More than half a million people killed in 100 days: How the 1994 Rwanda genocide unfolded

The violence was chaotic and widespread. The vast majority of those killed were Tutsis – about two-thirds of the Tutsi population were murdered – and most of the perpetrators were from the majority caste, the Hutu.

Rwandan society had historically been divided into three ethnic groups. The largest group were the Hutu, most of whom were farmers. A smaller group, about 15% of the population, were the Tutsi, mostly cattle herders, administrators and soldiers. The smallest group, the Twa, make up less than 1% of the population.

While Tutsis generally occupied a higher social strata, the groups shared language, religion and culture. Intermarriage was common, as was social mobility between castes: a Hutu who acquired a large number of cattle or significant wealth might be assimilated into the Tutsis, while impoverished Tutsis would be regarded as Hutus.

Belgian colonialists formalised these divisions, imposing identity cards on the population that classified people by physical characteristics and genealogy, entrenching the elite status of Tutsis.

Resentment of Tutsi preferment built up among the Hutu majority over decades, exacerbated by Tutsi exploitation of the Hutu majority. This culminated in the Hutu revolution in 1959, which killed nearly 20,000 Tutsis and drove tens of thousands into exile in neighbouring countries.

Belgium relinquished power in 1962, replaced by a Hutu majority government. Over subsequent years Tutsis were scapegoated for crises in the country.

By the early 1990s the government of President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was losing popularity, particularly as the economy foundered. An exile Tutsi rebel movement – the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) – led by General Paul Kagame (now the country’s president) led a series of attacks on government forces, striking from bases in Uganda. A peace accord signed in August 1993 did little to ease tensions.

The Genocide Against the Tutsi (as it is formally known) was sparked by the assassination of Habyarimana, whose plane was shot down over the capital, Kigali, on the evening of 6 April 1994. Fierce conjecture remains as to who was responsible.

The plane’s downing sparked chaos. Within hours a campaign of brutal communal violence erupted.

The slaughter of Tutsis began in Kigali and fanned out across the country. The presidential guard began a campaign of retribution, slaughtering political opponents and prominent Tutsis. In the months leading up to the genocide, many Tutsis were told they had been put on lists and warned they would be killed when the “work” of exterminating Tutsis began.

The ideology of “Hutu power” argued that Tutsis must be eliminated from Rwanda. Fuelled by government-supported propaganda – mainly radio broadcasts that condemned Tutsis as “snakes” and “cockroaches” – militia known as Interahamwe (meaning “those who stand together”) sought out and killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus who offered them sanctuary.

Most people were hacked to death with machetes, clubs or spiked timber. In some places Tutsis were offered the option of “buying” a bullet for a less painful death. Rwanda is a devoutly Christian country and thousands of Tutsis sought refuge in churches. In many places they were then locked inside and the Interahamwe were called in to kill them.

Militia and soldiers encouraged citizens to take part in the genocide. Some Hutu civilians were forced by the military to murder their Tutsi neighbours. Others were incentivised: told they could take the money, food, land or livestock of those they killed.

The international community largely abandoned Rwanda during the crisis. The United Nations voted to reduce its troop numbers from 2,165 to just 270 after 10 Belgian peacekeepers were murdered.

The genocidal killing was frenzied. More than 500,000 people were killed.

After Habyarimana’s death, and amid the chaos of communal violence, Kagame’s RPF increased its attacks on government forces. Efforts by the UN to negotiate a ceasefire were ineffectual.

By July the RPF controlled most of the country. It captured Kigali on 4 July. Hutu leaders, and hundreds of suspected genocidaires, fled the country. A transitional government of national unity was established on 19 July, with Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, appointed president and Kagame, a Tutsi, vice-president.

But the violence did not end. The RPF (in particular its armed wing, the Rwandan Patriotic Army) committed atrocities in retribution. In April 1995, at a Hutu displaced persons camp in Kibeho, the RPA is alleged to have massacred more than 4,000 Hutu men, women and children in a single day. And while the Rwandan government has pursued justice against genocidaires over the three decades since, it has made little effort to pursue offenders for retributive crimes.

The country faced years of economic recovery and reconciliation. Promoting social cohesion and a sense of national unity were government priorities, as was prosecuting those responsible for the genocide.

There were tens of thousands of suspected perpetrators, overflowing jails and an overwhelmed justice system. Three criminal justice systems tried alleged genocidaires. Political leaders and the most senior officials were tried by the UN’s international criminal tribunal for Rwanda, while other key organisers and offenders faced the country’s national court system.

But the vast majority of offenders were tried by local gacaca (pronounced “ga-cha-cha”) courts. These were a form of community participatory justice, where communities elected judges to hear trials of genocide suspects in the villages and neighbourhoods.

The gacaca courts – more than 12,000 of which tried more than 1m cases – were designed to involve local communities in the justice process and promote national unity. They emphasised reconciliation and gave lower sentences for offenders who admitted to crimes, cooperated with the court and were repentant.

But gacaca courts have been criticised by some domestic and international observers as “show trials” that cemented a particular narrative of the genocide, and for a lack of procedural fairness (the lack of legal representation and limited rights of appeal).

Some suspects who had fled were tried in the countries in which they were found or were extradited back to Rwanda.

While the genocide is not often spoken about openly outside formal remembrance services (and much of Rwanda’s young population was not yet born when it occurred), its legacy remains. Memorials, large and small, dot the country, pledging “never again”. Kagame’s regime has been accused of politicising the genocide, using memorials and annual remembrance ceremonies to reinforce his authority. Allegations of genocide are weaponised against political opponents and dissidents.

The RPF rules Rwanda as a de facto one-party state: its control of the country is authoritarian and repressive. Kagame won 98.79% of the vote in the last presidential election. According to Human Rights Watch his government manipulates elections by arresting or assassinating critics and obstructing opposition parties, and polls are marred by allegations of voter intimidation and electoral fraud. External political dissent is silenced through a vast network of spies and acts of violence.

A Human Rights Watch report from last year said Rwanda had established a “global ecosystem of repression” that muzzles voices of dissent and scares off potential critics.“The combination of physical violence, including killings and enforced disappearances, surveillance, misuse of law enforcement – both domestic and international – abuses against relatives in Rwanda, and the reputational damage done through online harassment constitute clear efforts to isolate potential critics,” the report notes.

But Rwanda has emerged from the devastation of the genocide to become one of the most stable and safe countries in Africa. Its economic recovery has been dubbed the “miracle” of Africa, with sustained growth and investment in agriculture, energy and infrastructure lifting more than a million people from poverty.

• The full Four Corners documentary The Wanted is available to watch on Monday night from 8.30pm on ABCiview and ABC TV