Rwanda commemorates the 20th anniversary of its 100 days of genocide starting Monday, April 7. Albeit difficult and painful, the Rwandan government has to do this to promote reconciliation between survivors and genocidaires, or the perpetrators of the crime.
As Nadine Niyitegeka, who lost several relatives in the slaughter puts it, “It shakes things up [but] you have to do it. It helps.”
On April 6, 1994 the Hutus started the 100-day killing spree against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The conflict was triggered by the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, who ran a totalitarian regime in the country. Within 24 hours after Habyarimana’s plane crashed, Hutu radicals took over the government and blamed the Tutsis for the assassination.
The brutal killings, which started in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, was perpetrated by the Interahamwe, an anti-Tutsi youth organization formed by Hutu radicals. They set up road blocks, checked each person’s identification cards and killed Tutsis. It was easy to identify a Tutsi since each Rwandan’s identification card is labelled according to ethnicity, like Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa.
Since bullets were expensive, genocidaires used knives, machetes, or clubs to kill their victims. Thousands of women were also raped before they were killed.
The genocide ended only when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) took over the reins of the government.
Two decades have passed now but victims and survivors still have to come to terms with the nightmare they underwent. Former genocidaires, who have been released from prison, also grapple with the stigma of being killers. Forgiveness from both victims and perpetrators is much needed in order to achieve healing.
President Paul Kagame has since carefully tried to rebuild Rwanda by trying to abolish ethnicity to insulate future generations from ethnic mistrust and trauma.
To commemorate the event, the Rwandan government helps train 750 more counselors to assist the victims and survivors in coping with their emotional burden. It also displays commemorative posters with the Kinyarwanda language slogan, ‘Kwibuka20”, which means Remember 20 to encourage citizens to always remember the event.
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