These courts are intended to help the community participate in the process of justice and reconciliation for the country. At the international level, the Security Council on 8 November set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTR to "prosecute persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and neighbouring States, between 1 January and 31 December The Tribunal indicted 93 individuals whom it considered responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda in Those indicted included high-ranking military and government officials, politicians, businessmen, as well as religious, militia, and media leaders.
The court convicted the Prime Minister during the genocide Jean Kambanda, to life in prison. Prior to the Colonial Era. Ethnic Conflict Begins The former colonial power, Germany, lost possession of Rwanda during the First World War and the territory was then placed under Belgian administration. November In November , a violent incident sparked a Hutu uprising in which hundreds of Tutsi were killed and thousands displaced and forced to flee to neighboring countries. Rwanda Gains Independence - By , when Rwanda gained independence, , people, primarily Tutsis, had taken refuge in neighboring states to escape the violence which had accompanied the gradual coming into power of the Hutu community.
August In August , through the peacemaking efforts of the Organisation of African Unity OAU and the governments in the region, the signing of the Arusha peace agreements appeared to have brought an end to the conflict between the then Hutu dominated government and the opposition Rwandan Patriotic Front RPF. Genocide — 6 April more than one million people are estimated to have perished and an estimated , to , women were also raped.
Aftermath of the Genocide. Genocide Trials The Rwandan government began the long-awaited genocide trials at the end of By , there were over , genocide suspects awaiting trial. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda At the international level, the Security Council on 8 November set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTR to "prosecute persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda and neighbouring States, between 1 January and 31 December The assassination was blamed on the Tutsi minority and immediately resulted in the use of roadblocks throughout the country and sparked the genocide.
To this day, there is no conclusive evidence regarding who shot down the plane, but theories range from moderate Hutus to the Tutsi-led RPF. An estimated , people were killed by mid-May, and the accelerated pace of the killings outpaced the Holocaust.
The rate of death in the Rwandan Genocide is also noteworthy because of the lack of centrality accompanying it. Unlike the efficiency seen in the Holocaust or Cambodian Genocide, the killings in Rwanda were more reliant on individuals acting out orders from a central command and the use of rudimentary weapons.
This often meant victims knew their attackers personally. After mid-May, the killings began to slow. The RPF gradually took back significant parts of the country, and by July, the RPF pushed the sitting government out of the country and the genocide finally came to an end. Today, the 4th of July is a holiday that commemorates the end of the Rwandan Genocide against Tutsi.
Bringing justice to those responsible for the genocide was enormously difficult in Rwanda. More than two-thirds of the judges in Rwanda had fled the country or were killed.
The ICTR was created to prosecute high-level offenders and thus focused its efforts on prosecuting the main organizers of the genocide. The ICTR indicted 93 individuals, sentencing Perhaps most notably, the ICTR is the first tribunal to interpret the definition of genocide, as set forth in the Geneva Conventions, and it is the first conceptualize rape as a method of genocide.
Alternatively, Gacaca courts sought to prosecute lower-level perpetrators. Attendance was mandatory for all Rwandans, as communities came together to bear witness to the telling of crimes.
Just under two million cases were heard at the Gacaca courts, with many people found guilty facing punishments from monetary payments to jail time. Most notably, accused perpetrators were given less time in exchange for their confessions, as seen in the chart below. The Muse report noted that the recent disclosure of some documents related to the Duclert Commission suggested "a move toward transparency".
Daily newsletter Receive essential international news every morning. Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 app. The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore. ON TV. On social media. Who are we? Their aim was to overthrow Habyarimana and secure their right to return to their homeland.
Habyarimana chose to exploit this threat as a way to bring dissident Hutus back to his side, and Tutsis inside Rwanda were accused of being RPF collaborators.
In August , after several attacks and months of negotiation, a peace accord was signed between Habyarimana and the RPF, but it did little to stop the continued unrest. When Habyarimana's plane was shot down at the beginning of April , it was the final nail in the coffin. Exactly who killed the president - and with him the president of Burundi and many chief members of staff - has not been established. Whoever was behind the killing its effect was both instantaneous and catastrophic.
In Kigali, the presidential guard immediately initiated a campaign of retribution. Leaders of the political opposition were murdered, and almost immediately, the slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus began.
Within hours, recruits were dispatched all over the country to carry out a wave of slaughter. The early organisers included military officials, politicians and businessmen, but soon many others joined in the mayhem.
Organised gangs of government soldiers and militias hacked their way through the Tutsi population with machetes, or blew them up in churches where they had taken refuge. The extremist ethnic Hutu regime in office in appeared genuinely to believe that the only way it could hang on to power was by wiping out the ethnic Tutsis completely. Encouraged by the presidential guard and radio propaganda, an unofficial militia group called the Interahamwe meaning those who attack together was mobilised.
At its peak, this group was 30,strong. Soldiers and police officers encouraged ordinary citizens to take part.
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