We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-8

Chapters 9-15

Chapters 16-22

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Hutu Power’s Planned Genocide of Tutsis

Visiting Rwanda one year after the genocide of 1994, Philip Gourevitch seeks to understand how the country copes in its aftermath—with evidence of the horrific event remaining in the form of dead bodies at massacre sites. Interviewing Tutsi survivors such as Odette Nyiramilimo and Bonaventure Nyibizi, Gourevitch tells the story of the genocide. The use of such narratives provides the reader with personal accounts, ensuring the emotions of victims are not lost to statistics.

Providing historical context, Gourevitch describes the politics that led to the genocide. German and Belgian colonizers racialized the occupational division between Hutus and Tutsis, which was previously porous. Favoring the Tutsi minority and oppressively ruling through them, the Belgians in particular caused Hutus to resent Tutsis. Years prior to Rwanda gaining independence in 1962, Hutus, who made up 85 percent of the population, took control of the government and sought revenge against Tutsis. A Hutu dictatorship was established that denied Tutsis their rights and economic opportunities. Through Odette’s life story, Gourevitch documents the first attempt at genocide; there were several instances of mass slaughter and expulsion of Tutsis prior to 1994. External events such as Tutsi massacres of Hutus in Burundi and the RPF’s raids into Rwanda were used as excuses to terrorize the Tutsi minority.

While history and factors such as overpopulation and poverty helped set the stage, Gourevitch argues that the genocide of 1994 (that saw to at least 800,000 Tutsi deaths in 100 days) was planned. Prior to President Habyarimana’s assassination, the akazu (with Agathe Habyarimana’s support) arranged for Kangura—a publication that demonized Tutsis. Agathe ensured that Hassan Ngeze, a populist and Hutu supremacist, edited the publication. There were also no prosecutions for vigilante violence committed against Tutsis. Because the war with the RPF served as pretext for said violence, Ngeze and Hutu Power labeled President Habyarimana’s signature on the Arusha Accords in 1993 a betrayal. The next year, Ngeze “predicted” Habyarimana’s death. Once the president was assassinated, the plan for genocide was implemented. First, Hutu oppositionists were targeted. Then, radio was used to mobilize the entire Hutu population to kill Tutsis. The genocide was not spontaneous, but deliberately planned with approximately 400 masterminds later identified.

The International Community’s Betrayal of the Tutsis

There was advance warning that the Rwandan genocide was going to take place and a UN force prepared to prevent it. Roméo Dallaire, the head of UNAMIR, sent warnings to his superiors at the UN that went unheeded. As the slaughter unfolded, reports from Rwanda made it clear that a genocide was happening. Yet, the US engaged in semantics, drawing false distinctions between genocide and acts of genocide, to avoid its obligation under the Genocide Convention to stop the violence. France continued to provide military support to the genocidal government in Rwanda and launched its own military operation that prevented the RPF from taking control sooner.

When RPF forces defeated Hutu Power, hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled the country. Many were innocent but many others were genocidal killers fleeing justice. In the countries surrounding Rwanda and the French Zone (Zone Turquoise), the international community established refugee camps for Hutus and failed to segregate killers from legitimate refugees. The media did a poor job contextualizing the exodus, depicting all camp refugees as victims. As a result, Hutu Power essentially ran the camps—taking advantage of international aid—and used them to continue its genocidal campaign. Hutu Power members targeted Hutus and Tutsis with evidence of this as well. Despite the threat the camps posed, international agencies resisted their closure. This resistance was unwarranted given the peaceful reintegration of Hutus in areas with closed camps. With the camps in operation, the threat of another genocide continued to hover over Rwanda.

The large international investment in the camps contrasted with the lack of international funds for genocide survivors and Rwanda’s restoration. When Hutus returned, they claimed the homes in which Tutsis squatted given the destruction of their own homes. Yet, the international community offered them no aid. Tutsis could not rely on the international community for justice either. Instead of assisting Rwanda’s efforts to arrest those behind the genocide, the UN established its own tribunal which operated outside the country. The tribunal of the 1990s proved ineffective, and Rwandans found its very establishment insulting. It would ultimately convict key figures, but Tutsis continued to live in fear when killers returned from the refugee camps.

The Significance of African Self-Determination

Despite the international community’s promise to prevent genocide in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, they left Rwanda to its own. Signatories to the Genocide Convention, an obligation to stop genocide, failed to do so. It was the RPF that routed the genocidal government, not UNAMIR or any other international force. Paul Kagame, who led the RPF, was a brilliant strategist and trained his soldiers well. He insisted on discipline and professionalism, punishing soldiers who looted and engaged in gratuitous violence. Despite the temptation to take revenge on Hutus, those who murdered families and destroyed homes, the RPF forces largely refrained from such attacks. The forces were commended for their restraint given the circumstances.

Hutu Power continued to operate from the refugee camps in Zaire with the support of its dictator Mobutu. Zairean Tutsis were attacked, slaughtered, and evicted from their homes—with the international community only contributing to the problem. African leaders had to take charge and planned a rebellion to overthrow Mobutu. Kagame, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, and rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila met in Kigali and organized a rebellion. At the time, the international community provided funds to Mobutu—but the rebels successfully ousted him. Zaire was formally renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo. African leaders recognized that a rebellion was needed to stop the ongoing genocide. They acted while the international community dithered.

Prior to taking Goma, the capital of Zaire, rebel forces faced thousands of Hutu refugees whom Hutu Power used as shields to stop their advance. Ultimately, the rebels encircled the camp and sent the refugees back to Rwanda. The media sympathized with these refugees, incorrectly claiming that they were starving; it failed to provide context for the murderous Hutu Power. The international community scrutinized the RPF and other forces fighting the Hutu extremists—with little to say about said extremists. Kagame expressed frustration with the community’s contributions to the endangerment of Tutsis and Hutu oppositionists. He alleged that much of the criticism resulted from Africa’s self-determination, the threat this posed to international actors. Africa had taken control of its own destiny, and as is the case of politics, such change can elicit more changes that fail to align with others’ agendas.