Faloo's Illegal

On 6 April 1994, the worlds attention was shifted to the small, nation of Rwanda in africa. In the time following of the assassination of President Habyarimana, the ethnic Hutu majority began a deliberate the hutu extremist were known as R.P.F., carefully planned to eradicate the Tutsi population in any means necessary. When Rwanda gained independence, the Hutu majority took over of the political bodies and held a grudge against the tutsi minority. The Tutsi were for the most part had more money and were better educated. For this reason they were seen as spoiled so the hutus wanted what they had and example of class separation. After the R.P.F. took over the Rwandan government, they placed Tutsis in all the head positions of leadership. Starting in the late nineteen eighties , there were terrible massacres of the Tutsis people. A system of identification cards was put in place in to “ethnicity.” In 1990, a Tutsi majority rebel group, invaded Rwanda from Uganda, bringing more tension. The belgians coined the nickname “inyenzi”, meaning “cockroaches.” Racial slurs, hate media and negative propaganda escalated tensions to the point where political parties were forming militias and practically waiting for something to light the fuse. The flame that lit that fuse, came form the assassination of Rwandan long time favorite president, Juvenal Habyarimana. The identity of the person or persons that shot the rocket that hit his plane as it was landing is a mystery that has never

The first issue involves the conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsi people of Rwanda. Per the movie the Belgians created the two groups before leaving the country at the end of the colonization period. Catherine André also backs up this claim in her article as well. Thus, the two groups experienced different lifestyles. The Tutsi were the “chosen” people while the Hutu’s suffered.

Though Immaculee was spared from death, she certainly encountered many life-threatening situations including, but not limited to witnessing crimes of cruelty and murder. Immaculee’s encounters started with all of the Tutsi villagers coming to her house in despair and ended with evading land mines on her way to the UN in Kigali. While home from University, for Easter Break, the Rwandan president was killed. The next day, Immaculee and her family were at home listening to the radio, when they started to hear about the Interahamwe, a group of Hutu killers that took drugs, drank, and killed as many innocent Tutsis as they could. After word got out that the Interahamwe was killing Tutsis, thousands of Tutsi neighbors showed up seeking advice from Immaculee’s father, a well-respected man.

Viewing the perpetrators of vile deeds as motivated merely by evil is a gross oversimplification. In the introduction, Jean Hatzfield states that the story will follow the lives of the killers: the Hutu men who perpetrated the Rwandan genocide and murdered their Tutsi neighbors en masse. The narration style switches between chapters written in third person omniscient style and chapters composed of many short sections of first person narratives from the perspectives of the Hutu men interviewed by the author. The third person chapters provide context for the stories of the Hutus, while the numerous stories themselves add a personal element that reveals the thoughts and mindsets of the Hutu’s who participated in one of the largest and most

Rwanda is a country located in Central Eastern Africa, with an extensive history of colonization, after Belgium attained control in 1924. Belgium’s rule however also marked the beginning of a lengthy ethnic rivalry between the Hutu and the Tutsi people. Belgium favored the Tutsi the minority at 14 percent of the population over the Hutu, the majority at 85 percent, simply because the Tutsis were more resembling of the Europeans. “Colonial policy helped to intensify bipolar differentiation between Tutsi and Hutu, by inscribing “ethnic” identification on identity cards, by relegating the vast majority of Hutu to particularly onerous forms of forced cultivation and corvee, and by actively favoring Tutsi in access to administrative posts, education, and jobs in the modern sector,” (Newbury, 12). Belgium’s control fueled the Hutu’s resentment towards the Tutsis because the Tutsis received superior treatment for decades. Thus, when Rwanda finally acquired independence in 1962, the Hutus fought for control over the government, highlighting the first warning sign of the genocide to come. Many Tutsis were killed afterwards, while many others fled to neighboring countries to escape the violence.

In the book “An Ordinary Man” by Paul Rusesabagina, it taught important lessons that came out of the Rwandan genocide, such as detecting early signs of genocide to prevent it and the calamities that a lack of international response brings. First, one critical part of preventing genocide is recognizing the indications that precede it. For example, Paul explains the history between the Hutus and Tutsis and the creation of an ethnic division between them. He supplies, “... all people in Rwanda received identity cards known as books that specified their ethnic class.” and explains the preaching of Tutsi superiority in their country (page 23).

This caused the Belgian colonists to feel frightened because they did not want to lose power in Rwanda, due to how Rwanda helped Belgian’s gain imperialism.14 By the mid 1950’s Belgian colonists decided to favour the Hutus, so the Belgian government can take back some power from Tutsis.15 This decision made by the Belgian government only made things worse in Rwanda as the Hutus (who make up 85% of Rwanda’s population) overthrew the Tutsi and Belgian government. In the 1959 Presidential election in Rwanda, the Hutus elected Greg wa Kayabanada, who then used the same method of controlling Rwanda as the Belgian colonists once did.16 Kayabanda used the identity discrimination but this time it was against the Tutsis. The Tutsis were now denied higher education, ownership of land, and positions in the

As things slowly exacerbate, 10’s of thousands’ of Tutsis from Immaculee’s neighborhood came to her family's door steps looking for someone to help and lead them. Immaculee’s dad rose up to his position and gives them hope. During the genocide the government tried to persuade Hutus to start killing Tutsis. They told the Hutus through all most all the radio stations: “But don’t forget to kill the baby-the child of a snake is a snake, so kill it, too!” the “snakes” are Tutsis. The country was going crazy there were people who hide Tutsis in their home and still went out and hunted and killed other Tutsis. After 2 or 3 attacks from the Hutu extremist Immaculee’s family decided that Immaculee her younger brother ( Vianney) and his friend (Augustine) should go into hiding. They went to a neighbor's house who was a Hutu pastor but also Leonard's (Immaculee’s father) friend. Immaculee was rejected by one of her best friends who told her: “I am certainly not going to hide you…we don’t hide Tutsis in our home” (Ilibagiza, Erwin when she asked if she can stay with them. Things got even worse for Immaculee when the pastor told her that he can’t hide Vianney and Augustine at his house and she had to send them out into the heart of the danger. Furthermore, as more Hutus started to kill Tutsis, the pastor hide Immaculee and 5 other women into a 3 by

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.”

In between 1930 and 1945, an event took place that changed the world in many ways. The Holocaust was a genocide that consisted of the decimation of one single race, the Jews. This solemn event is very similar (and also quite different) to another event that took place only four thousand miles away. Like the Holocaust, this event is was a genocide and it took place at Rwanda in 1994. This genocide was between the Hutus and Tutsis. These two groups have a long background with each other that consisted of civil wars, switches in power and superiority, and tension. It began when the Europeans put the Tutsis in a superior position because they were the ones that closely resembled them, the Europeans, in physical appearance. It was the death of

“Seldom in history has a once-dominant group suffered so terrible a reversal of fortune as the Tutsi of Rwanda”- Robin Hallet. The event that Robin Hallet is referring to is the Rwandan Genocide, the “genocidal mass slaughter” of the Tutsi (the minority group in Rwanda) and a few Hutu (the dominant group in Rwanda) by “members of the Hutu majority,” which resulted in at least 1 million Rwandan deaths. The Rwandan Genocide was indirectly caused by European colonists; severely damaged relations between the two ethnic groups, almost irreparably; and had a destructive effect on the survivors of the genocide.

Rwanda is a country located in the middle of the African continent. The two ethnic groups present in the country lived in peace under their monarch until the arrival of Europeans. The Belgians arrival into Rwandan is what split the two ethnic groups of the Tutsi and Hutus, making them identify themselves with ID cards. This caused tension between the two groups as the Belgians favored the ethnic Tutsi, and made them the head of the government. Decade’s later Hutu extremists would take over the government and have revenge on the Tutsi. The new government would send out broadcasts calling on Hutus to kill their friends and neighbors. The Rwandan genocide would become the worst genocide to ever happen in Africa and one of the worst in the world. Today Rwanda’s recovery is surprisingly fast with the help of multiple nations and organizations. Rwanda’s recovery is nothing short of a miracle and is an amazing story of a war between two peoples.

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

April 7, 1994 marked the beginning of one hundred days of massacre that left over 800,000 thousand dead and Rwanda divided by a scare that to this day they are trying to heal. The source of this internal struggle can be traced back to the segregation and favoritism established by Belgium when they received Rwanda after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1918. At the time the Rwandan population was 14% Tutsi, 1%Twa, and 85% Hutus; the Belgian’s showed preferential treatment to the Tutsi, who were seen as socially elite, by giving them access to higher educations and better employment. This treatment causes the uprising of the Hutus in 1959 overthrowing the Tutsi government forcing many to flee the country, sparking even greater resentment between the two ethic groups. Without the interference and preferential treatment by the Belgian’s this atrocity could have likely been avoided.

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)