A Comprehensive Analysis of the Rwandan Genocide to the Holocaust

Genocide is the complete extermination a specific group. It is a significant event in History that has been repeated time and time again, from the Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Holocaust to Joseph Stalin’s Era in the USSR. These chaotic periods of mass killing are usually the result of hatred towards certain races, religions, or ethnic parties. The attackers put unnecessary blame on the other group and take action to punish them brutal instead of finding means to compromise. They fear for their potential lost of power. The victims are quickly torqued and wipe out with a little chance of protecting themselves. In this case the rapid annihilation of the Tutsi for causing the apparent social and political issues in Rwanda, Africa is a perfect example of that. This genocide became known as the “100 days of slaughter.” (BBC) In the end of this period over 800,000 (about three quarter of the entire Tutsi population) were eradicated.

known as the Rwandan Genocide where the murder of the ethnic group, Tutsis, was administered

The blood of thousands of murdered Tutsi people ran through the streets of Rwanda on April 7, 1994. Until mid-July of 1994, Hutu supremacists eradicated thousands of Tutsi. Nearly fifty years prior, Nazis claimed the lives of millions of Jews. Within the years that followed, the Nazi forces slaughtered millions of Jewish citizens across Europe. Both massacred by people they once considered friends and coworkers, Tutsi and Jews faced great injustice, but those are not the only similarities between the two genocides. It is evident that during both the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide, the rest of society turned a blind eye to the horrors that both Tutsi and Jews were facing, only kept their best interest in mind, and that both groups faced

Over the course of hundreds of years, Genocides have been a major problem in the world. A genocide is a mass killing of people by a group or nation. One of the worst genocides that had happened was the Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda is a country located in East Africa, between Uganda and Tanzania. There was a dispute in the government between the Hutus and the Tutsis for many years. In 1994, the genocide had begun and millions of people were slaughtered. During the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu government killed the Tutsis until Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and United Nations (UN) stopped the Hutus; the survivors are still haunted by the horrifying memories.

Beginning on April 7, 1994, the Rwandan Genocide was a period of mass slaughter that followed the closure of the Rwandan Civil War between two major ethnic groups , the Hutus and Tutsis. After the assassination of Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, the uneasy ceasefire between the Hutu controlled government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (who were Tutsi backed rebels) was broken, sparking a systematic effort by police and militia to execute both Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Over the span of several months, Hutu civilians were not only encouraged, but pressured to maim and kill Tutsis - eventually leading to the decimation of 70% of the Tutsi population and 20% of the Hutu population. While the genocide continued, the UN and countries such

On April 6, 1994, Hutus began a mass slaughtering of the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. This mass slaughtering was labeled as genocide: the deliberate obliteration of an ethnic, racial, religious, or political group. The Rwandan genocide lasted 100 days while other countries stood idly by and watched the brutal killings continue. Accusations from editorials and radio broadcasts claimed the Tutsis wanted to establish a monarchy with Hutu slaves. After years of ethnic tension, the Hutu were again angered and began distributing racial propaganda, dehumanizing the Tutsis by including depictions of them as cockroaches. Many years prior to the Rwandan genocide, a similar deliberate extinction occurred. Between 1933 and 1945, members of the Nazi party killed over six million Jews in what is known as the Holocaust. The genocide started with the Treaty of Versailles, which caused Germany to pay monetary compensations to the other nations as war

Genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, ethnic, political, or cultural group”. In Rwanda for example, the Hutu-led government embraced a new program that called for the country’s Hutu people to murder anyone that was a Tutsi (Gourevitch, 6). This new policy of one ethnic group (Hutu) that was called upon to murder another ethnic group (Tutsi) occurred during April through June of 1994 and resulted in the genocide of approximately 800,000 innocent people that even included women and children of all ages. In this paper I will first analyze the origins/historical context regarding the discontent amongst the Hutu and Tutsi people as well as the historical context as to why major players in the international

The genocide committed during Second World War is one that still scars the human psyche to this day. The horrors of the Second World War lead to Raphael Lemkin’s creation of a new word, “genocide” in 1944 (Conversi 2006: 320). The definition of genocide is still under dispute by academics (Dallaire and Coleman 2013: 778; Manaktala 2012: 179; Hinton 2012: 11). For the purposes of this essay the definition used is the one created by the United Nations following the signing of resolution 240 (Stanton 1998: 1). The definition in the current form reads, “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part a national ethnical, racial or religious group” (United Nations Resolution 260 1948: Article 2). Using this definition, the three best examples of genocide in this era are Rwanda (Magnarella 2005: 801), The Holocaust (Vardejo 2012: 81) and Armenia (Hinton 2012: 13). Using these three genocides, this essay will examine the three key causes of genocide in the modern era. The first being hardships both economic and created by war that ultimately lead to a genocide. The next is the creation of an ‘us vs. them’ ideology which leads to the dehumanisation of the victims. The final cause is the enlightenment concept, which supports the perpetrators belief that they are doing this for a better world.

The world’s history has been tainted by many instances of violence targeted at specific groups of people due to either their ethnicity or beliefs. This paper will discuss the characteristics of the Rwanda Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. The Rwanda Genocide targeted the Tutsis because of their ethnicity, while the Holocaust targeted the Jews because of their ethnicity and religion.

All cultures have categories to distinguish people by ethnicity, race, religion or nationality. Classification is a primary method of dividing society, which as the potential to create power struggle between groups. Gregory Stanton considered classification to be the first sign of genocide. Rwanda was a bipolar society, predominantly majority

You would think that the world would never another genocide after the Holocaust. Until 1994 when the Hutu citizens of Rwanda wanted to wipe out the whole Tutsi population. Even though the people from the Hutu and Tutsi tribe are the same the Dutch split the two making one side Hutu and one side Tutsi. Everyone got a card telling who was Tutsi and who was Hutu. There was always tension between these groups, so 1994 is when the Hutus hit their boiling point with the Tutsi. Right after the president of Rwanda was assassinated the Hutu extremist group the “Interahamwe” started slaughtering the Tutsi. Around 800,000 people and 75% of the Tutsi population was killed. The amount of deaths could have been a lot less if the Interahamwe would have realized

It is disappointing that the history of Rwanda,..., may still repeat itself. I may not have the power or influence to stop this tragedy, but I am not going to sit idly by and watch another tragedy continue to unfold before my eyes” US House2 5). Genocide has been around for centuries and unfortunately countries such as Rwanda had to witness the atrocities of genocide. Unlike the holocaust, the Hutus main goal was to slaughter as many Tutsi as they could in as little as 100 days. It is equally important to remember those that suffered from this historical event will never forget it. The Rwandan genocide was a 100 day massacre that was started by the Hutu President’s place accident, which was blamed on the Tutsi from previous political disputes. All in all, the question still remains whether the Hutus shot their own president's plane down to start a war of massacre or if the Tutsi were really trying to regain

Beginning April of 2004, the Rwandan Hutu started mass murders of Tutsi. This genocide is believed to have spawned from the civil war that was taking place at that time. This civil war was based on issues over power and resentment between the Tutsi and the Hutu. (Rwanda, 2008) Eventually the war escalated to the point where the Hutu began genocide of the Tutsi and anybody who opposed the ideas of the Hutu. The killing of the Tutsis became so common—in a very short amount of time—that it was practically acceptable amongst the Rwandans. (Hintjens, 1999) This was a very brutal and gruesome genocide. In just five weeks, approximately half a million Tutsi and innocent civilians had been murdered. (Hintjens, 1999) This is an astounding number of people, especially because the Hutu murdered the Tutsi at knife point—usually with a machete. (Snow, 2008)

Genocides and ethnic cleansing has been an ongoing issue responsible for the destruction of many human lives in developing nations. The Rwandan genocide in 1994 was the quickest massacre killing 800,000 people in 100 days. The death of the president was a trigger for the genocide. Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana who was a Hutu was killed when his plane was shot down outside of the country's capital Kigali. The Hutus automatically held the Tutsis responsible for the murder. Following the death of the president the Hutu rebels filled the capital while taking control of the streets. Tutsis and anyone who was suspected to have ties with Tutsis were slaughtered. With no government control the Hutus were able to take control of the whole country. The goal of the Hutu extremists was to become the majority power in the nation and in order to

Genocide refers to the “deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group.” The Rwandan Genocide began on the 7th April 1994 and ended in July 1994. It occurred as a result of the death of the Rwandan president, Juvénal Habyarimana, a hutu, who lost his life in a plane crash. This sparked outrage across the country, where many Tutsis were attacked by extreme members of the Hutu national ethnic majority. As a consequence of this 800,000 people consisting of the Tutsis as well as Hutu moderates were slaughtered. It was one of the heaviest genocides that occurred in human history. The victims of this brutal attack were the Tutsis, while the perpetrators were the extreme hutu nationalists who took take control of the country.