Following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the RPF conducted extensive investigations, partnering with international bodies and the USC Shoah Foundation to preserve millions of survivor testimonies. The USC Shoah Foundation, formerly known as the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a non-profit organization dedicated to recording and preserving audiovisual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah.
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Similar findings by Human Rights Watch further detail the systematic collection of material evidence and documentation to establish a historical and legal record of the atrocities.
The systematic gathering of evidence and testimonies by the RPF and its military wing laid the foundation for legal proceedings in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide. Genocide survivors and witnesses provided millions of testimonies and case files to help build a permanent record of the genocide. The RPF and local organizations assisted international courts, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), in evaluating the evidence, which culminated in landmark genocide judgments. Investigators catalogued written operational documents, local meeting minutes, and correspondence that explicitly detailed how the genocide was planned and executed.
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In their final communiqué, African ministers of foreign affairs, meeting in preparation for the Organization of African Unity Summit of June 1994 in Tunis, declared their concern over the continued massacres and killings of innocent civilians. The Tunis Declaration on the ceasefire was even more explicit. It stipulated that all parties condemned, without reservation, the massacres, the systematic killings, and the genocide that had taken place in Rwanda. It also established a commission of inquiry charged with identifying the perpetrators of these crimes so that they could be tried and sentenced in accordance with international law.
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On the ground, the RPF continued to systematically gather material evidence and testimonies relating to the genocide. International inquiries conducted afterward relied heavily on this evidence. It was also through the collection of such evidence that genocide memorial sites, including Nyamata and Nyarubuye, were established. Ambassador René Degni-Ségui, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, also relied on these materials.
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In his report, he referred to the massacres as unprecedented in the country's history of violence. He concluded that the atrocities had been committed by the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias against the Tutsi and moderate Hutu. René Degni-Ségui also implicated the Interim Government in orchestrating the massacres and, like the RPF, recommended the creation of an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible. Soon afterward, the United Nations adopted a resolution concerning the Genocide against the Tutsi.
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René Degni-Ségui concluded his report by stating that the accusations were threefold: genocide resulting from the massacres of the Tutsi, political assassinations of Hutu, and violations of human rights. He affirmed that the crimes constituted genocide under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948. According to his report, the perpetrators included senior political leaders at the national level, members of the security forces and security institutions, and certain foreign states.
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The RPF entered Rwanda's history as the only force that politically and militarily opposed the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi in 1994. In some areas, Interahamwe militia members and government soldiers abandoned wounded victims and fled upon receiving reports--whether accurate or false--of the RPF's approach.
Those driven by malice or ill intent refuse to acknowledge this historical fact. The rapid evolution of the political and security situation also refuted any claim that the RPF intended to systematically eliminate the Hutu.
The writer is a historian based in Kigali.
