On December 9, 2023, the world commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention. It was a fitting moment for global reflection on the six million lives lost during the Jewish Holocaust, and also to memorialize 30 years of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, which started in April 1994. Considering that April is called "Mata" meaning "milk" in Kinyarwanda, we are reminded of the month turned bloody.

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It makes me reminisce several faces and voices of genocidaires in Rwanda—recalling their emotionless, callous demeanour, which allowed them to orchestrate some of the most heinous crimes in history without a second thought, leaving behind a trail of devastation and despair.

For the Jewish Holocaust and the Genocide against the Tutsi, there exist figures whose names evoke dread, whose actions echo with the chilling precision of a mass murder machine. Among them stand Theoneste Bagosora of Rwanda and Reinhard Heydrich of Hitler's Germany—men with iron hearts, devoid of empathy or compunction.

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Bagosora, a central figure in the Genocide against the Tutsi, and Heydrich, the architect of the Holocaust, share a common trait: a detachment from the suffering they inflicted. To them, the lives they extinguished held no more significance than figures on a ledger, to be erased without a second thought.

Bagosora: The Architect of Genocide in Rwanda

I knew Bagosora in person. Due to the July 1992 to August 1993 peace negotiations between the then government of Rwanda and the RPF, for many months we lived in the same hotel in Arusha, Tanzania. I was there when Bagosora announced that he was returning to Rwanda to unleash an apocalypse. Bagosora's behaviour epitomized cold detachment. He possessed a steely resolve and a chilling ability to compartmentalise his actions from their consequences. He exhibited a remarkable hatred towards the Tutsi population, whom he viewed as enemies of the state.

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Despite his position, during the genocide, he would get time go to roadblocks where the genocidaires decided whom to kill and spare. Witness testimonies describe him as apathetic to the screams of the dying and more concerned with the logistics of the slaughter than its moral implications. He saw the victims as a threat to his vision of Rwanda and believed their annihilation was necessary for the stability and security of the state.

He once spoke to The Guardian’s reporter Chris McGreal denying his role but justifying the crime of genocide: "People say Bagosora did this or that, that I have the blood of the Tutsi on my hands. But where are all these people who were killed? If they died, it is because they are rebels or because the people were angry with them. They didn't need Bagosora to tell them who to kill,"..."But it's true that the Tutsi are trouble. Now they have taken over the country, a Hutu country. We will fight them again until all the Tutsi are gone."

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He maintained clinical hatred against his victims whom he blamed were the cause of their death. Which is typical to all top-level genocidaires. Asking where more than a million Tutsi were, was the same dispassion one might employ in balancing a budget. In Bagosora’s mind, their deaths were merely obstacles to be removed in the pursuit of power and control.

Heydrich: The Architect of the Final Solution

Reading about Heydrich and his actions during the Holocaust is cause for nightmares. Known as the "Butcher of Prague," he approached the extermination of millions of Jews with clinical efficiency. He saw the Jews as impediments to his vision of a racially pure society. His meticulously planned operations, from the implementation of the Final Solution to the coordination of the Einsatzgruppen, reflected a mind unclouded by compassion or moral qualms.

Nicknamed the "Hangman" and the "Butcher of Prague," Heydrich wielded power with a frightening disinterest from the suffering he inflicted. He was the epitome of the Nazi ideal—loyal, efficient, and utterly devoid of compassion.

Heydrich's role in the Holocaust was by a fanatical adherence to Nazi ideology and an unwavering commitment to his duty. He viewed the Jews as a biological threat to the purity of the Aryan race and saw their extermination as a necessary step towards the realization of Hitler's vision of a racially pure society.

His meticulous planning and ruthless execution of the Final Solution demonstrated a complete disregard for human life, as he oversaw the construction of death camps and the implementation of mass shootings and gas chambers with distressing effectiveness.

Common denominators

Bagosora and Heydrich could order the deaths of innocents with the same detachment one might reserve for ordering a meal. To them, empathy was a weakness, a hindrance to be discarded in the pursuit of their objectives. In their eyes, the suffering of others was inconsequential, mere events in the grand scheme of things. They viewed themselves not as perpetrators of the most odious crime, but as agents of order, imposing their will upon a chaotic world with pitiless competence.

It is this cold, unfeeling nature that makes them so terrifying. Unlike the ranting manipulators or frothing fanatics, Bagosora and Heydrich operated with the chilling calm of a predator stalking its prey. They did not revel in the suffering they caused; rather, they regarded it with the detached indifference of a scientist observing an experiment.

Bagosora and Heydrich possessed an unnerving ability to orchestrate mass atrocities with clinical precision, devoid of any emotional turmoil or moral conflict. They viewed their victims—whether the Tutsi in Rwanda or the Jews in Germany—as little more than obstacles to be removed, their deaths mere statistics in the pursuit of their goals.

Due to their hatred or ideological fervors, they approached their crimes with the detached rationality of a surgeon wielding a scalpel. They viewed human life as expendable in the pursuit of their goals, and any moral qualms were silenced by their unwavering commitment to their cause. They showed little remorse or reflection on the enormity of their crimes. To them, the bloodied uniforms and logistical challenges of genocide or mass murder were of greater concern than the lives they extinguished.

Lessons

As we commemorate the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, we have to remember that to confront such men is to confront the darkest recesses of the human psyche, where morality holds no sway and empathy is but a distant memory. It is a reminder that evil need not always wear a snarling face or brandish a bloodied weapon; sometimes, it wears the mask of indifference, concealing a heart of iron underneath its placid surface.

In remembering them lies a lesson—a warning of the dangers of apathy, of turning a blind eye to the suffering of others. For it is not only the Bagosoras and Heydrichs of the world who pose a threat, but also those who, through their silence or inaction, enable such atrocities to occur.

As we reflect on these men with iron hearts, let us remember not only the lives they destroyed but also the lessons they impart.

Let us vow never to succumb to the chilling indifference that fuelled their deeds, but instead stand vigilant against the forces of hatred and denial, wherever they may arise.