Ghosts Of Rwanda

The documentary “Ghost in Rwanda” illustrates the devastation of the 1994 Genocide where approximately eight hundred thousand Rwandans were exterminated by their own government. The genocide was a result of ongoing conflicts between the Hutu, the ethnic majority in Rwanda, and the Tutsi the ethnic minority. The United Nation assisted in the establishment of a peace agreement between the two warring parties and sent General Romeo Dallaire, UN Force Commander, to Rwanda to ensure the terms of the agreement were honored. Dallaire had never seen action and welcomed opportunity to make a difference supporting peace in Africa. The peace mission was especially important to Dalliaire in light of recent U.N. failures to maintain peace in Somalia and Bosnia.

Rwanda is a country located in the middle of the African continent. The two ethnic groups present in the country lived in peace under their monarch until the arrival of Europeans. The Belgians arrival into Rwandan is what split the two ethnic groups of the Tutsi and Hutus, making them identify themselves with ID cards. This caused tension between the two groups as the Belgians favored the ethnic Tutsi, and made them the head of the government. Decade’s later Hutu extremists would take over the government and have revenge on the Tutsi. The new government would send out broadcasts calling on Hutus to kill their friends and neighbors. The Rwandan genocide would become the worst genocide to ever happen in Africa and one of the worst in the world. Today Rwanda’s recovery is surprisingly fast with the help of multiple nations and organizations. Rwanda’s recovery is nothing short of a miracle and is an amazing story of a war between two peoples.

Does the Genocide in Rwanda have a singular cause? I do not believe so; the cause of genocide in Rwanda in 1994 was due to years of built up hatred between the Tutsis and the Hutus along with many other occurrences. The Rwandan Genocide is no exception with many variables contributing to the horrific events that took place. According to the documentary Ghosts of Rwanda, in 1994, Rwanda experienced a premeditated, systematic and state sponsored genocide with the aim of exterminating those who were ethnically identifiable as Tutsi. Between 500,000 and 800,000 people were killed in a period of 100 days, with around 77 percent of the population registered as Tutsi being murdered.

Initially, Western media dismissed the beginnings of the genocide as just another “tribal conflict” or civil war in “war-torn Africa”. This often led outside countries to dismiss the conflict for up to a month. Soon, however, as the Western journalists in Rwanda began to communicate to their countries how bad the violence really was, a growing understanding of just how catastrophic the genocide was finally began hitting the West. Unfortunately, before the West could gauge much more, all non-Rwandan people were ordered out of the country. French, Belgian, American, and other citizens living in Rwanda were ordered back to their country and they took with them the last of the journalists who were truly connected to the Western world. Information about what was happening every day and how the genocide was escalating was limited (The Editorial Board). Even then, there were enough humanitarian organizations on the ground that constantly updated the international community on the disastrous state of Rwanda. Despite knowing enough about the genocide to at least intervene on some level, the international community was especially slow to move. People were dying at alarming numbers in Rwanda and the world was hesitant to move because it did not want to label the conflict a genocide ("Rwanda, Genocide, Hutu, Tutsi, Mass Execution...”). Calling the conflict a genocide would mean definitive involvement and this involvement, purely done for humanitarian reasons, would take up money and resources. Since most countries had no interests to protect in Rwanda, they felt a limited sense of urgency and discussed the correct definition of the word “genocide” while thousands got displaced and died ("Rwanda, Genocide, Hutu, Tutsi, Mass Execution...”). Aside from not wanting to spend resources, nations like America were hesitant to intervene in Africa because of their past on the continent. In the past, American soldiers

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.

Similar to the Apartheid in South Africa, the genocide in Rwanda was not a random event. It was instead the result of generations of discrimination and abuse based on ethnic groups. In the early 19th century during Rwanda’s colonial period, there already existed a divide between the elite Tutsi cattle herders and the majority of the population who were peasant farmers, known as Hutu.[i] In 1918, Rwanda came under Belgian control, “during which the ruling Belgians favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbating the tendency of the few to oppress the many.”[ii] In 1933, the Belgians then proceeded to institutionalize this system of discrimination by mandating ethnic ID cards, while still favoring the Tutsi

Before watching this documentary from Frontline, I had never realized about the atrocities that had occurred in Rwanda in 1994. I had been naive in not realizing that mass genocidal killings like the ones shown were happening in our modern world. It was my assumption that international organizations like the United Nations or the United States would take action to prevent these horrendous acts from occurring. It was deeply shocking and overwhelming to see the horrendous acts humans were doing to each other. The murderers in Rwanda acted like savage animals without society or government to stop them from killing 800,000 innocent people. The most interesting aspect of the documentary was learning that the international community failed on purpose and let hundreds of thousands of people die.

In Germany in the 1940s, 6.5 million people were killed, all either belonged to the religious group of the Jews, were handicapped, or were gypsies. Rwanda consisted of two main ethnic groups, the Tutsi and the Hutu (Stephen 43). Throughout the years the ethnic group in power switched back and forth, the genocide of 1994 occurred because one group was viewed as the lesser group and ethnic hatred was spread throughout the country. In Darfur … If you add up the casualties in each genocide the total is 7.5 million to 8 million lives lost; 6.4 million in Germany, 500,000 to 1,000,000 in Rwanda, and 600,000 in Darfur. After the tragic events in Germany during World War II, America’s failure to learn from its past is shown when America fails to help or stop the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, the people of America need to be educated on genocide and on what needs to be done to prevent

On April 7, 1994, tragedy began. In the small country of Rwanda, a civil war between

Bang!Boom! The Hutus entered Tutsis homes and started to kill using machetes, guns and their hands. They killed the young, old, disabled, it didn’t matter. On the night of April 7th,1994 the elimination of the Tutsi race began.The Hutu and Tutsis did not live in perfect harmony before the invasion of Europeans. Major problems did not occur until after colonialism was over. When the Europeans settled down, they divided Hutus and Tutsis by their physical traits. Tutsis were favored by the Europeans causing hatred from Hutus. With their division amongst different races, European colonialism put Rwanda on the road to genocide.The mass murder of millions of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the Rwandan Genocide was driven by the imperialistic motives of the Belgian government.

There is a genocide that is happening and there is nothing that we did about it. There are nations like the United States that are seen as leaders though they don’t seem to do anything to intervene in this situation. Every minute that passed in the Rwanda genocide there was someone who was killed and during the span of 100 days there were more than 800,000 (Mostly Tutsis) deaths. The United Nation sent peace keepers to Rwanda but that didn’t resolve anything but just monitor cease-fire. No force was allowed to be used and Rwanda had to resolve their own problem.

Rory Carroll, author of The Guardian article “U.S Chose To Ignore Rwandan Genocide”, explains the moves the U.S could have made to prevent the situation from getting worse. America’s president at the time, Bill Clinton, chose not to act. Instead he covered up the truth by saying it was an “act” of genocide, not a real one. It was this lie that jeopardized possibly thousands of more lives, and would tear families apart. Rwanda was deemed a place that would not help America in anyway, with no money or resources that could be collected, so the choice was to not help them. It was a selfish move on America’s part, the things we gain, no matter small or big, should never be more important than innocent lives being taken away, and it is crucial to remember that. People argued that, if we did intervene, troops would have been lost making the country face with the question of whether or not our own should be put on the line for others. It is human nature to want to save yourself or family over strangers, but it is important to realize that we are one world, one world that requires the help of others to save ourselves, no matter the

In the reading of “Return to Rwanda”, Mr. Ferguson uses his primary source, Mr. Munyezamu, to capture the reality and extreme pain that families and victims had to go through during the genocide and after the fact with the loss of family and possessions. He told of how the Rwandan rebel group gathered in preparation of takeover (Tutsis) and how the other had no idea of what was coming for them (Hutu’s)(Ferguson, 2014). The president of Rwanda, unaware of the ground below his plane was shot out of the sky, killing him and all aboard, being the possible pressure point of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide. The genocide then began a short time after the Presidents death, later showing horror in numbers. After the killings

The last and most important similarity is that these events still require our attention and help. The infrastructure has been rebuilt, Hutus and Tutsis live together as neighbors and there have been no major outbreaks of violence. In the years since the genocide, Rwandans have worked hard to overcome that legacy. It is considered a safe country with little to no corruption and a burgeoning economy (O’Donnell 4). Remains of victims are still being found. Here is a quotation that might better help you understand the recovery process from the prospective of a first hand witness in Rwanda:

The Rwandan genocide is a grim reminder of how the world failed to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians. The conflict between the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s resulted in the massacre of 800,000 Tutsi’s in 100 days. Following the Second World War, the UN was created to constitute the obligation to protect; it is an attempt at a mutual effort to encourage international peace. How could the world allow such an atrocity to transpire without any retribution from anyone? The media undoubtedly functioned as an essential factor to the world for not understanding exactly what was developing in Rwanda. There was an ignorant notion of turning away from the atrocity because it was “far away”. The Clinton Administration was in charge during this conflict and