July 19, 1994 - Rwanda Government

Human Rights a Day

Rwanda forms new, multi-ethnic government in wake of slaughter. When the Dutch colonized Rwanda in 1916, they favoured the minority Tutsis over the majority Hutus, giving the Tutsis better jobs and educational opportunities. This created such resentment among the Hutus that when the Dutch granted Rwanda independence in 1962, they seized control of the government and blamed all the country’s problems on the Tutsis. On April 6, 1994, Rwanda’s Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed along with Burundi’s president when their plane was shot down. The presidential guard blamed the Tutsis and called for Hutus to take revenge. Insurgents killed Opposition politicians, including moderate Hutus. The UN withdrew its troops after 10 of its soldiers were killed. Within 100 days, 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis, had been slaughtered; another two million had fled the country. When aid workers and UN soldiers returned, the country formed a multi-ethnic transitional government on July 19, 1994. The new Hutu president, Pasteur Bizimungu, and Tutsi vice president, Major-General Paul Kagame, called for calm. It was years before the UN acknowledged that its untimely withdrawal had played a role in allowing the massacre.