Specific, Not Spontaneous

(Picture above: rows of skulls of Tutsi victims)

After the plane was fired down on April 6, 1994, "many of the early Tutsi victims found themselves specifically, not spontaneously pursued" ( Power 333). Lists of people to be killed were created ahead of time. Names, addresses, and license plate numbers of Tutsies and moderate Hutus were announced on the Radio Mille Collines broadcasts. Many people tried, mostly in vain, to pay to get their names removed from the list. The Hutus started with the people that had the most political power. I find it very interesting but appalling that at the beginning of the genocide, the killers would know how many people were in the family they were killing, what their names were, and the adults' occupations.

On the morning of April 7 assisinations began of political figures that did not completely support President Habyarimana's dictatorship. These victims were not limited to Tutsies. One of the first people killed was Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who was a moderate Hutu, along with her husband and children. Her death was significant because she was one of the prominent supporters of peace-keeping and the sharing of political power between the Hutu and Tutsies. Right before she was killed, five Ghanian and ten Belgian peace-keepers came to bring her to Radio Rwanda, where she was going to announce an emergency plea for calm. Uwilingiyimana and her family were murdered, the five Ghanians were not harmed, but the ten Belgians soldiers were killed too. This is also significant. These soldiers were in Rwanda to help enforce the cease-fire and keep the peace between the Hutus and Tutsies. These soldiers were taken by the Hutu extremists, called interahamwe, and were literally cut to pieces with machetes. The Belgian soldiers did not use their guns or try to fight back in any way; they died trying to bring peace. This angered the UN and the Belgian government because these men were slaughtered and they did not even try to defend themselves (except with words). The Hutu forces killed the ten Belgians for a strategic reason: to keep the United States out of the conflict. The strategy worked. The United States saw the brutal deaths of the Belgians and it reminded many of the US leaders of situation in Somalia a few years earlier and they did not want this. The United States pulled out the small amount of help they had in Rwanda and did not intervene until much later in the genocide.
(Picture above: Rwandan nurse holding Tutsi body)

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
Life Laid Bare: The Survivors in Rwanda Speak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide
http://www.burningcross.net/inquisition/missionaries/rwanda-dead.JPG