The power of the radio was instrumental in spreading the killing frenzy. It is important to point out that one of the first things Africans buy when they get a job is a radio and even the poorest houses listen intently to catch snatches of government broadcasts. It is not surprising, therefore, that when the Hutus heard the voices coming through the radio to ‘kill, kill, kill the Tursi minority’, the Hutus responded and literally did as they were told.
One fact that is not widely publicized about the Rwandan genocide is that it was mainly directed at the young, male Tutsi population, fearing they were members of the RPF guerrilla force. However, as the days went by women and children were also victims. Survivors later told stories of being raped either by individuals or gangs, sometimes using sharpened sticks or gun barrels. Sometimes they were sexually mutilated, or they were forced to marry to become nothing more than sex slaves.
The killing didn’t stop until July when the RPF finally managed to capture Kigali, causing the collapse of the government. They declared a ceasefire and as soon as the Hutus realized that the RPF had been victorious, an estimated two million fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). It wasn’t until the killing stopped that the UN troops and aid workers arrived to try and restore the basic services.
Why was it that as the killing intensified, the rest of the international community deserted Rwanda? Erratic media coverage while the genocide was taking place conveyed the false notion of two ‘tribes’ of African ‘savages’ mindlessly killing each other as they had done for many years. As a result, there was little public pressure in the West for governments to intervene. Controversy has raged ever since over the role of foreign governments and the UN in allowing the genocide to proceed. It wasn’t until 7 April, 2000, the sixth anniversary of the massacre, that Belgium’s prime minister apologized for the international community’s failure to intervene. He told a crowd of thousands at the site of a memorial that, ‘A dramatic combination of neglicence, incompetence and hesitation created the conditions for the tragedy’.
At the beginning of the First Congo War in 1996, many Tutsi refugees returned to Rwanda, which instigated the start of the long-awaited genocide trials. The UN formed the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and in September 1998, they issued their first charges on genocide.
In Rwanda itself, approximately 120,000 people were jailed on allegations of having taken part. Many have since died due to the appalling conditions and overcrowding in the jails. By the end of April 2000, about 2,500 people had been sent to trial and of these about 300 received death sentences.
Three journalists from Rwanda went on trial in 2001 for war crimes, because they were the voices behind the radio broadcasts that urged the Hutus to kill. This is reminiscent of the Nazi editor, Julius Streicher, who was sent to the gallows at Nuremberg in 1946.
The scars of the genocide and the subsequent reprisals will probably always stay with the Rwandans, and even worse it could provoke another round of mass killing. With the economy badly damaged and little hope of a quick recovery, many Tutsis still feel that the only way to rebuild their lives is to repress the Hutus. The Hutus, who once again feel downtrodden, because they have been labelled ‘guilty’ for the last massacre, feel that no one cares about what happens to them under the latest Tutsi-led government. Extremists on both sides believe that the only solution is complete annihilation of the other side, and many believe they are preparing for another slaughter. It appears despite all the pain and suffering, the Rwandans have not learned an important lesson – that violence simply doesn’t pay.
PART SEVEN: 21st CENTURY – THE WAR CRIMES CONTINUE
Saddam Hussein’s Regime
Although the Iraqi people have suffered the atrocities inflicted by the US military, possibly the greatest threat to them over the years has been Saddam Hussein’s regime. For over two decades he has terrorized, killed, tortured and raped the Iraqi people and their neighbours. Under his regime it is fair to say that many hundreds of thousands have died as a direct result of Hussein’s actions, a vast majority of them being Muslims. He has used a wide range of torture methods, including the gouging out of eyes, severe beatings and electric shocks, leaving many of his victims dead or with permanent physical and pschological damage.
It has been estimated that during Hussein’s 1987–88 campaign of terror against the Kurds, as many as 100,000 were killed and 2,000 of their villages destroyed. The use of chemical agents, such as mustard gas and nerve agents, have resulted in some 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian deaths. Possibly the worst attack was the one on Halabja which resulted in approximately 5,000 deaths.
Freedom of worship was also restricted, as Hussein’s regime curbed their religious practices, including a ban on communal Friday prayer and funeral processions. His oppressive government policies have led to as many as 900,000 Iraqis, mainly Kurds, fleeing to the north of the country to avoid having to renounce their Kurdish identity or lose their property.
During his regime it is also estimated that as many as 400,000 Iraqi children under the age of five, unnecessarily died of either malnutrition or disease. The Oil-for-Food Programme, which was established by the United Nations in 1995 and terminated in late 2003, was intended to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing Iraq to rebuild its military. However, Hussein’s regime blocked the access of international workers, who were supposed to ensure the correct distribution of the supplies. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, coalition forces uncovered military warehouses which were full of supplies that had never reached their intended destination – the Iraqi people.
Saddam Hussein’s regime has also been known to carry out frequent executions. For example, in 1984 4,000 prisoners were killed at Abu Ghraib prison; 3,000 prisoners were killed at the Mahjar prison from 1993–98; 2,500 prisoners were executed between 1997 and 1999 in what has been described as a ‘prison cleansing programme’; 122 political prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib prison in February/March 2000; 23 political prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib prison in October 2001; and at least 130 Iraqi women were beheaded between June 2000 and April 2001.
One of the worst campaigns mounted by the regime of Saddam Hussein was the anti-Kurdish Anfal campaign in 1988. This was a ‘cleansing’ campaign aimed at the Kurdish population, who are considered to be the world’s largest nation who do not actually possess a state of their own. Their territory is divided between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, with as many as 4 million Kurds being concentrated in Iraq.
When Hussein came into power, it appeared to bode well for the Kurds, especially when his Ba’ath Party made an agreement with the Kurdish rebel groups. This agreement granted them the right to use and broadcast their own language, as well as giving them a considerable amount of political independence. However, it wasn’t long before the agreement began to break down, when the Ba’ath Party started to evict Kurdish farmers, replacing them with poor Arab tribesmen and women. In March 1974, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) retaliated, which sparked off a full-scale war. Villagers were forcibly removed from their homes and eventually 130,000 Kurds fled to Iran.
It was these refugees, the Barzani tribespeople, who would fall prey to one of the worst cases of genocide of male members of a population the world had ever seen. In 1983, the Iraqi security forces started to round up all the males of the Barzani tribe from four refugee camps near Arbil. Just as dawn broke the soldiers stormed into the camps, taking captive all the male members of the tribe, including an old, mentally deranged man who was usually tied up for his own safety and a preacher who was on his way to the Mosque to call for morning prayer. The soldiers broke down doors and searched every house. In fact, they searched everywhere – inside chicken coops, water tanks, refrigerators – anywhere that it was possible someone could be hiding. Women cried, desperately hanging onto their sons, as the soldiers rounded up any males over the age of 13 and took them away to face their final fate. None of these men were ever seen again. The women pleaded with the soldiers not to take their men away, as Saddam Hussein had already hinted what he intended to do to the Barzani tribesmen. This earlier operation foreshadowed the techniques that would be used on a much larger scale during the Anfal campaign.