We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

The Arusha Accords, signed on August 4, 1993, comprised a peace agreement bringing Rwanda’s war with the RPF to a supposed end. They brought the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) force to Rwanda, ensured a right of return for Rwandan refugees, promised integration of the two armies, and created a plan for a representative government (99). Hutu Power considered President Habyarimana’s approval a betrayal.

The Banyamulenge, the people of Mulenge, are Zairean Tutsis who migrated to Mulenge from Rwanda during the 17th-18th centuries (294). Hutu Power, operating from refugee camps, attacked the Banyamulenge. When a deputy governor ordered the refugees’ expulsion, the Kagame-led rebellion in Zaire began.

Clientitis occurs when diplomats or relief agencies fully embrace their clients’ point of view and ignore other perspectives. Philip Gourevitch accuses the international agencies housing Hutus in refugee camps of this syndrome.

FAR was the military force of the genocidal regime in Rwanda. Ex-FAR commanders went on to continue their campaign of terror from refugee camps.

Genocide refers to acts done with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, a people or national, ethnical, racial, or religious group (149). Despite clear evidence of genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the UN Security Council did nothing to stop it.

The Hamitic Hypothesis, conceived by English explorer John Hanning Speke in 1863, surmises that central African civilization and culture were ushered in by a tribe of Ethiopian origin. This racist theory deemed the lighter-skinned Tutsis superior to Hutu natives. Relying on this false premise, Belgium ruled through a Tutsi elite and exploited Hutus.

Because of ethnic mixing going back hundreds of years, Hutus are not a distinct ethnic group from Tutsis. Originally, the two names referred to different classes which were porous. With colonization, Hutus, who were described as dark-skinned and stocky, were deemed an inferior race with no opportunity to change identity.

Hutu Power was Froduald Karamira’s name for extreme nationalism grounded in destroying Tutsis. The term gave disenfranchised and poor Hutus a sense of empowerment, an ability to determine whether someone lives or dies.

The Interahamwe, “those who attack together,” were extremist Hutu groups who promoted genocide as a “carnival romp” (93).

A mwami was originally a chief of a small territory in the lands that became Rwanda. While Hutus and Tutsis both held this position in early history, it was later nationalized and considered infallible (49). Belgians ruled through Tutsi kings or mwamis.

Opération Turquoise refers to France sending troops into northwest Rwanda to fight the RPF. Gourevitch argues that French intervention enabled the genocide to continue for an additional month and allowed genocidal leaders to escape with weapons into Zaire (161).

The RPF was the rebel group that ultimately defeated the genocidal regime. Gourevitch notes that this was the only military force to come to the defense of the Tutsis. Prior to the genocide, the Habyarimana regime used the rebels’ attacks as an excuse to target innocent Tutsis.