President's Plane Shot Down
In April 1994 the plane carrying the Rwandan President back home to his country's capital, Kigali, was shot down. This attack, whose perpetrators remain unknown to this day, became the catalyst for another great calamity of our age. It was soon evident that a small group among the Hutu elite of Rwanda had decided to use the attack as the opportunity to launch a full-scale genocide that they had been preparing against the country's Tutsi minority.

An Unimaginable Nightmare
When the genocide started, the Rwandan people were plunged into an unimaginable nightmare, yet the world turned its back. Even though the appalling scale of the killing was evident, the UN and the international community did nothing. Within hours of the plane crash, the genocidal regime began to implement an overall strategy that had been scrupulously planned and organized.

It included control of the levers of government, the support of highly motivated soldiers and militia, the means to kill vast numbers of people, the capacity to identify and kill the victims through the manipulation of support from vast numbers of the Hutu population, and tight control of the media to disseminate their racist propaganda. The country's military leaders, together with the interim government of extremist "Hutu Power" supporters that was formed after the crash, made the overall decisions - these leaders became known as "genocidaires" - while Rwanda's entire elaborate state apparatus was used to implement their instructions with remarkable efficiency.

Death Lists Circulated
For months, death lists had been quite openly circulating through the capital. A clear priority list for elimination included members of the political opposition; Hutu who opposed the President and who refused to embrace the extremist Hutu Power position and were slaughtered without mercy in the first days; critics such as journalists and human rights activists; anyone seen as an independent community leader, including professionals, political activists, lawyers and teachers; as well as priests, nuns and other clergy who were Tutsi or who sheltered intended victims.

When the genocide ended after little more than 100 days, between a half million and one million Tutsi lay dead, alongside thousands of Hutu killed for their opposition to the extremists. Virtually all were civilians, unarmed and defenseless. Women and children were specifically targeted to ensure the final elimination of all Tutsi. Tens of thousands of women and girls were raped, tortured and, if not then murdered, maimed for life. Victims were treated with sadistic cruelty and suffered unimaginable agony.

Before and After, Then and Now
Mary also gave an interesting insight to the history of Rwanda before and after colonalisation and of the current social and political framework at the present time. She talked at length about the plight of the survivors and in particular how their experiences are, after 10 years, still causing them pain and stress.

The dreadful similarities to the Nazi regime were clearly identified by those listening and their thoughts truly echoed the theme of this year's National Holocaust Memorial day: "lessons learned, lessons still to learn".

- Sidney Moss