Rwanda

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Rwanda
Hope in Hell
2
What happened?

• Rwanda is a tiny country in the centre of Africa.
• It has two main races, the Hutus and the
  Tutsis.
• In April 1994 the Hutus embarked upon a genocidal
  campaign which left around 1,000,000 people dead
  within the space of 6 weeks.

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Bloodshed

• Women, children and any Hutu who didnt support
  the killings were butchered in horrific ways.

• The Hutus broadcast many radio messages urging
  Tutsis to seek refuge in churches.

• In one incident 5,000 Tutsis crammed themselves
  into a church close to the town of Nymata. The
  Hutus surrounded the church and sprayed the
  building with machine gun fire, before tossing in
  dozens of grenades.

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Our Shame

• At the start of the conflict the United Nations
  had troops in a base just outside Kigali
  (Rwandas capital)

• The General in charge of the soldiers had warned
  3 months previously that genocide was going to
  happen. His request for more troops was ignored.

• As the killing intensified the UN actually
  withdrew its soldiers from Rwanda. This was
  interpreted by the killers to be a green light
  from the outside world.

The anger, the rage, the hurt and the cold are
so powerful that the option of destroying
yourself is both real and attractive
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Our Shame

• Even after the images of Rwanda began to be
  broadcast on TV night after night the UN still
  did not react.

• In the absence of orders from the UN, the
  soldiers had to stay in their barracks and listen
  to the screams of people being killed metres
  away, by machete wielding thugs.

• In mid-April the withdrawal of UN soldiers
  began. Many were so disgusted with this decision
  they were seen burning their UN flags and blue
  berets.

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Rwanda Today

• Mass graves and bodies are still being uncovered
  today.

• An entire generation of Rwandese children have
  been left orphaned or severely traumatised.

• During the genocide rape was used as a tool of
  war. As a consequence today 1/3 of the country is
  HIV positive.

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Final Thoughts

• The scenes witnessed in April/May 1994 were
  taken from the darkest pages of human existence.

• Organisations like Comic Relief undertake very
  important work in rebuilding shattered lives and
  communities in countries like Rwanda, but we
  should question the attitudes of our government
  over Rwanda.

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Final Thoughts

• The rate of killing in Rwanda was 5 times that
  achieved by the Nazis during WW2.

• Blair announced plans in January 2001 to hold an
  annual day of remembrance Holocaust Day. He
  said that the world must make sure that another
  Holocaust never happens. He made no reference to
  Rwanda.

• In cold arithmetic, the killing in Rwanda was
  the worst the World saw in the last century. It
  is particularly tragic that we seem unable to
  acknowledge our own guilt in these events and the
  scale of the horror.