Congo Genocide

Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest

At these moments, life in the Congo is a living nightmare. The eastern provinces of the Congo see violence every day. Women are getting raped at alarming rates. Children are constantly abused and forced to become child soldiers. There are no sources of medicine or even clean water. Anyone can get murdered at any time, and no one is even safe in their own homes.

April 7, 1994 marked the beginning of one hundred days of massacre that left over 800,000 thousand dead and Rwanda divided by a scare that to this day they are trying to heal. The source of this internal struggle can be traced back to the segregation and favoritism established by Belgium when they received Rwanda after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1918. At the time the Rwandan population was 14% Tutsi, 1%Twa, and 85% Hutus; the Belgian’s showed preferential treatment to the Tutsi, who were seen as socially elite, by giving them access to higher educations and better employment. This treatment causes the uprising of the Hutus in 1959 overthrowing the Tutsi government forcing many to flee the country, sparking even greater resentment between the two ethic groups. Without the interference and preferential treatment by the Belgian’s this atrocity could have likely been avoided.

During this period of time, 10,000 people were murdered each day and more than 6 men, women and children were murdered every minute every day. This kept going for about 3 months.

The Cambodian genocide began in 1975 when Pol Pot, a Khmer Rouge leader, attempted to for a Communist peasant farming society. About 1.5 million Cambodians died. [10]

Imagine spending 91 days hiding in a 3- by 4-foot bathroom with six other people while outside, thousands of your tribe members are being slaughtered. That's what happened to Immaculee Illibagiza during the 1993 Rwanda genocide, and the world must make sure it never happens again. The world's nations have a "responsibility to protect" people from the worst human rights abuses. Also, inaction can lead to genocide and other atrocities. Finally, international security is threatened when helpless citizens are in crisis. This proves that the international community should send military forces to stop the massacre in Swurundi.

A Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially of those of an ethnic group or nation. There has been seven genocides, and the Rwanda genocide is no exception. Only a little less than a million people were killed, over a period of approximately 100 days (Singh 1). With the bad living conditions already in Rwanda, it is a place of poverty and discomfort for many people among other problems such as inequality. The genocide could have been prevented if Rwanda, and surrounding countries, had placed refugee camps near Rwanda for fleeing Tutsis, the United Nations stepping in sooner and educating the public on the genocide, and allowing the Hutus to have as much of a voice that the Tutsis had (before the genocide had started).

Genocides are an act of mass murdering for a certain reason, some of the genocides that have happened has been because of hatred against a certain religion, Race, appearance, gender, and many more. Genocides have happened in many occasions throughout time one of the most well genocides know around the world is the holocaust which was a genocide that wiped the majority of the Jewish race. Many other genocides have happened around the world that aren't well known because it wasn't at a scale like the holocaust, but it doesn't make the act any less horrible. Some other well-known genocide, that are only a small portion of the total cases of genocides are the Rwanda,Haiti,Darfur,Bosnia,Cambodia genocides which are genocides that happen throughout

During the 1900s, there were two mass killings that occurred: one in Nazi Germany and the other in the Congo Free State. Although these mass killings developed due to different motives, the two lead to a significant amount of deaths and mutilations. The mass killings in Nazi Germany are now known as the Holocaust, which took place from 1933 to 1945. The perpetuators of these killings were the Nazis, who were supporters of the beliefs of the Nazi Party in Germany, while the victims were mainly Jewish people and non-Aryans, which were seen as inferior races. On the other hand, the Force Publique, an army made of Europeans and local men under King Leopold, committed the killings and other acts of violence against the indigenous tribes and natives

Although genocide has been occurring for the last couple of decades, many people don’t know about it. Genocide is the deliberate killing of large amount of people or groups, especially in a particular ethnic group or nation. Many people disappeared, don’t come back, or their family don’t know what happened to them. Genocide has been occurring since 1945 probably even earlier. Genocide has occurred over than 75 different countries. Although there are 26 that are the major ones and the ones with the most people since the Holocaust. Some of the countries that it has occurred are in; Rwanda, Rouge Cambodia, and Darfur.

The history of the African continent has been marked by imperialism, oppression, violence and revolution. The history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, originally named the Belgian Congo is no different. The Democratic Republic of the Congo lies in the heart

Rwanda is a country made up of a population with three ethnic communities, the two main communities, the Hutu and Tutsi and an additional community of Twa (or pygmies) who all spoke the same language, Kinyarwanda or Rwandan (Clapham, 1998). There is a stereotype of appearance attributed to these two main communities, with Tutsi being seen as tall and having an aquiline shaped nose, and the Hutu as being short and flat-nosed (Clapham, 1998). In the pre-colonial state of Rwanda, it was the Tutsis that occupied positions of power even though they were a minority community compared with the majority of the Hutu community, this remained the same until Habyarimana (a Hutu) became President (Clapham, 1998). The Germans, Europeans and Belgian’s colonised and during their time in Rwanda, made it known that they favoured the Tutsis over the Hutus, the Europeans going as far to regard the Hutu and Twa as inferior to the Tutsis (Clapham, 1998). The Belgians eventually changed their views, and favoured the Hutu, foreseeing that the majority Hutu would eventually become dominant (Magnarella, 2005). Supporting the coloniser’s views, Rwandan folktales describe the Tutsi as being intelligent and courageous, the Hutu as being obedient however not very clever, and the twa as loyal to the Tutsis, yet lazy and lacking in restraint (Clapham, 1998). The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was established by Tutsis who were exiled from Rwanda, they retained a strong sense of identity and formed the

The slaughter amongst the Hutus and Tutsis was very disturbing to many. Within 100 days, more than 800,000 Rwandan citizens were killed. (White 471). The conflict between Hutus and Tutsis ruined the lives of many citizens of Rwanda. When President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed, the Hutus blamed the Tutsis for his death and felt like they should pay for it. The killing of President Juvenal Habyarimana led to the Hutus starting the genocide in 1994. (White 472). With the signing of a peace agreement, many Rwandans thought the massive killings were put to an end; but Hutu's were angry and wanted to kill everyone that was against them. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was considered one of the best genocides of the century. White stated, "333 people

The Burundian genocide began in 1962, shortly after Burundi became an independent country. The CIA factbook begins with Burundi’s first democratically elected president in 1993 (CIA). However, this ignores much of the territory’s long, fraught history; it is, in effect, erasure. Without fully understanding Burundi’s past, it is impossible to properly contextualize its present situation. The modern understanding of Burundi, beginning with it’s colonial founding, holds that the country has a bloody history. Yet, oral histories indicate that Burundi’s ethnic groups, the Twa; Hutu; and Tutsi, lived together in relative peace before the country’s colonization (Krueger & Krueger, 2007). In the late 1800s, the independent

The Congo civil war was a outrageous political fight that began just days following Belgium's granting of congolese independence in 1960. Going for four years the associated violence caused an at least 100,000 lives including the nation's first minister from patrice lumumba, an UN secretary Dag who was killed in a plane crash as he attempted a mediate the crisis escalating with the secession of the southernmost province of katanga the conflict concluded five years later with the dictatorship of joseph really wanted mobutu.