Rwandan Genocide Service in St Margarets

Ten years after the slaughter of 1,074,017 Rwandans between 1990 and 1994, a service at St Margarets will remember the victims of that terrible time.

The small landlocked Republic of Rwanda largely came into the worlds focus during the genocide if 1994. Thousands of Tutsis lived as refugees for thirty years. When negotiations for returning to their country broke down, they took arms, entering the country from Uganda in 1990. This small army was pitched against the presidential army and war broke out until a peace was signed in Arusha in 1993. However, extremist Hutu began plotting to make sure that Tutsis should never have political power in Rwanda. Militia were taught to use the machete. When the plane of the Rwandan President was shot down on 6 April 1994, the final solution was triggered. Road blocks were set up and a planned programme of genocide began as western nations backed away. From April to July 1994, the United Nations soldiers left and Rwanda suffered 100 days of hell.

Today Rwanda wants Hutu, Tutsi and Ywa to live together and have equal opportunities for jobs, educations, land and housing. The Army and the Police Force are made up of Rwandans from all ethnic groups and the government has set up a Commission for Unity and Reconciliation.