In the previous piece, it was shown that the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana was a crucial component of the genocide plan. His death created the emotional impact necessary for extreme and widespread violence to be accepted. In this piece, further evidence of the generalised and systematic nature of the massacres will be presented.
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The execution of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi began immediately after the presidential plane crash. Around 21:00 on the night of April 6, 1994, Kigali was gripped by grief. Massacres of Tutsi civilians and opposition political figures began. Sporadic gunfire echoed near Kanombe Military Camp where soldiers of the Para-commando battalion were stationed. Interahamwe militia and the Presidential Mobile Brigade immediately began tracking down Tutsi civilians and opposition members. The presidential guard besieged several neighborhoods, including Kimihurura and Kacyiru, forcing people into their homes, arresting them, and killing them brutally. In this way, they launched a large-scale operation to exterminate the Tutsi.
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Under the pretext of avenging Habyarimana’s death, soldiers of the Para-commando battalion and the Presidential Mobile Brigade militia targeted Tutsi civilians and opposition members. They attacked homes, destroying them before killing the occupants. Accounts of the first large-scale massacres emerged early on the morning of April 7, 1994. Fear had already taken hold of most Kigali residents.
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The sound of gunfire, the cries of victims, and the songs of the executioners filled the city. Many inhabitants had not yet learned of the President’s death, and the simultaneous locating and massacring of victims caused widespread fear, anxiety, and despair. From the early hours of April 7, key political figures of the opposition were killed, often along with their families. Other soldiers and militias, known as Interahamwe and Impuzamugamba, actively participated in the mass killings of the Tutsi. By mid-morning, the genocide had already spread to various regions of Rwanda.
The generalisation of the massacres served two main objectives: to exterminate the Tutsi and eliminate internal political opposition, promoting ethnicity as the sole acceptable basis for political and social organization; and to provoke the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) into renewed hostilities, thereby ensuring the failure of the Arusha Accords signed on August 4, 1993.
The resumption of hostilities by RPF, just hours after the start of the massacres, allowed the genocide planners to blame RPF for Habyarimana’s death and justify the extermination of the Tutsi, who were portrayed as internal accomplices. Extremist leaders, as well as public and private media, incited Hutu civilians to sever ties with the Tutsi and participate in their extermination.
In the early hours of the massacres, some Hutu were unaware that the killings specifically targeted Tutsi. Some attempted to protect Tutsi families.
On April 8, 1994, while the open campaign against the Tutsi continued in Kigali and other regions, a new government was installed. Théodore Sindikubwabo, former president of the CND and member of the ruling MRND, was appointed President of the Republic. Jean Kambanda, from the extremist wing of MDR known as Hutu Power, became Prime Minister of a government composed exclusively of ministers from extremist factions supporting the genocide.
On April 9, 1994, an official communiqué announced a government made up of extremist leaders from five parties, four of which belonged to the so-called opposition: MDR, PSD, PL, and PDC. These parties were included because their "power” element supported the genocide.
Once in power, the new authorities facilitated the spread of the genocide efficiently. Southern and central regions of Rwanda were engulfed in violence from April 9 onward. By including leaders from these regions in the government, the genocide’s organizers sought both submission and active participation from local populations.