Hotel Rwanda Essay

Bang!Boom! The Hutus entered Tutsis homes and started to kill using machetes, guns and their hands. They killed the young, old, disabled, it didn’t matter. On the night of April 7th,1994 the elimination of the Tutsi race began.The Hutu and Tutsis did not live in perfect harmony before the invasion of Europeans. Major problems did not occur until after colonialism was over. When the Europeans settled down, they divided Hutus and Tutsis by their physical traits. Tutsis were favored by the Europeans causing hatred from Hutus. With their division amongst different races, European colonialism put Rwanda on the road to genocide.The mass murder of millions of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the Rwandan Genocide was driven by the imperialistic motives of the Belgian government.

Along with the Belgians support toward the Hutu came the Hutu Revolution in 1959. It all started with the Belgians getting the Hutu more political positions, getting them into secondary schools, and getting them to just participate in more public life. This scared the Tutsi. The Tutsi, feeling that there power was being jeopardized, decided they had to do something. Feeling that they were in a desperate situation they ended up killing a Hutu sub-chief. The vivid Hutu, feeling that it was time to take a stand, attacked Tutsi officials, who in return attacked the Hutu. This turned into one of many small

The continent of Africa has been continually engaged in civil, tribal and cross national conflicts from colonial independence up until present day. What historians regard as the most ‘efficient genocide’ in history, occurred in a mere 100 days in the small central African country of Rwanda. The Hutus and the Tutsis, two ethnic groups within Rwanda, have been at continual unrest for the past half a century. During the 100 day massacre of 1994, a murder occurred every two seconds; resulting in 18% of the Tutsi population being killed. A decade after the war, in 2004, the film Hotel Rwanda was released. The film followed the story of a Hutu man; Paul Rusesabagina as he housed over 1200 Tutsi refugees in his hotel. The Hotel De Milles

At its roots, the Rwandan genocide was caused by colonization. Belgium had imperialized the nation after WWI and ruled through its kings, selecting the Tutsis ethnic group to lead. The decision to give the Tutsis power was based off the fact that they were more “white looking” with their lighter skin and long noses, which, in the eyes of the European string-pullers, meant they were better suited to ruling. It was also speculated that the Tutsis could be the descendants of a lost Christian tribe, and thus belonged to the “superior” bloodline. When the Belgian colonists settled in 1916, they assigned race cards to distinguish the Hutu from the Tutsis. Despite being the minority, comprising only 15% of the population, the Tutsis held most of the wealth. Tension between the two groups rose, with animosity becoming rampant. In 1962, Rwanda was granted independence from Belgium, and the Hutu regained

Later that night, the massacre truly took place. The Hutus decided what the country needed was not constant retaliations from the Tutsis, but an ethnic cleansing.Soldiers and militia sent messages throughout the country via radio, to carry out a wave of killings. They vigorously slaughtered almost an entire generation of Tutsis. Raped Tutsi women, and murdered the Tutsi children as they refuse to allow next generation Tutsis to reborn.While innocent people were being executed by machetes and guns, neither the Belgian soldiers, the British nor the UN interfered. When they realized the rebels were getting out of control they evacuated all the foreigners out of the country and abandoned the Africans. It wasn’t until the very end, 100 days later after almost a million people were manslaughtered, did the Belgian soldiers came and rescue certain Africans Tutsis and Hutus. In July 1994 the holocaust ended as the Tutsi rebels drove away the Hutu maniacs.

The relations between the two main cultures, the Hutus and Tutsis historically has always been strained and riddled with examples of one culture trying to achieve and maintain power over the other. The imbalance of power has constantly been shifting between the two ethnic groups. The introduction of European monarchical government brought to the country by Britain at first did nothing to help ease the tension. The country was constantly being handed to other European powers before they finally gained independence. When the Europeans left the Hutus had more political power than the Tutsi creating an imbalance.

Belgian enter Rwanda in 1916 and lead to worse racial tensions between Hutus and Tutsis through race papers.

According to the book Peacemaking in Rwanda, Hutus and Tutsis had prior hate towards one another due to “wealth, military prowess, family, and control over a precious commodity, or occupation of a prestigious social position.” (Jones, pg. 18) This meant at any time my children that Tutsis could become Hutus and Hutus could become Tutsis. Due to this my children, I come before to tell you never to hate your very own people. Clan lineage in Rwanda was were, power and status placed a role in the leading of the people as that determined who was a high authority amongst the different yet similar clans. While clan lineage played a role in who would lead the different clans, Rwanda before World War I was colonized by Germans. Sadly my kids, after World War I colonization moved on to the Belgium and this is was the day, when I saw my life flash before my eyes. The once peaceful Rwanda had changed within a day. When the Belgium came into power they “imposed on the contrary an intellectual and administrative simplification that equated “Tutsi’s” with “ruling class”.”(Jones, pg. 19) Throughout the Belgium ruling, Tutsis were the chosen ones to do all of the administrative work for the League of Nations Mandate. Due to this Belgium’s required for Tutsis to carry around cards that specifically showed and

The Hutus and Tutsis were seen as two social castes divided based on material wealth. The two groups shared the same language, territory and religion. The Tutsi were meant to rule while the Hutus were to serve. On April 6, the genocide had begun and mass killing came along daily. Many view that the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana was the jumpstart of the genocide which lasted for 100 days. Through the harsh 100 days of the genocide nearly 800,000 lives were taken. The main reason behind the Hutus attack was to exterminate all the Tutsis because of the country's success to become independent from belgium in 1962. The Belgians were the first to actually divide and establish differences between the two groups. They racially segregated the

Rwanda was taken over by the Belgians causing the Hutus and Tutsis to not get along which caused genocide. “Facing a revolution instigated by the Hutu, the Belgians let the Hutus, who constituted the majority of Rwanda 's population, be in charge of the new government. This upset the Tutsi. The animosity between the two groups continued for decades.” Both clans were upset and started Genocide in Rwanda. The causes of their mass casualties resolved in a never ending dispute between the two clans.

Under the power of Tutsi King Rwabugiri, ethnic differences were established when the King implemented a system in which, in return for labour, access to land was given. However, this system only applied to Hutu farmers and exempted Tutsi farmers (Eriksson, 1996). During the German colonization and later the Belgian trusteeship, the Tutsi were also favoured and viewed as superior (Eriksson, 1996). The Belgians increased the emphasis on the distinction of ethnic identity by issuing cards bearing the nationality designations of Rwandans (Klinghoffer, 1998). The colonisation by both Germany and Belgium contributed to an ethnic jealousy in Rwanda through treatment of the Tutsi (O’Halloran, 1995). The general decolonisation in Africa led to the Hutu revolution in which Rwanda underwent the transition from a Tutsi dominated monarchy to a Hutu led independent republic, which resulted in tens of thousands of Tutsi fleeing into exile (Eriksson, 1996).

The Belgians also decreed that Tutsis should be the only ones in power and thus removed Hutus from positions of power and excluded them from higher education (Arraras). “By assuring the Tutsis’ monopoly of power the Belgians set the stage for future conflict in Rwanda” (Arraras). The Tutsis were enjoying their status as being superior to the Hutus but all that changed in 1959 with the Hutu revolution and so in 1960 and 1961 the Hutus won the elections. Since then, ethnic tensions had always been brewing between the Hutus and the Tutsis. However the tensions escalated when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994. I consider this to be a form of political violence because someone or a group that opposed this President which represented only the political interests as well as the viability of the Hutus had to be killed in order for another group possibly the Tutsis to fill the vacuum of power left by the Hutu president. The Hutus blamed the assassination of their president on the Tutsis and in turn sparked an all out massacre waged on to the Tutsi people.

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.

The 2004 film Hotel Rwanda tells the true story of the Rwandan genocide and how one man was able to save hundreds of Tutsi citizens from Hutu rebels. Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager at the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, Rwanda, is Hutu. However, his wife Tatiana is Tutsi, as are many of Paul’s close friends. When the Interahamwe, the Hutu militia, begins attacking innocent Tutsis in Rwanda, it becomes difficult for Paul to protect his family and friends.. In order to keep his family and those residing in his hotel safe, Paul begins to bribe people of political influence, such as Georges Rutaganda and General Bizimungu, with the remaining goods and money in his hotel.

As soon as they left the gendarmes and militia came and started firing their weapons on civilians and throwing grenades into the crown in a large crowd of more than two thousand people. The Tutsi who were trying to escape or pretended to be Hutus were killed on the spot with machetes . ‘’The news media-both domestic and international –played a crucial role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. From my vantage point as commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), I was able to watch the strange dichotomy of local media, one side, fuelling the killing while the International media, on the side, virtually ignored or misunderstood what was happening”