Posted by Mikkel
Last week was Genocide Memorial Week. 17 years ago on the 6th of April the Rwandan Genocide started. The following 100 days somewhere close to one million people – mostly tutsis - were killed often in the most gruesome ways. Around ¾ of the tutsis in Rwanda at the time are believed to have been killed. The killers were mainly armed with machetes and homemade weapons. They were organized and managed by local leaders and government officials. And they were backed-up by the national army.
In a way it is unimaginable what happened here during those 100 days. Most of the killing actually happened within the first 3-4 weeks. A friend of ours here was 11 years old and living in Kigali when the genocide started. He told me that it was just as unimaginable when it happened. And that that was probably one of the main reasons of the killers’ “success” in those first 3-4 weeks. Those that were hunted thought they would be safe if they gathered in schools, churches, etc. They thought no-one would kill 40.000 civilians who take shelter inside a big boarding school compound… But they did. It took three days and only 8 people survived by hiding under dead bodies.