National Mourning Day (Rwanda)
National Mourning Day in Rwanda is observed on April 7 each year to remember and honor the victims of the 1994 genocide, during which between 500,000 and 1 million Tutsis were killed in a span of just a few months. This day serves as a poignant reminder of the ethnic violence that has affected the nation, rooted in a complex history of tribal enmity between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority. The genocide was triggered by the assassination of then-President Juvénal Habyarimana, leading to widespread massacres and a civil war that drastically altered the country's demographic landscape.
Rwanda, a small yet densely populated country in East Africa, has since undergone significant transformations, including a commitment to national reconciliation and healing. The I Buka ("I remember") movement, initiated in 1995, has played a crucial role in fostering remembrance and reflection around this tragic history. National Mourning Day not only commemorates the lives lost but also encourages collective healing and the importance of peace-building within the nation. Observances often include memorial events and educational initiatives aimed at preventing future atrocities, underscoring Rwanda's ongoing journey towards recovery and unity.
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National Mourning Day (Rwanda)
National Mourning Day (Rwanda)
April 7 is National Mourning Day in Rwanda, a small landlocked nation in central Africa bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Tanzania, Uganda, and tiny Burundi. The day commemorates the victims of a horrific tribal genocide that occurred in 1994.
Rwanda, though just over 10,000 square miles in size, is one of the most densely populated nations in Africa, with more than 7 million inhabitants. The fertile lands along Lake Kivu to the west make this large population possible. Rwanda's capital and largest city is Kigali. Ethnic violence has plagued Rwanda since it achieved independence from Belgium, which formerly held it as a colony, on July 1, 1962. The majority of the population consists of members of the Hutu tribe, but the Tutsi minority has long been the ruling class, due in part to the colonial policy of ruling through the local Tutsi chiefs. The Tutsis conquered Rwanda and the Hutu centuries ago, leading to generations of inter-tribal enmity. After independence, there were sporadic conflicts between the two tribes until July 1973, when General Juvénal Habyarimana staged a military coup. Habyarimana was a moderate Hutu, who for the most part was able to maintain order. However, on April 6, 1994, Habyarimana's airplane was shot down after he had attended negotiations with Tutsi leaders concerning the formation of a coalition government. He and the president of Burundi, who had also attended the negotiations, were killed. The event set off an apparently prearranged massacre and a civil war.
It was most likely Hutu extremists, opposed to any power-sharing arrangement with the Tutsis, who shot down Habyarimana's plane. In the violence that followed, between 500,000 and 1 million Tutsis were slaughtered within the space of a few months, many with simple implements such as machetes. A Tutsi-backed organization called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was able to form an army and march on Kigali, taking control of the country by the summer of 1994. By then, a quarter of the country's population had either been killed or forced to flee the country, settling in huge, unhealthy refugee camps in Zaire. Although there were several thousand retaliatory killings by the Tutsis, the new RPF government was surprisingly moderate and began a program of national reconciliation which included the installation of a moderate Hutu named Pasteur Bizimungu as president. (He later resigned and was succeeded by vice president Paul Kagame, a Tutsi leader.) Later in 1994 the RPF worked with the United Nations to establish the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, located in Arusha, Tanzania, which began prosecuting alleged war criminals in 1997. National Mourning Day is an outgrowth of the I Buka (“I remember”) movement, launched in 1995.