He wanted a full population of blonde hair and blue eyes. He then began a genocide that would eventually grow into one of the biggest and most famous genocide to date. People in the Rwandan Genocide experienced things like that, but not quite the exact same. The genocide was started when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down going over a Kigali airport on 6 April 1994. In the coming hours
The Rwanda genocide, beginning in April of 1994 and ending in the same year only 100 days later, was the attempted extermination of the Tutsi ethnic group. The violence was acted out by approximately 200000 people, many of which were from the Hutu ethnic group (“Genocide in Rwanda”). Tutsi and Hutu are two of the three main ethnic groups making up the Rwandan population ("Genocide in Rwanda"). The Hutus first took action in killing all important officials who were in power to put a stop to their plan ("Genocide in Rwanda"). One of the first to go was the president at the time Habyarimana, a Hutu, the flight he was in April 6, 1994 was shot down ("Genocide in Rwanda").
It was not until months after the initial killings that the United Nations finally acted and sent soldiers to protect civilians. In their absence, hundreds of thousands of people we... ... middle of paper ... ...d the two groups after World War I, they created a civil rivalry between the by favouring the Tutsis and the disregarding the Hutus as inferior. This rivalry would remain relatively dormant for almost a century until President Habyarimana would be assassinated in 1994. This act would initiate the genocide and the suppressed feelings of animosity would erupt into massacres all around the country and would even spill into neighbouring countries such as Burundi. The genocide was disregarded by the United Nations and few countries would offer assistance to Rwanda.
On April 06, 1994, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimara was murdered when his plane was shot down as he returned from diplomatic talks in East Africa. This event, which was later blamed on extremists within Habyariaman’s government, contributed to the triggering of the hundred day long Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi. The roots of this brutal conflict between the Rwandan tribes, the Hutus and the Tutsis, began many years before, rooted in divisions created by European colonizers. When the Belgians first arrived in Rwanda, they considered the Hutus inferior to the Tutsis, as the Tutsis had lighter skin and more Caucasian-like features. For hundreds of years the Tutsis and the Hutus had coexisted, until European colonizers promoted their racist ideas of one group being superior to another.
The Nazi party used discrimination against the jews blaming them for their misfortune for bieng striped of milita... ... middle of paper ... ...Germany were required to wear stars on their chest so they could be distinguished that way the Nazi troops could find and capture them when they searched. Another difference is the number of confirmed deaths between the Rwandan genocide and the jewish holocaust. The Germans killed around 6 million jews during World War 2. The Hutus killed around eight hundred thousand Tutsis in just 100 days and the Tutsis made up about twenty percent of the Rwandan population and was dropped to one percent. Therefore there are many similarities and differences to the Rwandan genocide and the Jewish holocaust.
In the 1990s Habyarimana was the president of the time and belonged to the Hutu ethnic group. This group increased division between the Hutu and Tutsi groups. During this time, the Hutus blamed the whole Tutsi minority population because of the country’s social, economic and political problems. The responsibility of the Rwanda Genocide cannot be attributed on anyone without looking at the history between these two tribes; it is arguably the most unique genocide of the 20th century, only because the UN and neighbouring countries could have saved and helped many people. During the time of the genocide, the Hutu feared the minority as they remembered the past years of unfair ruling from the Tutsis.
The country of Rwanda has been through numerous events up until 1994. Unmistakable tension between two ethnic groups, the Hutus and Tutsis, has been building up and at last broke out in acts of Genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus. The conflict began when the Belgians took over the government of Rwanda during World War I, beginning a period of more direct colonial rule. Both the Germans and the Belgians promoted Tutsi supremacy and Tutsis were placed to take control of Rwanda. Later in 1959, the Rwandan revolution occurred, resulting in Hutus overthrowing the Tutsis government and the anti-Tutsis made Tutsis flee to neighboring countries.
Beginning on April 6, 1994, Hutus began a mass slaughtering of the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. This mass slaughtering is labeled as genocide, the deliberate obliteration of an ethnic, racial, religious, or political group. The Rwandan genocide lasted 100 days while other countries stood idly by and watched the brutal killings continue. The hatred against the Tutsis began after the RPF invasion in October of 1990. Accusations from editorials and radio broadcasts claimed Tutsis wanted to establish a monarchy with Hutu slaves; other racial libel included all the Tutsis being called cockroaches.
As Gourevitch puts it, “… The genocide had been meticulously planned by the Hutu extremists who set it in motion within an hour of the President’s death.” So the killings and terrible acts began. “Decimation means the killing of every tenth person in a population, and in the spring and early summer of 1994 a program of massacres decimated the Republic of Rwanda.” A genocide, as defined in the Genocide convention in 1948, is when certain acts such as killing, inflicting physical and mental harm, and imposing measures to prevent birth is done to a specific nation, race ethnic group, or religious group. This definition was created a while before the Rwandan genocide was even thought of, but this definition is what could have caused further involvement in Rwanda. People found that if they simply did not call it a genocide, then they didn’t need to help. The government would use phrases such as “possible gen... ... middle of paper ... ...s, apparently hoping that everybody would behave nicely in the future.
They did this to save their own lives. They would have been killed themselves if they didn’t kill who they were told to kill (Rosenberg 1). According to Factsbits, the Hutu leaders manipulated other Hutus into killing their family, friends, and acquaintances. The Rwandan conflict is genocide because thousands of people were killed, the Hutus tried to wipe out the Tutsis, and all of this was based on ... ... middle of paper ... ...da-Genocide.htm> "Rwanda, Genocide, Hutu, Tutsi, Mass Execution, Ethnic Cleansing, Massacre, Human Rights, Victim Remembrance, Education, Africa." UN News Center.