The Rwandan Genocide can trace back to the divide and creation of the classification between Hutu and Tutsi which initially was just a distinction between classes, with the Tutsi being the more economically superior herdsman, and the Hutu being the poorer farmers. Rwanda was run in a caste system similar to India's, where you were born into your role in society, Tutsi's were considered the higher class, Hutu was the lesser class and the Twa were the even lesser class. But as European influence began to inhabit the area more and more, Hutu and Tutsi became more and more a racial classification. As soon as the Belgians colonized the area, the racial divide started becoming more and more evident. The colonizers started issuing identity cards in 1926, and it slowly became compulsory to have one if you were a Rwandan. According to a census done by the Belgians, 85% of the country was Hutu, 14% was Tutsi, and the remaining 1% were Twa (an indigenous pygmy group). As the years progressed, there existed a power struggle between both the Hutu and Tutsi in governmental powers, because of this, there grew a constant state of violence between the Hutu and Tutsi which were continually sparked because of changing colonial favoritism of either group. In 1957, the brought down Hutu's, publish a Hutu manifesto denouncing the Rwandan King and his no care policy towards the Hutu's. Once the king dies in 1959, the Tutsi's suspect foul play, but the Hutu's reach majority government the next year. By 1961, a joint Hutu-Tutsi government is established and monarchy is removed; but it fails to cease the political violence amongst the two groups.
1962 saw Rwanda's first presidential election; but because the Hutu were more prevalent, a pro Hutu emancipation party was elected. Grégoire Kayibanda, the leader of the party who was elected presented, begins to downplay the roles of Tutsi's in society. Around this time, Tutsi's start being referred to as "cockroaches" and the killing of Tutsi's become more and more an everyday way of life for the Hutu. As the Tutsi try to immigrate to neighboring countries, they are declined and are forced to return to Rwanda; refugees are also deported. After an attempt by Tutsi guerrilla forces to replace the government fails in 1963, a campaign was coordinated to kill 14,000 Tutsi's in the province Gikongoro. By 1973, Kayibanda is removed from power and Major General Juvenal Habyarimana is put in as president. In the beginning of his term, he begins to become a moderate and eases the tensions between the two parties but later leads an even more racist, and anti-Tutsi regime due to his advisors being Hutu Extremists. In 1991 Habyarimana manages to repel several Tutsi lead Rwandan Patriotic Front coups, and leads him to slowly become more and more hostile towards them.
By 1991, a strongly anti-Tutsi newspaper is published, and issues an article containing 8 Hutu commandments that ask for dishonesty, hostility and no mercy towards any Tutsi - Hutu power becomes a slogan for every Hutu. President Habyarimana then creates a militia called the Interahamwe solely with the task of finding, looting and burning the houses of Tutsi's or Hutu sympathizers in order to scare them even more to leave the country. By this time, Ethnic violence increases rapidly with the help of Propaganda radio. After more than a decade of violence, 1993 saw a short lived peace treaty between president Habyarimana and the Rwandan Patriotic Front. The Arusha Accords as they became know to be called, called for the acceptance of all Tutsi refugees and a government wherein the RPF were represented. For the months that followed, it looked like the Tutsi were finally going to get the peace and equality they deserved.
1994 saw the savage and bloody conclusion of the Hutu and Tutsi conflict. On April 6, a rocket was fired upon a plane that contained the president of Burundi, and president Habyarimana killing both men. It was definitely the result of Hutu extremists retaliation for Habyarimana's support of the Tutsi, but the Tutsi's are blamed for the assassination. This resulted in the ordered killings of millions of Tutsi people, after an issue on the radio for a "national cleansing day". In the months that followed, the interahawamwe and normal Hutu citizens walked out of their everyday jobs and homes to kill anyone whose identity card read "Tutsi". For 4 months, endless slaughter and unnecessary local violence ravaged Rwanda, in every province except in Butare, which was the only opposition dominated area.
In terms of ferocity, the Rwandan Genocide is by far one of the worst to ever occur. It killed nearly a million people, during the span of a hundred days, solely because it was a conflict that was brewing for many years, and because it wasn't only armed militias that committed the killings, but also everyday citizens. It was practically a nation-wide murder of any minorities. Imagine yourself in a situation where your entire family was ridiculed in society solely because of your race; and you left your home each and everyday fearing for your own life. There are countless stories where normal people became instant murderers because they fell into the propaganda that allowed it.
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