THE PRELUDE
Alleged preparation for genocide
Many historians argue that the genocide was planned in advance of Habyarimana's assassination, although they do not agree on the precise date on which the idea of a "final solution" to kill every Tutsi in Rwanda was first rooted
In 1990, the army began arming civilians with weapons and it began training the Hutu youth in combat, officially as a programme of "civil defence" against the RPF threat, but these weapons were later used to carry out the genocide.The new recruits were often poorly disciplined;
In March 1993, Hutu Power began compiling lists of "traitors" whom they planned to kill, and it is possible that Habyarimana's name was on these lists; the CDR were publicly accusing the president of treason; they founded a new radio station RTLMC, which broadcast incitement to genocide, racist propaganda, obscene jokes and music, becoming very popular throughout the country During 1993, the hardliners imported machetes on a scale far larger than what was required for agriculture, as well as other tools which could be used as weapons, such as razor blades, saws and scissors.
In October 1993, the President of Burundi, Melchior Ndadaye, who had been elected in June as the country's first ever Hutu president, was assassinated by extremist Tutsi army officers. The assassination sparked a Civil War and large mass-killing between Burundi's Hutu and Tutsi with 50,000 to 100,000 people killed in the first year of war. The CDR and the Power wings of the other parties realised they could use this situation to their advantage. The idea of a "final solution", which had first been suggested in 1992 but had remained a fringe viewpoint, was now top of their agenda, and they began actively planning it
The ICTR prosecution was unable to prove that a conspiracy to commit genocide existed prior to 7 April 1994.
Assassination of Habyarimana
On 6 April 1994, the aeroplane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, was shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali, killing everyone on board. Responsibility for the attack was disputed, with both the RPF and Hutu extremists being blamed. In 2006 the French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière concluded that Paul Kagame had ordered the assassination Despite disagreements about the perpetrators, many observers believe the attack and deaths of the two Hutu presidents served as the catalyst for the genocide.
Following Habyarimana's death, on the evening of 6 April, a crisis committee was formed; it consisted of Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, and a number of other senior army staff officers. The committee was headed by Bagosora Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana was legally next in the line of political succession, but the committee refused to recognise her authority.
Killing of moderate leaders
UNAMIR sent an escort of ten Belgian soldiers to Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana, with the intention of transporting her to the Radio Rwanda offices to address the nation. This plan was canceled because the Presidential Guard took over the radio station shortly afterward and would not permit Uwilingiyimana to speak on air. Later in the morning, a number of soldiers and a crowd of civilians overwhelmed the Belgians guarding Uwilingiyimana, forcing them to surrender their weapons. Uwilingiyimana and her husband were killed The ten Belgians were taken to the Camp Kigali military base, where they were tortured and killed.
In addition to assassinating Uwilingiyimana, the extremists spent the night of 6–7 April moving around the houses of Kigali with lists of prominent moderate politicians and journalists, on a mission to kill them. A few moderates survived, including prime minister-designate Faustin Twagiramungu, but the plot was largely successful. According to Dallaire, "by noon on 7 April, the moderate political leadership of Rwanda was dead or in hiding, the potential for a future moderate government utterly lost.
