6 April 1994: The Rwandan President’s plane is shot down
On 6 April 1994, a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
The military camp in Kigali where 10 Belgian peacekeepers were tortured and murdered at the beginning of the genocide
It remains unclear who shot down the plane, but blame was immediately placed on the Tutsis. Hate speech was broadcast on the radio and through word of mouth which encouraged Hutus to wipe out the Tutsis. Roadblocks were set up around the country and the Interahamwe, the Hutu-extremist youth wing, began exterminating Rwandan Tutsis.
Lindsey Hilsum, one of the only journalists on the ground in Rwanda at the start of the genocide, wrote in the Guardian about the event:
The Rwandan capital of Kigali descended into chaos yesterday as troops, presidential guards and gendarmes swept through the suburbs killing the prime minister, United Nations peacekeepers and scores of civilians. Gangs of soldiers and youths kidnapped opposition politicians, and killed members of the minority Tutsi tribe, clubbing them to death with batons, hacking them with machetes and knives, or shooting them… Most people in Kigali were too frightened to leave their homes yesterday. But hundreds of terrified Tutsis searched for safe houses and some took refuge in the national stadium, where the UN peacekeeping force is based.
Between 7 April and 17 July 1994, almost one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered.
