Things I Didn't Know About the Rwandan Genocide

*This has been going on a long time. There was a genocide of Tutsis in 1959, just before independence. Then in 1973 there was a coup, also followed by violence. Then there were small bouts of ethnic killings all through the early 1990s --- at least SEVEN different episodes.

*In 1994, there was a major contingent of Tutsis who fought back. This seems obvious once you hear it, but we are so accustomed to thinking of the Tutsis as powerless victims. Basesero was the region, it was mountainous, they hid and fought guerilla style with bows and arrows and rocks. When the French forces arrived they came out of the mountains, but the French didn't protect them and many were slaughtered by Hutus.

*Rwanda was the most rapid mass death since since Nagasaki.

*300,000 orphans created.

*A priest drove a bulldozer into his own church to collapse it and kill 2,000 Tutsis hiding there.

*The manager of the Hotel Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda) was not the only hero. Many, many Hutus protected Tutsis at great risk to themselves. One farmer laid them in a ditch, covered them with planks, then put dirt on the planks and planted sweet potatoes on it. Each Tutsi had a food/air hole, to which his daughter would deliver food disguised in a trash can.