As the great scholar Raphael Lemkin sagaciously noted in his magnum opus Axis Rule in Occupied Europe back in 1944, genocide is never an impromptu act of terror, but a carefully planned and intentional effort to eliminate a particular group of people. The architects of genocide are, first and foremost, shrewd strategists, who only transmute into savages in the second phase of their sinister scheme. To wit, the alarm bells of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi were ringing loud and clear long before the massacres commenced, yet, tragically, they were ignored.

In the secretive and influential areas of Kigali, a malicious plot was concocted with extreme wickedness and deceit that will forever leave a shameful imprint on humanity. The leaders of the Hutu Power movement, akin to the tropical version of the Nazi party, with their cunning strategies and insatiable thirst for violence, carefully devised the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi with surgical precision and the merciless cruelty of a predator. Their objective was not just to eliminate the Tutsi people, but to obliterate their entire existence.

In the run-up to the Genocide, the Hutu Power leaders followed the Nazis' playbook and employed a propaganda campaign aimed at dehumanizing the Tutsi population. By broadcasting hateful messages on the radio and through other media, they were able to intensify ethnic tensions and dehumanize the Tutsi by likening them to cockroaches. This vile propaganda had the effect of stripping the Tutsi of their basic human rights and made it easier for the genocidaires to justify their brutal campaign of extermination.

The machinations of the genocidaires were not limited to just propaganda; they also meticulously planned the logistics of the Genocide. The procurement of weapons, machetes were just the starting point of a well-coordinated plan to wipe out an entire population. The distribution of death lists, ensuring that no one would be spared, is but one of the horrifying examples of the extent to which this extermination was organised. The precision with which the massacres were executed, the meticulous arrangement of the extermination squads, and the collaboration of various local officials and religious actors are all ghastly indications of a sinister plot that was not a fortuitous occurrence.

And yet, amidst the overwhelming evil of those days, one aspect of the atrocity stands out as particularly egregious: the way in which the genocidaires infused a culture of violence and hatred into the very fabric of the Rwandan population. Through a sinister blend of propaganda, intimidation, and barbarism, they succeeded in turning even the closest of relationships against each other, causing families and friends to turn on one another, and even leading some to kill their own children.

In their insidious efforts to foment a culture of hatred and violence, the genocidaires harnessed the power of education to spread their venomous ideology. Like the Nazis in Germany, the Hutu Power movement used the school system to indoctrinate children with a twisted version of history that portrayed the Tutsi as the enemy of the Hutu. Radio broadcasts and theater productions also played a significant role in spreading this hateful message, fueling a fire of racial hatred that would eventually engulf the country in flames.

The machetes that were wielded with terrifying precision by civilians during the Genocide were not just weapons, but symbols of a deeply ingrained ideology of racial hatred and intolerance. They hung over the heads of the Tutsi people like a guillotine, a constant reminder of their precarious existence in a world that had turned against them since 1959 when the first ethnic cleansing was inaugurated in Rwanda.

The planning of the Genocide was also facilitated by the international community's failure to act, despite clear warning signs of an impending catastrophe. The UN and the international community at large turned a blind eye to the systematic buildup of weapons not fit for military use and propaganda that would soon be used to commit genocide, allowing the genocidaires to act with impunity.

The genocidaires' plan was like a ticking time bomb, biding its time until the perfect moment to detonate. And so, they brought down President Habyarimana's aircraft as a trigger for their meticulously planned agenda, which they carried out with unforgiving exactitude. In a matter of hours, the machetes that were wielded with deadly precision became synonymous with the genocidaires' viciousness, as they relentlessly hunted down the Tutsi, like a hunter stalking its prey, and burned them alive in places of worship, leaving behind a trail of unspeakable horror.

In defiance of indisputable evidence of the planned genocide of the Tutsi in 1994, some persist in their denial, claiming that it was a civil war or a spontaneous outbreak of violence. But this is a willful distortion of history, designed to absolve the perpetrators of their crimes and to perpetuate a false narrative of victimhood. We cannot afford to let these deniers and revisionists rewrite history. We owe it to the victims of the Genocide to bear witness to the truth and to speak out against those who seek to distort it.

In our solemn reflection of the tragic 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, we must not overlook the intricate planning and calculated actions of the genocidaires that led to the merciless slaughter of over one million of innocent lives. It is imperative that we learn from the past and vow to always stand up against the divisive forces of hatred, ensuring that such atrocities never repeat themselves. We owe it to the victims of the Genocide to bear witness to the truth and to resist those who would seek to distort it. Like the Holocaust, the Tutsi genocide's legacy must be remembered with an unwavering commitment to upholding the veracity of history, lest we forget the lessons of the past and be doomed to repeat them.

Patient Kwizera is an IT and content creator expert