubuhake "exchange of cows economical system" that Rwandan experts have called feudalism and enslavement. (16)
A columnist whose name I don't recall, in an April 1994 New York Times article, claimed that genocide was a revenge by Hutu who had been enslaved by Tutsi before the Europeans' arrival in Africa.
The 1994 genocide was thus a continuation of the Hutu genocide. The 1959 massacres were labeled "social revolution", the 1973's "moral revolution" and the 1994 genocide "final solution" or "final revolution". In 1990, La Libre Belgique had a headline which read "Rwanda: Révolution inachevée". This time it had to be completed by all means. Failing to do so would bring back monarchy and feudalism and take back Rwandan to the Middle Ages and create a Tutsi-Hima empire in the whole of central and sourthern Africa.(17) The Tutsi as an alien: Not ont did the Tutsi dominate Hutu, they are also "aliens" who belong to a "different race" having come to Rwanda from a distant place many centuries after the Hutus had settled. The idea of Tutsi belonging to a different race from the Hutu comes from both Archibishop André Perraudin and Grégoire Kayibanda, the first president of Rwanda and founder of the ruling party Parmehutu (Party for Hutu).(18) Many textbooks claim that Hutu preceded Tutsi in the migration to Rwanda. Everything happens to be pure speculation, however, because the true history of Rwanda has not been written yet. Tutsis are supposed to have originated from Ethiopia and this was prompted Léon Mugesera to tell Hutu mobs to "send Tutsi back to their homeland by the quickest way possible via the river Akagera".(19) Other researchers such as Christophe Mfizi claim that Tutsi are Semitic people who migrated from Saudi Arabia.(20) Perugia thinks that Tutsi descended from the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt.(21) This nativist ideology based on revisionist history, obviously, justifies not only the denial of basic human rights of Tutsi but also their physical annihilation because they are depicted as coloniasts and impostors. From 1959 to 1994, Tutsi not only had a second class ciziten status, becoming marginalized, stigmatized, but they really became the pariahs of the society,and an outcast group.
Economics has been used by social scientists also to trivialize genocide by rationalizing it. Rwanda is described as the smallest country on earth, the poorest, landlocked and overpopulated. This same argument was used by the previous Hutu republics as to why Tutsi refugees should not be allowed to come back. This analysis doesn't hold, however, because there are many countries which are poorer than Rwanda and which happen to be overpopulated as well but where people from diverse ethnic backgroungs live in harmony. After genocide, the Rwandan population including 1959 refugees numbers only around 8 million. A city like New York or Cairo in Egypt has more than that. Clearly all these genocide justifications should not be taken seriously. The dehumanization of Tutsi started with the genesis of the hutu supremacist ideology in the early 60's when the labels coachroaches (inyenzi) and snakes(inzoka) were used. These two labels had been accepted by both Hutus and Tutsis, the way for instance, nigger was an accepted term during American slavery of blacks and Black Africans during the colonial period. These terms were used during genocide on radio , especially the infamous radio RTLM and nespapers especially KANGURA with the infamous 10 Hutu commendments. These two animals are hated by the Rwandan society and they always have to be killed wherever and whenever they are spotted. It is thus very clear, that the pertpetual use of these words conditions people to react to them accordingly by not only instilling hate towards them but also wanting to annihilate them. Dehumanization goes hand in hand with demonization. Coachroaches are annoying and snakes bite or spit at people. Their poison is deadly. The vilification of Tutsi is also supposedly due to their cunning, exploitative behavior and low morals. Tutsi-bashing and scapegoating for all society's ills was the zeitgeist of politicians and Hutu intelligentsia of both Hutu republics from 1959 to 1994. In 1973, for instance, it was fellow high school and university students who killed and chased away Tutsi teachers and students. Wherever genocide has occurred social scientists and the media always find "ancient hatreds" between the predators and the prey to be the cause. They always fail to see that the real cause is always a supremacist ideology which dehumanizes and demonizes the victims. For criminals to accomplish their vicious acts of exterminating an entire group because of race, ethnicity or religion, use all the institutions and are encouraged by an unresponsive international community which is manipulated by the propanda machinery of the perpetrators which characterizes these killings as casualties of a civil war.

Notes and referencees

1. Many students at various schools in the country such as the National University, Collège Saint-André in Kigali, Groupe Scolaire in Butare, Ecole Sociale at Karubanda (Butare) were arrested and sent to prison where they were incarcerated for a whole year.
The detainees that I recall were Alexis Rwamwaga, a medical student at the National University, Albert Rudacogora who was killed in the 1994 genocide with his wife and children, a student at the national university also, Rosalia Ndejuru, who lives in Canada now and whose father was killed in the "Hutu Revolution", then a student at Ecole Sociale at Karubanda. From my home place two people were arrested and incarcerated, namely, Ladislas Nishaka and Nziraguseswa, who was killed in 1994 in Ruhango after a slow torture.
Collège du Christ-Roi at Nyanza where I went to school was the only one that was spared because of the influence and refusal of the Collège Rector, Chanoine Eugène Ernotte. This angered Hutu students. One of the students, Dismas Nsengiyaremye, who will later on become Premier Minister before genocide, convened a Hutu meeting to organize the Tutsi fellow students massacre. Accidently, I fortunately broke into this meeting when I was looking for my friend, Innocent Rwanyagasore, former lieutenat-colonel in the government army who died under suspicious circumstances. I informed Chanoine Ernotte. This evil plot was stopped but Dismas Nsengiyaremye who was influential because he came from the same place as the then President Grégoire Kayibanda, retariated by making sure that no Tutsi from our school will be accepted into the national university. Only one Tutsi, Laurent Nkusi, now professor at the national university in Rwanda was admitted because he was the first of the class. Professor Nkusi survived genocide because he was out of the country, but his wife and children were killed. When RPF invaded the country, he was also among the ones who were rounded up and put in the prison of Ruhengeri as "ibyitso". He got out when RPA stormed the prison and released all the prisoners inside. I was also admitted in the second semester at the National Pedagogic Institute when Unesco which was financing the school complained about the underenrollment at the school. I was admitted in the Institure because I was considered less evil than my fellow Tutsi students.

2. Agnès Ntamabyariro and Aloys Habimana who both were connected with the genocide planners told me on the phone that if RPF doesn't stop the war against the government that a lot of blood of innocent civilians will flood. When I talked to her in 1993 on her visit to Washington, D.C. in 1993, Agnès Ntamabyariro was that time Minister of Gender and belonged to the Liberal Party which included many Tutsis such as Landoard Ndasingwa who was Minister of Social Affairs.His entire family was killed during genocide Agnès Ntamabyariro later on shifted to Hutu Power. Aloys Habimana was then a doctoral student in the US and had played important roles in the ruling MRND party. During the International Conference on Rwandan Refugees organized by the US Committee for Refugees and the Association of Banyarwanda in Diaspora, he was sent by the Rwandan Embassy as an observer. Since then we kept contact and talked very often on the phone. When RPF attacked, he called me to tell me that all Tutsi will be sorry because a lot of blood was going to be shed. Obviously a real threat.
3. Libération 9/2/1993 by Stephen Smith. The most important actors of Zero Network were: Joseph Nzirorera, former minister and deputy from Ruhengeri, Protais Zigiranyirazo, former governor of Ruhengeri and brother-in-law of Habyarimana, Séraphin Rwabukumba, CEO of Centrale and brother-in-law of Habyarimana, Colonel Laurent Serubuga, former army chief of staff, Colonel Elie Sagatwa, personal secretary of Habyarimana and his brother-in-law, Mrs. Dr. Chantal Rushingabigwi, Alphonse Ntirivamunda, director of roads and bridges and son-in-law of Habyarimana, Captain Pascal Simbikangwa, staff at the Presidency and brother-in-law of Elie Sagatwa, Colonel Bagosora, Chief of staff in the Ministry of Defense, Boniface Rucagu, Deputy from Ruhengeri, Major Léonard Nkundiye, Commander of Presidential Guards, and Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, Chief of military intelligency.
See also press conferences of Professor Reyntjens 9/10/1992 and 10/2/1992
See also the letter of Prime minister Dismas Nsengiyaremye to President Habyarimana of 11/17/1992. Reprinted in Impuruza Nº18-19, 78-80
4. See African Rights.1994. Rwanda: Death, despair and defiance. London: UK; Gérard Prunier. 1995. The Rwanda crisis: History of genocide. New York: Columbia University Press.
5. At the 4th Annual Conference of the African Studies Coalition at California State University, a representative of the State Department gave this figure.
6. Even today, survivors are still being hunted down. The most known case is the 1997 massacre of Mudende at a Tutsi refugee camps were massacred by the Interahamwe militias. The official number of casualties given by the Rwandan government is 300 people. Initially it was 200. Independent observers, journalists and human right organizations who visited the scene of the massacre put the number of victims at 1500. The government reduced the number apparently on purpose in order not to sow panic in the population.
7. See also Kamongi in this volume: "Why the international community has betrayed Rwanda?"
8. Isidore Munyeshyaka. 1999. "Osservatore Romano: Génocide Rwandais: Dernier Act". Wihogora Rwanda Nº5, pp3-6. It is also posted on rwanda-l@csus.edu internet discussion list. It can be found in its archives.
9. There are only two historical recorded civil wars in Rwanda. One was around the 15th century during the reign of Ndahiro Cyamatare who was killed by his brothers with the help of the king of Bashi, Nzira and his army Abakongoro. His son Ruganzu Ndori was the one who was able to bring back stability in the country. The other one is known as Rucunshu. It involved the royal family when again pro Rutalindwa troops, the legitimate heir to the throne, were defeated by pro Musinga forces led by his uncles Kabare and Ruhinankiko.
10. See African Rights' letter to Murigande written by Rakiya Omaar which was reprinted in Wihogora Rwanda Nº5, pp.38-42 and the one by Rwandese in Diaspora written to Murigande also. This one is also reprinted in Wihogora Rwanda Nº5, pp.42-44.
11. General Paul Kagame's comments were posted on rwanda-l@csus.edu in July 1999 and can be retrivied from the archives.
12. Africa Confidential 1995
13. Valens Kajeguhakwa&Gahigi Denis. 1999. "Amoko y'Abatutsi mu Bugoyi", Wihogora Rwanda Nº5, pp47-52. In this article the authors clearly show that, Tutsi who did not belong the ruling articratic families were excluded from these schools. One known example is that of Kagabo who was sent back to school when King Musinga found out that he had been kicked out of school. The king told the school authorities that Kagabo was his son and he was then readmitted
13. My other brothers whose families have been killed in the genocide namely Berkmans Gahamanyi, Frederic Kabandahe and Placide Gatete were beaten many times either because the milk they delivered was spilled, or they were late. We could not drink milk at our house because all the milk had to be delivered to the subchief who in turn had to send it to the Belgian authorities.
14.I got this information from Paul Gumira. He was a subchief in Ruhengeri. He is now dead. His wife Mukankusi was killed in Kigali with his daughter Colette Byagutunga wife of businessman Evariste Sissi. Colette Byagutunga's children were also killed. Evariste Sissi survived because he was on a business trip. He had been imprisoned in Ruhengeri among the so-called ibyitso when RPA invaded the country.
15. Jan Linden. 1977. in Church and revolution in Rwanda. Manchester: Manchester University Press was the first scholar to show how the church and the colonial regime shifted the blame of the atrocities of colonialism to the Tutsi.
16. Jacques Macquet. 1961. The premise of inequality in Rwanda. London: Oxford University Press. Catherine Newbury. 1988. The cohesion of oppression: clientship and ethnicity in Rwanda 1860-1960. New York: Columbia University Press.
17. Augustin Banyaga, a professor of mathematics at Pen State University in his open letter to Prime Minister Dismas Nsengiyaremye which was reprinted in IMPURUZA Nº19, he threatens him of popular insurrection accusing him for having betrayed the Hutu Revolution by "giving the minority Tutsi 50% of all civil servant positions and for accepting to sign a peace treaty with the enemy "coachroaches".
18. Bernard Lugan. 1997. Histoire du Rwanda: De la préhistoire à nos jours. Paris: Bartillat.
19. Léon Mugesera's speech can be found in IMPURUZA Nº19.
20. Christophe Mfizi. 1983. Les lignes de faite du Rwanda indépendant. Kigali: Office Rwandais d'Information.
21. Paul del Perugia. 1970. Les derniers rois mages. Paris: Gallimard. see also Lacger, Louis de. 1939. Le Rwanda: aperçu historique. Kabgayi: Rwanda, Vicariat Apostolique du Rwanda.

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