The long reach of the Rwandan Genocide will not leave us. We can watch 'Hotel Rwanda' and read 'We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families' and still we do not fully perceive the connection to the lengthy and unspeakably bloody Congo Wars.

A draft United Nations report, leaked by French paper Le Monde, shows one million Hutus were slaughtered in the aftermath of the Rwanda carnage in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, at the hands of the Tutsi-led Rwandan Army and Congolese fighters. Rwanda calls the report 'offensive',  saying army members were never involved in atrocities, even though Rwanda, under President Paul Kigame, invaded eastern Congo in 1996 (known as Zaire) to overthrow then-President Mobutu and Rwandan troops attacked camps where Hutu fighters were hiding. The conflict escalated into the Congo Wars, sucking in several countries and killing as many as four million people.

 

From the Executive Summary, Section E, Article 31:

The scale of the crimes and the large number of victims, probably several tens of thousands, all nationalities combined, are illustrated by the numerous incidents listed in the report (104 in all). The extensive use of edged weapons (primarily hammers) and the systematic massacres of survivors after the camps had been taken show that the numerous deaths cannot be attributed to the hazards of war or seen as equating to collateral damage ... the majority of the victims were children, women, elderly people and the sick, who were often undernourished and posed no threat to the attacking forces.  Numerous serious attacks on the physical or mental integrity of members of the group were also committed, with a very high number of Hutus shot, raped, burnt or beaten ... Thus the systematic and widespread attacks described in this report reveal a number of damning elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide.