On April 7, 1994,after a plane carrying the president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana, and the president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down as it approached Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Two Hutu presidents died that day, starting the Rwandan genocide. Many Rwandans, who were fortunate enough, fled the scene and went to create refugee camps.
Approximately 800,000 people were killed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The slaughter of men, women and children took place over the course of about 100 days between April and July of 1994. Rwandans killed Rwandans, brutally decreasing the Tutsi population of the country, but also targeting steady Hutus. Terrible mayhem was committed, by armed forces, but also by civilians against other civilians.
The global community did not prevent the genocide, nor did it stop the killing once the genocide had begun. This failure has left deep wounds within Rwandan society and in the relationship between Rwanda and the global community, in particular the United Nations. Getting at the truth is necessary for Rwanda, for the United Nations and also for all those, wherever they may live, who are at risk of becoming victims of genocide in the future.
In search of the truth about the role of the United Nations during the genocide, the Independent Inquiry hopes to contribute to building improved trust between Rwanda and the United Nations. The failure by the United Nations to prevent, the genocide in Rwanda was a collapse of the United Nations system as a whole.
We must all learn from this incident and see that racism (prejudice) doesn’t create another massacre of violence which kills countless individuals.
___________
_______________ 
