MIRACLE IN KIGALI The Rwandan Genocide– a survivor’s journey

Kayibanda and eight other Hutu intellectuals published the Bahutu Manifesto.

The manifesto was an appeal against the domination of the Tutsi ‘race’ and the continued isolation of Hutus from political power.

The manifesto was followed by the birth of several Hutu political parties.

Kayibanda founded a party which became known as PARMEHUTU, Partie du Mouvement de l’Emancipation Hutu. The Tutsi elite responded with UNAR, Union Nationale Rwandaise. Meanwhile the Mwami, Mutara III, was poisoned in July 1959 and was replaced by his younger brother Kigeli V. Kigeli’s reign was short-lived. In November 1959, riots inspired by PARMEHUTU led to widespread burning of Tutsi houses and Tutsi murders.

In what became known as the Winds of Destruction, the riots forced the first mass emigration of Tutsis to neighbouring countries. Kigeli V departed, never to return.

The Belgian colonial administration, which by now had swapped sides to favour the new Hutu parties, stood by and watched the attacks on Tutsis. With the Mwami and his court and the traditional power structures effectively terminated, the Belgians organised elections. In 1961 PARMEHUTU swept to power with a massive majority, with UNAR only managing to gain handful of seats.

With Belgian help, Kayibanda declared Rwanda a republic on January 28, 1961, forestalling any possible intervention by the United Nations (Rwanda was still under UN mandate, a legal position inherited from the League of Nations at the end of World War II). The declaration of the republic was followed by more attacks on Tutsis and a further flood of exiles. It was in 1961 that the parents of Rwanda’s current President, Paul Kagame, left Gitarama with their young son and headed for exile in Uganda. From the start, the killing sprees combined assaults on both the elite and ordinary Tutsis on the hills. Tutsi families who remained in Rwanda learned to live with the constant threat of violence.

Rwanda was formally declared independent on July 1, 1962, with Gregoire Kayibanda as President. The country was split from Burundi, which remained under Tutsi control. Tutsi exiles launched an invasion from Burundi in December 1963, only to be repulsed by Kayibanda’s army. Several thousand indigenous Tutsis were killed in reprisals along with all surviving Tutsi politicians.

Kayibanda’s regime introduced a quota system based on the proportion of Hutu and Tutsi in the population. Progress to secondary and tertiary education and to 131