Social Causes Of Rwanda 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.

Rwanda was taken over by the Belgians causing the Hutus and Tutsis to not get along which caused genocide. “Facing a revolution instigated by the Hutu, the Belgians let the Hutus, who constituted the majority of Rwanda 's population, be in charge of the new government. This upset the Tutsi. The animosity between the two groups continued for decades.” Both clans were upset and started Genocide in Rwanda. The causes of their mass casualties resolved in a never ending dispute between the two clans.

The first one is ethnicity; there a several means that could have been utilized that leads from ethnicity to violence such as dehumanization, antipathy, hostility and ideological commitment. Another collection of contentions interests the relationship between depravation and violence. One of the mechanism utilized in this proposition is exasperation leading to aggression leading to condemning; many contend that Rwanda is an underprivileged country with insufficient life possibilities. Another hypothesis concentrates on social pressure; there are numerous arguments to this. One version underlines obedience in a setting of legitimate authority. Another emphasizes Pressure among the people and decriminalization eventually leading to violence as well; here, obedience to what people thought was a legitimate authority play a major role. The tradition and culture to follow authority and the social pressure so therefore, these actions were not seen as deviant

Ultra Nationalism contributed to this tragic event because a nation/group of Rwanda felt that they needed to get revenge on the tutsis because they believe they had shot down their president. It is all about revenge and power that had started this event because the hutus had felt they needed to get revenge and want power in return.

It is important to study the immediate and gradual causes of the genocide. A good understanding of the devastating Rwandan genocide can help prevent a repeat of such violent events. There were numerous situations that led to the murders, but some could have had a greater impact than others. Two of the biggest causes of the genocide were the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and the hostility between the Hutus and Tutsis. The animosity between the two groups was built up over hundreds of years, while Habyarimana’s assassination was an incident that took place within hours of the beginning of the genocide. Habyarimana’s death seemed to be a trigger for the genocide, but the conflicts between the Hutus and Tutsis could have played an even larger role in the mass murders of thousands of Rwandans. The past relationship between the two groups must be studied in order to understand how they were able to reach a genocide.

In 1994, genocide unfolded in Rwanda claiming the lives of more than 700,000 Tutsi massacred at the hands of Hutu extremist, while the entire world stood by and watched. Some would argue this event was a result of civil unrest between the Tutsi and Hutu stemming from ancient

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.

While there is no single outlying cause of the Rwandan Genocide, the ongoing tensions between the Hutu and the Tutsi is what is believed to have eventually lead to the Rwandan genocide. The majority of the killings occurred shortly after President Habyarimana 's plane was shot down

The final reason why the United Nations is to blame for Rwanda’s Genocide is because of the fact that they ignored evidence of planned genocide and abandoned Rwandans in need of protection. The United Nations failed trying. The independent report, commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ( who was in charge at the time of the Rwandan Genocide), says the UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda was hopeless from the start by an poor consent and destroyed by the Security Council's unwillingness to strengthen it once the slaughters, murders and rape began. UN officials, together with Annan and then-Secretary-General

Does the Genocide in Rwanda have a singular cause? I do not believe so; the cause of genocide in Rwanda in 1994 was due to years of built up hatred between the Tutsis and the Hutus along with many other occurrences. The Rwandan Genocide is no exception with many variables contributing to the horrific events that took place. According to the documentary Ghosts of Rwanda, in 1994, Rwanda experienced a premeditated, systematic and state sponsored genocide with the aim of exterminating those who were ethnically identifiable as Tutsi. Between 500,000 and 800,000 people were killed in a period of 100 days, with around 77 percent of the population registered as Tutsi being murdered.

Right before the genocide, Habyarimana, the president of Rwanda, signed a treaty with Arusha, Tanzania which allowed a sharing in power. This new power agreement made by a Tutsi president angered the Hutus, because it took away the little power they had. After this treaty was made known to the public, the major Rwanda genocide actually began.

On the 7th of April 1994, Rwanda experienced the first signs of genocide when the Hutu's used radio signals to send out. hate messages such as “cockroaches”, and “rats”, towards Tutsis.1 Hutus started to send radio signals throughout Rwanda because a day earlier, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyairmana’s private plane was shot down. Since Habyairmana was a Hutu and the perpetrators of his death were unknown, this allowed the Hutus to blame this horrific crime on the Tutsis. After 100 days of Habyairmana’s death, almost one million Tutsis were killed.2 The mass killings in Rwanda were known as the Rwandan genocide. The blame for the Rwandan genocide should not only be placed upon the Hutus, but the Belgian colonists should be blamed for the genocide; due to their acts of colonizing Rwanda in 1918 to improve imperialism, which caused the death of more than one million Tutsis.3

The crime and punishment Rwanda experienced played a huge factor during the genocide. In fact, in 1992 political organizations affiliated President Habyarimana for two militias . The militias were involved in the killing of more than two thousand civilians, mostly Tutsi tribe members Nearly one hundred and forty thousand people were imprisoned as suspected investigators and participants in the Rwandan Genocide.

The primary and secondary information gives distinction between both a first hand view and a secondary view of genocide, not only in Rwanda but also in Bosnia. In both cases, thousands of people were slaughtered or brutally beaten including women and children by rebel groups. In “Back to Rwanda”, the first hand telling of how effective the genocide was, showed it was influenced by Bosnia and how the impact was felt not only on a federal government level but on a personal level as well. In both Bosnia and Rwanda, cultural independence played a major role in the attempt and succession of genocide. The populations of both countries, separated into two different minorities, were both willing to be redistributed to surrounding countries and far away villages where they could be safe from a purge like massacre. The Tutsis’ and Hutu’s were the aggressors in Rwanda with the Tutsis in control until the Rwandan President was gunned down in mid day. This event triggered the aggression between both of the groups. In Bosnia the Catholic Croats and Eastern Orthodox Serbs fought against each other after the death of pro- unionized demonstrators. These two main events triggered the beginning of the genocides. Both articles mentioned that the UN did not intervene to stop the genocides but rather end it with bloodshed and that the targets were of multiple races, mainly those who were African American, as well as those of different economic background. Over 100 days, close to 1 million Rwandans and 7000 Bosnians were massacred. Together, Bosnia and Rwanda were in fear of manipulation by the superior race and were in fear of mistrust amongst the nations as well as the possibility of more

An example of a social injustice since the holocaust is the Rwandan Genocide. Here are examples of the social injustice that took place during the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide was the slaughter of as many as 800,000 people, most being part of the Tutsi minority, the cause for this genocide was a plane that was carrying the president of this small populated area, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down and there were no survivors. The people who shot down the plane were never found, which caused the Tutsi to blame the Hutu and cause an on slaughter between the two. 85% of Rwanda’s population is Hutu, a small amount being Tutsi, which meant it was hard for the Tutsi to take control like they had recently been in, especially with the deaths