Let us NEVER Forget the 100 days of Rwandan Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide occurred in 1994 and was the mass slaughter of the minority Tutsis by the majority Hutus in Rwanda. The Slaughter of innocents was very efficient, with nearly 20% (1,000,000 people) of Rwanda's entire population being slaughtered in a little over a hundred days. Due to their low cost, the primary weapon used was a machete.








Hutus who did not agree with the genocide were also killed, with the motto being "slaughter or you yourself will be slaughtered." The genocide came about from and ideology called "Hutu Power," which believed that the only way to bring peace in Rwanda was to exterminate the entire Tutsi race, believing them to be inferior.



In the Rwandan Genocide, rape was systematically used as a weapon against Tutsi women. In most cases, the Hutus would hire a group of men to enter a town and rape all the women a few days before the military showed up to ensure that every women had been violated/humiliated before they were killed. In his 1996 report on Rwanda, the UN Special Rapporteur Rene Degni-Segui stated, "Rape was the rule and its absence the exception." It is estimated that nearly 15,000 pregnancies resulted solely from the genocide, but only 2,000 babies were born. The rest of the pregnant women were either killed, committed suicide, or had abortions before they gave birth. A 2000 report prepared by the Organization of African Unity's International Panel of Eminent Personalities concluded that "we can be certain that almost all females who survived the genocide were direct victims of rape or other sexual violence."

    
In some cases, however, Hutus did not kill the Tutsis directly. Instead, they had men among them who were infected with HIV/AIDS rape women in order to give them a "slow, painful death rather than a quick one." It was creative; it was the first time AIDS had been used as a weapon.



It one particularly horrifying case, a group of over 100 Tutsis were hiding in a church with their pastor. His flock (not knowing he was a Hutu) asked him to deliver a letter they had written to the mayor pleading for a solution to their almost inevitable death. He agreed and encouraged them to stay in the church while he went for help. A few days later he arrived with the mayor and a group of militia. He shouted to his flock, "the issue is that your problem already has a very simple solution. You must die."

 

All it takes for GENOCIDE to happen is that good men do nothing.

What are you doing to make this world a better place?