Rwanda: how the history leads to genocide

A documentary directed by Robert Genoud.

Synopsis

To under­stand the geno­cide which occured in Rwanda in 1994 it is nec­es­sary to give a chrono­lig­i­cal account of its his­tory which started with the arrival of the first col­o­niz­ers. It was in the name of this his­tory, so many times fal­si­fied by both the West­ern­ers and the Rwan­dans, that some extrem­ists started up their fierce and relent­less exac­tions . Par­al­lel to the politi­cians’ speeches or to the spe­cial­ists’ tes­ti­monies three Rwan­dans will relate their per­son­nal expe­ri­ence. The three of them opposed the dic­ta­tor­ship of Pres­i­dent Hab­ya­ri­mana (1973–1994) ; they all suf­fered from it but none of them has a crime on his mind.