The Rwandan Genocide of 1994

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In April of 1994 a terrible event took place, one where approximately one-million people were brutally murdered on the basis of their ethnicity or if they opposed the regime. (Uvin, 2003). This terrible event occurred in Rwanda, and it is known as the Rwandan Genocide. Genocide can be described as a one sided mass killing in which the state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are identified by the perpetrator. (Hintjens, 1999) This is exactly what took place in Rwanda in 1994. In Rwanda the population was mostly Hutu (84%) and had two minorities, Tutsi (15%) and Twa (1%). (Hoex, 2010) The perpetrators of the genocide were the Hutu majority and the victims were the Tutsi. In order to explain this atrocity you may use the cultural, institutional and the constructive approach. The cultural approach means that the conflict took place because of something that is given at birth that separates the actors and the victims. Institutional, on the other hand means that the government has institutionalized the differences between the two groups. Lastly, the constructive approach can defined as when the differences among the people were constructed and not given.
The conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu was not a new concept to Rwanda when the genocide happened; it was slowly taking place for decades. The Hutu resented the Tutsi because the Belgian colonists favored them, and thought of them as superior to the Hutu. When the Hutu obtained power after the Revolution, they set restrictions of jobs and quotas on the Tutsi. The closer it came to the genocide the more open the Hutu became about wanting to rid Rwanda completely of the “cockroaches” (the Tutsi). It was displayed in ...

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...dence because it was so engrained in the society. Then, after these roles were accepted they were institutionalized to disenfranchise the Tutsi. After, they were disenfranchised they were victimized which led to the genocide itself.

References
Hintjens, H. M. Explaining the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 37, 241-286. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=17710&jid=MOA&volumeId=37&issueId=02&aid=17709
Hoex, L. Studying The Microdynamics Of The Rwandan Genocide. British Journal of Criminology, 435-454. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/3/435.full#content-block
Uvin, P. Reading The Rwandan Genocide. International Studies Review, 3, 75-99. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1521-9488.00245/pdf

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