Rwandan Genocide: An Analysis

The socio/cultural cause of the genocide in Rwanda came from the German and Belgian colonization, bringing along with them an idea of social science. Both colonial powers reinforced the Tutsi’s political power, which further oppressed the Hutus. This reinforcement caused the Hutus to envy the Tutsi’s aristocracy because they were privileged to all things, while the Hutus were privileged to nothing (Kapuscinski). This oppression led to many Hutu revolutions that the Hutus were successful in over the unprepared Tutsis. These victories of the Tutsis incidentally reversed the Rwandan apartheid system. The reversion of the system then gave

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.

Escaping is a pleasure to some people and to some it was a necessity, like to Jack Werber, “Escape was not our goal since it was so unrealistic. What we wanted was to survive, to live long enough to tell the world what had happened in Buchenwald.” This quote by Jack Werber is inspiring to some people. Jack Werber did live long enough to tell his story, like a lot of Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan Genocide impacted not only the Tutsis, but the world.

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"

George Santayana once said “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The Rwanda Genocide is a contemporary representation of the events that occurred during the Armenian Genocide. It is an unforgiving circumstance that even after massacres from the latter and the Holocaust that Genocides still emerge in a world who far too often shuts their door to the idea of intervention. Countries can have an abundance of supplies, unmatchable man-power, and exceptional military equipment, however, with interests in absentia, countries will be reluctant to deploy forces despite exclamations of help. The culmination of the Rwanda Genocide is absolutely an unforgiving portion of history that will be remembered by the victims, the witnesses, and the decision-makers.

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

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

Twenty-three years ago, in a small, central African country identified as Rwanda, approximately 1,000,000 individuals belonging to the Tutsi tribe were massacred by a rival tribe, known as the Hutus. The hatred that resulted in the Hutus slaughtering the Tutsis originated from a rivalry that was created centuries before the infamous massacre. Living in an agricultural community, the Hutus were traditionally peasant cultivators, while the Tutsis were cattle lopers. Through their work, the Tutsis gained wealth and, consequently, political power. The divide between the Hutus and the Tutsis was only made more dangerous as Europeans traveled to Rwanda, favoring the Tutsis. As the inferior race, the Hutus were denied government positions, higher education, and were forced into slave labor. In retaliation, the Hutus gained political power through a democratic vote put on by Belgian missionaries from the Tutsis through the 8:1 majority ratio. The Tutsi power was completely reversed into total Hutu power, as “the oppressed became the oppressor.”

The US didn’t really help contribute to the genocide happening in Rwanda in 1994, they tried their best to keep a good distance from Rwanda as well. The US knew that the genocide was happening and we were well aware of the genocide. Bill Clinton found out about the genocide and didn’t show any sympathy or want to help Rwanda. He only worried about the media saying that US is doing nothing to help Rwanda, this media spread. The US claimed that they did not know the genocide was going on and failed to respond to the genocide in any way possible, things began to change but not significantly. Rwanda was not getting the attention they should have been getting when it was a major problem where over five people were killed each minute of the day.

According to Michael P. Scharf, over 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered in just 4 months. To put that in perspective, that is two times more people than everyone in Atlanta, and every single one of their lives were taken in a third of the year. Such a terrible atrocity and no one accepted the blame. A small group of African leaders came together and blamed other countries such as the United States and the members of the United Nation’s for not intervening on the genocide that was occurring. Others, however, stated that it was not their place to get in the middle of a civil war. Looking deeper into this matter, some even say that the Rwandan government shares a portion of the blame for putting the two groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis, against each other. There has been a long, thick tension between the two for many years going back to when Belgium owned a colonial state known as Rwanda-Burundi.

One reason this is considered to be one of the worst genocides cause of the countless deaths that happened the estimated deaths that occured during the genocide is 800,000.the hutus show no care to the tutsi while they slaughtered them.

Warfare is always destructive, and effects the people for a longtime. Genocide however always has a long effect not only on the country that has suffered from the warfare, but the world. The Rwandan Genocide didn't last long like the Holocaust, but it was the shortest genocide in history with fatal results. The Rwandan Genocide was cause by inter-racial tension in the country. This conflicted could have been avoided or even nonexistent if the European negative presence was never in the country. Due to the European negative presence Rwanda, it cause inter-racial tensions and caused the warfare in Rwanda.

I think if nations see that a genocide is about to happen, and that it is starting to occur, but has not yet fully began they should try with all their power to stop it from happening, before it’s too late. If countries can make a peaceful end to the situation, I think they should. They should investigate deep into the countries past, looking for anything that might help them get through and talk to the people behind the genocide. See what’s going on and why they are going to such extremes. They should ask questions like, who is behind the mass murders. Is it the leader of the country killing his people? Is it a terrorist group acting on their own accord to make people bend to their will or is it a random group trying to exploit a heritage

The Rwandan genocide was very violent and very cruel. Many people were killed and were raped. This war was not more than where you were born and what family you belong to. In 1918 Belgium took over Rwanda, but in 1933 the Belgians forced the Rwandans into two different categories. The Hutus and the Tutsis. Everything started just because it was easier to know where all the blacks were if they were in separate groups. The Tutsis were the minority; they were the upper class and were aristocratic. The Hutus on the other hand were peasants; they were the poorest of the poor. The Europeans brought the culture of a political ethnic dissidence to Rwanda. They took the original structure and made it very extreme, ethnic cards were given to be worn at all times. The Tutsis were privileged to everything, nice food, a good area to live in, good clothing. The Hutus on the other hand were made into a much oppressed group; they lived in slums and barely had enough food to live off of. Even though the Hutus were the majority they were treated like second class, animals.