Consequences of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
Senior 3 · History and Citizenship
Consequences of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi
Lesson 4 of 5
20 min
Imagine you are a member of the new government in late 1994. The diagram shows the problems waiting on your desk. Every one of them is urgent, and each one makes the others harder.
Analysing the diagram. The challenges are linked. Without security, refugees will not come home and farmers cannot plant; without justice, survivors may lose faith in the state, and those who are innocent may be wrongly blamed; without a working economy, there is no money for courts, schools or health care. Rebuilding meant working on all six at once.
Definition
Reconstruction: rebuilding a country's institutions, economy and society after war or disaster.
Resettlement: helping displaced people and returning refugees to find land and homes and start living normally again.
Old caseload refugees: Rwandans, mostly Tutsi, who had fled the country from 1959 onwards and lived in exile, often for decades. New caseload refugees fled in 1994.
Demobilisation: releasing soldiers from an army or armed group and helping them return to civilian life.
Genocide ideology: ideas and behaviour that support or call for the destruction of a group, which can lead people to genocide again.
| Challenge | What it looked like | Why it was hard |
|---|---|---|
| Insecurity | Attacks by former soldiers and Interahamwe from the camps in eastern Zaire, especially in the north-west in 1997 and 1998 | The attackers hid among civilians and still spread genocide ideology |
| Justice | More than 100,000 suspects in overcrowded prisons by the late 1990s (estimated) | Most judges and lawyers had been killed or had fled; trials in ordinary courts were very slow |
| Return and resettlement | Old caseload refugees came home after 1994; hundreds of thousands of new caseload refugees returned from Zaire and Tanzania at the end of 1996 (UNHCR) | Many found their houses destroyed or occupied by others; there was not enough land or housing for everyone |
| Poverty | A ruined economy, destroyed infrastructure and a shortage of skilled workers | The state collected little tax and depended on foreign aid |
| Healing | Widows, orphans, child-headed households and deep trauma | There were very few trained counsellors, doctors or social workers |
| Unity | Fear and mistrust between survivors, returnees and families of perpetrators | Decades of divisive politics and genocide ideology had to be undone |
| Rebuilding institutions | Ministries, courts, police, schools and local government had to restart | Laws, staff, buildings and records were all missing at the same time |
The return of refugees shows how one challenge became several. The Arusha agreement had already advised that refugees who had been away for more than ten years should be given other land rather than reclaim their old property, so that people living on it would not be evicted. After 1994, returnees and survivors still competed for scarce land and houses. Some families shared land; others received land from the state. From the late 1990s the government also promoted grouped villages (imidugudu), so that services such as water, schools and health centres could reach more people. Housing the returnees was a humanitarian task, but it was also a way to prevent new conflicts over land.
Worked example: why ordinary courts could not cope
Question: Suppose 120,000 genocide suspects were waiting for trial, and the courts could hold about 1,000 trials a year (illustrative figures). How long would it take to try them all, and what does this show? (3 marks)
Step 1 time = number of cases ÷ trials per year = 120,000 ÷ 1,000 = 120 years.
Step 2 most suspects, and many survivors and witnesses, would die before their case was heard.
Conclusion: justice delayed this long is justice denied: to survivors who wanted the truth, and to the innocent held in prison. A faster way of doing justice was needed (Lesson 5).
Which of the challenges in the table do you think had to be tackled first? Explain why, and say which other challenges it would help to solve.
Tip
Challenge, then evidence, then effect. A strong exam answer names the challenge, gives a fact ("more than 100,000 suspects in prison"), and explains its effect ("trials would have taken decades"). Three sentences, three marks.
Warning
Do not confuse the two groups of refugees. Old caseload refugees fled the persecution of Tutsi from 1959 onwards and returned after the genocide ended; new caseload refugees fled in 1994, many pushed by the genocidal regime, and most returned at the end of 1996.
Practice
Sources and credits
