Genocide in Rwanda and Burundi
Between April and July of 1994, more than 800,000 people, mostly Tutsi civilians, were slaughtered in a genocidal campaign organized by the Hutu hard-liners. By educating myself as well as others, I hope that we can prevent genocide organizers from eliminating the minority, Tutsi, and remove the tensions between these two groups. Pressure must be placed on the government to put the 120,000 suspected genocide criminals on trial .
This topic is one of the most compelling human dramas of the century. Additionally, I am very interested in human rights violations that are occurring around the world and genocide seems to be the most extreme form of infringement.
By studying the history of Rwanda and Burundi I hope to understand the ethnic conflicts that are occurring. I would like to find more information about their local governments and why they supported the slaughtering of so many people. It is very important that problems such as these are not left ignored, but dealt with accordingly.
Rwanda and Burundi history is marked by the continuing and constant battling between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. Although the Tutsi are the minority tribe within central Africa, they were traditionally the leaders with power over the Hutu in Rwanda and Burundi . The Tutsi and Hutu tribes, therefore, are highly significant actors for the genocide that took place in Rwanda and Burundi.
The people of Rwanda and Burundi are divided into three distinct and specific tribal groups, all which share a common language. The pygmoid Twa constitute for less than one percent of the population and are hunters and forest dwellers . Their significance is minimal regarding the genocide that affected the Hutu and Tutsi tr...
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Since Burundi’s independence in 1962, there have been two instances of genocide: the 1972 mass killings of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated government, and the 1993 mass killings of the Tutsis by the Hutu populace. Both of these events in Burundi received different levels of attention by the international community and the western media due to a lack of foreign governmental interest, political distraction, and an unwillingness to acknowledge the severity of these atrocities in Burundi. Interestingly, events of genocide occurring at times without these distractions received more foreign attention than those ignored due to these factors. Because of this, much of the western world is unaware of the Burundian genocide and events similar to it.
"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. .
Many innocent lives were taken during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Philip Gourevitch’s “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families,” explains why the genocide that occurred in Rwanda should not be written off in history as just another tribal disagreement. This book entails the stories of Gourevitch and the people he interviewed when he went to Rwanda. These stories express what people went through during the genocide, the loss they saw, the mass killings they tried to hide from, and the history of what led to the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda’s colonial past did influence the development of the genocide in Rwanda. The hatred between the Hutus and the Tutsis had been going on for many years before the genocide.
For over a half of a century in Rwanda, the Tutsi and Hutu people had fought back and forth over supremacy, due to a racial battle driven by discrimination and severe torment. The Tutsi and Hutu societies were pressed alongside one another by foreign colonialist powers up to 1994 when a something had finally sparked.
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.
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
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.
"Rwanda Genocide." Global Issues in Context Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Global Issues In Context. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.
...assacre, Human Rights, Victim Remembrance, Education, Africa). This is an international court was established to keep the international law intact in Rwanda. During the genocide, there were millions of violations in Rwanda and nearby states of the law between January 1st and December 31st of 1994. This strived to create and maintain peace inside and near Rwanda (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) (UN ICTR).
The Hutu tribe was the aggressors and their targets were the Tutsi tribe. The Hutu and Tutsi conflict lasted throughout the twentieth century. Throughout then, 200,000 Hutus were killed by the Tutsi army. After the Rwanda genocide started, the Hutu militia targeted the Tutsi which resulted in a death toll between 800,000 and one million.
In 1972, the Burundi people led vicious attacks against one another. The Tutsi government officials massacred the Hutu people having an influential effect on the neighboring country of Rwanda. The poor “pre-coloinal kingdom” was heavily populated with three different types of ethnic groups: Hutus, Tutsis, and the Twas (only made up 1% of the population).
In 1994, Rwanda lost 1 million people in 100 days. The build up to what resulted in the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda is a long history of deliberate policies starting at colonialism through different successive regimes that were in power at different times. Rwanda had lost 1 million people and by the end of 1994, approximately 2 million people were in prisons as suspects who had taken part in the execution of that genocide. At the time, the public and civil service institutions had all collapsed. Rwanda had only 60 lawyers at the time. The challenge to the government then was how to deliver justice to the dead, the victims who had lost their loved ones and survivors of the genocide, and the suspects in prison. The purpose of this paper therefore,
...ause the colonial masters believed that they resembled them. It was unethical for the Belgians to interfere with the peaceful coexistence that the two communities had enjoyed in the past. As a result, the Hutus acquired negative misconceptions about the Tutsis’ origin, what they stood for, and what they had done for them in the past. The Hutus expertly planned and organized the Rwandan genocide as a result of such historical distortions created by their country’s colonial masters.
Under the Hutu’s government reign the people of Rwanda voted to become a republic. A year later on July 1, 1962 Ruanda-Urandi became two separate countries. Though Belgium was no longer in power over Rwanda, ethnic dissension continued to affect the people. At independence a Hutu was elected, and later on another Hutu whom favored his ethnicity came into power. Hutu’s continued to dominate the governme...