A Comprehensive Analysis of the Rwandan Genocide to the Holocaust

The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass slaughter in Rwanda of the ethnic Tutsi and Hutu peoples. The Rwandan Genocide left 70% of total ethnic Tutsi dead and a total of 20% of the entire country 's population dead. Today, more than twenty years later, Rwanda is a growing society with an ever expanding skyline.

On April 6, 1994, Hutus began a mass slaughtering of the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. This mass slaughtering was 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. Accusations from editorials and radio broadcasts claimed the Tutsis wanted to establish a monarchy with Hutu slaves. After years of ethnic tension, the Hutu were again angered and began distributing racial propaganda, dehumanizing the Tutsis by including depictions of them as cockroaches. Many years prior to the Rwandan genocide, a similar deliberate extinction occurred. Between 1933 and 1945, members of the Nazi party killed over six million Jews in what is known as the Holocaust. The genocide started with the Treaty of Versailles, which caused Germany to pay monetary compensations to the other nations as war

The world’s history has been tainted by many instances of violence targeted at specific groups of people due to either their ethnicity or beliefs. This paper will discuss the characteristics of the Rwanda Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. The Rwanda Genocide targeted the Tutsis because of their ethnicity, while the Holocaust targeted the Jews because of their ethnicity and religion.

known as the Rwandan Genocide where the murder of the ethnic group, Tutsis, was administered

INTRODUCTION After the atrocities suffered by the Jewish people at the hand of the Nazi regime, the United Nations formed the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UNCG), dedicated to the understanding and prevention of future genocides. The UNCG defines genocide as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Genocides have occurred on almost every continent and the UNCG has had little impact on prevention. Indeed, 2since its creation in 1951 the world has seen a rise in genocides beginning in 1975 in Cambodia, followed by the horrors in Yugoslavia in 1992, then Rwanda in 1994, and the on-again-off-again atrocities in Darfur since 2003 (Maddox). The causes of each of these genocides are as unique as the topography of the land they occur on and as varied as the languages and cultures of the people involved. The genocide occurred in Rwanda in Central Africa between April 6, 1994 and July 1994. The decades of unjust treatment by Belgium favored the Tutsi tribe and the assassinations of the Rwandan president and Burundi president led to the genocide in Rwanda. CAUSES

Over the course of hundreds of years, Genocides have been a major problem in the world. A genocide is a mass killing of people by a group or nation. One of the worst genocides that had happened was the Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda is a country located in East Africa, between Uganda and Tanzania. There was a dispute in the government between the Hutus and the Tutsis for many years. In 1994, the genocide had begun and millions of people were slaughtered. During the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu government killed the Tutsis until Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and United Nations (UN) stopped the Hutus; the survivors are still haunted by the horrifying memories.

Beginning on April 7, 1994, the Rwandan Genocide was a period of mass slaughter that followed the closure of the Rwandan Civil War between two major ethnic groups , the Hutus and Tutsis. After the assassination of Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, the uneasy ceasefire between the Hutu controlled government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (who were Tutsi backed rebels) was broken, sparking a systematic effort by police and militia to execute both Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Over the span of several months, Hutu civilians were not only encouraged, but pressured to maim and kill Tutsis - eventually leading to the decimation of 70% of the Tutsi population and 20% of the Hutu population. While the genocide continued, the UN and countries such

You would think that the world would never another genocide after the Holocaust. Until 1994 when the Hutu citizens of Rwanda wanted to wipe out the whole Tutsi population. Even though the people from the Hutu and Tutsi tribe are the same the Dutch split the two making one side Hutu and one side Tutsi. Everyone got a card telling who was Tutsi and who was Hutu. There was always tension between these groups, so 1994 is when the Hutus hit their boiling point with the Tutsi. Right after the president of Rwanda was assassinated the Hutu extremist group the “Interahamwe” started slaughtering the Tutsi. Around 800,000 people and 75% of the Tutsi population was killed. The amount of deaths could have been a lot less if the Interahamwe would have realized

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

The genocide committed during Second World War is one that still scars the human psyche to this day. The horrors of the Second World War lead to Raphael Lemkin’s creation of a new word, “genocide” in 1944 (Conversi 2006: 320). The definition of genocide is still under dispute by academics (Dallaire and Coleman 2013: 778; Manaktala 2012: 179; Hinton 2012: 11). For the purposes of this essay the definition used is the one created by the United Nations following the signing of resolution 240 (Stanton 1998: 1). The definition in the current form reads, “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part a national ethnical, racial or religious group” (United Nations Resolution 260 1948: Article 2). Using this definition, the three best examples of genocide in this era are Rwanda (Magnarella 2005: 801), The Holocaust (Vardejo 2012: 81) and Armenia (Hinton 2012: 13). Using these three genocides, this essay will examine the three key causes of genocide in the modern era. The first being hardships both economic and created by war that ultimately lead to a genocide. The next is the creation of an ‘us vs. them’ ideology which leads to the dehumanisation of the victims. The final cause is the enlightenment concept, which supports the perpetrators belief that they are doing this for a better world.

It is disappointing that the history of Rwanda,..., may still repeat itself. I may not have the power or influence to stop this tragedy, but I am not going to sit idly by and watch another tragedy continue to unfold before my eyes” US House2 5). Genocide has been around for centuries and unfortunately countries such as Rwanda had to witness the atrocities of genocide. Unlike the holocaust, the Hutus main goal was to slaughter as many Tutsi as they could in as little as 100 days. It is equally important to remember those that suffered from this historical event will never forget it. The Rwandan genocide was a 100 day massacre that was started by the Hutu President’s place accident, which was blamed on the Tutsi from previous political disputes. All in all, the question still remains whether the Hutus shot their own president's plane down to start a war of massacre or if the Tutsi were really trying to regain

All cultures have categories to distinguish people by ethnicity, race, religion or nationality. Classification is a primary method of dividing society, which as the potential to create power struggle between groups. Gregory Stanton considered classification to be the first sign of genocide. Rwanda was a bipolar society, predominantly majority

Genocide refers to the “deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group.” The Rwandan Genocide began on the 7th April 1994 and ended in July 1994. It occurred as a result of the death of the Rwandan president, Juvénal Habyarimana, a hutu, who lost his life in a plane crash. This sparked outrage across the country, where many Tutsis were attacked by extreme members of the Hutu national ethnic majority. As a consequence of this 800,000 people consisting of the Tutsis as well as Hutu moderates were slaughtered. It was one of the heaviest genocides that occurred in human history. The victims of this brutal attack were the Tutsis, while the perpetrators were the extreme hutu nationalists who took take control of the country.

Genocides and ethnic cleansing has been an ongoing issue responsible for the destruction of many human lives in developing nations. The Rwandan genocide in 1994 was the quickest massacre killing 800,000 people in 100 days. The death of the president was a trigger for the genocide. Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana who was a Hutu was killed when his plane was shot down outside of the country's capital Kigali. The Hutus automatically held the Tutsis responsible for the murder. Following the death of the president the Hutu rebels filled the capital while taking control of the streets. Tutsis and anyone who was suspected to have ties with Tutsis were slaughtered. With no government control the Hutus were able to take control of the whole country. The goal of the Hutu extremists was to become the majority power in the nation and in order to

The Rwandan Genocide was the most quickly escalated genocide of all time killing over 800,000 Rwandans in the span of 100 days. Raphael Lemkin invented the word genocide as a term of incrimination and defines it as “the extermination of racial and religious groups … racial, or religious groups”(Sands 2016, 188) The goal of the genocide that was conducted by the Hutu militias and government was to exterminate ethnic Tutsis. (United Nations 2012) The Hutu used the Tutsi as a scapegoat for the country's political, ideological, and economical problems that eventually led to the genocide. In addition, the Rwandan Genocide is also known as the most preventable genocide. Due to the international community's failure to recognize early warning signs and failure to recognize the genocide. All in all, factors of ethnic division, hardship, ideology, and an authoritarian regime led to the preventable Rwandan Genocide.