Rwanda
In the spring of 1994, more than three-quarters of a million Rwandans were massacred by their own government. A breakdown in state authority and a foundering peace process had resulted in the extreme government of the country taking drastic measures, eliminating every person of rival ethnicity or those who sympathized with them. Knowing that after Somalia, the United States and the United Nations would not commit troops or money when a significant threat existed, they orchestrated an attack on UN forces that convinced the international community to pack up and go home. Yet members of both the U.S. embassy and the UN peacekeeping force recognized that a genocide was occurring, and pressured the agencies to act quickly. Instead, the United Nations quickly withdrew, and the government officials who had pushed for intervention were relegated to back offices in the State Department.
I
Rwanda is a nation made up of two culturally and ethnically distinct groups, the Tutsis and the Hutus, who live among each other in all parts of the country. Until the push for independence in 1959, the Tutsis largely controlled local Rwandan politics. After freedom from Belgium in 1962, however, Hutus assumed power, and held on to that power successfully throughout several coup attempts over the next two decades by Tutsis who had fled to neighboring regions as well as those within the country who were continually discriminated against. By 1975, the Hutu essentially ran the country, and the Tutsis’ original 17 percent of the population had been significantly reduced, both by emigration, forced exiling, and periodic “ethnic cleansing.”
Until 1990, the country was largely peaceful, though it was largely because of the iron fist by which the...
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...” International Studies Review, Fall 2001, pp. 75–99.
Documents from the National Security Archive:
Facsimile from Maj. Gen. Roméo Dallaire, Force Commander, UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda, to Maj. Gen. Maurice Baril, UN Dept. of Peacekeeping Operations, “Request for Protection for Informant,” Jan. 11, 1994.
Memorandum from Deputy Asst. Sec. of Defense for Middle East/Africa, through Asst. Sec. of Defense for International Security Affairs, to Undersec. of Defense for Policy, “Talking Points on Rwanda/Burundi,” Apr. 11, 1994.
Discussion Paper, Office of the Deputy Asst. Sec. of Defense for Middle East/Africa Region, Dept. of Defense, “Rwanda,” May 1, 1994.
Memorandum of Conversation, Office of the Deputy Asst. Sec. of Defense for Middle East/Africa, Dept. of Defense, “Rwanda Interagency Telecon,” drafted by Lt. Col. Michael Harvin, May 11, 1994.
The ICTR had been created in November 1994 and installed in Arusha in February the following year. In April it had produced its own list of four hundred genocide suspects, supposed to be more neutral than the various lists produced in Rwanda itself. A year later it was still floundering about, complaining about “lack of means,” not having even produced any indictment, much less
The tragic events that happened in Rwanda are vastly unknown to western civilization. Its tragic beginnings and suffering are often overlooked in world history. The casual chain of events led to the genocide’s outcomes are still being mourned today. From the vast killings by machete to the governmental ramifications after the genocide, Rwanda’s events ought to be remembered and should never be permitted from reoccurring. It should serve as a learning experience to the rest of the world in how an action could bring unforeseen effects.
“So Rwandan history is dangerous. Like all of history, it is a record of successive struggles for power, and to a very large extent power consists in the ability to make others inhabit your story of their reality—even, as is so often the case, when that story is written in their blood.”(p.48).
In April of 1994 the African nation of Rwanda was involved in a civil war between two of its major ethnicities, the Hutu and the Tutsis. Almost overnight, a state-sponsored genocidal campaign took the lives of nearly 800,00 Rwandans while the international community turned a blind eye. In Ghosts of Rwanda we saw the stories of the individuals who failed to act at the hands of international organizations, those who stood up with hope and tried to save lives, and those who survived through the massacre and lived to tell their stores.
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?
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.
April 7th 1994 marks the start of on of the worst things ever to happen to human beings, The Rwandan Genocide. It is known that over 800’000 Rwandans were massacred, 800’000 is 20% of the countries population, over 70% of the tutsis were brutally murdered within the 100 day genocide of Rwanda. Both Hutus and tutsis were killed and murdered at the hands of their neighbours machetes. During this compare and contrast essay I will discuss the long and short term causes of both the Rwandan and Congolese Conflicts. I will also discuss how the natives of these two countries were forced to leave their homes and migrate in seek of aid. The genocide was between April 7th and July 15th 1994, therefore it is known as the 100 day war. The genocide or in context the Rwandan Civil War was fought between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Ongoing conflicts began in 1990 between the hutu-led government and the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front). The RPF was created in 1987 by the Tutsi refugee diaspora in Uganda. The first Tutsi refugees fled to Uganda to escape ethnic purges in the beginning of 1959.
Percival, Valerie, and Thomas Homer-Dixon. "Getting Rwanda wrong. (genocide in Rwanda)." Saturday Night. v110. n7 (Sept 1995): p47(3). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. K12 Trial Site. 12 Apr. 2010 .
“Beginning on April 6, 1994, Hutus began slaughtering the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. As the brutal killings continued, the world stood idly by and just watched the slaughter. Lasting 100 days, the Rwanda genocide left approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers dead” (Rosenberg 1). When Rwanda’s President, Habyrimana, was killed in a plane crash, turmoil and massacres began. A series of events escalated violence until two ethic groups were engaged in bloody battle: The Hutus and the Tutsis. Throughout the Rwandan Genocide, the Tutsis were targeted because the death of President Habyrimana and problems in social and economic life was blamed in them, thus resulting in the 100-day genocide.
Sibomana, A. 1999. Hope for Rwanda: Conversations with Laure Guilbert and Harve Deguine. Pluto Press, London, UK, 205 pp.
Beginning on an April day in 1994 and ending in July 1994, more than eight hundred thousand Rwandan people lost their lives in just a matter of one hundred days. This genocide may have been averted, but the United Nations failed the many innocent people of Rwanda. The horrifying events of the genocide are portrayed and explained by survivors themselves in Philip Gourevitch’s book, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families. The genocide begins with the Rwandan government commanding the Hutu majority to slaughter and terminate the Tutsi minority. In this instance of history, humanity and the United Nations has failed the people of Rwanda, causing one of the
In 1994 many people were murdered . From April to July of 1994, members of the Hutu ethnic majority in the east central African nation of Rwanda murdered as many as 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority .About 85% of the population was Hutu, the rest were Tutsi along with a small number of Twa. The Tutsis were favored and felt superior to the Hutu and Twa. This caused much tension and jealousy between the two groups.The greater half of Rwanda, known as the Hutu, are a big part of the social issues that took place in 1994 as they overthrew the Tutsi power. The Hutu were located in both Rwanda and Burundi and while they wanted to gain power in both countries, the Hutu of Rwanda forcefully took over the Tutsi ruler. The Rwandan Hutu were in command until 1994 when they were invaded by the Tutsi. Tutsi are people who live in Rwanda. The Tutsi people had dominance over the Hutu in
Baldauf, S. (2009). Why the US didn't intervene in the Rwandan genocide. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2009/0407/p06s14-woaf.html [Accessed: 21 Feb 2014].
Most people haven’t heard of Rwanda so let me fill you in. It’s a little country in the Eastern- South of Africa. Before I get into the messy bits, let’s go back in time, Africa had been colonized by European powers. After that, Europe decided to separate Africa into 50 equal countries, within that Rwanda was formed. Germany took charge of this country but not long after Belgium took it from their hands, Belgium decided to characterized the Rwandans. There were 3 groups: Hutus, Tutsis, and Twas. The Tutsis were favored due to their more “white man” features. Hutus were always taken for granted and were never allowed to be official leaders. After generations of this happening the Hutus decided to strike back and kill of the Tutus, thus beginning
Middleton, John. "Rwanda." Africa: an Encyclopedia for Students. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. Print.