Rape during the Rwandan genocide

During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, over the course of 100 days, up to half a million women and children were raped, sexually mutilated, or murdered.

The sexual violence was directed at the national and local levels by political and military leaders in the furtherance of their goal, the destruction of the Tutsi ethnic group.

During the conflict Hutu extremists released hundreds of patients from hospitals, who were suffering from AIDS, and formed them into "rape squads".

[5] Survivors have testified that the transmission of the HIV virus was a deliberate act by talking about how the men, before they raped them, would say that they were not going to kill them directly but rather give them a slow death from AIDS.

When asked about the sexual violence he had witnessed, he stated that the killing blows tended to be aimed at the reproductive organs, and that the victims had been deliberately slashed on the breasts and vagina.

Degni-Segui's estimate was arrived at after he evaluated rape cases which had been documented and the number of resulting war babies.

The brutality of the sexual violence, and complicity of Hutu women in the attacks, suggested that the propaganda was effective at mobilizing both females and males to participate in the genocide.

For the twelve months preceding the genocide, she had been portrayed in extremist political literature and propaganda as being a threat to the nation, and as sexually promiscuous.

In an interview with Human Rights Watch one Hutu woman stated, "According to the propaganda, the Tutsi were hiding the enemy.

One printed by Kangura depicted the head of the UN peace-keeping forces in an amorous position with two Tutsi women; the caption read, "General Dallaire and his men have fallen into the trap of Femme fatales".

[20] Using both printed press and the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLMC), propagandists portrayed Tutsi women as "devious seductresses who would undermine the Hutu".

[25] The extent of the rapes was quickly recognized by human rights groups, with one report, Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence During the Rwandan Genocide and Its Aftermath written by Binaifer Nowrojee, becoming one of the most highly cited human rights reports in up to thirty years.

[26] Evidence presented to the ICTR revealed Hutu political leaders ordered the mass rapes be carried out.

[33] On 2 September 1998, Akayesu was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, including rape.

[34] The first woman charged for genocidal rape was Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, a politician, who was the Minister for Family Welfare and the Advancement of Women during the conflict.