The Rwandan Genocide began 25 years ago on April 7, 1994. Over the course of 100 days approximately 700,000 Tutsis were slaughtered along with 100,000 Hutus. I wrote about it recently to commemorate its beginning, and to reflect on the lack of moral courage among those who could have stopped it. Today, let’s continue our commemoration by going in-country.
Rwandans exterminated one in nine of their fellow citizens in only 100 days. All in a country the size of Sweetwater county. Consider the enormity of that evil.
Don’t let foreign tribal names dehumanize these people. They were not soulless Hutus and Tutsis, surplus population. These were mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, shopkeepers, students, youngsters in love, aged and infants.
The murders were not perpetrated at a distance. Guns were scarce. The Hutu government imported a half-million machetes to be distributed for the pre-planned genocide. The murderers were looking into the eyes of their victims, ignoring their pleas for mercy, and feeling the machete cleave flesh and bone.
What does it take to be made into a mass murderer? Human beings all have the frightful capacity for murder, but we are not hard-wired for it. A thousand common decencies keep us from devolving into murderers. To create a society of murderers those barriers need to be eroded systematically. In Rwanda, that process started long before the first day of killings.
Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) began operating on July 8, 1993. It received support from the Hutu-controlled government. Its mission was to stoke hate in the hearts of the majority Hutus. Its programming was calculated to gain a large audience of youth with popular Zairean music. Then, it groomed murderers under a veneer of humor. Anti-Tutsi rhetoric like, “You are cockroaches! We will kill you!" was skillfully mixed with sophisticated comedy.
This is a sobering reminder of humor’s power from Facebook memes to late-night comedy. Humor is humanizing when it makes us laugh at ourselves. Humor is dehumanizing when it makes us laugh at others.
Johnny Carson used to release the day’s tension by a good, wholesome laugh. Entertainers today are more likely to skewer ideological opponents than invite us to laugh at ourselves. Every laugh at the expense of a fellow human being breaks one more barrier between our humanity and the murderer striving to unleash its cruelty. Think about that before sharing a meme or laughing at a joke. You are no different from the average Rwandan.
Once unleashed, murderous rage is uncontrollable. What the Hutu planners unleashed to wipe out the Tutsi minority came back upon their own tribe. Tens of thousands of Hutu men, women and children were murdered by retaliating Tutsis.
Even then, the demon that tore apart Rwanda did not simply slink away. When Tutsi forces won the civil war, the 100-day genocidal program came to an end, but not the killing. After the war there were ongoing reports of atrocities. Most noted was the Kibeho massacre in 1995 where as many as 4,000 unarmed Hutus were shot.
Whether perpetrated by the Tutsi government or vigilante forces, these atrocities show that demons once loosed, are not easily controlled. Governments, machetes and guns are powerless against the restless evil that lies hidden in every human heart.
Evil always promises that if you let it loose, just a little, it will come back under your control. It is a liar. Don’t listen to these empty promises. Evil is never tamed by venting. To give evil reign is to give evil power. With every angry word or blow of the machete, it grows ever more untamable.
God warned Cain, “sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Genesis 4:7 NKJV). The Rwanda genocide demonstrates that these words are as true as ever.
Remember: it was not foreign troops that entered Rwanda to slaughter a ninth of its population. Individual Rwandans chose bit-by-bit to give sin and hatred ever more reign. That is what led to the slaughter of over 800,000 innocents.
God’s providence restrained the machetes after 100 days, but only God’s love can conquer the demons that started them swinging. Christ was crucified not to crush the people who don’t like you. He came to crush the devil who wants you and them both to become like him.
The power of Christ against the murderous devil is His word, wielded in His Church, not in human government. Governments that value peace and community will encourage the Church to speak Christ’s word. Unwise governments will use their power to suppress it and will reap what they sow.
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