Comparing The Mongol Conquest And The Rwandan Genocide

When looking back at the millions of lives lost in genocides, one can only imagine a solution or aid that could have assisted, but also controlled the genocide. A genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people based on their ethnic group or beliefs. When studying past genocides, like in Rwanda and Bosnia, both genocides could have been prevented with the proper help from an outside group, the UN.

One particular case that has been studied recently is the Rwandan Genocide that occurred in 1994. The Rwandan Genocide remains one of the fastest and most brutal cases of genocide in modern history (Temitope and Danjibo 2013). In the years leading up to the genocide there was a civil war between the Government of Rwanda (led by Hutu General Habyarimana) and the Tutsi expat group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who had been in exile in Uganda (Buhr 2015). Following the cease-fire agreement in 1993, there were signs that the agreement would not hold despite the presence of UN peacekeepers (Buhr 2015). In April 1994 General Habyarimana was assassinated, and violence ensued (Buhr 2015). Tutsis were blamed for the death of Habyarimana, despite a lack of evidence (Buhr 2015). From April to July of 1994 vengeful Hutus slaughtered approximately one million Tutsis (Temitope and Danjibo 2013).

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines the act of genocide as killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately imposing conditions intended to bring about the physical destruction of, imposing measures intended to prevent births within, and forcibly transferring children away from any ethnic, national, racial or religious group . Per Alain Destexhe, the three genocides that were committed to the greatest degree during the 20th century were the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan Genocide – and it is on the latter that I will focus on in this paper . I will compare the historical analysis of the Rwandan Genocide laid out in Destexhe’s work, Rwanda and Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide, triggered by the murder of Rwandan President Habyarimana on April 9, 1994, was the fastest, if not most barbarous bloodbath in human history, and was carried out with little to no intervention or aid force from any of the many capable Western governments, such as the United States. Though these administration 's may claim that they were unable to intervene due to lack of warning signs and insufficient information; those statements are false. The United States government refused to intervene in the Rwandan genocide due to its economic disinterest, political indifference, and pure African prejudice, completely ignoring the obvious signs of the genocide.

War, a method people use when communication is useless. In Rwanda, an estimation of 800,000 people had died in such a short time. It was called Rwanda genocide. Rwanda is a small country in Africa with a great agriculture economy. It was controlled by Belgium. Belgium likes the Tutsi's family more than the Hutu's. The Hutu's did not like it so they started violence resulted of the migrating of most of the Tutsi. They were becoming less every time. On 1961, Hutus forced Rwanda's Tutsi Prince into dropping and declaring the country as republic. A year later, Belgium finally granted them their independence. In 1990, the Tutsi formed an army named (RPF) to conquer back their land from Uganda. The attacks started on the 7th of April and ended on

The struggle for power and the constant tension between these two groups led to the event that would spark this genocide. It would occur at 8:30 p.m., on April 6th 1994. On this day President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda was returning from a summit and his plane was shot down, causing the death of everyone on board. (BBC) Hutu extremist immediately took control over the government and blamed the assassination on the Tutsi. This was the last straw for the Hutu.

One of the most prominent genocides that has occurred within the century was not only the Holocaust in 1940s, but also occurred in 1994 in Rwanda… which eventually would be referred to as a “preventable genocide” (p. 447). Rwanda was considered this because, “…On the one hand, it is possible to isolate the key developments that led step by step from the earliest colonial period in Rwanda to the genocide a full century later. On the other, there was nothing inevitable about this process” (p. 447). The genocide that occurred within Rwanda initiated between the two main groups of the country… the Tutsi and the Hutu. The genocide would last for roughly one-hundred days of which, “During 100 days in 1994, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandan Tutsi

Bodies lying in the streets. People hacking each other with machetes and other bladed weapons. Blood splattering the ground. Such was the scene in the spring of 1994 in the African country of Rwanda. The Rwandan Genocide claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of lives over the course of 100 days because of racial tensions between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Over twenty years later, the two tribes live together, but it is an uneasy peace.

Genocide is the destruction of a cultural, racial or political group through the use of “..one-sided mass killings..(Hintjens 267).” The April of 1994, “Rwandan subjects and citizens were the main actors in the genocide (Hintjens 244).” The establishment of colonial rule by the Europeans impacted the conflict in Rwanda due to the creation of ethnic boundaries between the Tutsis and the Hutus. Hierarchies were established based upon European racial theories. Throughout the colonization and independence of Rwanda, the tension generated by European intervention only magnified thus leading to quotas and ineffective regulations. Aside from the assassination of the Rwandan President Habyarimana, propaganda through

In April of 1994, a terrible atrocity began in the African country of Rwanda where around eight hundred thousand individuals were massacred over a time period of 100 brutal days. If thought about in mathematical terms, this works out to about 333 deaths per hour; which is a rate of deaths worse than what occurred during the Holocaust. (2) The term genocide is defined in the United Nations Genocide Convention, established in 1948, as “any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) killing members of the group; b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to

This tragic event which was originated in Rwanda occurred in 1994 killing 800,000 people. The genocide first came about by the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, who was a Hutu. This resulted from the conscious choice of the upper class to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power. The extremist ethnic Hutu regime in office in 1994 believed that the only way they could hang on to power was by wiping out the ethnic Tutsis. This genocide was further carried out and justified with the utilization of radios as they would discuss the suffering of the Hutus under the power of the Tutsis. With the use of machetes the people of the Tutsi descent were slaughtered and tortured making this one of largest genocides in Africa.

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

It is believed that the Hutu and the Tutsi were originally one community who shared some value culture and even religion until the colonialist announced their arrival. Rwanda has experienced a disturbing and prolonged cycle of violent conflict since 1959. The conflict which has been characteristically political and socio-economic in nature has played out mainly on the basis of ethnicity and regionalism. It was first German and Belgium colonialism that created and nurtured the country’s ethnic rivalry between the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi. The rivalry was constructed on the basis of a myth of Tutsi superiority over the Hutu in order to serve both the colonial policy of divide and rule and the colonial division of labor. The Tutsi were designated as the administrative supervisors and the Hutu s the labor force of the extractive colonial economy. The 1959 revolution brought the Hutu to power and ended colonialism. Unfortunately, though it succeeded in changing the colonial socio-political relations, it failed to crush the ethnic stereotypes that continued to haunt the country (Maundi…et al, 2006:31).

The purpose of the study is to find out whether the Rwandan genocide was as a result of ethnic hostilities or other underlying reasons while focusing on its impact on the country’s economic, social, cultural as well as political spheres. It will also seek to fill the gap of knowledge on what could be done to reduce the occurrence of such conflicts.

Beginning on April 6, 1994, Hutus began a mass slaughtering of the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. This mass slaughtering is 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. The hatred against the Tutsis began after the RPF invasion in October of 1990. Accusations from editorials and radio broadcasts claimed Tutsis wanted to establish a monarchy with Hutu slaves; other racial libel included all the Tutsis being called cockroaches.