Causes Of The Rwandan Genocide In Rwanda

For years, Rwanda has been a hotbed of racial tension. The majority of the Rwandan population is made up of Hutu's, with Tutsi's making up the rest of it. Ever since European colonial powers entered the country and favoured the Tutsi ethnic group over the Hutu by putting Tutsi people in all important positions in society, there has been a decisive political divide between the two groups. This favouring of the Tutsi over the Hutu, and the Hutu subjugation as an ethnic lower class resulted in the civil war and revolution of 1959, where the Hutu overthrew the Tutsi dominated government, and resulted in Rwanda gaining their independence in 1962.

The tensions that led up to the genocide came into being after Belgium colonized Rwanda and had divided the people into two groups: the Hutus & the Tutsis. Although the Hutus held the majority, the Tutsis had the power because the Belgians had favoured the Tutsis. As a result, this caused a lot of resentments among the Hutus. Once Rwanda had gained independence and Belgium had left, the Hutus claimed control over the nation. As depicted in the movie, the genocide began with the murder of President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu. The Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi rebels for shooting down the president’s plane and killing everyone else on board. Although this was never confirmed, the Hutus began to slaughter thousand of Tutsi civilians, as a

Rwanda is located in central and east Africa; Rwanda is slightly smaller than Maryland. It has three main ethnic groups the Hutus, Twa and Tutsis. The hutus were farmers eking out a modest living from the land while the tutsis dominate the hutus with wealth and power their cattle gave them. The true cause of Rwanda Genocide was because of foreign imperialistic powers that causes indifference and hate among the tutsis and hutus.

The cessation of hostilities from the RPF had put the Hutu’s president responsibility to seek for the country’s harmonization. President Habyarimana, therefore, held negotiations with the RPF leader to set an agreement to end the civil war. In Tanzania, he signed a power-sharing agreement, approved to include the RPF as well. However, it had angered the Hutu extremists, who would have gone to any extent to keep out the RPF from holding the power. (Staff,

On April 6th, 1994, President Habyarimana was flying back to Rwanda when his plane was shot down and he was killed. Hutu extremists accused the RPF of this action, using it as an excuse to launch the genocide. Within hours of the plane crash, Hutu extremists quickly began exterminating the Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In the meantime, the Interahamwe set up road blocks to identify Tutsis, assembled killing squads armed with machetes, and instructed them to hunt down and kill all Tutsi and moderate Hutus. To spread the word, the Interahamwe set up radio stations broadcasting messages to kill all Tutsi “cockroaches”, a term the Hutus used in reference to the Tutsis. According to René Lemarchand, a French-American political scientist, "An estimated 20,000 people were killed in Kigali and its environs in the three weeks following the crash" (Lemarchand 2). The speed and extent of the massacre were unprecedented and the killings in Rwanda rapidly expanded from the capital, Kigali, to the rest of the country. Lemarchand continues, “For weeks and months, hundreds and thousands of Tutsi civilians (and Hutu civilians who looked like Tutsi), men, women and children, were shot, speared, clubbed or hacked to pieces in their homes, church compounds and courtyards” (Lemarchand 7). The Interahamwe and brainwashed Rwandan civilians, hunted down and brutally hacked to death their Tutsi neighbors

Before long, the massacre has started as war crept up on the Tutsi’s and the Hutu’s. “Rwanda: How the genocide happened” states the start of the genocide was triggered by the death of the Rwanda President Juvenal Habyarimana, who’s plane had been shot down. The Rwandan’s were most certain the shot was from the President’s guard (Sullivan), but the act was pointed to President Paul Kagme, leader of the “Tutsi Rebel group” (“Rwanda: How the genocide happened”). Beforehand, Habyarimana signed a peace record with a rebel group of Tutsi, for his people had thought it was to share his power with Tutsis. Slaughter had taken place less than thirty minutes afterwards (Sullivan). Recruits were being sent throughout the continent to begin the massive

Roughly 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers were killed during the events of the Rwandan genocide. Although tensions were high between the Hutus and the Tutsis long before the genocide began, the assassination of Rwanda's second president, President Habyariama, created even more hostility between the two ethnic groups. Extreme Hutu nationalists accused a Tutsi organization called the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), and many Tutsis blamed Hutus. Because of this disagreement, extremist Hutu groups such as the Hutu militia and the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) were encouraged by radical radio stations to use brutality and force to seek revenge for the death of the Hutu president. Within the first few days of the genocide, Hutu militia groups executed the US Ambassador to Rwanda, Ambassador Rawson, and 250 other Americans. The FAR and Hutu militia used rape as a tactic to defeat the opposing groups. Moreover, the Hutu radical groups used rape as a major weapon throughout the events of the genocide. In early July, towards the end of the genocide, the RPF "gained control of the country through a military offensive … hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were dead and many more displaced from their homes" . Because the genocide lasted only 100

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

The killing of the people in this ethnic group leads to the genocide which is my dependent variable. As you can see in this first example each of my variables connect to one another to show what caused the genocide in Rwanda. Although, the fall of government was one big factor that caused the genocide there is also two more that I will eventually talk about in my paper.

The genocide was a terrible thing in the country of Rwanda in Africa. It was one of the most brutal killing sprees in human history. The genocide was a terrible thing which caused people’s death, and affected many people’s lives, and had a terrible outcome in the end.

The Rwandan Genocide obviously started in Rwanda, and was between the Hutu and the Tutsi. The Hutu had controlled the government for quite some time, and the Tutsi were trying to take it back now. This conflict had been going since 1990 in the form of a civil war, then in 1994 after the Rwandan president was shot down in his plane, the government started killing all who opposed them, and therefore, the genocide started. While the country was very poor at the time, there was not much they could do in the sense of self defense. It started in April and ended in May of the same year, it was a 100 day “war” that killed close to 500,000 Rwandan people.

During the beginning in the 20th century the majority of the Rwandan population belonged to the Hutu ethnic group. The Hutu were the laborers and the Tutsis were the landowners. It is estimated that about 200,00 people participated in the Rwandan Genocide. These two ethnic groups are not really different but there are still problems of ethnicity in Rwanda, “although Rwanda has made significant progress since the genocide, ethnic tensions remain (Modern Genocide: Understanding Causes and Consequences 186).” Yes Rwanda has made progress throughout time since the genocide, but ethnic tensions still does exist

On the 6th of April 1994, the Rwandan President Juvenual Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down above Kigali Airport. The Hutu population of Rwanda used this death as a reason to start hunting down and killing the Tutsi, the other main group of people in Rwanda. On the 7th of April, the day after the genocide started, the Rwandan Patriotic Force gave the Hutu forces an ultimatum, either cease the killing or resume civil war with the RPF. The Hutu launch a pre-emptive attack against the national parliament building which the RPF successfully defend. After that the RPF launched a 3 pronged attack from the north with the goal being to meet up with the isolated RPF soldiers in Kigali. While the RPF pushed across Rwanda, taking

Prior to colonial era, Rwanda had larger population of Hutus compared to Tutsis and Twa. Rwanda as a country was divided into three ethnic groups i.e. Hutu (approximately about 85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%) (United Nations). Although, Tutsis were the minorities, they belonged to the higher strata compared to the other ethnic groups; Tutsis were privileged and had power and control over the Hutus and Twas. “Hutus were formerly bound to their Tutsi patrons via client ship” (Sinema, 2012). When Rwanda was colonized by Germany followed by Belgium, they favored Tutsis as they represented the upper class prior to the colonization. These created a social system like feudal system where there was a power difference between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Tutsis were considered as lord and the Hutus on the other hand, were considered as peasants. As a consequence, this created an ethic tension between the Hutus and the Tutsis and created a system more like apartheid. Nonetheless, they managed to co exist in Rwanda until they were decolonized. Although there is no social distinction between the Hutus and the Tutsis, the conflict between these tribes increased tremendously after the independence from Belgian that led to mass murder and ethnic cleansing of the Tutsi by the Hutu.

There’s multiple genocides that happened in the world and some genocides are still happening today. Most genocides aren’t as known as other genocides. The genocides that are known, most people either don’t know information about them or know little information about the genocide. The Rwandan genocide happened in 1994. Belgian colonization of Rwanda favored Tutsis over Hutus. After the Belgians left in 1962, the Hutus took power. Tutsis led attempted coup in 1990 leading to civil war. President Habyarimana called for an end to war, but was killed when his plane was shot down in 1994. Hutus responded with mass killings of the Tutsis. Within 100 days, 800,000 Tutsis were dead. The Rwandan genocide can be classified as one of the most tragic and terrible genocide there is.