Burundian Genocide

When Belgium brought in colonialism they also brought in the Catholic Church. This irritated the Tutsi and they started to get agitated against Belgium authority. The Tutsi felt that Rwanda was just fine and there didn’t need to be anything changed. The negative response towards the new colonial economy and the Catholic Church that the Belgians brought in will end up coming back at the Tutsi. The Belgians saw this negative attitude and because of this attitude from the Tutsi the Belgians switched there support toward the Hutu. Since the Tutsi did not treat the Hutu with much respect in the past years the Hutu could take advantage of this support from the Belgians and payback the Tutsi’s for how they treated them in past years.

Rwanda is a country located in Central Eastern Africa, with an extensive history of colonization, after Belgium attained control in 1924. Belgium’s rule however also marked the beginning of a lengthy ethnic rivalry between the Hutu and the Tutsi people. Belgium favored the Tutsi the minority at 14 percent of the population over the Hutu, the majority at 85 percent, simply because the Tutsis were more resembling of the Europeans. “Colonial policy helped to intensify bipolar differentiation between Tutsi and Hutu, by inscribing “ethnic” identification on identity cards, by relegating the vast majority of Hutu to particularly onerous forms of forced cultivation and corvee, and by actively favoring Tutsi in access to administrative posts, education, and jobs in the modern sector,” (Newbury, 12). Belgium’s control fueled the Hutu’s resentment towards the Tutsis because the Tutsis received superior treatment for decades. Thus, when Rwanda finally acquired independence in 1962, the Hutus fought for control over the government, highlighting the first warning sign of the genocide to come. Many Tutsis were killed afterwards, while many others fled to neighboring countries to escape the violence.

When Belgium took control of Rwanda in 1916 the Hutu’s and the Tutsi’s had a slight differentiation of the ethnic groups, the Hutu’s were farmers and the Tutsi’s were cattle herders. Though they both spoke the same language and had similar traditions. The Tutsi were seen as a higher class of people, only because it took more money to buy cattle, but it was possible to have upward movement in society through changes in jobs or through intermarriage (Jones).

In the late 1800s Africa was divided amongst the Europeans and Rwanda became colonised by Germany, however after WW1 Belgian forces occupied Rwanda. The Belgian found the Tutsi tribe easier to get along with so in 1993 ethnic identity card were introduced to ensure most of the jobs and education went to the Tutsi’s. In the late 1950s the Hutu’s being 85% of the population called for a change in Rwanda's power structure to give them a voice. Belgian decided to side with the Hutu’s and the Tutsi King was overthrown resulting in many Tutsi’s fleeing and becoming unwanted refugee’s in neighbouring counties like Uganda.

Before Rwanda became an independent African run country, it was under Belgian control. In the 1930s Belgium imposed indirect rule and put Tutsis in control of government. The Belgians did not invent the two ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi, but colonial intervention enforced a new meaning for the two ethnicities and thus engrained a hierarchy among the Rwandans . The Tutsis could be determined by their taller slighter build, lighter skin and thinner noses; in conclusion, they were the whitest Africans . By 1994 the two groups were visibly indistinguishable because of mixed parentage. This is portrayed in the movie Hotel Rwanda when a journalist asks two women what ethnicity they are; he discovers that one is Hutu and the other Tutsi. The journalist replies that the women could be twins. In the 1950s the newly established United Nations began to pressure Belgium to vacate Rwanda. Belgium introduced reforms to increase Hutu representation in politics, so from the 1950s until 1962, when Rwanda achieved independence a Hutu movement was born. The Hutu movement was gaining momentum and national recognition; the violence conducted during this period forced thousands of Tutsis to leave the country. In 1961 Belgium sponsored the federal election and a Hutu man, Gregoire Kayibanda was elected to power. This Hutu revolution excluded Tutsis from government and military. Kayibanda’s successor,

This caused the Belgian colonists to feel frightened because they did not want to lose power in Rwanda, due to how Rwanda helped Belgian’s gain imperialism.14 By the mid 1950’s Belgian colonists decided to favour the Hutus, so the Belgian government can take back some power from Tutsis.15 This decision made by the Belgian government only made things worse in Rwanda as the Hutus (who make up 85% of Rwanda’s population) overthrew the Tutsi and Belgian government. In the 1959 Presidential election in Rwanda, the Hutus elected Greg wa Kayabanada, who then used the same method of controlling Rwanda as the Belgian colonists once did.16 Kayabanda used the identity discrimination but this time it was against the Tutsis. The Tutsis were now denied higher education, ownership of land, and positions in the

Twenty-three years ago, in a small, central African country identified as Rwanda, approximately 1,000,000 individuals belonging to the Tutsi tribe were massacred by a rival tribe, known as the Hutus. The hatred that resulted in the Hutus slaughtering the Tutsis originated from a rivalry that was created centuries before the infamous massacre. Living in an agricultural community, the Hutus were traditionally peasant cultivators, while the Tutsis were cattle lopers. Through their work, the Tutsis gained wealth and, consequently, political power. The divide between the Hutus and the Tutsis was only made more dangerous as Europeans traveled to Rwanda, favoring the Tutsis. As the inferior race, the Hutus were denied government positions, higher education, and were forced into slave labor. In retaliation, the Hutus gained political power through a democratic vote put on by Belgian missionaries from the Tutsis through the 8:1 majority ratio. The Tutsi power was completely reversed into total Hutu power, as “the oppressed became the oppressor.”

In 1994, pandemonium over took Rwanda and Burundi. In April to July, Rwanda was home to a genocide that claimed the life of some 500,000 to a million people. Starting around the same time, Burundi exploded into a civil war. Unlike in Rwanda, Burundi’s civil lasted for many years, the official end was in 2005. Although the events were different, both events were derived from ethnic issues, specifically between the Hutu and the Tutsi. In both countries, the Tutsi minority, only about fifteen percent of the population, were the targets of the Hutu majority, about eighty-five percent of the population. Caught in the middle of the chaos was one Tutsi man whose incredible journey was captured by Tracey Kidder in Strength in What Remains. Throughout

In 1994, Rwanda’s population was made up of three ethnic groups, the Hutus, the Tutsi, and the Twas. Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi for their country’s social, economic, and political problems. Because of this, The Hutu extremists decided to kill the Tutsi and the Hutus who were opposed to the extremists. “In the early 1990s, hutu extremists within Rwanda’s political elite blamed the entire Tutsi minority population for the country’s increasing social, economic, and political pressures.” This shows that human rights are being violated because one ethnic group decided to blame a minority population for their country’s growing problems. The extremists decided they wanted control back and because of this they felt it was justified to kill as

In 1962 when Belgium left the hutu majority took power. They started to discriminate against the tutsis which turn the population against the minority tutsis which became brutal. When the violence began thousands of tutis left Rwanda but some tutsis remain in Rwanda. The tutsis were restricted to what kind of jobs they can hold, they were also excluded from higher educational and politics.

Tutsis were tall and well educated. Not only did they have better social status, but there also appeared to be more entitled, whereas, the Hutus were those who worked for Tutsis. During the pre- World War I, Rwanda was colonized by Germany, but later when Germany had lost the war, Rwanda came under Belgium’s administration. Under the ruling of Belgium, Tutsis were more favored to be educated, which had made Hutus felt under appreciated, as if they were really treated like servants. (Rwanda Genocide) However, the population of Hutus has always outnumbered the Tutsis, where it accounts 80 percent of the Hutus, 19 percent of Tutsis, and only 1 percent of Twa and Pygmy, the original inhabitants of Rwanda. (Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter, 2014) Towards the end of Belgium’s ruling, the Hutus were given more authority from the Belgians. Since the majority is the Hutus, the group had seeked influence to subdue the minorities, specifically the Tutsis. Even before independence in 1959, the Hutus had ultimately sparked revolution, causing around 300,000 of Tutsis to escape to the neighboring country, Uganda, where they settled down for nearly 30 years. In 1961, the Hutus had victoriously overthrown Tutsi’s power, advocated the country a republic, and within that same year, Rwanda gained its independence. After the Tutsis had fled the country, in 1973, Major General Juvenal Habyarimana,

Rwanda Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungo stated, “We have the same language, the same religions. There is no song or dance or drum-beat that is peculiar to one or the other of our people. We had disputed before the colonial period over things like land-ownership, and sometimes there were little fights, but the chiefs dealt with it in the traditional way and never did we suffer destruction like we have just experienced” (1). The racist theories of earlier colonizers tried to differentiate the two groups based on physical appearances. Belgians considered Tutsi to be more European and were given educational advantages. Hutu were excluded from all levels of power and left as a minority position. These disadvantages along with the nations poverty, over population from refugees, land pressures, and ecological degradation would rage the extremists and fuel their hatred. Rebels (interahamwe) and Hutu extremists hunted Tutsi. The propaganda was fed through the Radio stations giving Hutu ideas of how to find, capture, and kill Tutsi. Hutu rebels called the Tutsi minority cockroaches and felt it was

Burundi’s first displacement followed the selective genocide’ against the Hutu population in 1972 (Thomas 2009). Some of the people from Burundi have fled their country because of this ethnic-based war that ended in 2005 (Central n.d). The violence in Burundi has caused physical and sexual violence towards their citizens, which is why the women and children feel forced to flee their homelands in order to seek freedom. The IRC reported that there have been 72% of rape cases reported that occurred in Burundi while in transit (Burundi: Women 2015) Since April 2015, there have been many protests against the current president, Pierre Nkurunziza, after he decided to prolong his term of presidency for a third year. The protests against him have only increased the amount of attacks between Nkurunziza’s security forces and his opponents causing at least 400 deaths. It is because of this that over 220,000 people have fleed their homes in seek of refuge (Jones 2015). Nkurunziza has tried to get many young boys to join his armed forces. His recruitment causes fear to many young boys causing them to flee to Tanzania to seek

The Belgians also decreed that Tutsis should be the only ones in power and thus removed Hutus from positions of power and excluded them from higher education (Arraras). “By assuring the Tutsis’ monopoly of power the Belgians set the stage for future conflict in Rwanda” (Arraras). The Tutsis were enjoying their status as being superior to the Hutus but all that changed in 1959 with the Hutu revolution and so in 1960 and 1961 the Hutus won the elections. Since then, ethnic tensions had always been brewing between the Hutus and the Tutsis. However the tensions escalated when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994. I consider this to be a form of political violence because someone or a group that opposed this President which represented only the political interests as well as the viability of the Hutus had to be killed in order for another group possibly the Tutsis to fill the vacuum of power left by the Hutu president. The Hutus blamed the assassination of their president on the Tutsis and in turn sparked an all out massacre waged on to the Tutsi people.

In order to understand what happened in the Rwanda genocide I must talk about Burundi and the Belgian rule. Hutu and Tutsi have lived in the same area for centuries and share the same language, religions, and even clan systems. Hutu and Tutsi have also intermarried for years before these genocides even occurred. For 60 years Burundi was under colonial rule of Germany until WWI when Belgium took control Ruanda-Urundi. This caused the Hutu and Tutsi people great separation because the Belgians created this division between them by choosing which ones would be Hutu and which ones would be Tutsi. Hutu were normally short and stocky, while Tutsi were tall and skinny; Dr. Hadidja Nyiransekuye pointed it out to me that there really is no difference between the Hutu and the Tutsi, you could find some Tusti that were short and stocky and you could find Hutu that were tall and skinny, also they intermarried and had children together so how couldn’t you really tell them apart. The Belgians just placed identification cards stating who people were based on what they thought was “correct” in order to separate an already established country.