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Aftermath

Kibumba refugee camp. Nearly 1 million refugees were camped in the area around Goma.

In anticipation of Tutsi retaliation, approximately 2 million Hutus, participants in the genocide, and the bystanders, fled from Rwanda to Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. Thousands of them died in disease epidemics common to the squalor of refugee camps, such as cholera and dysentery. The United States staged the Operation Support Hope airlift from July to September 1994 to stabilize the situation in the camps. According to the Gersony Report, during and after the RPF invasion between April and August 1994, tens of thousands of civilians were massacred by RPF forces. Human Rights Watch also reported large scale killing by RPF forces. The most well known atrocity by RPF forces was the Kibeho Massacre on April 22, 1995.

A leaked UN draft report accused Rwanda's Tutsi-led army of committing a possible genocide against the ethnic Hutus in Zaire. The report accused the Rwandan Army and allied Congolese rebels of killing tens of thousands of Hutu men, women and children (both refugees from Rwanda and locals) in a series of systematic attacks between 1996 and 1997. The government of Rwanda rejected the accusation.

After the victory of the RPF, the size of UNAMIR (henceforth called UNAMIR 2) was increased to its full strength, remaining in Rwanda until March 8, 1996.

Rwandan refugee camp in eastern Zaire, 1994

The presence of 2 million refugees in eastern Zaire helped destabilize the already weak country, whose president, Mobutu Sese Seko, allowed Hutu extremists among the refugee population to operate with impunity. In October 1996, Mobutu's continued support of the Hutu militants led to an uprising by the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge people in eastern Zaire (supported politically and militarily by Rwanda), which marked the beginning of the First Congo War, and led to a return of more than 600,000 Hutu refugees to Rwanda during the last two weeks of November. This massive repatriation was followed at the end of December by the return of 500,000 more from Tanzania after they were ejected by the Tanzanian government. Various successor organizations to the Hutu militants operated in eastern DR Congo until May 22, 2009.

Mobutu was overthrown in May 1997, and Zaire's new leader, Laurent Kabila, renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kabila's relationship with his Rwandan allies quickly soured, and in August 1998 Tutsi rebel forces, supported by Rwanda and Uganda, launched another rebellion. This led to the Second Congo War, killing 5 million people from 1998 to 2004.

Political developments

After its military victory in July 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front organized a coalition government similar to that established by President Juvénal Habyarimana in 1994. Called The Broad Based Government of National Unity, its fundamental law is based on a combination of the constitution, the Arusha accords, and political declarations by the parties. The MRND party was outlawed. Political organizing was banned until 2003. The first post-war presidential and legislative elections were held on August 25, and on September 29, 2003 respectively.

The current government prohibits discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, or religion. The government has also passed laws prohibiting emphasis on Hutu or Tutsi identity in most types of political activity.

In March 1998, on a visit to Rwanda, US President Bill Clinton spoke to the crowd assembled on the tarmac at Kigali Airport: "We come here today partly in recognition of the fact that we in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try to limit what occurred" in Rwanda. He acknowledged his failure to deal effectively with the situation. Clinton has stated that the "biggest regret" of his presidency was not acting decisively to stop the Rwandan Genocide.

Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms, the country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural output and to foster reconciliation. In March 2000, after removing Pasteur Bizimungu, Kagame became President of Rwanda. On August 25, 2003 Kagame won the first national elections since the RPF took power in 1994. A series of massive population displacements, a nagging Hutu extremist insurgency, and Rwandan involvement in the First and Second Congo Wars continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts.

The first try at democracy in Rwanda was under Habyarimana just prior to his death. Democratization had been prompted by French influences (international donors practically forcing the administration's hand). Because the idea of democracy had been presented as both a Tutsi imposition and a colonialist one, it remained a disdainful concept in the cultural mindset of the Hutu majority.

Economic and social developments

Graph showing the population of Rwanda from 1961 to 2003. (Data from U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization)

The biggest problems facing the government are reintegration of the more than two million refugees, ending the insurgency among ex-soldiers and Interahamwe militia fighters and the Rwandan Patriotic Army in the north and southwest of the country, and the shift away from crisis to medium and long-term development planning. The prison population will continue to be an urgent problem for the foreseeable future, having swelled to around 100,000 in the three years after the war. Trying this many suspects of genocide will tax Rwanda's resources sorely.

The long-term effects of war rape in Rwanda for the victims include social isolation (social stigma attached to rape meant some husbands left wives who were victims of war rape, or that the victims were rendered unsuitable for marriage), unwanted pregnancies and babies (some women resorted to self-induced abortions), and sexually transmitted diseases.

The Special Rapporteur on Rwanda estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 pregnancies resulted from war rape (between 250,000 and 500,000 Rwandan women and girls had been raped). Rwanda is a patriarchal society and children therefore take the ethnicity of the father, underlining that war rape occurred in the context of genocide. The main issue involving reintegration is the fact that the violence that had occurred often involved neighbors; people lived next to rapists, murderers and torturers. It was very difficult after the genocide for Tutsis to trust Hutus, whether or not they had any involvement.

Justice system after genocide

With the return of the refugees, the government began the long-awaited genocide trials, which had an uncertain start at the end of 1996 and inched forward in 1997. It was not until 1996 that courts finally began trials for genocide cases with the enactment of Organic Law N° 08/96 of 30 on August 30, 1996. This law initiated the prosecution of genocide crimes committed during the genocide and of crimes against humanity from October 199 The systematic destruction of the judicial system during the genocide and civil war was a major problem. Government institutions, including judicial courts, were destroyed, and many judges, prosecutors, and employees were murdered. Of 750 judges, 506 did not remain after the genocide—many were murdered and most of the survivors fled Rwanda. By 1997, Rwanda only had fifty lawyers in its judicial system. These barriers caused the trials to proceed very slowly: with 130,000 suspects held in Rwandan prisons after the genocide, 3,343 cases were handled between 1996 and the end of 2000. Of those defendants, twenty percent received death sentences, thirty-two percent received life in prison, and twenty percent were acquitted. It was calculated that it would take over two hundred years to conduct the trials of the suspects in prison—not including the ones who remained at large.

In response to the situation, the government of Rwanda passed Organic Law N° 40/2000 in 2001. This law established Gacaca Courts at all administrative levels of Rwanda and in Kigali. It was mainly created to lessen the burden on normal courts and provide assistance in the justice system to run trials for those already in prison. The least severe cases, according to the terms of Organic Law N° 08/96 of 30, would be handled by these Gacaca Courts. With this law, the government began implementing a participatory justice system, known as Gacaca, in order to address the enormous backlog of cases. The Gacaca court system traditionally dealt with conflicts within communities, but it was adapted to deal with genocide crimes. The following are the objectives of the Gacaca courts:

• Identifying the truth about what happened during the genocide
• Speeding up of trial genocide trials
• Fighting against the culture of impunity
• Contributing to the national unity and reconciliation process
• Demonstrating the capacity of the Rwandan people to resolve their own problems

Throughout the years, the Gacaca court system went through a series of modifications. It is estimated that the Gacaca court system has tried over one million cases to date.

Meanwhile, the UN established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, currently based in Arusha, Tanzania. The UN Tribunal has jurisdiction over high-level members of the government and armed forces, while Rwanda is responsible for prosecuting lower-level leaders and local people.

Closing of the Gacaca courts

Main article: Gacaca court

On June 18, 2012, the Gacaca court system was officially closed after facing criticism.

The Gacaca court system faced many controversies and challenges; they were accused of being puppets of the RPF-dominated government. The judges (known as Inyangamugayo, which means "those who detest dishonesty" in Kinyarwanda) who preside over the genocide trials were elected by the public. After election, the judges received training, but there was concern that the training was not adequate for serious legal questions or complex proceedings. Furthermore, many judges resigned after facing accusations of participating in the genocide; 27.1% of them were so accused. There was also a lack of defense counsel and protections for the accused, who were denied the right to appeal to ordinary courts. Most trials were open to the public, but there were issues with witness intimidation. The Gacaca courts did not try those responsible for massacres of Hutu civilians committed by members of the RPF, which controlled the Gacaca Court system.

Closing of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Main article: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Since the ICTR was established as an ad hoc international jurisdiction, the ICTR is scheduled to close by the end of 2014, after it completes trials by 2009 and appeals by 2010 or 2011. Initially, the U.N. Security Council established the ICTR in 1994 with an original mandate of four years without a fixed deadline and set on addressing the crimes committed during the Rwandan Genocide. As the years passed, it became apparent that the ICTR would exist long past its original mandate. However, with the announcement of its closing, there is a concern over whether the Rwandan genocide will still have an authority like that of the ICTR in prosecuting high-ranking fugitives and with access to international sources.

Media and popular culture

See also: List of films about the Rwandan Genocide and Bibliography of the Rwandan Genocide

Canadian Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire became the best-known eyewitness to the genocide after co-writing the 2003 book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, describing his experiences with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Another firsthand account of the Rwandan genocide is offered by Dr. James Orbinski in his book An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century. Among survivors, Immaculée Ilibagiza documented her story in Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. The book recounts how she survived for 91 days with seven other women during the holocaust in a damp and small bathroom, no larger than 3 feet (0.91 m) long and 4 feet (1.2 m) wide. Gil Courtemanche, a French-Canadian writer, authored Dimanche à la piscine à Kigali (A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali), which focuses on events in Kigali during the genocide.

At the Earth Made of Glass premiere, Rwandan President Paul Kagame stands with, from left, Jenna Dewan, director Deborah Scranton, documentary subject Jean Pierre Sagahutu, producer Reid Carolin and executive producer Channing Tatum.

The critically acclaimed and multiple Academy Award-nominated 2004 film Hotel Rwanda is based on the experiences of Paul Rusesabagina, a Kigali hotelier at the Hôtel des Mille Collines who sheltered over a thousand refugees during the genocide. It is listed by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 most inspirational movies of all time. This same story is related in Rusesabagina's 2006 autobiography An Ordinary Man.

Dallaire's book was made into the movie Shake Hands with the Devil in 2007. Courtemanche's book was also made into a movie, A Sunday in Kigali (2007).

The documentary Earth Made of Glass, an independent film, about the personal and political costs of the genocide, focusing on Rwandan President Paul Kagame and genocide survivor Jean-Pierre Sagahutu, premiered at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

In 2005, Alison Des Forges wrote that eleven years after the genocide, films for popular audiences on the subject greatly increased the "widespread realization of the horror that had taken the lives of more than half a million Tutsi". In 2007, Charlie Beckett, Director of POLIS, said: "How many people saw the movie Hotel Rwanda? [It is] ironically the way that most people now relate to Rwanda."

Among songs, "Rwanda" by the punk-ska band Rancid from the album Rancid is about the Rwandan genocide. So is the punk-ska band Rx Bandits's song "In All Rwanda's Glory" on their album Progress, which they say contains "overly political lyrics". Brooke Fraser wrote the song "Albertine" on her album Albertine about an eponymous orphan from the genocide whom Fraser met one time in Rwanda in 2005.

Former journalist and current United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power is interviewed about the Rwandan genocide in Watchers of the Sky, a 2014 documentary by Edet Belzberg about genocide throughout history and its eventual inclusion in international law.