The Genocide Of Rwanda Genocide

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

The first know people to live in the region near Rwanda were the Twa, other wise know as Pygmies. However, between 700 and 1000 BC, Hutu people from the Congo River basin migrated to the area. Although the Hutu had been well functioning since their arrival, in the 15th century, the Tutsi tribe arrived from Northern Africa. The Tutsi were more powerful and conquered the Hutu, creating an intricate feudal system. The Tutsi became the ruling, landowning class and the Hutu became peasants and surfs, while any remaining Twa were the lowest in the social pyramid. Through the end of the 19th century, the region consisting much of modern-day Rwanda was ruled by a single Tutsi king– the mwami. Similar to the Medieval feudal system, the King controlled other Tusti lords and vassals, who then controlled the Hutu working class. By the middle of the 19th century, the kingdom was at its pinnacle, financially well and equipped with a modernly armed military, thanks to trade with eastern Africans.

The assassination of the president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994, was the event that started the 100 Day massacre of the Tutsis by the Hutus, known as the Rwandan Genocide. The objective of this investigation is to find out the root of the cause of the Rwandan Genocide. The body of evidence will investigate the history of the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups and the events leading up to the genocide. The evidence includes articles from different news sources, ranging from CNN to BBC, and world organizations. The investigation will cover the history of the two ethnic groups, the reason for their conflict, events leading to the genocide, and events during the genocide itself.

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.

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.

Genocides are an act of mass murdering for a certain reason, some of the genocides that have happened has been because of hatred against a certain religion, Race, appearance, gender, and many more. Genocides have happened in many occasions throughout time one of the most well genocides know around the world is the holocaust which was a genocide that wiped the majority of the Jewish race. Many other genocides have happened around the world that aren't well known because it wasn't at a scale like the holocaust, but it doesn't make the act any less horrible. Some other well-known genocide, that are only a small portion of the total cases of genocides are the Rwanda,Haiti,Darfur,Bosnia,Cambodia genocides which are genocides that happen throughout

The Angels Have Left Us by Hugh McCullum, discusses the African tragedy that took place in Rwanda, which resulted in the murder of over one million victims. The Rwanda genocide was between two groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Hutu were considered to be the natives and indigenous to the land, where Tutsi were considered to be the non-native settlers who were non indigenous. Through propaganda and myth, the tension of ethnic hatred would slowly crumble the Rwandan State. The Rwandan military distributed weapons with the funding from the French. On April 6, 1994, Rwandan president Juvenal Habyariman’s plane was shot down and

“When you start to see another human being as less than you, it 's a danger.”-Immaculee Ilibagiza. In 1994, a mass genocide broke out in Rwanda, a small country in Africa. The genocide occurred between the two ethnic groups where the Hutus were targeting the tutsis. The Rwandan genocide, ranking in the top five largest genocides in the world, was caused because of the resentment the hutus had towards the tutsis and was even more instigated by media and outsiders causing differences between the two parties. This quote is trying to provide an insight on what happened in rwanda and why. The local and international media played a significant role in the rwandan genocide of 1994; however racial hatred intensified from European colonists and the

The socio/cultural cause of the genocide in Rwanda came from the German and Belgian colonization, bringing along with them an idea of social science. Both colonial powers reinforced the Tutsi’s political power, which further oppressed the Hutus. This reinforcement caused the Hutus to envy the Tutsi’s aristocracy because they were privileged to all things, while the Hutus were privileged to nothing (Kapuscinski). This oppression led to many Hutu revolutions that the Hutus were successful in over the unprepared Tutsis. These victories of the Tutsis incidentally reversed the Rwandan apartheid system. The reversion of the system then gave

The Rwandan genocide began on April 6th 1994 and lasted approximately one-hundred days, resulting in over 500,000 estimated dead civilians. The vast majority of deaths during Rwandan Genocide were not caused by a malicious state, but ordinary citizens. Even worse, there were few guns in Rwanda, especially not enough to arm such a large number of perpetrators. Thus, most of the casualties were brutally killed by hand with machetes and farming tools. The Rwandan genocide’s high death toll can be traced to Hutu majority in control of the country turning against Tutsi minority. Because the Hutu made up the majority of the population, there was no-where for the powerless Tutsi to hide. The Hutu pursued the Tutsi mercilessly and committed numerous crimes against humanity, including rape gangs infected with HIV, the killing and dismemberment of children, and the mass executions of thousands of people. Only under intense pressure and fear can a recently peaceful population ne converted into killing machines. The largest contributor to pressuring the Hutu to kill their Tutsi neighbors was the radio. Thus, The Rwandan Genocide was expedited and worsened through the Hutu majority’s use of the radio because they harnessed it to instill fear and resentment, encouraging the killing of Tutsi both directly and indirectly, and using the radio to cover up the extent of the conflict.

Pope Francis has asked for forgiveness for the Catholic Church’s “sins and failings” in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, but the African state’s government indicated that the apology was not enough as there were suspects who still have not been brought to justice.

Sometime in April 1994, during the Rwandan Genocide, Father Athanase Seromba helped lure 2,000 Tutsi men, women, and children into his church where they thought they would be safe. One day, Seromba began clearing out the Communion chalices. A refugee in the church begged him to leave the Eucharist so that they could hold a final mass. However, Seromba refused, telling the congregation that the building was no longer a church. Another refugee asked the priest if he would pray for them. He answered, “Is the God of the Tutsis still alive?” Later, Seromba would have the church bulldozed and would send the militia in to kill the survivors (Kimani, 2010). In a continent as vast as Africa, it is not uncommon to see the struggles of both Christianity and Islam play out. Just a couple years ago, the world heard about the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group kidnapping schoolgirls in Nigeria, forcing them to convert to Islam and marriage with other members of Boko Haram. Lesser known are the Christian terrorists of the African continent who attack and kill the Muslim community among them. In the last two decades, the Western world has become so fearful after news of Muslim terrorist attacks and genocides, especially after 9/11. So much so that Western citizens have turned on other citizens simply because they are Muslim, look Middle-Eastern, or have an Arabic name. Sometimes we forget that some of the worst genocides in history have been instigated or participated in by Christians –

The Rwandan Genocide, in which nearly one million individuals are estimated to have been murdered, took place over the course of one-hundred days, from April 1994 to July 1994 (United Nations, n.d.). After Rwanda obtained independence from Belguim in 1961, a Hutu-dominated government was formed in which Tutsis (the minority ethnic group) were viewed as lesser than Hutus (Walker, 2017). Years of systematic ethnic discrimination against Tutsis allowed for the notion that Tutsis are inherently lesser than Hutus to be ingrained in Rwandan society. The genocide was further sparked by the death of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, as Hutu extremists called for the mass-killing of Tutsis and individuals with Tutsi connections (British Broadcasting

This paper talks about the Tutsis genocide in Rwanda. The genocide was established much earlier in that the Hutu Power militia was being armed and trained for months before. Their intention was known to all the Hutus. Hutus had announced, over the radio and through various other channels, that they were going to exterminate the Tutsis. Within hours of the crash barricades had been set up around the capital. Anyone passing through was required to show identification papers, and all Tutsis were killed on the spot. Soon killings were occurring all over the country and the Tutsis were not the only victims. Lists of moderate Hutus had been drawn up, and the people on that list were killed as well.