Hutu Power is an ethnic supremacist ideology that asserts the ethnic superiority of Hutu , often in the context of being superior to Tutsi and Twa , and therefore, they are entitled to dominate and murder these two groups and other minorities. Espoused by Hutu extremists, widespread support for the ideology led to the 1994 Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi and the members of their families, the moderate Hutu who opposed the killings, and the Twa, who were considered traitors. Hutu Power political parties and movements included the Akazu , the Parmehutu , the Coalition for the Defence of the Republic and its Impuzamugambi paramilitary militia, and the governing National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development and its Interahamwe paramilitary militia. The belief in the theory that Hutu people are superior is most common in Rwanda and Burundi , where they make up the majority of the population. Due to its sheer destructiveness, the ideology has been compared to Nazism in the Western world .
25-648: In 1990, Hassan Ngeze wrote the Hutu Ten Commandments , a document that served as the basis of the Hutu Power ideology. The Commandments called for the supremacy of Hutus in Rwanda, calling for exclusive Hutu leadership over Rwanda's public institutions and public life, complete segregation of Hutus from Tutsis, and complete exclusion of Tutsis from public institutions and public life. Hutu Power ideology reviled Tutsis as outsiders bent on restoring
50-645: A Tutsi-dominated monarchy , and idealized Hutu culture. The Rwandan kingdom was traditionally ruled by a Tutsi mwami , or a Tutsi king; Historical evidence suggests that Hutu and Twa were included in the government, but the Twa were included in it significantly less so than the Hutu, who were more numerous. The Tutsi/Hutu divide has been referred to as a caste system . A Hutu could gain Tutsi status through marriage or through success. Tutsis, being primarily pastoralists , had
75-576: A "Hamitic race" superior to the " Negroid " populations of Sub-Saharan Africa based on their having more Caucasoid facial features; that is, the idea that the Tutsis were foreign invaders and thus should not be part of the Hutu-majority country) and the rhetoric of the Hutu revolution to promote a doctrine of militant Hutu purity. The "Hutu Ten Commandments" were essential in creating and spreading
100-408: A "pre-invasion" Rwanda: an ethnically pure territory dominated by the Hutu. In 1973, general and defense minister Juvénal Habyarimana , an ethnic Hutu supported by more radical northern Rwandans, overthrew Kayibanda and had him and his wife apparently killed under house arrest. Many of his supporters were from his district in the north, descendants of Hutu kingdoms that had been semi-autonomous before
125-470: A more valuable place in Rwandan society than the agriculturalist Hutu, and the hunter-gatherer and potter Twa. The society created conceptions of social status which were based on the groups' traditional pursuits: the Twa, working most directly with the earth (through pottery), were considered impure; the Hutu, still working with the ground but less so than the Twa, were in turn considered less pure than
150-425: A result, the colonial administration favored the Tutsi at the expense of Hutu and Twa. In addition, they imposed a system of identity cards and ethnic classification in censuses, which reinforced an artificial ethnic division and contributed to tensions between groups. In reality, the Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa possessed little cultural or genetic distinction. Toward the end of Belgian rule, the government began to favor
175-538: The Impuzamugambi militia, and is alleged to have personally supervised and taken part in torture , mass rape , and killings of Tutsis. Ngeze was born in Rubavu commune, Gisenyi prefecture, in Rwanda. He is a Muslim , of Hutu ethnicity. In addition to working as a journalist in 1978, Ngeze allegedly also earned money as a bus driver . By 1990, he was without training or experience in journalism. Ngeze
200-836: The RPF . He was arrested in Mombasa , Kenya on 18 July 1997, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003, by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda . In 2007, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR reversed some of his convictions, but confirmed others. It also changed his life sentence to one of 35 years' imprisonment. The charges of "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide in Gisenyi prefecture; direct and public incitement to commit genocide through
225-631: The Defence of the Republic (CDR), a Rwandan Hutu Power political party that is known for helping to incite the genocide . Ngeze is best known for publishing the " Hutu Ten Commandments " in the December edition of Kangura in 1990, which were essential in creating and spreading the Hutu supremacist ideology that led to the Rwandan genocide . During the genocide, Ngeze served as an organizer for
250-475: The Hutu, who were organizing for more influence. More significantly, the Belgian administration feared the rise of communism and a pan-African socialist regime led by Congo-Léopoldville 's Patrice Lumumba . Then-Belgian High Resident Guy Logiest set up the first democratic elections in Rwanda to avoid more radical politics. As the majority population, the Hutu elected their candidates to most positions in
275-465: The Rwandan government and the RPF , radical Hutus began alleging that Habyarimana was being manipulated by Tutsis and non-radical Hutus. They maligned then-Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana . Following Habyarimana's assassination , an act that at the time people speculated was done by Tutsi extremists, Hutu Power forces mobilized militia, most notably Interahamwe , and mobs to carry out
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#1732764788558300-483: The Tutsi as inyenzi , a Kinyarwanda word meaning ' cockroach ', though the term had also been a self-description by members of the Tutsi Rwanda Patriotic Front . The Commandments declared that any form of relationship between Hutus and Tutsi women was forbidden; and that any Hutu who "marries a Tutsi woman", "befriends a Tutsi woman", or "employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine"
325-572: The Tutsi publication Kanguka , created and edited Kangura , a radical Hutu Power newsletter. He published the " Hutu Ten Commandments ", which included the following: Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines broadcast radio shows suggesting the end to toleration of the Tutsi, repeating the Hutu Ten Commandments, and building support for the Hutu Power ideology. Two main voices of RTLM were announcers Valérie Bemeriki and Georges Ruggiu . The repetition of Hutu Ten Commandments
350-532: The above-ground Tutsi. When Germany, and later Belgium, colonized the kingdom, they interpreted the local division of races or ethnicity through the Hamitic hypothesis . European authors such as John Hanning Speke wrote of the Tutsi as being of Hamitic origin, having originated from modern-day Ethiopia and migrating southwards, and having brought "civilization" to the Negroid races of Sub-Saharan Africa. As
375-454: The anti-Tutsi feeling among Rwandan Hutus that led to the Rwandan genocide. In 1993, Ngeze became a shareholder and correspondent for the newly founded Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), which was largely a radio equivalent of Kangura . He was interviewed approximately eight times on RTLM. During the Rwandan genocide, Ngeze provided RTLM with names of people to be killed in his prefecture, which were broadcast on air. He
400-707: The architects of the Rwandan genocide . In December 1990, Ngeze published the Hutu Ten Commandments (sometimes called the Ten Commandments of the Bahutu ) in Kangura , which made disparaging remarks about Tutsis in general and Tutsi women in particular. With the Hutu Ten Commandments , Ngeze revived, revised, and reconciled the Hamitic myth (Tutsis were considered by the Europeans to be
425-490: The colonial period. The resulting administration proved better for Tutsis, as government-sponsored violence was more sporadic than under Kayibanda. With economic conditions difficult, and threatened by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invasion, Habyarimana turned to inflaming ethnic tensions. Hutu Power acquired a variety of spokesmen. Hassan Ngeze , an entrepreneur recruited by the government to combat
450-506: The mass killings of the Rwandan genocide . The Presidential Guard of the army killed Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana and several other leading moderate government officials. The defeat of the government by the RPF ended the genocide, and the Hutu Power movement was defeated and suppressed. Many Hutu Power spokesmen were arrested after the genocide, charged and put on trial. Ngeze was convicted and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment. In 2005, Mugesera
475-512: The new government. The first elected president Grégoire Kayibanda , an ethnic Hutu, used ethnic tensions to preserve his own power. Hutu radicals, working with his group (and later against it), adopted the Hamitic hypothesis, portraying the Tutsi as outsiders, invaders, and oppressors of Rwanda. Some Hutu radicals called for the Tutsi to be "sent back to Abyssinia ", a reference to their supposed homeland. This early concept of Hutu Power idealized
500-418: The publication of articles in his Kangura newspaper in 1994; aiding and abetting extermination as a crime against humanity in Gisenyi prefecture" were upheld. On 3 December 2008, he was sent to Mali to serve his sentence of imprisonment. Kanguka Kanguka ( Wake Up! ) was a Rwandan newspaper founded in 1988 which was critical of the leadership of Juvénal Habyarimana . The magazine Kangura
525-421: Was a traitor to the Hutu people. It denounced Tutsis as dishonest in business whose "only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group "; and declared that any Hutu who did business with a Tutsi was a traitor to the Hutu people. The Commandments declared that "The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi" and referred to the Tutsis as "common Tutsi enemy". During the attempted negotiations ( Arusha Accords ) between
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#1732764788558550-683: Was an attempt to incite and mobilize the population to commit genocide against the Tutsi, who were portrayed as threatening the social and political order achieved since independence, and as envisioned by the Akazu . Politician Léon Mugesera gave a speech in November, 1992, allegedly stating, "Do not be afraid, know that anyone whose neck you do not cut is the one who will cut your neck...Let them pack their bags, let them get going, so that no one will return here to talk and no one will bring scraps claiming to be flags!" The radio programs frequently referred to
575-467: Was deported from Canada to Rwanda to stand trial for his role in the killings. Hassan Ngeze Hassan Ngeze (born 25 December 1957) is a Rwandan journalist and convicted war criminal best known for spreading anti- Tutsi propaganda and Hutu superiority through his newspaper, Kangura , which he founded in 1990. Ngeze was a founding member and leadership figure in the Coalition for
600-518: Was interviewed by RTLM and Radio Rwanda several times between April and June 1994, and in these broadcasts called for the extermination of the Tutsis and Hutus in opposition to the government. At the same time, Kangura published lists of people to be eliminated by the military and the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias during the genocide. Ngeze fled Rwanda in June 1994 as the country fell to
625-617: Was the Editor-in-Chief of the bimonthly Kangura magazine, which was initially intended as a counterweight to the popular anti-government newspaper Kanguka , and was financed by high-level members in the ruling MRND party of Hutu dictator Juvénal Habyarimana . Ngeze and his magazine had extensive links to the Akazu , the network of officials surrounding the President and his wife ; this group included supporters of Hutu Power and
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