Genocide In Rwanda

Rwanda lies in the heart of Central Africa, having common borders with Zaire, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. It is one of Africa's smallest states with a population of just over eight million. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimated that between April and July this year at least half a million Rwandans perished in a horrendous outburst of ethnic hatred and violence. Other sources place the death toll even higher.

This fearful tragedy had roots far into the past. For in the colonial era the country's boundaries were drawn to include two main ethnic groups, the majority Hutu people and the smaller Tutsi tribe (about 14% of the population). The colonial power had for many years favoured the Tutsi people and promoted their interests. But by the time independence was conceded (1962) the Hutus had asserted their superior strength, and over the years have since retained their hold on government. From 1973 President Habyarimana, a Hutu, had held on to power, despite armed rebellion by the mainly Tutsi Rwanda Patriotic Front during the past four years.

However, pressure from the Patriotic Front was increasing, and President Habyarimana had attended a peace conference in Tanzania, where proposals were agreed to end the struggle between the minority Tutsi and the ruling Hutu: the former were to be granted a share in government. On the flight home from this peace conference the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were travelling in the same plane. As it approached the airport at Kigali, Rwanda's capital, it was shot down and crashed into the Presidential Palace grounds. Both Presidents were killed.

The double assassination ignited fierce fires of hatred and revenge, directed against government personnel who had favoured concessions to the Tutsi people, and against the Tutsis themselves. Hutu troops and militia ran amok in an orgy of indiscriminate slaughter of the Tutsi populace: men, women, children and babies, no one was spared. Ordered government having collapsed, anarchy reigned. Many Tutsi fell victim to Hutu death squads called the interahawe (those who attack together). They were gangs of young men in ordinary civilian clothes, armed only with crude weapons such as knives or machettes. They roamed the towns and countryside like packs of wolves in search of prey. As one reporter described it: "The fighting was hand to hand, intimate and unspeakable, a kind of blood lust that left those who managed to escape it hollow eyed and muted".

Many Rwandans fled in terror to neighbouring countries. In a single twenty-four hour period a quarter of a million people poured across the Tanzanian border. As Patriotic Front forces pressed victoriously westward to occupy most of the country, a million refugees spilt over into Zaire. Others moved into Uganda and Burundi. This mass exodus from Rwanda posed enormous problems for the governments of the receiving countries. Aid agencies found their resources altogether inadequate. Sanitation being impossible in many of the refugee concentrations, dysentry, cholera and typhoid soon threatened. It was disaster on an immense scale.

In Genesis chapter 6 we read about the state of the world in the generation before the Flood:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and it grieved Him at His heart... the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

How revealing the word, "it grieved Him at His heart"; or as one version translates the verse, "it filled His heart with pain". If our hearts are moved by the fearful sufferings of so many in Rwanda, how much more must a God of infinite love and compassion be grieved to see this extensive violence.

From the standpoint of godless materialism the Lord Jesus spoke of time dais before the Flood being comparable to world conditions before His return as Son of Man (Luke 17:26, 27). The crescendo of violence in our time is another parallel with the days of Noah. Because of the conditions described in Genesis chapter 6 God chose to intervene directly by the judgement of the Flood. Worsening world conditions will similarly lead to His intervention through the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. The extending violence is one factor which indicates that the end-time is drawing hear. We share the yearning expressed in Isaac Watts' well-known lines:

"Then come, 0 Lord, to earth again,

Come, take Thy mighty power and reign;

Bid tumults, wars and conflicts cease,

Rule far and wide, Thou Prince of Peace".

A blessed prospect fully assured to us by divine promise (Is. 9:6,7). Meantime our prayers for "all men" (1 Tim. 2:1-2) must surely include a special place for

Central Africa, that peace may be restored, relief promoted and the gospel of

Christ finds a response in many hearts.

unknown | Dec 1994
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