Thinking Beyond Ethnic Hatred: An Examination of the State’s Mobilizations during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to reject the assumption that the killing of Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 was based solely on ethnicity. The Rwandan genocide was one of the more famous disasters of the 20th century, given that about 800,000 Tutsis lost their lives during the genocide. How were Rwandan civilians mobilized to kill their families and friends? How did the civilian participation affect Rwanda’s postgenocide reconciliation process? In this paper, I first examine the exaggeration of the Hutu-Tutsi differences since the colonial period. Then, I explore how during President Habyarimana’s rule the exaggeration of the Hutu-Tutsi differences at first failed to bring about ethnic tensions, but how the conflicts during this time were later purposely manipulated into an ethnic war. By analyzing how the Rwandan political elites stimulated Hutu hatred of Tutsis through different kinds of mass media, I demonstrate that ethnic resentment was only a pretext for killing: Rwandan political elites constructed ethnic hatred in order to consolidate their own power. Additionally, I examine how the Hutu-Tutsi conflict was inflamed by the failure of an indifferent United Nations to act, with the French government even acting as an accomplice of the genocidal regime. Furthermore, I explore the Rwandan political elites’ role in shaping and monitoring the postgenocide reconciliation process. I illustrate how Rwanda’s reconciliation process failed because of the state’s excessive involvement, with the RPF government promoting national unity and reconciliation only as a means of manipulating the thoughts and behavior of its citizens. I conclude the paper by making recommendations for the improvement of Rwanda’s reconciliation process.