How The Rwanda Genocide Happened

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.

It is important to study the immediate and gradual causes of the genocide. A good understanding of the devastating Rwandan genocide can help prevent a repeat of such violent events. There were numerous situations that led to the murders, but some could have had a greater impact than others. Two of the biggest causes of the genocide were the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and the hostility between the Hutus and Tutsis. The animosity between the two groups was built up over hundreds of years, while Habyarimana’s assassination was an incident that took place within hours of the beginning of the genocide. Habyarimana’s death seemed to be a trigger for the genocide, but the conflicts between the Hutus and Tutsis could have played an even larger role in the mass murders of thousands of Rwandans. The past relationship between the two groups must be studied in order to understand how they were able to reach a genocide.

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.

In between 1930 and 1945, an event took place that changed the world in many ways. The Holocaust was a genocide that consisted of the decimation of one single race, the Jews. This solemn event is very similar (and also quite different) to another event that took place only four thousand miles away. Like the Holocaust, this event is was a genocide and it took place at Rwanda in 1994. This genocide was between the Hutus and Tutsis. These two groups have a long background with each other that consisted of civil wars, switches in power and superiority, and tension. It began when the Europeans put the Tutsis in a superior position because they were the ones that closely resembled them, the Europeans, in physical appearance. It was the death of

Genocide has been plaguing the world for hundreds of years. Millions of innocent lives have been taken all for the sake of prejudice. One of the most atrocious aspects of genocide is that a large percentage of them are sponsored by the state in which they are taking place. Over the years scholars have studied just what motivates a state to engage in such awful behavior. What motivates them? Why would they do such horrendous things to their own citizens? Is it solely for some economic incentive, or is it simply out of hatred? Most importantly, how is it possible that they get away with it?

The Tutsi are a people who live in Rwanda, Burundi, and the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The location, size, and history, most importantly, is why the Tutsi tribe the second largest population division among the three largest groups in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa. Although the Tutsi tribe is one of the most known tribes in Africa, it comes from a long way of fighting for its' rights and independence.

Explaining the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda helps give an in depth background to what the cause was to the beginning of this nightmare from the Rwandan Revolution to the assassination of President Habyarimana. Describing each certain point, Hintjens writes the understanding of why they died, and what tactics were used in order to discern the actions from each side. Couple years before the killings the Hutus start organizing different military and combat groups to prepare for the genocide, but never acted upon it. While planning the genocide for years, eventually leaked messages, rumors, and warnings were announced over the Tutsis radio. “The Batutsi had already heard the little boy cry ‘wolf’ so many times that they no longer listened.” By the time April 6th came around it was too late for them to flee, the massacres had started. “This was where the spirit withered”

A machete was used to execute the killings. The event was quick. About a million people were killed out of a population of approximately seven million within one hundred days. The article reflects how serious and catastrophic the genocide was. The massacre was more than the Cambodians killing, Yugoslavia’s, and not forgetting the Jewish Holocaust. The killers were the Hutus and the victims were the Tutsis regarded as the minority. Sadly, it was easier to trace the dead Tutsis than those who were alive within the early months of the massacre. The massacre started in April and mid-July is when a rebel army intervened bringing to a halt the heinous act. The United Nations Experts termed the massacre “genocide” as it was planned, concerted, and systematic. In addition, it was carried out methodically and resulted in the killing of masses of people (Gourevitch, 1995). Rwanda Tribunal will soon charge the Rwandans who took part in the genocide. Hence, what it means to survive when around a million people are murdered. The perpetrators will soon face the law even if they go into hiding. Notably, the killings have been a habit. The killings are traceable toward the end of the 1950 with the Tutsis murder seen as bush

It all started because Congo is filled with resources that envied other countries or even the other African states. The Rwanda genocide was the starting of the war in 1994. In this genocide, Hutu-power groups led mass killings of Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus by murdering 800,000 people in 100 days.

The Rwandan president, Habyarimana and the president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, are killed when the president’s plane is shot down near Kigali Airport, on April 6th, 1994. That night on the 6th of April, 1994, the genocide begins. Hutu people take to the streets with guns and machetes. The Hutus set up roadblocks and stopped anyone that looked Tutsi or suspected of helping Tutsi people to hide. On April 7th, 1994 the Rwandan Armed Forces set up roadblocks and went house to house to kill any Tutsis found. Thousands of people die on the first, while the U.N. just stands by and watches the slaughter go on. On April 8th, 1994 the U.N. cuts its forces from 2,500 to 250 after ten U.N. soldiers were disarmed and tortured and shot or hacked to death by machetes, trying to protect the Prime Minister. As the slaughter continues the U.N. sends 6,800 soldiers to Rwanda to protect the civilians, on May 17th, 1994, they were meant to be the peacekeepers. The slaughter continues until July 15th, 1994, in the 100 days that the genocide lasted 800,000-1,000,000 Tutsis and Hutus

In 1948, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UHCG). This plan, proposed after the end of World War II, revealed the Nazis’ plan to exterminate the Jews and made genocide an international crime (4). A genocide is an eight-stage process that culminates in the mass execution of an ethnic or other social group. The central African continent of Rwanda is home to two major ethnic groups: the Hutu and the Tutsi, and was also the location of the deadliest genocide of the modern age. In the early 1990s, the Hutu government of Rwanda encouraged hatred for the Tutsi minority that later ignited into a full-scale genocide. The Rwandan genocide ended when the Rwandan Patriotic Front took over

As long as Habyarimana had an explanation for these deaths and pretended to want peace with the Tutsis, Habyarimana’s government went unchecked. This set an ugly precedent with Rwandan extremist that mass slaughter was acceptable as they suffered no consequences. The French unwittingly provided arms to the Hutu Rwandan Army General Habyarimana which were later used in the 100 day genocide of Tutsis. The Arusha Accords were signed on August 4 1993, a cease-fire ensued between the Rwandan government force and RPF. “The Arusha Accords envisioned a series of democratic reforms, national elections, and repatriation of refugees” (Dorn and Matloff, Preventing the Bloodbath). However, Habyarimana delays putting the provisions of the Arusha Accords into practice. Right up to the signing of this agreement, Habyarimana uses radio to call for the brutal killing of Tutsis. Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) incite the majority Hutu population to attack and kill all Tutsis. The propaganda to condone the mass murder of the Tutsis was methodical and akin to Hitler’s propaganda campaign against the Jews with eerily similar results. The Hutu’s message not only extreme but dehumanizing as it compared “Tutsis to cockroaches that needed to be exterminated”

Beginning April of 2004, the Rwandan Hutu started mass murders of Tutsi. This genocide is believed to have spawned from the civil war that was taking place at that time. This civil war was based on issues over power and resentment between the Tutsi and the Hutu. (Rwanda, 2008) Eventually the war escalated to the point where the Hutu began genocide of the Tutsi and anybody who opposed the ideas of the Hutu. The killing of the Tutsis became so common—in a very short amount of time—that it was practically acceptable amongst the Rwandans. (Hintjens, 1999) This was a very brutal and gruesome genocide. In just five weeks, approximately half a million Tutsi and innocent civilians had been murdered. (Hintjens, 1999) This is an astounding number of people, especially because the Hutu murdered the Tutsi at knife point—usually with a machete. (Snow, 2008)

Rwanda is made of 3 ethnic groups which are the Hutu (85% of population), the Tutsi (14%) and the Twa (1%). During colonisation the minority Tutsi were typically considered the elite because they had much lighter skin compared to the Hutu this created division between the Rwandan populations because they ruled the country during colonisation. When Rwanda gained independence in 1962, the Hutus thought that the Tutsi people were to blame for the increasing social and economic problems that the country was facing and they were angry at the Tutsi. This was one of the long term causes of the Rwandan genocide.