The Rwandan Genocide

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.

Crisis in Rwanda Hotel Rwanda is a modern day depiction of the struggles the Rwandan citizens went through during their genocide. This movie describes the hardships that Paul Rusesabagina goes through while he houses Tutsi refugees during the genocide. This connects to the real genocide because the events represented in the movie were based on real life events. This movie helps people understand some of the poverty and destitution that the Tutsi’s went through while they were being tortured and killed by the Hutus. Although many people believe that the German Holocaust was the most disturbing Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide was equally disturbing and violent.

The civil unrest between the Hutus and the Tutsi has been in place since the Belgians segregated the two groups after being handed Rwanda after World War I. The Tutsis were favoured and placed above the Hutus and identity cards were distributed to distinguish the two different groups. The hatred linking the ethnic groups is evident from the very conception of segregating the Hutus from the Tutsis. The civil turmoil had remained relatively dormant for almost a century until the assassination of President Habyarimana of Rwanda in 1994. This act prompted genocide and a century’s worth of quiet hatred suddenly erupted into massacres in the country’s capital of Kigali.

The Janjaweed are targeting people that are the same ethnicity as the rebel groups (“Darfur Genocide” par. 8). The government claims that they are considered political threats for supporting the rebel armies (par. 8)... ... middle of paper ... ...genocide, how the people are being treated, and the governments’ reactions to the situation so that we can prevent another event like the Holocaust happening again. Everything started in 2003 when two rebel groups threatened the government.

In Armenia, the Turkish government soon took over the Ottoman Empire’s weak government and immediately discriminated the Armenians, starving them and blami... ... middle of paper ... ...le bunch of people into a camp and just kill them off. The U.S. did not want to step in during both genocides. During the Holocaust the U.S. was tied up with Japanese attack, and in the Armenian Genocide, the U.S. believed that the genocide was just a civil war and did not want to step in and possibly cause another world war. The Armenian Genocide fully meets the UN definition of genocide. For example, the Turks were only killing off the Armenian race, which is a main part in the UN definition.

For many years, the Tutsis were powerful and mistreated the Hutus. In 1962, Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium, the power shifted to the Hutus, many of whom wanted to exact their revenge on the enemy Tutsis. In 1993, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire was put in charge of the United Nations Mission to Rwanda to facilitate implementation of the Arusha peace accords after they were signed by the Hutus and the Tutsis. That mission was derailed when the Hutu president’s plane was shot down by Tutsi rebels. The president’s assassination was the precipitating event of what would become known as the genocide in Rwanda.

This investigation studies two of the causes of the 1994 genocide of Rwanda. The two causes are examined in order to see to what extent each contributed to the genocide. The social and ethnic conflicts between two Rwandan groups called the Hutus and the Tutsis caused violent disputes and riots. The assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana is often thought of as the event that sparked the mass murders. Did the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana influence the Rwandan genocide of 1994 more than the ongoing social and ethnic conflicts?

In this essay, I will discuss about how the Rwanda genocide and the Second World War started and furthermore I will discuss what caused it to take place and conclude by talking about the differences and similarities between these two categories I have chosen. What caused ruwanda war? In the beginning of April, 1994, Hutus began slaughtering the Tutsis in Rwanda. As the vicious killings kept on going, the world stood quit and just watched the slaughter. As 100 days past, the Rwanda genocide left around 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu dead.

The Belgians made Rwandan people have identity cards that labeled them as Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa. The Belgians also switched the roles of power in the government between the Tutsi and Hutu. The Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi for the assassination and within twenty-four hours the slaughter of the Tutsi started. Then a group called the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) of Tutsi refugees in Uganda that rallied together and helped save the Tutsis in Rwanda. 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.

Genocide is a calculated and analytically carnage of people who reside to a certain racial, political, and ethnic groups (Genocide). Genocide can occur and does occur in many places around the world. One of these places it takes place in is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since 1996 there has hardly been peace in Congo (Global Research). Over 6 million people had lost their lives in the DRC genocide and many woman had suffered from rape and are still undergo rape by rebels who use rape as their main weapon (World Relief).