Rape during the Rwandan Genocide

During the Rwandan Genocide the violence took a gender specific form, when over the course of 100 days, in an act of genocidal rape up to half a million women were raped, sexually mutilated or murdered. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), also handed down the first conviction for the use of rape as a weapon of war during the civil conflict, and it was the first time that mass rape during wartime was found to be an act of genocide, as the intent of the mass violence against women, was to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular ethnic group.

The mass rapes were carried out by the Interahamwe militia, members of the civilian population, with help from female Hutus, the Rwandan military, and the Rwandan Presidential Guard. The sexual violence was directed at the national and local levels by political and military leaders in the furtherance of their goal, the destruction of the Tutsi ethnic group.

There was extensive use of propaganda through both print and radio to incite violence against women, with both mediums being used to portray Tutsi women as untrustworthy, and as acting against the Hutu majority. The conflict resulted in an estimated 2000–10,000 war babies being born as a result of forcible impregnation. The extent of the rapes was quickly picked up by human rights groups, with one report, Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence During the Rwandan Genocide and Its Aftermath written by Binaifer Nowrojee, becoming one of the most highly cited human rights reports in up to thirty years.

Background on gender-targeted crimes


The concept of gender-targeted crimes was formulated to encourage recognition of the fact that such crimes serve as instruments of war, and are not merely a by-product of armed conflict. Gender-targeted crimes include rape, mutilation of reproductive capabilities, and other forms of sexual violence. During WWII rape and mutilation were commonplace as troops invaded enemy territory and typically attacked women first. Gender-targeted crimes have been used as a tool of ethnic cleansing, instances such as rape, forced impregnation and forced abortion are all methods used in pursuit of genocide.

Anthropologists of violence have noted that attacks against unarmed civilians usually target the most human features—the face and the reproductive organs. And for women, both attacks are done against them as humans and as child-bearers. Gender-targeted crimes are within militaristic or nationalist plans in times of conflict. These crimes are strategic measures and effective instruments that save other weapons. Gender-targeted crimes, especially rape, is a war economy, which is the process of producing and allocating weapons to inflict violence in the most efficient way. Rape allows ethnic cleansing to be carried out more effectively and efficiently. With this ideology, women became more than prizes and became the main target.

Use of propaganda


The use of propaganda played an important role in both the genocide, and the gender specific violence. The Hutu propaganda depicted Tutsi women as "a sexually seductive 'fifth column' in league with the Hutus' enemies". The exceptional brutality of the sexual violence, as well as the complicity of Hutu women in the attacks, suggests that the use of propaganda had been effective in the exploitation of gendered needs which had mobilized both female, and males to participate in the genocide. One of the first victims of the genocide was Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who had been the first woman to hold the post of prime minister. For the twelve months preceding the genocide she had been portrayed in extremist political literature and propaganda as being a threat to the nation, and as promiscuous.

The genocide in Rwanda did not occur by chance, neither was it in response to the death of the president, Juvénal Habyarimana. The genocide was the result of years of meticulous planning, as a critical part of the genocide was the participation of the general populace in the killing. One Rwandan theologian has put forth the argument that the genocide itself would not have been possible before the 1990s, and that there had been preparations under way for years, and that participation by the media was a "structured attempt to use media to influence awareness, attitudes, or behavior".

Early in 1990, over a dozen newspapers were launched, written in either in Kinyarwanda or French, and they methodically exploited ethnic tensions. In December 1990, the newspaper, Kangura, printed the Hutu Ten Commandments of which four dealt specifically with women. On 29 January 1992, Kangura made accusations against Tutsi women, claiming that they had a monopoly on employment in both the private and public sectors, and that they would hire their "Tutsi sisters on the basis of their thin noses (considered a stereotypical 'Tutsi feature')". Kangura requested that all Hutu be vigilant against the Tutsi, who Kangura called, Inyenzi (cockroaches) as well as those considered accomplices. In an interview with Human Rights Watch one Hutu woman stated, "According to the propaganda, the Tutsi were hiding the enemy. And their beautiful women were being used to do it. So, everybody knew what that meant".

The use of cartoons in the print media usually represented Tutsi women as being sexually provocative. One printed by Kangura depicted the head of the UN peace keeping forces in an amorous position with two Tutsi woman, the caption read, "General Dallaire and his men have fallen into the trap of fatal women". Another image portrayed Tutsi women having sex with three Belgian paratroopers.

Using both the printed press and the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, (RTLMC) propagandists gave a portrayal of Tutsi women as "devious seductresses who would undermine the Hutu". Members of the military were barred from getting married to Tutsi women, and Tutsi women were portrayed as being arrogant, and that they viewed Hutu men as inferior, and ugly.

Rape as a weapon of genocide


According to Amnesty International, the use of rape during times of war are not a by-product of conflicts, but are a pre-planned and deliberate military strategy. During the conflict Hutu extremists released hundreds of patients from hospitals, who were suffering from AIDS, and formed them into "rape squads". The intent was to infect and cause a "slow, inexorable death". Obijiofor Aginam, argues that while throughout history sexual violence against women is replete with such incidents of rape during times of war, more recent conflicts has seen the use of rape as a weapon of war become a "conspicuous phenomenon". He believes that the deliberate infection of women with HIV is evidenced from survivors testimony, and that this is confirmation that the act of infection is deliberate. In The Right to Survive: Sexual Violence, Women and HIV/AIDS Françoise Nduwimana, documented testimony from survivors of rape, Aginam argues that these testimonies provide proof that there was a clear intent by the rapists to infect women with the HIV virus. Survivors have testified that the transmission of the HIV virus was a deliberate act by talking about how the men, before they raped them, would say that they were not going to kill them directly but rather give them a slow death from AIDS. Two-thirds of a sample of 1,200 Rwandan genocide widows tested positive for HIV, and the infection rates in rural areas more than doubled after the genocide. There is no data on the number of victims who died from AIDS after 1994 who had contracted the disease from having been raped during the genocide.

Although Tutsi women were the main targets, moderate Hutu women were also raped during the genocide. Along with the Hutu moderates, Hutu women who were married to Tutsis and Hutu women who hid Tutsis were targeted. In a testimonial, Maria Louise Niyobuhungiro, recalls seeing local people and Hutu men watched her get raped up to five times a day, and that when she was kept under watch by a woman, she received no sympathy nor help and was also forced to farm between rapes. Through public display, rape breaks cultural and social bonds of a national, cultural, or political group.

Tutsi women were also targeted with the intent of destroying their reproductive capabilities. sexual mutilation sometimes occurred after the rape and included mutilation of the vagina with machetes, knives, sharpened sticks, boiling water, and acid. The genocidaires also held women as sex slaves for weeks and sexually mutilated them with sharp sticks or gun barrels. Major Brent Beardsley, assistant to Dallaire, gave testimony at the ICTR, when asked about the sexual violence he had witnessed he stated, that the killing blows tended to be aimed at the reproductive organs, and that the victims had been deliberately slashed on the breasts and vagina. Beardsley also testified to having seen the bodies of girls as young as six and seven who had been raped so brutally that their vaginas were split and swollen from what had obviously been gang rapes. He concluded by saying "Massacres kill the body. Rape kills the soul. And there was a lot of rape. It seemed that everywhere we went, from the period of 19th of April until the time we left, there was rape everywhere near these killing sites."

Estimates of victims
Rape during wartime has become commonplace. Research into the sexual violence during the genocide in Rwanda has shown that nearly every female survivor over twelve years of age had been a victim of rape.

According to U.N. Special Rapporteur, Rene Degni-Segui, "Rape was the rule, and its absence the exception". In 1996 Degni-Segui estimated that the number of women and girls raped were between 250,000 to 500,000, Degni-Segui's estimate was arrived at after he had evaluated rape cases which had been documented and the amount of war babies which resulted from the genocidal rape. Degni-Segui believes that the 15,700 rape incidents reported by the Rwanda Ministry for Family and Protection of Women, were most likely "under reported" given the number of years many victims would take to report the rapes, if ever they did. He also discovered that the estimates by medical personnel of one birth per 100 rapes did not include women who had been murdered after being raped. Due to this missing data Degni-Segui, arrived at his estimate of between 250,000-500,000 women and girls raped. He has said of the atrocities, "Rape was systematic and was used as a 'weapon' by the perpetrators of the massacres. This can be estimated from the number and nature of the victims as well as from the forms of rape,"

Catrien Bijleveld, Aafke Morssinkhof, and Alette Smeulers estimate 354,440 women raped. They researched the testimonies of women who, during the genocide, said they had been raped, and also the number of those who had been forcibly impregnated, this number was then added with the known amount of those who had been raped, but had been killed. They stated that "Almost all surviving Tutsi women were raped."

Aftermath
Those who survived the genocidal rape found themselves stigmatised, and for many they also discovered they were infected with HIV. This has resulted in these women being denied their rights to property and inheritance as well as their employment chances being restricted. It is estimated by the National Population Office of Rwanda, that between 2000 and 5000 children were born as a result of forced impregnation. Victims groups however believe this is underestimated and the number exceeds 10,000. These children are socially stigmatized and are referred to as "les enfants mauvais souvenir", "enfants désirés" and "little killers". The victims also suffer from survivor's guilt as well as extreme anxiety due to their assailants not being held accountable. In 1995 widows of the genocide founded Association des Veuves du Genocide (AVEGA, Widows of the Genocide of April) to see to the needs of female survivors who had been widowed or raped.

War crimes trials


From the evidence presented to the ICTR it was revealed that Hutu political leaders had ordered that the mass rapes be carried out.

Jean-Paul Akayesu is the first person to have been convicted for using rape as genocide. Initially gender based violence had not been included in the indictment against Akayesu, however after pressure was brought to bear by NGO's an amendment was made to the indictment. During the trial of Akayesu, the ICTR affirmed that sexual violence, including rape fell under paragraph B of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As the rapes had been carried out with the sole intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a specific group. The ICTR also made the finding that the sexual violence against the Tutsi women was a systematic part of the genocide, which was carried out against all Tutsi women. To this extent the finding against Akayesu, that rape can be an act of genocide. is a major step forward in international jurisprudence on prosecutions on charges of genocide. On 2 September 1998, Akayesu was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity which included, rape.

The first woman charged for genocidal rape was Pauline Nyiramasuhuko. In summation, the ICTR found "beyond a reasonable doubt that: between 19 April and late June 1994 Nyiramasuhuko, Ntahobali, Interahamwe and soldiers went to the BPO to abduct hundreds of Tutsis; the Tutsi refugees were physically assaulted and raped; and the Tutsi refugees were killed in various locations throughout Ngoma commune."

During the Media trial, so called as those being tried, Hassan Ngeze had been editor-in-chief of Kangura, and Ferdinand Nahimana and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza who were the founders of RTLMC were being tried, the ICTR judged that the Hutu Ten Commandments and another article titled The Appeal to the Conscience of the Hutu conveyed "contempt and hatred for the Tutsi ethnic group, and for Tutsi women in particular as enemy agents, and called on readers to take all necessary measures to stop the enemy, defined as the Tutsi population"