An estimated 800.000 Rwandansmostly ethnic Tutsis and moderates among the ethnic Hutus were brutally murdered in a statebacked extermination campaign that lasted for months. HutuTutsi tensions date back to colonial times. when the Belgians created a superior class composed of Tutsis. shutting out Hutus from government jobs and higher education despite Hutus comprising about 85% of the population. In 1959 and 1960. tensions among the Hutus exploded in a campaign that left 20.000 Tutsis dead and created 300.000 Tutsi refugees. As with this earlier genocide. the international community watched largely from the sidelines during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as the death toll rose from April until July of that year until the Rwandan Patriotic Front or RPF defeated the Hutuled government military. More than two million mostlyHutu refugees flooded into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. leading to continuing problems in that country. The RPFled Rwandan government has criticized the United Nations for sheltering Hutu participants in the genocide and for allowing them to arm in refugee camps. Over the years. the RPF has used the guilt of the international community as a shield to prevent criticism of its action. U.N.
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