Rwandan Genocide Analysis

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.

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.

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.

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.

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"

The genocide started with the assassination of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, when the their plane was shot down on April 6, 1994. The current President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, was suspected to have influenced this assassination because he was the leader of a rebel Tutsi group and Habyarimana was a Hutu. Due to his death the Hutu rebel groups, such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), arose because they had felt threatened by their past violent history. The Hutu and the Tutsi lived within the precolonial Kingdom of Burundi in 1972 which was ruled by the Tutsi. The government became increasingly dangerous for the Hutu people, “In 1929, the Belgians decided to merge

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 from April to July of 1994. During the Rwandan Genocide there were two groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis, The Hutus were farmers and the Tutsis were cattle farmers. The Hutu ethnic majority in east-central African nation of Rwandan murdered majority of the Tutsis minority. Eight hundred thousand to one million men, women, and children perished in the genocide majority of the Tutsi minority What factors caused the Rwandan Genocide to begin, The Rwandan civil war between majority of the Tutsi and minority of the Hutus, The President for the Hutus have gotten shot and the Hutus blamed the Tutsi for it and it started tension and a massacre, and the Rwandan Independence, in 1963, the Tutsis were discriminated against, and

The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 lasted only for a brief period and lasted for approximately a hundred days. During that time, an estimated amount of 800 000 people were slaughtered. Beginning on April of 1994, massacres were held on a daily basis with the intent to eliminate an ethnic group known as the Tutsi by another ethnic group known as the Hutus. This genocide was overlooked by the United Nations, and the superpowers of the time offered very little or no assistance at all to Rwanda. The civil unrest between the Hutus and the Tutsi has been in place since the Belgians segregated the two groups after being handed Rwanda after World War I. The Tutsis were favoured and placed above the Hutus and identity cards were distributed to

In 1994, Rwanda’s population was made up of three ethnic groups, the Hutus, the Tutsi, and the Twas. Hutu extremists blamed the Tutsi for their country’s social, economic, and political problems. Because of this, The Hutu extremists decided to kill the Tutsi and the Hutus who were opposed to the extremists. “In the early 1990s, hutu extremists within Rwanda’s political elite blamed the entire Tutsi minority population for the country’s increasing social, economic, and political pressures.” This shows that human rights are being violated because one ethnic group decided to blame a minority population for their country’s growing problems. The extremists decided they wanted control back and because of this they felt it was justified to kill as

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

Merriam-Webster defines a genocide as, “ the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group”, and the mass murder of the Tutsi in Rwanda fits this definition perfectly. From April to July of 1994 around 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by the Hutus. This massacre was a genocide because a specific ethnic group was targeted.

Post-genocide Rwanda engages political, development and social academics and researchers in the pursuit to better understand how this small African nation collapsed into genocide and rebuilt itself since. Rwanda is best known for its 1994 Rwandan Genocide, also referred as the Genocide against Tutsis, witnessed over 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus butchered in just 100 days (Prunier 1995, 143, 213, 263). While the nation is often praised by international institutions and other states for its rapid social and economic development, high usage of foreign aid and policies against corruption since the end of the genocide (Zorbas 2011, 103, 109-10), it is often mired in controversies and weighing debate by the academic community.

One of the best ways to reduce the chances of genocide is to address the root causes of violence and conflict: hatred, intolerance, racism, discrimination, tyranny, and the dehumanizing public discourse that denies whole groups of people their dignity and their rights. Hutu and Tutsi were foes groups in Africa that became known through the gruesome 1994 Rwanda genocide. Around 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu were thrashed in a judiciously organized program of genocide over 100 days. The killings were an attempt by a thorough fragment, the Hutu Power, of the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, to eliminate a small minority, the Tutsis. On April 6th, 1994 President Juvnal Habyarimana, a Hutu and Cyprien Ntaryamira also a Hutu were flying over Kigali, Rwanda when their plane was shot down from the sky by a missile. The president’s death provided a spark for an organized campaign of violence against Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians across the country. In just hours, Hutu insurgents encircled the capital and took over the streets of Kigali. Within a day, the Hutus had effectively eradicated Rwanda’s

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)