After China's Cultural Revolution: 1- 20 members of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music lost their lives. There was not a single playable piano in Shanghai for violinist Issac Stern's concerts. 2- China's most famous French-Mandarin translator, Fu Lei ended his life. China's "Victor Hugo", Lao She, was either murdered or drowned himself after the Red Guards condemned him. Writer Ba Jin watched his wife die after she was denied medical treatment for cancer. 3- Millions died, and millions more were persecuted and forced to labour - including Ai Qing, Ai Weiwei's father and one of China's most famous poets.
On April 6th, 1994, the plane carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi was shot down suddenly. Both died - and it became the spark of something horrible. Only one day later, the killings began, and Hutu moderates as well as the Tutsi ethnic minority were hunted down by Hutu military forces and a militia known as the Interahamwe. In 3 months and a half, more than a million people would die - representing about 10,000 murders a day. Even to this day, the conflict smolders on - with revenge and consolidation of power a constant theme, as a Rwanda ruled by the Tutsi rebel force that stopped the genocide, grown increasingly authoritarian, invades Congo. The events were described by UN commander, General Roméo Dallaire, in his book "Shake Hands with the Devil" - where he describes shaking hands with three Interahamwe leaders. image