Hotel Rwanda Genocide

Genocides happen when ethnic divisions become apparent. Many times, these ethnic divisions were due to colonization from people of different race. These cases are especially true in Africa when Europeans colonized their territory, with clear racial divisions between them (Gavin). These genocides go on because of nations acting on ignorance and refusing to help out the nations in turmoil, allowing the genocides to continue, without wasting their own resources. These nations purposefully ignoring the slaughter of people cause the nations to also be guilty of the genocide underway (“The Heart”). The genocide occurred in Rwanda in Central Africa during 1994. The decades of Tutsi oppression of Hutus and the assassination of President Habyarimana in 1994 led to the genocide in Rwanda.

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Habyarimana and Burundi’s president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali their were no survivors. They did not know who shot the plane down but they are blaming Hutu extremists and the leaders of the RPF. An hour after the plane went down the Rwandan armed forces and the Hutu militia groups had started setting up roadblocks and barricades, and started killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus. the first victims of the genocide were the moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her 10 Belgian bodyguards, with that happening it started more conflict and interim government of extremist Hutu Power leaders from the military high command had stepped in on april 9. The killing in Rwanda had spreaded to the rest of the country, up to 800,000 or more had been slaughtered within 3 months.

This investigation studies two of the causes of the 1994 genocide of Rwanda. The two causes are examined in order to see to what extent each contributed to the genocide. The social and ethnic conflicts between two Rwandan groups called the Hutus and the Tutsis caused violent disputes and riots. The assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana is often thought of as the event that sparked the mass murders. Did the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana influence the Rwandan genocide of 1994 more than the ongoing social and ethnic conflicts?

In 1994, genocide unfolded in Rwanda claiming the lives of more than 700,000 Tutsi massacred at the hands of Hutu extremist, while the entire world stood by and watched. Some would argue this event was a result of civil unrest between the Tutsi and Hutu stemming from ancient

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.

On April 7th, 1994 in the small East African country of Rwanda the darkest and most brutal tragedy occurred, the Rwandan genocide. 800,000 Tutsi’s and Rwandan men and women were grossly slaughtered by the Hutu government. This was one of the worst genocides in history and yet not many people spoke about it, why? I believe many people did not say anything is because they were scared that they would be caught and then killed. A man by the name of Philippe Gaillard was a part of the Red Cross international committee in Kigali. He was one of the few people who spoke up about the tragedies occurring in Rwanda. He told his friend who was a news reporter for the BBC in France and published his story. By Gaillard not “shutting up” about the situation it made the Hutu extremists embarrassed and this lead to the Hutu government allowing the Red Cross committee to have safe passage throughout Rwanda. “America, the beautiful America, the brave”, was what America was known for being, but after the ethnic cleansing of the Rwandan people it changed.

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.

The continent of Africa has been continually engaged in civil, tribal and cross national conflicts from colonial independence up until present day. What historians regard as the most ‘efficient genocide’ in history, occurred in a mere 100 days in the small central African country of Rwanda. The Hutus and the Tutsis, two ethnic groups within Rwanda, have been at continual unrest for the past half a century. During the 100 day massacre of 1994, a murder occurred every two seconds; resulting in 18% of the Tutsi population being killed. A decade after the war, in 2004, the film Hotel Rwanda was released. The film followed the story of a Hutu man; Paul Rusesabagina as he housed over 1200 Tutsi refugees in his hotel. The Hotel De Milles

During the Rwandan genocide, it didn’t matter whether or not you have known someone for five years or fifteen years, in the end, you would be killed. In this time, many people who married Tutsis were targeted as well due to the fact that they were married or engaged. Even having a relationship even if it was not exclusive you were targeted for being interested in a Tutsi, who at the time were called cockroaches. Tutsis were identified by having lighter skin, lighter eyes, and thinner noses. They were also typically taller and thinner. Yet that doesn't make someone Tutsi or Hutu, yet back then if you had any of these traits you were considered a Tutsi even if you were really a Hutu. This racial segregation that was created led to many

The Rwandan Genocide was one that will never be forgotten. It occured from April 7, 1994 to July 1994. Rwanda was mainly separated into three different ethnic groups. The Hutus, the Tutsis, and the Twa. The population of the Hutus in Rwanda was about 84 percent of the country, the Tutsis group was 15 percent, and the Twa ethnicity was only a trivial 1 percent. The start of the country’s civil war was triggered by the killing of the Rwandan president. The country was having difficulties before the assassination, and the killing only initiated the anger. The Rwandan Genocide left the country struggling to reconstruct the relationships between its people.

In the middle of Africa there lies a small country by the name of Rwanda. Rwanda is made up of three different ethnic groups: the Twa (a group of aboriginals who were the first to settle there), the Hutu, and the Tutsi. Starting in the mid 1990’s, Rwanda was thrown into a terrible genocide stemming from deep ethnic hatred between the Hutus and the Tutsi. This atrocity was not readily noticed or acted upon by the rest of the world at first, but would soon shock it with the horrors that took place.

It is almost too easy to think of the Rwandan Genocide as something out of a fictional horror film, in that it almost doesn’t seem possible such atrocities could have actually occurred. Only at the cinema could murdering and dismembering the bodies of perfectly innocent citizens, many of them children, be imaginable. The story of the Rwandan Genocide is one of a great divide between the Hutu and Tutsi people. However, there was no real reason for this division to come to fruition. They didn’t have religious disagreements, as in the Armenian Genocide, nor were they born into an environment with extreme ethnic tensions. European colonialism in the Rwandan region ultimately created the “ethnic” divide between the Hutu and and Tutsi groups

On April 6 1994, President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down after leaving a ceasefire negotiation with Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) in Tanzania. Which lead to what is known today as the genocide in Rwanda; a three-month period in which 333 people were killed every hour, or about five people every minute (125). All while the International powers that could have stepped in and made a difference either ignored the situation or supported and enabled the massacre. Gourevitchs book probably provides one of the clearest pictures on the ways that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved with just a little bit of intervention on behalf of the international community, or in some cases the seizure of international intervention. However,

The term genocide encompasses some of the darkest times in the history of the world. There is no definitive answer as to what drives one sect of society to try and eliminate another based purely on their cultural, racial, national or political affiliation either by birth or by choice. During World War II, between six and eleven million Jewish people were systematically exterminated by the Nazis. Although it was the most prolific of genocides, it was not the first or the last of this atrocity to occur. In 1994, genocide occurred in the African nation of Rwanda. At the time it happened, the world paid little heed while almost a million people were killed. After the incident, the reaction of the United Nations came under scrutiny as researchers

The murder President Habrayimana by the Tutsi’s rebels was the starting of the genocide. Before the murder, the President has agreed to make peace agreement with the Tutsi’s rebel’s forces. However, after the murder, The Hutu became more offended by the actions taken by the Tutsi. General George Rutaganda, the leader of Interahamwe militia makes an order to Hutu to kill all the Tutsi and to wipe out the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels. After that, the situations get even worst as the anti-Tutsi militia of Interahamwe start the chaos by killing all the Tutsi civilians.