Peace was threatened by Hutu extremists who were violently opposed to sharing any power with the Tutsis. The genocide of Rwanda began in 1994 when Rwaqnda's president, Habyalimana's plane was shot down on its way back from peace meetings. Under the power of Hutu group known as the Akazu, there was a mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsis and politically moderate Hutu people. From April 6th to mid-July of that year, at least 500,000 people were killed, but that number would only increase. The genocide started because of the ethnic divide between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples. The genocide also was a result of the civil war that went on in the early 1990’s after many Tutsi refugees came back into the country of Rwanda.
The killing was very organized, and once started, there were around 30,000 Hutu killers who brutally murdered their victims. Although many Americans, French, Italians, and Belgians fled from Rwanda, the innocent Tutsi and moderate Hutus were left behind at the mercy of the raging Hutu. Local officials aided in rounding up Tutsis and took them to places where they would be slaughtered. The Tutsi people were killed in thousands of schools and churches throughout the Rwanda countryside, and most of the killing was done by hand with the use of machetes and clubs. Also, Hutu murderers sought out hostpitals that housed many wounded Tutsi so that they could kill those who had initially survived. Moments before the victims were killed, some of them were faced with the harsh reality that they in fact knew the people who were killing them. Many killers were the victim’s neighbors, co-workers, former friends, and even relatives. The Hutu also forced their victims to kill their own family members.
No one tried to keep the Rwanda genocide a secret. Journalists reported everything they saw when the genocide was over. On some radios in Africa, the killers were encouraged to continue with the genocide but to hide the dead corpses and take them off of the streets. Corpses that were left in rural areas were covered with banana leaves so that the dead bodies would not be seen from helicopters. Many people knew about the genocide of Rwanda, but there was no way for anyone to stop it. The United Nations wanted to interfere and help the Tutsi people, but they could not enter into this fight unless they were first attacked. Although the UN initially categorized the attacks as a breakdown of the ceasefire between the Tutsi and Huth, they inevitably had to declare the massacre a genocide. However, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) made up of Tutsi refugees was able to take control and end the genocide. This genocide is one of the most horrible mass killings in all of history.
