‘Colonialism had effect on Rwanda’

İpek Yezdani – ipek.yezdani@hurriyet.com.tr

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

European colonial history was a major contributor to what eventually became genocide in Rwanda, according to the chief prosecutor of the International Rwanda Criminal Court.

“The Rwandan genocide that took place in 1994 clearly it has its roots in the colonial history,” Hassan Bubacar Jallow, who was in Istanbul to give a conference at Istanbul Bilgi University yesterday, said in an interview following the event.

“During the European colonization of the country, which [turned] this difference between Tutsis and Hutus into so-called positions of superiority and inferiority in the country, eventually led to the genocide,” Jallow said, adding both Belgium and France were “colonial powers of one type or another” in Rwanda.

When the genocide started in 1994, the world had the opportunity and the means to stop the killings but did not, Jallow said.

“Over a hundred days, thousands of people were killed every day until 1 million people were killed. It took the intervention of then-Rwandan rebels to bring the genocide to an end. The inability or reluctance of the world in intervening when the genocide was on was very unfortunate,” Jallow said.

Jallow said they were hoping to finish their work at the level of the International Criminal Court established by the United Nations by the end of 2014.

“By that time we won’t be prosecuting everybody because it is impossible to do that. Our focus has been prosecuting the leaders who were involved in the planning and the implementation of the genocide. By the end of 2014, we hope that we will be finishing the prosecution of the top 100 people,” Jallow said.

via ‘Colonialism had effect on Rwanda’ – Hurriyet Daily News.