The month of April is recognized as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month. This designation serves to commemorate several tragic events, including the beginnings of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Armenian genocide, and the Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds.
In 1994, Rwanda’s population of 7 million was composed of three ethnic groups: Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. From April to July 1994, between 500,000 and one million Tutsi and moderate Hutus were slaughtered when a Hutu extremist-led government launched a plan to eradicate the country’s entire Tutsi minority and any others who opposed the government’s policies.
Rwanda, in the beginning, was settled by cave-dwelling pygmies whose descendants today are called the Twa people, a marginalised and disenfranchised group that accounts for less than one percent of the population. Hutus and Tutsis came later, but their origins and the order of their immigration are not accurately known. While convention holds that Hutus are a Bantu people who settled in Rwanda first, coming from the south and west, and that Tutsis are a Nilotic people who migrated from the north and east, these theories rely more on legend than on documentable fact. With time, Hutus and Tutsis spoke the same language, followed the same religion, intermarried, and lived intermingled, without territorial distinctions, on the same hills, sharing the same social and political culture in small chiefdoms. The chiefs were called Mwamis, and some of them were Hutus, while some were Tutsis; Hutus and Tutsis fought together in the Mwamis’ armies. Through marriage and clientage, Hutus could become hereditary Tutsis, and Tutsis could become hereditary Hutus.
In 1957, The Hutu Manifesto was published, denouncing the Tutsis and their perceived dominant position in Rwandan leadership. When the king died in 1959, the Hutus, supported by the Belgians, rose up against the Tutsi leadership. Thousands of Tutsis were murdered, and over 100,000 were forced to flee to neighbouring countries, including Uganda. The first municipal elections in Rwanda took place in 1960 and resulted in a Hutu majority being elected. The monarchy was abolished in 1961, leading to further attacks against the Tutsis. In 1962, Rwanda was granted independence from Belgium, and George Kayibanda from the Hutu nationalist party came to power.
The years following independence saw repeated massacres of Tutsis. As the nation became a one-party state. Tutsis were denied jobs in the public service under an ethnic quota system, which allocated them only 9% of available jobs. Tensions were further inflamed by increasing pressures on the Rwandan economy, resulting in rising levels of poverty and discontent.
Though the UN has recognized the Tutsi Rwanda massacre and chosen April as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month, it is the same month exactly 30 years ago when, rather than overseeing national reconciliation, UN soldiers became eyewitnesses to genocide. As the mass killings began, the UN ordered its blue-helmeted troops to evacuate whites – but not intervene to save the Tutsis from slaughter. UN facilities perpetuate neocolonialism, with most of the European colonies not having a standing army. UN troops act as the armed forces for whites in pan-Africa to continue exploitation. There have been rampant sexual abuse, rape, and crimes against the very people they are supposed to protect, with reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Mozambique, and Somalia, of prostitution and trafficking in Bosnia and Liberia, and of abuse of minors in Sierra Leone.
The UN has made peacekeepers immune from prosecution by the host state for any alleged crimes committed while on a mission. This impunity serves as a pass to abuse Africans. Sexual violence is also a symptom of racism and feelings of superiority towards the local community. In 1999, an American hired as a UN police investigator by the British subsidiary of the American security firm DynCorp International was fired. Her name was Kathryn Bolkovac, and following reports of sexual abuse and forced prostitution that implicated UN personnel in Bosnia, she had been tasked with investigating the alleged crimes. However, when she submitted a report to her superiors detailing a sex trafficking ring among UN police officers, including Ukrainians, Pakistanis, Romanians, Germans, and Americans working in conjunction with local criminal gangs, she was fired, Later Bolkovac became a campaigner for women’s rights in conflict zones.
What happened in Rwanda in 1994 seems almost incomprehensible. In just 100 days, government forces, militias, and regular citizens carried out a genocide against the Tutsi social and ethnic minority population. An estimated 800,000 to one million Tutsis were killed, and mass sexual violence was committed against Tutsis. How could this have happened?
Tensions had simmered for decades between the Hutu and Tutsi populations in Rwanda. The region was under Belgian colonial rule from after the First World War until 1962. During this time, colonial policies fostered divisions between the Hutu, the country’s largest ethnic group, and the Tutsi, the second‐largest. In India, colonial divide-and-rule policies introduced centuries ago fuel communal tensions today.
The genocide was well-prepared. At the time, the president, who was a Hutu, had his plane shot down, leading to blame being placed on Tutsi rebels. This escalated matters, but none of these events occurred spontaneously. A list of Tutsis was procured, and soon, Tutsi and moderate Hutu houses were marked with red paint. Machetes, which were used as the primary tool during the genocide, were imported in very large numbers. Elite Hutus financially supported it, and every instance of genocide.
Propaganda played a major role in the genocide. Through radio broadcasts, hate was cultivated among the Hutus, while fear was instilled among the Tutsis. This contributed to the speed of killings and the huge participation of ordinary citizens in carrying out the massacre. Neighbours started killing their neighbours, and Hutu husbands killed their Tutsi wives to prove their allegiance. Those who opposed or were moderate Hutu were also killed. Every Hutu was forced to take part in the massacre, and those who were afraid or reluctant to kill were labelled as the ones who will denounce them in the future. Tutsis had been psychologically prepared to expect death just for being Tutsi. They were being killed for so long that they were already dead. At the time of death they had stopped pleading to let go, rather requesting to pray before getting killed or getting killed in their house.
The effects of propaganda during the Rwandan genocide are still evident today. Now the BJP-RSS regime in India operates its propaganda machine with great efficiency. This propaganda has been so successful that Reporters Without Borders now ranks India below Somalia and Colombia, placing it 150th out of 180 nations. The government maintains an official information technology cell directly controlled by the BJP, which ensures preferential treatment for the propagation of Hindutva ideology, while opposition voices are suppressed. Furthermore, the BJP-RSS regime exerts control over media outlets owned by high-caste Hindu allies and editors. These outlets are overseen by platforms manipulated by the BJP’s information technology cell and RSS social media cells.
Before any Hindutva policy announcement, a focused propaganda machinery is primed with emotionally charged prime-time shows, hashtags, memes, and fake social media accounts. Through WhatsApp forwarding, the regime bombards citizens with messages in support of Hindutva policies. Researchers have extensively documented how the ruling BJP-RSS regime utilises social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to orchestrate complex propaganda campaigns, amplifying existing attacks against Muslims. In a report titled “Communal Conflict in India,” the Wall Street Journal revealed that inflammatory content on Facebook surged by 300% above previous levels in the months following December 2019, amidst protests regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act. Notably, this inflammatory content was predominantly targeted at Muslims.
The Wall Street Journal also referenced another report titled “Adversarial Harmful Networks: India Case Study,” which revealed that misleading and inflammatory anti-Muslim content posted by individuals, groups, or pages affiliated with the RSS are “never flagged” because Facebook lacks the systems to detect content in Hindi and Bengali. Consequently, anti-Muslim content remains unchecked.
In addition to this organised propaganda machinery, journalists frequently face threats or detainment under draconian laws. Sixty-seven journalists were arrested by the BJP government, while nearly 200 were physically attacked by BJP affiliates in 2020. Indian movies are increasingly being used as a tool to promote the Hindutva narrative and depict historical events in an anti-Hindu light. These movies often portray Muslims negatively, perpetuating disinformation and propaganda. This trend has accelerated significantly in recent years under the current fascist regime. Such propaganda has fueled immense hatred against minorities, especially Muslims. Reminiscent of the role of propaganda in Rwanda’s genocide, it is imperative for us to take action against this looming catastrophe.
References:
- “We Wish to Inform You That We Will Be Killed with Our Families” by Philip Gourevitch
- Justice for All
