Rwandan Adventures

7.28.09
Yesterday was an interesting day. We traveled 3 hours to a memorial in the south The memorial was the site of a mass killing. Over 50,000 people were slaughtered there. They had been seeking refuge in a school. The Hutu militia used knifes machetes, clubs, guns and blunt weapons to kill men, women and children. The bodies of the victims were in 48 classrooms. They preserved the bodies with lime and left them where they were killed. While the rest of the 50,000 victims were laid to rest in a mass grave. It brought to life just how brutal the genocide of Tutsi had been. There were rooms of bodies, skulls and bones.

What is extremely interesting is just how the conflict all began. Rwanda was colonized by Belgians. The Belgians in charge divided Rwandans by how many cows they had. More than ten were Tutsi and less than ten were Hutu. The majority of Rwanda’s population was Hutu. It was very similar to what the Nazis did. Tutsi were also the ones in high positions of government. The Belgians made studies showing that Tutis was superior to Hutu. When Rwanda gained its independence the Hutu rose up. Soon discrimination against the Tutsi occurred and shortly after that, genocide. The Kigali genocide museum had stories from Hutus that hide Tutsis in their homes. The Rwandan genocide was brutal. No one was spared.