On July 1, Rwanda marks 60 years of independence from Belgium. Unlike other African countries that celebrate with pomp and festivities, Independence Day in Rwanda is a somewhat muted affair.
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda marked a turning point for the countryImage: Ben Curtis/AP Photo/picture alliance
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Although it is Rwanda's Independence Day and a public holiday, no national celebrations are being held to mark the occasion.
Instead, the Rwandan government rolls that event together with Liberation Day — or Kwibohora, as it is known locally — three days later.
Liberation Day commemorates the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by President Paul Kagame over the former dictatorship of Juvenal Habyarimana and the Rwandan Armed Forces in the Rwandan Civil War.
The RPF victory ultimately ended the 1994 genocide committed against the Tutsi, in which Hutu extremists killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in 100 days. As a result, more than 2 million Rwandans fled the country.
100 days of slaughter: Rwanda's genocide
Rwanda's genocide began on April 7, 1994. It was a mass slaughter that shocked the world. At the time the international community — above all France and the UN — failed to come to the aid of victims.
Image: Timothy Kisambira
A signal to extremists
On April 6, 1994, unidentified attackers shot down a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana as it was about to land at Kigali airport. President Habyarimana, his Burundian counterpart and eight other passengers died in the crash. The next day organized killings began. Massacres continued over the course of three months, and nearly 1 million Rwandans lost their lives.
Image: AP
Targeted killings
After the assassination of the president, Hutu extremists attacked the Tutsi minority and Hutus who stood in their way. The murderers were well-prepared, and targeted human rights activists, journalists and politicians. One of the first victims on April 7 was Prime Minister Agathe Uwiringiymana.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Foreign nationals rescued
While thousands of Rwandans were being killed every day, Belgian and French special forces evacuated about 3,500 foreigners. On April 13, Belgian paratroopers rescued seven German employees and their families from Deutsche Welle's relay transmitting station in Kigali. Only 80 of 120 local staff members survived the genocide.
Image: P.Guyot/AFP/GettyImages
Appeals for help
As early as January 1994, UNAMIR commander Romeo Dallaire wanted to act on information he had received about an "anti-Tutsi extermination" plot. The warning he sent to the UN on January 11, later known as the "genocide fax," went unheard. And his desperate appeals after the genocide began were rejected by Kofi Annan, who was Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations at the time.
Image: A.Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Hate media
The Mille Collines radio station (RTLM) and Kangura, a weekly magazine, stoked ethnic hatred. In 1990, Kangura published the racist "Hutu Ten Commandments." Mille Collines radio, which was known for its pop music and sports programs, fueled the genocide by urging Hutu civilians to hunt down and kill Tutsis. Director Milo Rau devoted his film "Hate Radio" to these appalling broadcasts (photo).
Image: IIPM/Daniel Seiffert
Refuge in a hotel
In Kigali, Paul Rusesabagina hid more than 1,000 people in the Hotel Des Mille Collines. Rusesabagina had taken over the position of the hotel's Belgian manager, who left the country. With a great deal of alcohol and money, he managed to prevent Hutu militias from killing the refugees. In many other places where people sought refuge, they were not able to escape the slaughter.
Image: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/GettyImages
Massacres in churches
Churches were no longer sanctuaries. About 4,000 men, women and children were murdered with axes, knives and machetes in the church of Ntarama near Kigali. Today, the church is one of the country's many genocide memorials. Rows of skulls, human bones as well as bullet marks in the walls are a reminder of what happened there.
Image: epd
France's role
The French government maintained close ties to the Hutu regime. When the French army intervened in June, it enabled soldiers and militiamen responsible for the genocide to flee to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and even take their weapons with them. They still pose a threat to Rwanda today.
Image: P.Guyot/AFP/GettyImages
Streams of refugees
During the genocide, millions of Rwandan Tutsis and Hutus fled to Tanzania, Zaire and Uganda. Some 2 million of them went to Zaire alone. These included former members of the army and perpetrators of the genocide, who soon founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a militia that is still terrorizing the population in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo today.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Capture of the capital
On July 4, 1994, rebels from the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) patrolled the area around the Church of the Holy Family in Kigali. By that time, they had liberated most of the country and routed the perpetrators of the genocide. However, human rights activists also accused the rebels of committing crimes, for which no one has been held accountable to this day.
Image: Alexander Joe/AFP/GettyImages
End of the genocide
On July 18, 1994, the RPF's leader, Major General Paul Kagame, declared that the war against the government troops was over. The rebels were in control of the capital and other important towns. Initially, they installed a provisional government. Paul Kagame became Rwanda's president in the year 2000.
Image: Alexander Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Lasting scars
The genocide went on for almost three months. The victims were often slaughtered with machetes. Neighbors killed neighbors. Not even babies and elderly people were spared, and the streets were strewn with corpses and body parts. It's not only the physical scars on the bodies of the survivors that remind Rwandans of the genocide. A deep trauma also remains.
Image: Timothy Kisambira
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Embracing unity
According to political and social commentators, the reasons for the snub are deep and buried in the country's history.
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Scovia Mutesi, an independent journalist and commentator, told DW that shunning the independence day is deliberate as it brings back memories of division that left many Rwandans in exile for over three decades.
"Rwanda's independence didn't seem like independence," Mutesi said, adding that it came with serious problems for one group of Rwandans.
"It marked the beginning of the suffering of the Tutsis. They were killed, their property destroyed, and many of them ended up in exile."
She said Rwandans prefer celebrating Liberation Day because it preaches unity, and how laws govern all Rwandans without discrimination as opposed to Independence Day, which came with ethnic divisions.
President Paul Kagame led the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels that finally ended the genocideImage: Estácio Valoi/DW
Division at independence
Suleiman Muhirwa, a political analyst, told DW that the history of how Rwanda gained independence was based on divisive politics.
He said the independence flag was handed to Hutu extremists without a fight.
"In other countries like Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, citizens came together, and were led by revolutionaries to fight colonialists for their independence," Muhirwa said, noting that in Rwanda, independence came about differently.
"The colonialists divided Rwandans, and by the time independence came around, some Rwandans were in exile."
By early 1964, an estimated 150,000 Tutsi had fled to neighboring countries.
That explains why the current government of President Paul Kagame recognizes Independence Day as a public holiday but doesn't necessarily celebrate it.
Portrayals of Rwanda's genocide
Over the course of just 100 days in April 1994, up to 1 million people were killed in Rwanda while the world watched without acting. Trauma still runs deep 28 years after the genocide, yet art addressing it may help.
In the British Netflix series, Kate digs into the turmoil of her past. She wants to put those responsible for the genocide in her home country behind bars, but that puts her in grave danger. It's a dramatic reappraisal of the genocide — and its aftermath to this day, accompanied by Leonard Cohen's "You want it darker" as the soundtrack.
Paul Rusesabagina ran the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali in 1994. During the genocide, he protected more than 1,200 people from certain death. In 2004, the story was turned into the film "Hotel Rwanda." The disturbing drama was not only nominated for three Oscars, but also reminded the general public of the atrocities of the genocide.
Romeo Dallaire (photo) was commander of the UN mission in Rwanda before and during the genocide. In his book "Shake Hands with the Devil," he lays blame on the international community for the catastrophe of 1994. The Canadian had said that intervention was vital in order to stop the murder, but his cries for help and those of the Rwandans went unheeded. His book was turned into a film in 2007.
Image: A.Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Hate Radio
Radio was used by the genocidaires, who perpetrated the genocide in Rwanda, as a propaganda tool to spread their hate messages throughout the country. The RTLM broadcaster called Tutsi and moderate Hutu "cockroaches." In his play "Hate Radio," the Swiss theater director Milo Rau stages a frighteningly authentic day in the studio of the infamous station.
Image: IIPM/Daniel Seiffert
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families
The church is also partly to blame for the genocide in Rwanda. This dramatic, formal sentence from a Tutsi pastor's letter to a church superior collaborating with the genocidaires was chosen by US journalist Phillip Gourevitch as the title of his book. In Rwanda, he collected reports from survivors. Through them, he tried to understand the psychological aftermath of the genocide.
Shooting Dogs
The film "Shooting Dogs" shows how quickly a supposedly healthy world became hell on earth. In a school in Kigali, hundreds of people seek shelter from the murderous militias waiting outside the gates. They initially believe that the UN blue helmets can protect them, but then the evacuations of Americans and Europeans begin. The Rwandans are left behind — and the killing starts.
Image: picture-alliance/Mary Evans
Left to tell
For 91 days, Immaculee Ilibagiza hid in the bathroom of a pastor's house. Machete-wielding men had been looking for her and the seven other women who had taken refuge in the small room. When they were finally able to leave, she discovered that almost her entire family had been murdered. She believes that it was her faith that saved her, and has written about the genocide and its lasting effects.
Rwandan Records
Even 25 years after the genocide, Rwandans remain inextricably linked to the darkest chapter in their history. But many Rwandans also want to look to the future — including rapper Eric1key and the "Rwandan Records" project. Their goal is to show how the victim mentality may be overcome by promoting the perspective of self-confident people. They've had shows in Berlin and Rwanda.
Image: HKW/Laura Fiorio
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Significance of Liberation Day
"This day is not more important than the [July 4] liberation day," Innocent Nzeyimana, a historian and researcher on social cohesion, told DW.
He explained that during the colonial era, Belgium used forced labor, and most of those enrolled were Tutsi children.
"If the work was not peformed well, they were beaten," Nzeyimana said.
He also said during independence, Belgium sought to use Rwanda as a backup for exploiting the Democratic Republic of Congo. But they also knew that the Tutsi would not accept such a plan.
"So they [Belgian colonial regime] tried to tell the Hutu, 'The Tusti have beaten you and made you do forced labor, so let us help you to give you independence.'"
Before independence, Rwanda was a monarchy, with members of the Tutsi ethnic group ruling the kingdom. The last king of Rwanda was Kigeli V Ndahindurwa (1936–2016). He reigned from 1959 to 1961, when the Hutu-led government forced him to exile in the US, where he died in 2016.
"This shows you that the independence given to Rwanda was under the interests of the colonial government, not for Rwandans," Nzeyimana said.
Rwanda's 1994 genocide
Upon gaining independence, the Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement began a systematic campaign emphasizing the right of the 'majority' ethnicity to rule and assert the Hutu's supremacy over the Tutsi. Observers say this political ideology laid the foundation for the genocide.
On April 6, 1994, a jet carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down above Kigali, killing all on board. It is still unknown who was responsible for firing upon the plane; it did act as a trigger.
Over the following months, Hutu militia organizations and the army played a significant role in the genocide. It was only in July that Kagame's Tutsi-led RPF could take control over most of the nation.
For regional political analyst Gonzaga Muganwa, events before and after Independence Day are to blame for the divisions that decades later brought about the genocide in 1994.
However, he said that the leadership in Kigali today, most of whom were born and raised in exile, prefer to focus on promoting unity instead of remembering what they call "bad history."
"There is no consensus on whether independence happened in the right circumstances and delivered on the great promise people had hoped for," Muganwa told DW.
"Of course, most of the current elite was in exile, and those who were in Rwanda were being oppressed. So, it is not marked as a very important day, although it is marked as a public holiday."
But he proudly added that Rwanda as a nation had existed for more than 600 years before colonialism, with values and leadership. This poses a contrast to other countries that celebrate independence due to their founding.
"Rwanda was not founded in 1962," Muganwa said.
To this day, it is not known who downed the plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian presidentsImage: AP
