The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in Africa's history that decimated many minorities in Rwanda. The Hutu killed 800,000 people of minority in Rwanda, including Tutsi and Pygmy people in 100 days, and if it was scaled to the length of time the Holocaust took place, the casualties would be more than 34 million people killed. Citizens were told to gather arms and fight against their neighbor, and many obeyed. Before the war By the 1990’s Rwanda was one of Africa’s most populous countries, despite having a small land mass. 85 percent of the population was Hutu, the other 15 percent consisted of mostly Tutsi, along with a small number of Twa, and a group of Pygmies that originally populated Rwanda. (History.com Staff) After World War I, Rwanda joined the League of Nations mandate of Belgium, along with their close neighbor, Burundi. During Rwanda’s colonial period, the Belgian people preferred the Tutsi people over the Hutu. The Tutsi enjoyed 20 years of better jobs and more educational opportunities. This caused anger among the Hutu people and led to many riots in the year 1959. More than 20,000 Tutsi were killed and many more fled to countries like Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi. The beginning The Genocide began when the plane that the president of Rwanda, who was a Hutu, was riding in was shot down. This happened on April 6th, 1994. When the presidential guard heard this they immediately began exacting revenge in any way they could. They killed leaders of the opposing politicians, along with Tutsi and moderate Hutu people being killed. (BBC Staff) In just a short time, recruits were sent all over the country to start an onslaught of murder. Early recruits consisted mostly of military officials, politicians, and busin... ... middle of paper ... ...ed BBC Staff. "Rwanda: How the Genocide Happened." BBC News. The BBC, 17 May 2011. Web. 02 May 2014. THE EDITORIAL BOARD. "After Rwanda’s Genocide." The New York Times. The New York Times, 08 Apr. 2014. Web. 05 May 2014. History.com Staff. "The Rwandan Genocide." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. Jehl, Douglas. "Officials Told to Avoid Calling Rwanda Killings 'Genocide'" The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 June 1994. Web. 05 May 2014. Jones, Adam. "Gendercide Watch: Rwanda." Gendercide Watch: Rwanda. Gendercide Watch, n.d. Web. 01 May 2014. Mcneil, Donald G. "Once a Nation of Death, Now a Symbol of Life." The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Apr. 2014. Web. 05 May 2014. The United Human Rights Council. "United Human Rights Council." United Human Rights Council. Armenian Youth Federation, n.d. Web. 01 May 2014.
It was said that the genocide had deemed the name of Hutu Power, this meant that they were plan and simply killing off people and as many as possible. All this started in Rwanda’ Capitol Kigali and spread outwardly from there, as the Hutu traveled they killed the Tutsi. The Hutu had set up road blocks and checked ID’s and killed Tutsi, t...
"Rwanda, Genocide, Hutu, Tutsi, Mass Execution, Ethnic Cleansing, Massacre, Human Rights, Victim Remembrance, Education, Africa." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
United Nations. "Rwanda, genocide, Hutu, Tutsi, mass execution, ethnic cleansing, massacre, human rights, victim remembrance, education, Africa." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. .
The Rwandan genocide occurred due to the extreme divide between two main groups that were prevalent in Rwanda, the Hutu and the Tutsi. When Rwanda was first settled, the term Tutsi was used to describe those people who owned the most livestock. After the Germans lost control over their colonies after World War I, the Belgians took over and the terms Hutu and Tutsi took on a racial role (Desforges). It soon became mandatory to have an identification card that specified whether or not an individual was a Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa (a minority group in Rwanda). The Tutsi soon gained power through the grant of leadership positions by the Belgians. Later on when Rwanda was tying to gain indepe...
The Rwandan Genocide deals with the massacre of Tutsis from the Hutus over the course of 100 days in 1994 within Rwanda. Almost a million people died after ethnic tension over the years, and finally a plane crash killing political leaders, sent the Hutus into a fit of “revenge” and malice. The genocide inadvertently though, united the people of Rwanda post-genocide because of sorrows, guilt, and forgiveness that all the people could relate to and grow from. The Rwandan Genocide isn't very similar to other genocides history has seen before. Quoted from a 60 Minutes episode featuring a Rwandan survivor, Immaculee Ilibagiza, “It was extremely low-tech. No gas chambers here. Just machetes, spears, and knives. Wielded by Hutus…”. The Hutus also utilized radios to transmit information, like the location of Tutsis to murder, to new tactics etc. This genocide is known as the
The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in history caused by a constantly weakening relationship between two groups of people. The country of Rwanda is located in Africa and consists of multiple groups of people. Majority of Rwanda is Hutu, while a smaller amount of people are Tutsis. The genocide started due to multiple events that really stretched the relationship between the two groups to its end. One of the starting factors was at the end of World War 1. Rwanda was a German colony but then was given to Belgium “who favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbated[exacerbating] the tendency of the few to oppress the many”(History.com). This created a feeling of anger towards the Tutsis, because they had much more power then Hutus.
To find the cause of the Rwandan genocide, many people had tried to follow the path of history from the colonialism of Rwanda to the Rwandan genocide. Belgium wanted to expand just like other powerful nations like Great Britain, Spain, and France due to the lack of space and resources provided to each nation in Europe. After the great discovery of Vasco de Gamma, many European ventured towards Africa to colonize territories. After the Berlin Conference of 1884, Belgium had colonized the territory of Rwanda. After colonization, they left the Tutsis in charge as opposed to Hutus because of the fact that the Belgians thought Tutsis had a Caucasian ancestry. After the Rwandan independence, power was given to the Hutus. After the power was given to the Hutus, the Hutus took revenge on the Tutsis which resulted in some killings. In the movie, Hotel Rwanda, President Habyarimana was killed. The killing was blamed on the Tutsis which caused the enraged Hutus to start the Rwandan Genocide. Although the initial cause of the genocide could be Belgian Imperialism, in the movie it was actually the killing...
When the Rwandan Hutu majority betrayed the Tutsi minority, a destructive mass murdering broke out where neighbor turned on neighbor and teachers killed their students; this was the start of a genocide. In this paper I will tell you about the horrors the people of Rwanda had to face while genocide destroyed their homes, and I will also tell you about the mental trauma they still face today.
Genocide is the “deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.” (Dictionary.com, 2010) In 1924, after World War I, Belgian colonists entered Rwanda and allowed the Tutsi dynasty to remain in power. However, after World War II concepts of right and wrong changed. Since the Belgians had been favouring the Tutsis, this change in ethics caused the Belgians to have compassion on the Hutus and promote the Hutu cause, creating tension. (Thompson, 2007) It was the Belgians who cre...
The events leading up to the Rwandan genocide began decades earlier. There has been a long history of “ethnic” tensions, though it is really a matter of social class. The classification began with the German and Belgian colonizers in the early 1900’s. These colonizers created the social classes of “Hutu” and “Tutsi”, and distributed identification cards with such information (Johnson). The genocide was set off when the president’s plane was shot down (Genocide in Rwanda). Though it was never determined who shot the plane down, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who were Tutsi rebels, have been blamed (The Rwandan Genocide). Immediately following the assassination, violence erupted in the capital city, Kigali. (Genocide in Rwanda)
The history of Rwanda is very interesting. Rwanda is located in East Africa, in East africa people were not treated as equal. Today eastern africa is way different from how it is now. Back int the 1996s the africans faced many problems. Some of the problems include how the Tutsi people were treated and also how the Hutu people. Genocide was a big problem in Rwanda.
Extermination began because of the hate the Hutus had for the Tutsi but after the Tutsi were blamed for the president's death they used “revenge” as an excuse. The interahamwe had roadblocks set up searching for people with Tutsi identification card, they killed them off on the spot. There was 100 days of murder and they would end up with 800,000 dead from both Tutsis and Hutus. Hutu extremist used propaganda to convince people to kill off anyone, even those close to them such as neighbors and friends if they were Tutsis. Since Rwanda wasn't the wealthiest place, most deaths were slow and painful because they used machetes, knives and clubs. It didn’t help that most Hutus tortured their victims before killing them. Tutsi did anything to find
Genocide is officially defined by the United Nations as committing an act with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group; The Rwandan Genocide exemplifies this perfectly. The tension between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, who are the two most common ethnic groups in Rwanda, derived from the German and Belgian colonization. After colonization in 1900, the two groups were divided, and the Tutsis obtained more power. More importantly, the Hutus gained political influence in the 1960s and they felt that Tutsis had wronged them for centuries. This led to the perfect storm for a genocide that lasted only 100 days in 1994, but left over 15% of the Rwandan population perished, and resulted
"Policies in Rwanda Should Be Set in Consideration of Genocide History - Kabarebe."Africa News Service 16 Apr. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 Jan. 2014.
Middleton, John. "Rwanda." Africa: an Encyclopedia for Students. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. Print.