Media Representation of the Rwandan 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.

By establishing humans as inherently capable of evil, and perpetrators of evil as no less human, Hatzfield encourages a nuanced understanding of the causes of genocide. In doing so, Hatzfield warns readers of the ease with which genocide can take place and cautions against allowing prejudice to take hold in communities. In Rwanda, Hutus lived with Tutsis as friends and neighbors mere days prior to slaughtering them. However, the groundwork for the massacres “was the result of plans and preparations formulated essentially by collective decision” long before the genocide began (52). Radio propaganda drove tensions far in advance, and the assassination of the Hutu president was not the reason for the genocide but the signal for it to finally begin. Hatzfield establishes this point by humanizing the Hutus. One of the interviewees explains that when “you receive a new order, you hesitate but you obey, or else you’re taking a risk. When you have been prepared the right way by the radios and the official advice, you obey more easily, even if the order is to kill your neighbors” (71). While this could easily be dismissed as an excuse born of fear and guilt, understanding the truth of this statement is crucial to the prevention of further mass violence; indeed, if the preparation through propaganda and conditioning can be identified,

Straus classifies questions that until now still remain unanswered. He also summarizes and test hypothesis. Straus mostly focuses on evaluating four main controversial literatures. He begins with theories other authors have created to rationalize genocide in Rwanda. Secondly, he examines theories that other writers have shaped to elucidate the extermination of Tutsis, either in a contrastive, or research framework. Thirdly, Straus also evaluates theories that explicate an ethnic clash; and lastly, theories that explain the people’s degree of participation in the violent events.

While writing an essay about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda utilizing writings from the play Maria Kizito and the script from the motion picture Hotel Rwanda I found more data by writers who wrote journals and articles that explained particular areas I had interest in. These journals and articles discuss with more detail Rwanda’s History, the history of the Hutu and the Tutsi tribes, Colonialism as the catalyst for genocide in Rwanda. The area this paper will focus on is the role of the media during that time. My goal in this paper is to expand what I read from the course about Genocide in Rwanda into a larger discussion about how media and more specifically radio played a significanant role in inciting violence against the Tutsi. To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into three main sections beginning with a brief synopsis of the event, the origin of the Tutsi and Hutu tribes and the role of European Colonialism played as the root cause of their social indifference. In conclusion, the third area which talks about the role of media and how it was use to induce a violent eruption of mass killings against the nation 's minority, the Tutsi which explains the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

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.

With over eight hundred thousand to one million deaths, the Rwandan genocide is undoubtedly one of the most sad and shocking examples of the lack of intervention by not only the US and the UN, but by other countries as well. The ongoing tensions between the Hutu, the largest population in Rwanda, and the Tutsi, the smaller and more elite population is what eventually lead to the Rwandan genocide. The killings began quickly after President Habyarimana 's plane was shot down. After hundreds of thousands of deaths, the US did not intervene in Rwanda because being a landlocked country with no natural resources to benefit the US, there was no economical benefit, and the risk of sending in troops simply outweighed the rewards. The aftermath of the genocide has not only impacted those who lived through it, but it has also impacted future generations as well. At the end of the genocide, the ICTR was formed by the UN to find justice. The Rwandan genocide has shocking similarities between the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide as well. Overall, the Rwandan genocide was a terrible event that escalated far beyond what it should have if there had been intervention from other countries and the UN.

William Hogan Research Paper Help Received: Group Understanding Genocide And Factors That Contribute To It Genocide is important to understand so we can help prevent future violence on humanity. Political, cultural, economic, and ethnicity differences led to terrible modern day genocides in Rwanda and during the Holocaust. Parallels between the Holocaust and Rwandan genocides can be drawn from the role the state played in mobilizing and organizing genocide. “Genocide is a sustained purposeful action by a perpetrator to physically destroy a collectivity directly or indirectly, through interdiction of the biological and social reproduction or group members, sustained regardless of the surrender or lack of threat offered by the victim” (Fein,

Prior to the reading in Chapter 1 of “A Problem from Hell,” I was oblivious of the Armenian Genocide. The atrocities that continued despite acknowledgement of the situation is sad and echoes the same response of the United States in relation to the Rwanda Genocide. The intention of this report is to review the documentary, yet, it is necessary to address facets of Chapter 1 that are equivalent to the Rwanda Genocide. In Turkey, the United States ambassador Henry Morgenthau Sr. knew that the Armenians were being slaughter because of their religious beliefs. After proposals for support, the United States denied assistance because American lives were not at risks. In a similar comparison, the Canadian General

Throughout the 1600s to the mid 1990s, the Tutsi tribe in Rwanda, and the Hutu tribe of Rwanda have always been arch enemies. Although the Hutus have had a prolonged hate for the Tutsi tribe, this hate was not physically expressed, until 1994. From April to July of 1994, over 80,000 Tutsi people were murdered and tortured for their African heritage. The Rwanda genocide is considered to be one of the worst massacres the world has ever seen since the Holocaust. This paper will touch a few things that occurred after the massacre, and will also answer the questions of why this massacre started, what occurred during this genocide. The Rwandan genocide was a massacre based off of discrimination and hatred for a specific tribal group. This

Abimbola, Olaifa and Danjibo Dominic. The 1994 Rwandan Conflict: Genocide or War? International Journal on World Peace. Vol XXX No. 3(2013). 31-54. Print.

The 1994 Rwandan genocide presented one of the most horrific crimes against humanity since the Holocaust of World War II. In addition, it was also the first tragedy of its kind with the opportunity to be represented in full by the media. Media played a different role here than in the Holocaust, providing large coverage of the atrocities taking place “Remarkably, during a genocide that claimed as many as a million lives, this is one of the only times a killing is

Realism is one of the oldest and most popular theories in International Relations. It offers a perspective about competition and power, and can be used to explain the actions between states. An example of realism is the U.S. reaction – or lack thereof – during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, ethnic, political, or cultural group”. In Rwanda for example, the Hutu-led government embraced a new program that called for the country’s Hutu people to murder anyone that was a Tutsi (Gourevitch, 6). This new policy of one ethnic group (Hutu) that was called upon to murder another ethnic group (Tutsi) occurred during April through June of 1994 and resulted in the genocide of approximately 800,000 innocent people that even included women and children of all ages. In this paper I will first analyze the origins/historical context regarding the discontent amongst the Hutu and Tutsi people as well as the historical context as to why major players in the international

The Rwandan genocide has been a topic of discussion and study by many scholars, researchers and humanitarian bodies seeking to find the root cause of its happening. Some found out that deterioration in the political climate was the possible cause. Others argued that the Hutu elite were only safeguarding their political power from the Tutsis who had, under the colonial rule, oppressed the Hutus. The genocide was seen to be the best platform for settling scores between the two ethnic groups.

Genocide is defined by the United Nations as "...acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group..." (UN, 1) While there are many sovereign nations engaged in international politics, only a few engaged (or disengaged) in African politics during the Cold War era. Through realism and liberalism the actions of global leaders and members of the United Nations will be explained and their actions defined that led to the crisis of Central Africa from 1960 through 1994 and ending in Rwanda. These global state actors have an obligation to protect human rights throughout the world, but in 1994 allowed 800,000 ethnic Tutsi to be brutally murdered in their homes and in the streets of a place that once used to be safe. This all occurred because a global power struggle was top priority.