Rwanda Genocide Research Paper

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.

For years, Rwanda has been a hotbed of racial tension. The majority of the Rwandan population is made up of Hutu's, with Tutsi's making up the rest of it. Ever since European colonial powers entered the country and favoured the Tutsi ethnic group over the Hutu by putting Tutsi people in all important positions in society, there has been a decisive political divide between the two groups. This favouring of the Tutsi over the Hutu, and the Hutu subjugation as an ethnic lower class resulted in the civil war and revolution of 1959, where the Hutu overthrew the Tutsi dominated government, and resulted in Rwanda gaining their independence in 1962.

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.

During the 100 days of the brutal massacre known as the Rwandan Genocide, between 800,000 to a million people were tragically murdered. Tutsis were not the only ones being killed. Hutus were also being killed for various reasons. If people thought they felt regretful for what they were doing to the Tutsi, they would be killed. If the Hutus tried to help the Tutsi in anyway they were killed. Many of the Hutus were killed if they opposed the killing campaign and the forces directing it.

War never changes, it will always be around for as long as we are here, with it, it brings genocide. Every day we are in a constant battle with each other, whether it be at home or across the oceans. We have invented weapons solely to cause mass destruction across entire continents. This has led to limitations being placed on warfare, but sometimes it's not enough. "We have to protect our Earth, so our children and grandchildren will never suffer like that"

Although the book did not mention the genocide much, it is important background information that sets up the scene Ruxin works in. He was working after a genocide that killed roughly 800,000 people (Rwanda). Let’s just take a moment to realize how many people that is. That’s three times the amount of people that live in Cherokee County (Cherokee). The American Civil War had roughly 620,000 deaths (Who). 800,000 men, women, children who had lives, dreams, hopes, friends, and family just like us: gone. I cannot imagine. The people killed were not the unknown enemy where the killers never saw their face. These were neighbors, friends, family, co-workers. Rwanda was in a time of healing when Ruxin entered the scene. People were mourning deaths,

The 100 days of slaughter might have been one of the most tragic genocide in the shortest period of time. Many people believe that this awful catastrophe could have been less of a disaster if the United States of America would have got in the middle of it. Even if the United Sates would have tried to get involved in the Rwanda genocide and maybe been able to prevent all those people from dying and stop the genocide before it became a huge issue. The United States already lost many troops in Somalia and couldn't afford to lose and more and even if they did get involved, many people would have still been put to death. Therefore, I think it was a good decision for the United States to not get involved.

Pre-1959 Rwanda was run by the Tutsis. This ended when there was an overthrow in Rwanda by the Hutus. Being 85% of the population the Hutus felt they were to take positions of

The reason I chose the Rwandan Genocide as my topic this year was because the genocide isn't well known by people. Generally, people know a lot about Apartheid and Nelson Mandela. Even though the genocide occurred during the same period in history, it was often overlooked because Rwanda is such a small nation in the center of Africa. I chose this because as previously stated, it isn't well known throughout the world. I also chose this topic because it had left such a huge impact on surrounding nations and the people within the country. Over 800,000 people had been massacred during the genocide that lasted one hundred days.

Less than a year separated the end of the Battle of Mogadishu and the start of the Rwandan Genocide. The United States didn’t want to have a similar situation where American lives were lost, that weren’t a part of a war. The United States turned away from the situation going on in Rwanda so they wouldn’t have to take part in the Peace Keeping Operation. By not acknowledging the Genocide that was happening the United States wasn’t obligated to assist the country. The United States was taking part in a type of Non-Interventionism foreign policy when working on the Rwandan Genocide

“There aren’t just bad people that commit genocide; we are all capable of it. It’s our evolutionary history” (James Lovelock). According to the Oxford dictionary, genocide is defined as “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group.” Although it may be hard to believe, genocides have occurred all over the world and all throughout time. There have been well documented genocides such as the Holocaust. Additionally, there have also been genocides that have barely received any media attention at all. One such example is the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan genocide occurred in 1994 and was perpetrated by the Hutu ethnic group against the Tutsi ethnic group. Genocides have taken the lives of millions of people around the world. One of the key factors that allows an atrocious act such as genocide to even occur is obedience. Without obedience, genocide cannot take place. People must be obedient to be willing to kill millions of innocent people. For example, Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of Nazi Germany, could not have murdered six million Jewish people without the support of his armies. Without the obedience of his constituents the Jewish prisoners would not have been murdered. Similarly, the Rwandan genocide was only possible because numerous Hutu civilians obeyed Hutu extremists when they were told to kill their Tutsi neighbors. Obedience is studied in many experiments and essays. Two prominent examples, Solomon Asch, a

The world’s history has been tainted by many instances of violence targeted at specific groups of people due to either their ethnicity or beliefs. This paper will discuss the characteristics of the Rwanda Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. The Rwanda Genocide targeted the Tutsis because of their ethnicity, while the Holocaust targeted the Jews because of their ethnicity and religion.

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

Rwanda is a small country in between the two countries, the Dominican Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Rwanda gained its independence in 1962. In 1916 Belgium ruled over the Rwandan people. The Belgium classified the Rwandan people into two groups, the Tutsis and the Hutus. The Belgians put the Tutsi people in charge, because the Tutsis were richer than the Hutu. The Tutsis punished the Hutus for many things and in many ways. In 1962, Hutus had control of the country, many of the Tutsis left the country. On April 7th, 1994, the 100 Days of Slaughter commenced. In just 100 days 800,000-1,000,000 Rwandan people died in the Rwandan Genocide.