Genocide in Rwanda

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Recommended: Critique of Rwanda genocide

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 community chose not to intervene. Second, the actor/agent using political violence, in this case the Hutu, will also be analyzed into segments that include the characterization of the Hutu people, as well as their goals, tactics of violence used and resources administered that allowed them to accomplish the genocide against the Tutsi. Finally, how the Tutsi respond to the violence against them, what resources they had in deterring the Hutu and the outcome of the Rwanda genocide will also be discussed.
To begin with, the Tutsis and the Hutus have been in conflict with each other ever since the Tutsi monarchy had control of Rwanda from 1853-1895. During this time the Hutus were forced into slave labor. The determination of why the Hutus were forced into labor goes back to the 18th century in which rulers measured peoples status by the number of cattle they owned (Arraras). Tutsis had control of the cattle while Hutus were the cultivators. In 1922 when Belgium took control of Rwanda they maintained the...

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... the International Tribunal for Rwanda. In 1996, the RPF government started their own trials and over 120,000 people were accused of crimes relating to the 1994 massacres (Arraras).
In Conclusion the genocide of the Tutsi people by the Hutus was something that could not be prevented due to the inevitable rising ethnic tensions that have been occurring between them since colonial times. For example, the Arusha accords was established by countries such as the United States and France to begin peace between these ethnic groups, but as evidenced in my paper, even after the Hutus agreed to share power with the Tutsis they were still secretly planning the genocide of the Tutsi. That is why I believe that to stop this genocide there needed to be military intervention from other countries which did not occur. The result was the massacre of 800,000 men women and children.

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