History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo war and genocide in neighboring Rwanda had spilled over into Zaire. Rwandan Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe) who had fled Rwanda following the ascension of a Tutsi-led government had been using Hutu refugee camps in eastern Zaire as bases for incursions into Rwanda. In October 1996 Rwandan forces attacked refugee camps in the Rusizi River plain near the intersection of the Congolese, Rwandan and Burundi borders meet, scattering refugees. They took Uvira, then Bukavu, Goma and Mugunga. Hutu militia forces soon allied with the Zairian armed forces (FAZ) to launch a campaign against Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire. In turn,
Georges Rutaganda Georges Rutaganda Georges Rutaganda (November 27, 1958 – October 11, 2010) was the second vice-president of the Rwandan Hutu militia "Interahamwe". Rutaganda was partly responsible for the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Prosecutor James Stewart stated that "Without Georges Rutaganda, the Rwandan genocide would not have functioned the way it did." He was on radio RTLM (Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines) in Kigali in 1994, encouraging Interahamwe Militia to exterminate all Tutsis. It was alleged that Rutaganda captured, raped, and tortured Tutsi women in the Interahamwe Hideouts in Kigali. Other accounts state that Rutaganda captured Tutsi prostitutes believing them to