[Philior Gordov]

I saw the film "Hotel Rwanda" as a high school student (in 2005) and it conveyed some really powerful messages (pertaining to the inner demons within humans, the role of historical memory, our capacity to show heroism, the will to live, etc.). It gave me the shudders in many respects, but also filled me with admiration for the heroes like Paul Rusesabagina, Romeo Dallaire, Pierantonio Costa, Antonia Locatelli, Jacqueline Mukansonera, Carl Wilkens, André Sibomana, Captain Mbaye Diagne (and many others, some of them unknown to the Western world or to the Rwandans themselves).

I wanted to raise a question/spark a discussion pertaining to Rwanda - the scholarly consensus seems to hold that the genocide was organized by the government and was carefully controlled. I wonder to what extent this was actually the case...

Most of the horrific murders appear to have been committed by ordinary citizens, local level militias (often consisting of unemployed youths). It also has to be taken into account that on some occasions intellectuals may have been disproportionately targeted (envy and hatred on a non-ethnic level being the driving factors, e.g. in the case of the horrific murder of Immaculée Ilibagiza's older brother Damascene).

In addition, according to "Leave None to Tell the Story" (1998) there were quite a few instances in which Hutus (non-moderate ones) were killed by other Hutus due to personal animosities (because of willingness to "settle scores" regarding farm lots, as reactions to perceived slights, etc.) Also, if I am not mistaken, even some of the extremist party leaders/army generals lost family members due to uncontrolled attacks by militias.

I am in no way trying to "whitewash" the responsibility of the former upper echelons in Rwanda, but it seems as if there was a shocking number of murderers at every level of society (and it's downright impossible to establish control when quite a few of the murderers kill for different reasons).

Why did the government unleash such waves of hate? Even if the key members of the extremist cabinet lacked any moral qualms, they surely must have realized (from a rational/purely selfish standpoint) that mobilizing the populace to such an extent would have been self-defeating in the end and threatened their own grip on power or even their own lives (and with many of the intellectuals perishing in the genocide, the government leaders would have found it almost impossible to sustain a certain level of comfort, e.g. when it comes to being able to obtain material goods like radios and computers). Once there were few Tutsis left to exterminate, the problems with out of control youths seem to have really started to cause trepidations among the actual leaders of the militias, mayors, etc.
"Leave None to Tell the Story" (1998) even mentions that some of the Hutu radicals (who were in high positions of power) actually welcomed the RPF advances in July, as their own supporters were becoming way too bloodthirsty and were running rampant all over the countryside.

How accurate are such accounts? Was the interim Rwandan government mostly in control during the genocide?

Would you say that a mild dictatorship (arguably what Kagame's rule could be seen to represent) might actually be justifiable/advisable in a country like Rwanda due to the unprecedented level of social breakdown and the existence of potentially more than one million perpetrators?

[Kman]

It has always amazed me how brutal and viscious some people can be sometimes and the most fascinating thing is that most of these brutal killers are very charismatic when they are interviewed.

As for how you prevent something like this I am not sure what caused, it just seems like such a crazy situation, I really wonder what got that powder cake to explode.
I know that inflation and economic troubles in Germany were the primary catalyst behind creating jealousy and animosity towards jews since alot of the jews knew how to avoid being wiped out by inflation and that caused them to become incredibly wealthy compared to white germans after the inflation had wiped out peoples wealth in the 1920's.
Perhaps political abuse were behind creating all this animosity in Rwanda also? I remember watching Hotel Rwanda and hearing that the group that was getting killed used to be employees of the european colonial power that had controlled Rwanda previously and that their relationship with the colonial officials had caused them to become relatively wealthy and also hated by the people not enjoying the benefits of colonial monetary handouts.

[Philior Gordov]

Very good points!

It has always amazed me how brutal and viscious some people can be sometimes and the most fascinating thing is that most of these brutal killers are very charismatic when they are interviewed.

Indeed, it's almost as if the reporters sometimes feel uneasy and don't feel like challenging the perpetrators’ versions of the events. It's also quite shocking how so many of them are hardly apologetic and continue to blame the hierarchies (or the "enemy" affiliations of the victims). There is a creepy air of grim bravado around them. It’s also inconceivable that some of the killers were purportedly as young as 10-12 years old.

As for how you prevent something like this I am not sure what caused, it just seems like such a crazy situation, I really wonder what got that powder cake to explode.
I know that inflation and economic troubles in Germany were the primary catalyst behind creating jealousy and animosity towards jews since alot of the jews knew how to avoid being wiped out by inflation and that caused them to become incredibly wealthy compared to white germans after the inflation had wiped out peoples wealth in the 1920's.
Perhaps political abuse were behind creating all this animosity in Rwanda also? I remember watching Hotel Rwanda and hearing that the group that was getting killed used to be employees of the european colonial power that had controlled Rwanda previously and that their relationship with the colonial officials had caused them to become relatively wealthy and also hated by the people not enjoying the benefits of colonial monetary handouts.

I agree, these are likely to have been contributing factors in the Rwandan case as well! In addition, there are some theories that the Tutsis were favored by the colonists due to generally being taller and lighter-pigmented than the Hutus. However, if I am not mistaken, they were sort of implicitly recognized as a ruling class even before the involvement of the Europeans (e.g. Rwandan chiefs/kings tended to be from the Tutsi tribe).
What thing is for sure - even before the genocide, there must have been some sort of a culture of violence and a willingness to resort to mob justice in cases of (supposed) infractions committed by individuals. I am always tempted to look for such precursors, as becoming desensitized to violence cannot happen overnight. There may have also been a lack of strong inter-communal bonds. I remember reading (in some tourist guidebooks) that the Rwandans tend to be very reserved and private people (though this may simply reflect the change in mentalities in the aftermath of the genocide). Being introverted is of course not wrong in any way, but in the Rwandan case there was probably a shocking absence of an overarching patriotism and general feelings of intergroup solidarity.