Mental Health Outcomes Of Survivors Of The Rwandan Genocide

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?

The Rwandan genocide was a nationwide phenomenon that ended in tragedy, hatred, and in some cases, forgiveness. This genocide, which occurred in 1994, ended with more than 800,000 lives lost. This genocide started on April 6, 1994 and lasted for one hundred days. During the course of these one hundred days, 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by Hutu militia members using machetes. For years, the Tutsi and Hutu tribes of Rwanda have lived in unspoken hostility. These Hutu militiamen killed as many as 10,000 Tutsis in a day. The makeup of these deaths included: men, women, children, and babies. What is the cause this hatred and genocide that would drive men

Hotel Rwanda tackles a recent event in history where the Hutu extremists of Rwanda initiated a terrifying campaign of genocide, massacring approximately

In 1994, a tragedy occurred in Rwanda where millions of Tutsis’, the minority, were brutally murdered by the Hutu, the majority. This event is known as the Rwandan genocide and left many people wondering what could have caused this devastating event to occur. Over the years, many theories have surfaced and among those were the theories of Peter Uving. In both Why Did People Participate in Genocide? A Theoretically Informed Synthesis and The Condition of Structural Violence Peter Uvin seeks to explain why violence occurs in society. Nevertheless, the two articles are different in the sense that Why Did People Participate in Genocide? A Theoretically Informed Synthesis is primarily focused on the other theories which include political scientists,

Throughout the 20th century, numerous acts of genocides have attempted to bring the complete elimination and devastation of large groups of people originating from various particular ethnicities. With these genocides occurring in many regions of the world, the perpetrators often organizing such crimes, have historically been larger and more powerful than the victims themselves. Often being the government and its military forces. However, the lack of international response associated with these genocides, further contributed to the devastating outcomes. On April 6,1994, the fastest killing spree of the century took place in Rwanda against the Tutsi minority population. With many warning signs having already been proclaimed prior to the start of the Rwandan genocide, I believe that with international interference, this bloodshed could have ultimately been prevented.

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 the day of April 6th 1994, the mass murders sparked a ferocious wave of bloody reprisals as thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered over the next three months, killing almost 10,000 people everyday. Hutu extremists were told to load up on weapons like knives, guns, axes, whatever they could find so they could kill tutsis. They could do whatever they wanted to the Tutsis. The Hutu government said “Spare no one, especially the babies.” The Hutus goal was to kill every Tutsi in Rwanda. As told by Border guards, people have been floating down the river in hundreds everyday for weeks. Many bodies had their hands tied behind their backs. They were either shot, hacked, clubbed, burned, or drowned.

Thesis: The Rwandan Genocide is one of the lesser known, quickest, and most inhumane genocides this world has ever seen, and it is still affecting the people of Rwanda till this day.

“A small boy of 11 years, was curled up in a ball of fresh flesh and blood, in his eyes was a glance of lost hope, abandonment, and defeat. He was without vision; A little girl at nine years of age, was pinned up against a tree…her legs apart, and she was covered in things even hell can’t imagine; excrement, urine and blood . . . in her mouth was cold fresh meat, cut with a machete, that of her father… near in a ditch with putrid water were four bodies, cut up in pieces, stacked up-their parents and older brothers.”

“The sweetly sickening odor of decomposing bodies hung over many parts of Rwanda in July 1994: . . . at Nyarubuye in eastern Rwanda, where the cadaver of a little girl, otherwise intact, had been flattened by passing vehicles to the thinness of cardboard in front of the church steps,” (Deforges 6). The normalcy of horrible images like this one had cast a depressing gloom over Rwanda during the genocide, a time when an extreme divide caused mass killings of Tutsi by the Hutu. Many tactics such as physical assault or hate propaganda are well known and often used during times of war. Sexual assault and rape, however, during times of war is an unspoken secret – it is well known that rape occurs within combat zones and occupied territories, but

Among the dead were children and pregnant women. Rape in villages by government officers and local police was, like in the case of the Darfur genocide, an often occurrence. Victims were disposed of and often their identifiable information, were burned (Spalding 29-33). The torture, mutilation, and disturbing murders of neighbors by average citizens, in addition to the governmental militia acts of ethnic cleansing show extermination throughout the course of the 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

Besides the general fact about Rwanda, an unfortunate event took place from April to July of 1994. Members of the Hutu ethnic majority (about 85 percent of the population) in the east central African nation of Rwanda murdered as many as 800,00 people, mostly containing the Tutusi minority of Rwanda in a 100 day span (history). Unfortunately 6 men, women, and children were murdered every minute of every hour of every day for those 3 months. Between 250,000 and 500,00 women were raped and up to 20,000 children were born as a result. Therefore, more than 67 percent of women who were raped in 1994 during the genocide became infected with HIV/AIDs, which is a major problem that will be discussed later on in this paper (surf). The genocide changed the country of Rwanda forever. Consequently,

In the period between April and July 1994, approximately 800,000 Rwandans were killed, and 350,000 Rwandan women were raped. In total, this number equalled about one-fifth of the country’s population. An informal, political organization called ‘akazu’ was at the heart of this genocide. Members of the Hutu population, the National police, and the Rwandan army were some of the perpetrators (Bijleveld, Morssinkhof, & Smeulers, 2009). Just one year later in July 1995, during the period of the Bosnian war, about 10,000 male Muslim Bosniaks were murdered in the town of Srebrenica. Again, the national government was behind the killings, particularly members of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska (Ash, 2013). Responding to these atrocities,

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)