The Genocide Memorial and Life During the Genocide

 9/16/2022 - The Genocide Memorial  

The Kigali Genocide Memorial, inaugurated in 2004, is the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims. It is an emotionally challenging summary of man's inhumanity toward man, pitting neighbors against neighbors. It demonstrates the danger of social media and its propaganda, the failure of the church to protect its congregations, the frailty of life, and the miraculous power of reconciliation.

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down. Using this as an excuse for war, Hutu extremists launched their plans to destroy the entire Tutsi civilian population.

Economic differences had already defined both tribes and were evolving into ethnic designations. Hutus, the majority, were farmers, and Tutsis took care of the livestock. Since cattle were more valuable, the minority Tutsis ruled the country before the German takeover in 1884, followed by the Belgium takeover in 1917.

These takeovers added to the divisions between the Hutus and Tutsis. They took a turn when the majority party, Hutus, easily won the first elections in 1961. By 1994, plans to exterminate the entire Tutsi population were already complete and launched on April 7, 1994.

Radio stations were the social driving force of propaganda as villages, cities, and neighborhoods were slaughtered systematically. International communities and the UN knew what was happening in advance but did nothing to prevent it.

After approximately 100 days of horrific violence, the Tutsi rebel group RPF, led by Tutsi Paul Kagame, defeated the government forces. Kagame was named vice president, making him the leader of the army.

Kagame, the fourth and current president since 2000, has a mixed record. We witnessed the construction of new homes, schools, hospitals, and airports. 

In some aspects, their technology was more advanced than ours - particularly with airport security and overhead traffic lights that reflected the seconds left before the light turned from green to red. But he's also sponsored regional violence, killed political dissidents, and consolidated authoritarian power.