1994 Rwanda Genocide Analysis

Genocide is a mass killing of a certain ethnic or religious group that can be caused by either one of these factors: Discrimination, Government instability, Persecution based on: race, religion, ethnic origin, Ideology-one group is superior over another and war. To be a genocide they would have to check out at least one box of “checklist”. Past genocides can be caused by these things but the Rwandan genocide was caused by Ideology, discrimination and persecution of race and religion. One factor during the Rwandan genocide that helped contribute to the starting point of this specific genocide is Ideology. This is shown in the source 6, where it is stated “members of the Hutu ethnic majority in the east-central African nation of Rwanda murdered

Although the book did not mention the genocide much, it is important background information that sets up the scene Ruxin works in. He was working after a genocide that killed roughly 800,000 people (Rwanda). Let’s just take a moment to realize how many people that is. That’s three times the amount of people that live in Cherokee County (Cherokee). The American Civil War had roughly 620,000 deaths (Who). 800,000 men, women, children who had lives, dreams, hopes, friends, and family just like us: gone. I cannot imagine. The people killed were not the unknown enemy where the killers never saw their face. These were neighbors, friends, family, co-workers. Rwanda was in a time of healing when Ruxin entered the scene. People were mourning deaths,

Pre-1959 Rwanda was run by the Tutsis. This ended when there was an overthrow in Rwanda by the Hutus. Being 85% of the population the Hutus felt they were to take positions of

Twenty-three years ago, in a small, central African country identified as Rwanda, approximately 1,000,000 individuals belonging to the Tutsi tribe were massacred by a rival tribe, known as the Hutus. The hatred that resulted in the Hutus slaughtering the Tutsis originated from a rivalry that was created centuries before the infamous massacre. Living in an agricultural community, the Hutus were traditionally peasant cultivators, while the Tutsis were cattle lopers. Through their work, the Tutsis gained wealth and, consequently, political power. The divide between the Hutus and the Tutsis was only made more dangerous as Europeans traveled to Rwanda, favoring the Tutsis. As the inferior race, the Hutus were denied government positions, higher education, and were forced into slave labor. In retaliation, the Hutus gained political power through a democratic vote put on by Belgian missionaries from the Tutsis through the 8:1 majority ratio. The Tutsi power was completely reversed into total Hutu power, as “the oppressed became the oppressor.”

The 100 days of slaughter might have been one of the most tragic genocide in the shortest period of time. Many people believe that this awful catastrophe could have been less of a disaster if the United States of America would have got in the middle of it. Even if the United Sates would have tried to get involved in the Rwanda genocide and maybe been able to prevent all those people from dying and stop the genocide before it became a huge issue. The United States already lost many troops in Somalia and couldn't afford to lose and more and even if they did get involved, many people would have still been put to death. Therefore, I think it was a good decision for the United States to not get involved.

In a certain way comparing to the Nazi genocide of World War II, the well-organized and well trained leaders were able to create a mass appeal of fear and hatred that had the result of controlling the common people. It also controlled members of the educated elite like doctors, priests, teachers, human rights activists to commit horrible deeds against friends, colleagues, and neighbors, as well as strangers. Towards the end of the genocide, Tutsis fled to places that were thought to be safe like hospitals, churches, and schools—but such shelter only made it easier for the Hutus to find and kill them. In fact, ordinary Hutu citizens represented the strongest Hutu killing force in the country. Pressured by the Interahamwe and RTLM, and supported by the country’s history of unpunished violence against Tutsis,

War never changes, it will always be around for as long as we are here, with it, it brings genocide. Every day we are in a constant battle with each other, whether it be at home or across the oceans. We have invented weapons solely to cause mass destruction across entire continents. This has led to limitations being placed on warfare, but sometimes it's not enough. "We have to protect our Earth, so our children and grandchildren will never suffer like that"

Less than a year separated the end of the Battle of Mogadishu and the start of the Rwandan Genocide. The United States didn’t want to have a similar situation where American lives were lost, that weren’t a part of a war. The United States turned away from the situation going on in Rwanda so they wouldn’t have to take part in the Peace Keeping Operation. By not acknowledging the Genocide that was happening the United States wasn’t obligated to assist the country. The United States was taking part in a type of Non-Interventionism foreign policy when working on the Rwandan Genocide

The genocide started with the assassination of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, when the their plane was shot down on April 6, 1994. The current President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, was suspected to have influenced this assassination because he was the leader of a rebel Tutsi group and Habyarimana was a Hutu. Due to his death the Hutu rebel groups, such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), arose because they had felt threatened by their past violent history. The Hutu and the Tutsi lived within the precolonial Kingdom of Burundi in 1972 which was ruled by the Tutsi. The government became increasingly dangerous for the Hutu people, “In 1929, the Belgians decided to merge

One reason this is considered to be one of the worst genocides cause of the countless deaths that happened the estimated deaths that occured during the genocide is 800,000.the hutus show no care to the tutsi while they slaughtered them.

The US didn’t really help contribute to the genocide happening in Rwanda in 1994, they tried their best to keep a good distance from Rwanda as well. The US knew that the genocide was happening and we were well aware of the genocide. Bill Clinton found out about the genocide and didn’t show any sympathy or want to help Rwanda. He only worried about the media saying that US is doing nothing to help Rwanda, this media spread. The US claimed that they did not know the genocide was going on and failed to respond to the genocide in any way possible, things began to change but not significantly. Rwanda was not getting the attention they should have been getting when it was a major problem where over five people were killed each minute of the day.

War is a necessary part of human nature. War has always been a part of countries and nations history. Militarism in countries , people who are nationalist extremist showing their aggression towards other countries. War is a necessary part of humanity because people naturally view others as ‘Us and them’, people being patriotic,nationalist or extremist causing tension between nations of the world.

In 1994, Rwanda was in its darkest days. 800,000 people died in a matter of 100 days. But it was all because of a simple separation between the Rwandans, the Hutu and the Tutsi. To understand the topic we must first look at the topic from the beginning. Who were the Hutu and the Tutsi?

With over eight hundred thousand to one million deaths, the Rwandan genocide is undoubtedly one of the most sad and shocking examples of the lack of intervention by not only the US and the UN, but by other countries as well. The ongoing tensions between the Hutu, the largest population in Rwanda, and the Tutsi, the smaller and more elite population is what eventually lead to the Rwandan genocide. The killings began quickly after President Habyarimana 's plane was shot down. After hundreds of thousands of deaths, the US did not intervene in Rwanda because being a landlocked country with no natural resources to benefit the US, there was no economical benefit, and the risk of sending in troops simply outweighed the rewards. The aftermath of the genocide has not only impacted those who lived through it, but it has also impacted future generations as well. At the end of the genocide, the ICTR was formed by the UN to find justice. The Rwandan genocide has shocking similarities between the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide as well. Overall, the Rwandan genocide was a terrible event that escalated far beyond what it should have if there had been intervention from other countries and the UN.

If we were to look at the Rwandan Genocide through the lens of the determinism and free will debate, the former would argue that the genocide was a direct causality of prevailing and historical circumstances; colonial rule, historical ethnic tensions, regional political situation etc. That is under those circumstances, there could have been no other outcome. The later on the other hand, would argue that the genocide was not the only outcome that could be achieved and was a result of the choice of the exercising of free will. In this case, I would assign morale responsibility to any individual excluding children that took part in either the planning or execution of the mass killings as well as those that participated in creating the context