The Genocide In Rwanda

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.

Rape culture extends across the globe. In 2012, a group of men gang-raped a young woman and assaulted her friend aboard a moving bus in New Delhi, India. The crime was horrific. And yet, there were some within the country who chose to blame the victims instead of the perpetrators. Asaram Bapu, a self-realized saint from India with approximately 40 million disciples said, “The victim’s daughter is as guilty as her rapists…She should have called the culprits brothers and begged before them to stop…This could have saved her dignity and life. Can you clap with one hand? I don’t think so” (Herald). Then in 1995, during the Bosnian War and the Bosnian genocide, the violence assumed a gender-targeted form through the use of rape. It is estimated that 50,000 women were raped. A year prior during the Rwandan genocide, known as the 100-day genocide, it is estimated that 500,000 women were raped. During the times when these genocides were taking place, rape and sexual violence was seen as just another part of war, but not seen as a crime. Thousands and thousands of women were raped and will never obtain the justice they deserve for their perpetrators’

April 7, 1994 marked the beginning of one hundred days of massacre that left over 800,000 thousand dead and Rwanda divided by a scare that to this day they are trying to heal. The source of this internal struggle can be traced back to the segregation and favoritism established by Belgium when they received Rwanda after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1918. At the time the Rwandan population was 14% Tutsi, 1%Twa, and 85% Hutus; the Belgian’s showed preferential treatment to the Tutsi, who were seen as socially elite, by giving them access to higher educations and better employment. This treatment causes the uprising of the Hutus in 1959 overthrowing the Tutsi government forcing many to flee the country, sparking even greater resentment between the two ethic groups. Without the interference and preferential treatment by the Belgian’s this atrocity could have likely been avoided.

The Hutus were very brutal and efficient in killing the Tutsis. They broadcasted their hit lists of victims including their names, addresses and license plate numbers. Those who heard their name on the radio fled their homes because they knew if they stayed they would be killed. In the beginning, the Hutu were well-equipped militiamen who used grenades and guns to peruse their mission. In the countryside the Hutus initially used firearms, but when more and more Hutus joined in the killings, the weapons became more barbaric. The weapons changed from grenades and guns to knives, machetes,

During the Rwandan genocide, some rapes occurred recurrently throughout a timespan. “Sexual enslavements occurred when a woman was detained, typically in the house of an Interhamwe, and subjected to repeated sexual assaults over a period of days,” (Mullins 727). These kinds of rapes belong in their own category because of the added element of confinement and intent to continually rape and therefore, harm. An Interhamwe soldier named Rafiki, personally sought out one Tutsi woman whom he had

The first murder that started this genocide was the assassination of Habyarimana. This murder was a signal to the government in

Western assumptions mean they are not surprised by the number of rape victims they treat. Congolese women and communities understood that the narrative of rape was what westerns listened to and telling stories of rape meant that women got access to international aid. The common knowledge formed that in many areas to be a legitimate recipient of international aid, in the eyes of intervening actors, a woman must be a rape victim. Sexual Violence as a weapon of war.

The Rwandan Genocide was one of the most horrific acts of genocide since the Holocaust during World War II.  Lasting only one hundred days it claimed the lives of over 800,000 people and had lasting effects on global civilization to this day. Even though the world had been consumed by many travesties before, the Rwandan Genocide exposed that violent human injustices on a grand scale could still happen regardless of the advancements made within “global society”. Decades of internal conflict within Rwanda because of colonialism, class, and clan played a great role in marring cultural identity and thusly created a foundation for the genocide.  The homogeny of cultures evolved, separating the population of Rwanda into three distinct groups: Hutu, Tutsi, and a marginal group of Twa that made up one percent of the population. Hutu ultimately came into power and with the help of the Interahamwe (a Hutu militia group) and the Rwandan Armed Forces committed atrocities towards Tutsi peoples under the ideal of 'social revolution ' and extermination of perceived 'enemies ' of the Hutu race. The planning and execution to erase and exterminate the culture and identity of Tutsi people is a classic and legal example of Genocide.

Twenty years ago in the small east African country of Rwanda, eight hundred thousand people, mostly those of the Tutsi tribe, were slaughtered by their own government. The Hutu and the Tutsi tribes followed the same traditions and inhabited the same territory for over a thousand years. The rise of conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu dates back to 1918, when the Germans lost their colonies following World War I, and the Belgians took control of Rwanda. In 1933, the Belgians establish the superiority of the "Tutsi" over the "Hutu" which lead to a great divide between these two groups (Admin of PBS.org). When the Belgians handed over power to the Hutu majority, a deep resentment of

The Rwanda Genocide was an unfortunate case where thousands of deaths could have been prevented, but because of irresponsibility and selfishness of global governments’ innocent lives were lost. The Genocide began on April 6, 1994 and was, “initiated by the Hutu political elite and extremists and its military support, their prime targets were the Tutsi, as well as Hutu moderates.” (Hain 2) The Hutu made up majority of the population and government officials and enforced a government-assisted military force to fatally attack the Tutsis. The genocide lasted one hundred days until a rebel Tutsi groups army Hutu armies in a Civil War. Within ten years of the genocide, Rwanda would make exceptional changes to government that would hold genocide participants accountable, within twenty years of the genocide; the economy has grown about 8% an annum. In the next fifty years, Rwanda will continue to see economic and population growth, but will continue to push peace and unity as the genocide continues to cause ethnical tension.

However, the aid organization's argument does not account how desperately these women need help from international aid organizations. However, the argument centered on culture is narrow and does not allow for aid organizations to truly access the situation of women in Congo. There were cultural changes within Congo during years of war, that had a history of violence against women. Never the less, women and communities understood that the story of rape was a way to access international aid, and a way to protect women. There were other communities that knew they could protect women who truly were raped, by having most women in the meaning that other women would lie. Warner. The Congo We Listen To. (2017).

Another issue that arose during the genocide that is important was the fact that during the genocide many women were raped while men were out on killing sprees. Many of those women who were raped contracted HIV/AIDS. The medicine to treat HIV/AIDS is too expensive for the people of Rwanda to afford, so many have died. Some of the women who were raped did not contract HIV/AIDS but still struggle due to having friends that contracted it or were impregnated and are now raising children of their rapists. Acquaro (2005) presents the example of Severa Mukakinani whose husband and seven children were murdered during the genocide. She was then raped and impregnated and is now raising a daughter named Marie Chantal Akimana meaning “child of God”. Even

So while men are more likely to be killed than women, women are “more likely to suffer sexual abuse than men during genocide” (Fein 59). In relation to Card’s theory of social death by genocide through the destruction of relationships, Fein states that the demoralization of victims who endure social death become isolated within their community. Because it is normally women who are the greater proportion of genders who remain after genocide, they must deal with their loss of identity, sexual assault, and trauma of

Sexual violence, including rape and the intentional spreading of HIV, was a common way of perpetrating genocide against Tutsi women. As discussed by Dorris Buss (2009, 145-146), feminists have argued that rape is not just a by-product of violence, but something that is planned and used intentionally as a method of destruction against the enemy. Consequently, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda classed rape as a crime against humanity as it was done with the intention to destroy the Tutsi population because of their racial background (Buss, 2009, 150). Specifically, rape was used to disgrace the Tutsi women’s identity and humiliate Tutsi society more broadly, in addition to creating mixed-race children that would serve as a reminder of their degradation (Mullins, 2009, 722). Mullins expands on this by adding that rape was used as a mechanism to heighten fear and domination over Tutsi women and to terrorize them and their families, as their husbands and

infers that the specific group of young single women in Rwanda was targeted in the acts of sexual