Lessons of the Rwandan Genocide

Last night we watched a movie on TV called "Sometimes in April." The title
is not very informative, since it does not tell you that this is about the
massacres in Rwanda. It tells the story through a family of two Hutu
brothers, one a soldier married to a Tutsi woman with three children, and the
other a member of the RTLF radio station that was used by the extreme
Hutu party to give information about when and where to capture and kill
Tutsis.
The UN withdrew under pressure just before the massacres started in April
1993, so it is disingenuous of them to say that they did not know what was
planned. The trigger for the massacres was the assassination of the moderate
Hutu President Habyalmana, when his plane was shot down by a missile because
the extremists had decided he had given too many concessions at peace talks
with the Tutsi Rwandan Liberation Front.
It is often difficult to tell the difference between Hutu and Tutsi, but the
Tutsis tend to be taller and have Somali type looks while the Hutus are more
negroid. The modern antagonism between the tribes was exacerbated when
the Belgians starting in the early 1900's chose the Tutsis (only 10% of the
population) to be their administrators, while the Hutus were reserved for
manual work. After the Belgians left in 1962, the Hutus took power and
persecuted the Tutsis. As a result the Tutsi-led resistance RLF movement
was established.
But, this time the Hutus had decided to rid the country of Tutsis altogether,
by using a program of genocide! They referred to Tutsis as "cockroaches,"
as a way to dehumanize them. The murders were well organized, the Army
and extremist militias had lists of people, including any Hutus who were
suspected of being supportive of the Tutsis. In the case in the movie, which
seemed very authentic and accurate, the family of the soldier is targeted, and
his brother tries to get them out of Kigali, but they are stopped at numerous
checkpoints and the two boys are killed. The mother is badly wounded and
takes refuge in a church, but that doesn't save her. The daughter is in a
girl's school, and when the girls refuse to be separated, the Army kills all
of them, hundreds are machine gunned.
Eventually the RLF invaded and defeated the Rwandan Hutu Army and the
militias and took control. Most of the guilty Hutu, who murdered their
neighbors and former friends in a killing frenzy, left for the Congo where
they lived in camps, until they were repatriated. The brother is later
captured and tried for conspiracy to murder. But, too few were captured and
the trials dragged on.
The similarities to the genocide of the Jews by the Nazis in Europe are very
compelling. The slogan of "never again" is just that. Maybe it was because
they were black, and Rwanda is not a strategic area. But, the same things
happened in the Balkans a few years later, with the Serbs massacring the
Bosnian Muslims and vice versa. It can happen anytime, anywhere. The fact
that the Tutsis were unarmed civilians left them defenseless, nearly 1 million
were murdered in the space of a year.
If the Iran-backed, Hamas-led Government of the PA were able to invade
Israel there is no doubt in my mind that they would go on a similar genocidal
killing spree here!
By contrast, I have no doubt that our IDF would NOT do the same, since we
"occupied" Gaza and the West Bank, containing ca. 2.5 million Palestinians,
for 30 years and hardly a few thousand have been killed, and those mainly
terrorists. Also, 20% of the Israeli population are Arabs, and they live
safely here. In fact, a meeting in Umm-al-Fahm, a large Arab town nearby,
yesterday protested the policy of the Israel Beitanu (Israel Our Home) Party
of Avigdor Lieberman, that favors transferring Israeli Arabs to Palestine.
The Israeli Arabs want to remain in Israel and stay part of this country.
That must prove something.