It is also interesting that the various calls by Israeli politicians and rabbis, also going back decades, to "go Rwanda with it" don't seem to count against Israel.
This is a bit off topic, but it is interesting with Rwanda that in modern history there are three separate instances of ethnically or politically motivated mass killings we could reference.
The first, in 1959, is the "Social Revolution". The Social Revolution came about largely because Belgium, aware it had only a limited time left to rule in Rwanda, decided to swap their support from the Tutsi monarchy to the Hutu "peasants". (The strict Hutu/Tutsi divide imposed by the Belgians had little to no correlation to how the Tutsi/Hutu divide actually worked in pre-colonial Rwanda.) As a result of the Social Revolution and the clampdown on Tutsis in higher economic, political, or social positions, a few hundred thousands fed to neighboring countries. The Hutu political apparatus became concentrated in the MRND political party and relation between Hutu and Tutsi reached ended up in the state a lot of majority/minority relations end up in - the Hutu elite controlled the good jobs and imposed caps on the number of Tutsis able to enter higher education, while also systematically underfunding any education or social program for Tutsis. Although given the poverty of Rwanda, Hutu/Tutsi intermarriage, and general corruption, systemic underfunding of social services for everyone was the norm.
In the early 90s, we had the infamous Rwandan Genocide. This came about following a collapse of the Rwandan economy and victories by the pro-Tutsi RPF operating out of Uganda. By the late 80s, the ability of the Rwandan economy to acquire foreign currency - and thus fund the comfortable western lifestyle of its elites - was funded basically by limited tea and agricultural exports (a very low margin export in practice) siphoning off the top from foreign aid. With the end of the Cold War, the ability to siphon off foreign aid was looking dicey, and the tea market had collapsed. The MRND was unable to keep the Hutu elite bought off. Thus, the MRND faced a dual crisis: a political/economic crisis where a lot of Hutu "moderates" were coming out against the corruption and parochialism of the Habyarimana government (and make common cause the with pro-Tutsi / inclusive Rwanda RPF); and an ethnic crisis which was largely a paranoid invention of the MRND that the RPF and Tutsi inside Rwanda would win in a war and reestablish the Tutsi Monarchy. The Tutsi coup in Burundi in October 1993 didn't help matters. Thus, the genocide came about because the Hutu Power hardliners in the MRND saw it as a way to neatly resolve their two problems: kill all the "moderates" and Hutu traitors in the political elite, and wipe out the threat of a Tutsi "fifth column".* The sad thing is that if the Rwandan army hadn't devolved as much as it did in late 1993/ early 1994, and maintained better command and control during the genocide, it could have repelled the RPF attack and kept the MRND/ Hutu Power clique in power. There would be a few years of isolation and sanctions against the Rwandan government, but after a few years people would forget about yet another mass killing in Africa and Rwanda would come in from the cold. The reason Rwanda saw a genocide while ever poorer and more ethnically flammable Burundi only saw instability and killings was because of how organized the MRND was, how much control over the entire population, and the fact Hutu and Tutsi lived right next to each other.
After the genocide, we had the mass killings by the RPF against Hutu - FAR, Interahamwe,
genocidaires, poor bastards who got caught up in the mass killings, or the just plain unlucky.** The numbers are unclear, but based on unreleased UN reports and extrapolation of eyewitness testimony, it is believed about 50,000 were killed by the RPF in mid 1994. If you include the fighting from mid 1994 through the start of the First Congo War in late 1996, we have 100,000+ easily. It is interesting to note that even scholars quite hostile to the RPF - include Gerard Prunier and Michela Wrong - both reject the idea the RPF killings formed a "double genocide", but both emphasize the political nature of the killings. On one hand, the RPF had to establish some sort of immediate justice while the glacial UN tribunals slowly rumbled into life to go after the organizers of the genocide (which is understandable). On the other hand, the killings were clearly intended to reduce the Hutu population into a state of passive acceptance and obedience to the RPF rule. Obey and do as you are told, smile for the foreign cameras, talk about restorative communal justice, and remember - we know where you live when the foreigners leave. Don't ever imagine your opinion counts for anything or you have any rights except what we give you as a gift.
Why did I make this post other than for PC+1? To highlight how "go Rwanda with it" can mean any number of things; and how the closest description of what the Israeli government appears to want isn't a 1994 style genocide, but instead the post-genocide "send a message" killings.
*It is worth pointing out the RPF had no intention of playing nice with the Arusha peace treaty or the "Broad Based Transitional Government". The Tutsi population in Rwanda was anywhere between 10-15%, and the RPF could maybe count on in an election another 10-15% of Hutu who supported an inclusive Rwandan or otherwise had a falling out with the MRND / Hutu elite. That isn't enough to win an election against the MRND and its Hutu Power allies. Plus the RPF was largely composed of Ugandan Tutsi who after 30+ years of exile had little in common with the Rwandan Tutsi. The RPF knew that after one or two elections, when the world stopped paying attention to Rwanda, the MRND / Hutu Power majority would bring back all the old laws and things would go back to the way they were.
**The historian Gerard Prunier recounts several instances where Hutu figures who actually protected Tutsis were arrested and almost killed on the charge of being
genocidaires. In one case it was because a Hutu who was involved in the killings wanted to avoid blame. In another case, a Ugandan Tutsi from the RPF wanted the land the Hutu person owned, so bribed a few people to accuse him.
