The Rationale Behind Rwandan Foreign Policy

Sitting outside a grocery shop in the Nyabugogo slum in Kigali, Rwanda, Francis Nduwimana described a longing for a change in leadership in the presidential election on August fourth. “Rwanda is tired of Kagame, but cannot express its views openly. If citizens criticize Kagame, the government agencies will accuse them of dividing the country, and will either be imprisoned or killed,” stated Nduwimana (qtd. in Onyulo). Paul Kagame has been the president of Rwanda since 2000 and could possibly be president till 2034. Under Kagame’s rule, the Rwandan military has gained a massive amount of power over citizens. Rwanda’s military is violating the Human Right’s by taking away Rwandan citizens voices and their ability to restrict the government.

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.

In this paper I will examine the United Nation Security Council attempts at intervention in Rwanda. I will point out the interventions

John A. Ausink establishes the actors within the confines of Rwanda. These actors include the Tutsi and the Hutu. The Tutsi are looked at as elite in a sense but the Hutu make up the majority of the Rwandan population. Ausink also establishes the government of Rwanda early in the piece. “In 1973, General Juvenal Habyarimana seized power in Rwanda and established a government that only allowed political participation by the Republican Movement for Democracy and Development” (Ausink 1997, pg.2). This is important within the context because it leads to the introduction of the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) in 1986. Their presence within Rwanda leads to political unrest and eventually violence. “After the government forces had killed two senior rebel commanders, the RPF resorted to guerrilla warfare . . . “(Ausink, pg. 2, 1997). Habyarimana’s

In the middle of Africa there lies a small country by the name of Rwanda. Rwanda is made up of three different ethnic groups: the Twa (a group of aboriginals who were the first to settle there), the Hutu, and the Tutsi. Starting in the mid 1990’s, Rwanda was thrown into a terrible genocide stemming from deep ethnic hatred between the Hutus and the Tutsi. This atrocity was not readily noticed or acted upon by the rest of the world at first, but would soon shock it with the horrors that took place.

In the course of a hundred days in 1994, over 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in the Rwandan genocide. It was the fastest, most efficient killing spree of the twentieth century. My thesis is that the international community utterly failed to prevent and stop this atrocity. I will focus on numerous interconnected aspects that led to international inaction and also on the main actors, Belgium, the United Nations Secretariat, the United States and France, that knew that there was genocide underway in Rwanda - therefore, they had a responsibility to prevent and stop the genocide, but lacked political will. This led to inaction at the level of the Security Council (SC), where member states

On April 6 1994, prior to the death of president Juvenal Habyarimana, the nation of Rwanda become released into turmoil as genocides claimed the lives of at the least ½ a one million of its citizens (Seltzer in Des Forges, 1999,). Instigated by using the Hutu political elite and its military guide, their top objectives were the Tutsi, as well as Hutu moderates. Many have purported “ethnic hatred” as the motive of the Rwanda Genocide and at the same time as an ethnic divide became indeed found in Rwanda across the time of the warfare, the reasons for the genocide are more than one and was greater complex.

This investigation will seek to answer the question “How Did the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 Effect the Hutu and Tutsi?” I chose this question because last year I read the book Left to Tell and I wanted to know more about the two different types of groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. This was and still is an important topic because many died that day just for belonging to a specific group. This topic shows how much our world has changed since 1994. In order to answer my historical investigation question, I have structured my analysis section using the following method. First, I will answer how the two groups are different? And how these differences began the Rwandan Genocide? Next, I will talk about a survivor and her experience, then, the survival rate of Hutus and Tutsis. There are two main sources this paper will cover, first, a website called the United Human Rights Council, then, a book called Left to Tell.

On April 6 1994, President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down after leaving a ceasefire negotiation with Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) in Tanzania. Which lead to what is known today as the genocide in Rwanda; a three-month period in which 333 people were killed every hour, or about five people every minute (125). All while the International powers that could have stepped in and made a difference either ignored the situation or supported and enabled the massacre. Gourevitchs book probably provides one of the clearest pictures on the ways that hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved with just a little bit of intervention on behalf of the international community, or in some cases the seizure of international intervention. However,

Destexhe, Alain. Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. New York, New York: New York University Press: 1995

We have seen that the key question to understand the conflict in Rwanda is to remember that both Hutus and Tutsis are political identities imposed by the state. During 1994 some were killed because they 'looked like Tutsis' and others killed because 'they thought they would probably be Hutus'. Conflicts such as those in Rwanda, which result from the weakening of state power, which is responsible for preserving laws and guaranteeing justice, occur in the midst of failed states. This situation is the perfect incubator of generalized internal violence, both prior to conflicts and during and after them. It is in events like these where international humanitarian law plays a preponderant role. However, there are no safe ways to

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

The most astonishing thing is the number of lives that were lost in such a span of time (Akresh 4). What triggered the genocide is when Juvenal Habyarimana, the Rwandan president died on sixth April nineteen ninety four in a shooting that happened in Kigali Airport. This wave of violence spread drastically in all places of the country. The Hutus being the perpetrators of the massacre, wanted to wipe away the Tutsi (Mamdani 3). However, could the death of President Juvenal Habyarimana be the cause of such a dreaded massacre? This paper will explore the historical rivalry of the Hutu and Tutsi communities, the motive of the genocide, the role of the media and the international community and the aftermath of the massacre. In my opinion, I must declare that it I unavoidably difficult to discuss the Rwandan genocide without raising the deepest emotions, a cry for humanity.

These government orders reveal the ways that, even with the accessible knowledge about the Rwandan massacres being readily available, that the United States government was able to manipulate the situation as being contrary to their interests. Gourevitch outlines the ways that the West (and international government) failed to understand the ways that colonialism influenced the genocide as that would reflect negatively upon those nations as a further component of the way the violence was characterized.

Rwanda is a mountainous nation with a mild, humid climate (2-1). The nation is in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Western Rwanda contains part of the mountains of the East African Rift while the eastern side falls into the central African savanna (2-3). As such, the people of Rwanda refer to their nation as “the land of a thousand hills (12-3).” The geographic divisions of Rwanda correspond to the nation’s 22 prefectures. A minister elected from one of Rwanda’s five main political parties heads each of these political divisions (14-200). Despite the apparent insignificance of this small country, the nation was the site of one of the modern age’s deadliest