Comment by skrebbel

I vouched and upvoted your comment to counter the many downvotes. Like other respondents, I strongly disagree with your conclusion that "neither side can claim to be the innocent victim", but I think the rest is valid context. The reason many Hutus were so easily swayed was because they were afraid of Tutsis effectively doing the same to them, and there was historical precedent of just that.

This is exactly the same story as why Croatians were trying to de-Serb their villages and vice versa. Fear of what the other would do made them do the same, first (or even worse). See also the comment about "Accusation in a mirror" further up.

People often have the idea that the Rwandan genocide was some people spontaneously rising up and killing their neighbours with farming equipment because someone on the radio told them to. You're right that it was more complicated than that.

Still doesn't mean murder victims aren't victims though. They totally are, and they can't be blamed for actions done by other people vaguely similar to them.