Akazu

The Akazu (Kinyarwanda: [ɑ.kɑ.zu], little house) was an informal organization of Hutu extremists whose members contributed strongly to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A circle of relatives and close friends of Rwanda's then-president Juvénal Habyarimana and his influential wife Agathe Habyarimana,[1] they were also called the "Zero Network", for their goal of a Rwanda with zero Tutsi.[2][3]

Background

The Akazu were relatives of Habyarimana's and others he knew from his Northern Rwanda district; they held important appointed positions of authority in the Hutu regime. The Akazu did not wish to share government with the Tutsis (particularly the expatriate rebels resident in Uganda) or moderate Hutu. They contributed to the development of Hutu Power ideology and fanned resentment against the Tutsi during the 1990s. Some scholars believe their genocidal ideology and massacres were an effort to hold on to the political power they had gathered since Habyarimana came to power in a military coup against the elected government.[4]

Known members

Protais Zigiranyirazo[1]
Seraphin Rwabukumba[1]
Colonel Elie Sagatwa[1]

External links

www.preventgenocide.org/edu/pastgenocides/rwanda/resources

References

Des Forges, Alison (March 1999). Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda – History → The Army, the Church and the Akazu. New York: Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1-56432-171-1.
Propaganda of the Rwanda genocide: Glossary, archived from the original on 7 January 2015
15 Years after the Rwandan Genocide: Hutu Power and its Friends, Jungle World/
De Figueiredo & Weingast. (1999). "The rationality of fear: Political opportunism and ethnic conflict", in (eds.) Walter & Snyder, Civil Wars, Insecurity and Intervention, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 261.

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[HRW-1] Des Forges, Alison (March 1999). Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda – History → The Army, the Church and the Akazu. New York: Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1-56432-171-1.

[2] Propaganda of the Rwanda genocide: Glossary, archived from the original on 7 January 2015

[3] 15 Years after the Rwandan Genocide: Hutu Power and its Friends, Jungle World/

[4] De Figueiredo & Weingast. (1999). "The rationality of fear: Political opportunism and ethnic conflict", in (eds.) Walter & Snyder, Civil Wars, Insecurity and Intervention, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 261.