January 11th, 2012
12:04 PM ET

Report: Rebels cleared in plane crash that sparked Rwandan genocide

The missile that brought down the plane carrying the president of Rwanda more than 17 years ago was fired from a camp controlled by his own ethnic group and not by Tutsi rebels, attorneys for the rebels said Wednesday.

The April 1994 crash of the plane near the capital, Kigali, and the death of then-President Juvenal Habyarimana, a member of the Hutu majority, was followed hours later by the start of mass killings. By the time they ended 100 days later, 800,000 people had died.

Most of the dead were members of the country's Tutsi minority, who were killed by Hutus.

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Filed under: France • Rwanda
soundoff (6 Responses)
  1. banasy©

    Dear Lord.
    Just...dear Lord.

    January 11, 2012 at 12:18 pm | Report abuse |
  2. bobcat (in a hat)©

    So the missile that brought his plane was fired by his own people. They blame the Tutsi tribe and try to kill them off. Talk about a Oops moment.

    January 11, 2012 at 5:20 pm | Report abuse |
    • nwi

      There are precious few facts in this report, but it has been debated for years whether the President was killed by the Hutus because he was moderate and it cleared the way for the genocide against the Tutsis, or whether the Tutsis did it. He was coming back from reaching a peace compromise. Whoever did it, did it on purpose.

      January 11, 2012 at 8:36 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Marc

    Quick to a judgment based upon already held biases and bigotry-related opportunism. Just like the Tea Party. The danger of the ignorant mob.

    January 11, 2012 at 5:25 pm | Report abuse |
    • Amadeus

      Wake up, try hard and think...

      January 13, 2012 at 6:59 am | Report abuse |
  4. s kel

    And two million people were killed for that???

    January 11, 2012 at 5:54 pm | Report abuse |
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