The Rwanda Of The Rwandan Defence Force

Rwanda is a country located in Central Eastern Africa, with an extensive history of colonization, after Belgium attained control in 1924. Belgium’s rule however also marked the beginning of a lengthy ethnic rivalry between the Hutu and the Tutsi people. Belgium favored the Tutsi the minority at 14 percent of the population over the Hutu, the majority at 85 percent, simply because the Tutsis were more resembling of the Europeans. “Colonial policy helped to intensify bipolar differentiation between Tutsi and Hutu, by inscribing “ethnic” identification on identity cards, by relegating the vast majority of Hutu to particularly onerous forms of forced cultivation and corvee, and by actively favoring Tutsi in access to administrative posts, education, and jobs in the modern sector,” (Newbury, 12). Belgium’s control fueled the Hutu’s resentment towards the Tutsis because the Tutsis received superior treatment for decades. Thus, when Rwanda finally acquired independence in 1962, the Hutus fought for control over the government, highlighting the first warning sign of the genocide to come. Many Tutsis were killed afterwards, while many others fled to neighboring countries to escape the violence.

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.

Rwanda is located in East Africa. Rwanda has a population of 12 million people and only 23% of this population has access to the electric grid. Rwanda boarders with Burundi in the south, Democratic Republic of Congo in the west, Tanzania in the East and Uganda in the North. It is a small, densely populated country, with an area of 3/4 of the Netherlands. Rwanda belongs to the 20 poorest countries in the world. However, economic growth was high in recent years, and the prospects for further development are good (World Bank, 2015).

The second stage of genocide is symbolism and this one not only fits the problem of Rwanda genocide it also fits with how Nazi Germany treated the Jews in an inhuman manner for example In the Jewish holocaust book by Adam jones he stated that “the Jews were forced to where a yellow star all the time so the Nazi government can identify whose German loyal to the third Reich and who’s a Jew which Hitler proclaimed to be enemies of the state”(Jones) and compared to Rwanda when president Habyarimana came into power he did the similar thing by having the people under his rule have identification cards where it tells you which background u are from. Dr. Stanton stated that “he recognized the dangers of those cards when he visited Rwanda” (Stanton) what means is that he noticed that the government are discrimination certain ethnic groups and planning something big that will effect a lot of people. One of the statements that I agree with that Dr. Stanton stated was “During the genocide, ID cards became facilitators of killing, because they permitted the killers to quickly determine who was Tutsi”(Stanton) what he meant through those words is that those IDs are the reason that a lot of Tutsi died because when the genocide happened they tried to escape Rwanda in the first three days but the escape roots have become extremely difficult due to road blocks around Rwanda and what they created is a kill zone and if someone is trapped in a kill zone they are going to have a tough time of surviving and getting out

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.

Rwanda has a long history that has contributed to their experiences of great violence and suffering and therefore the need for a peacekeeping. In pre-colonial times there was a division between the superior people being the Tutsi’ and the peasant people being the Hutu’s. King Ruganzu Ndori, being a Tutsi outlined Hutu’s area and showed no hesitation in treating any Hutu’s who opposed the order with unmitigated harshness.

On July 17, 1994, the RPF declared victory and named a new interim government. The post-genocide Rwanda government faced the tough and honestly somewhat scary task of rebuilding a country that had been devastated by violence. Whatever the exact number of dead, the loss of life was massive and the impact on society is to big to imagine. The RPF, seeking more support from civilians, based the new government on the Arusha Accords and appointed a ministers from the former opposition parties that included a Hutu president and prime minister. Real power, however, remained firmly in RPF hands, with Defense Minister and Vice President Paul Kagame widely acknowledged as the ultimate authority in the country. Finally, in July, roughly one hundred days after the genocide began, RPF forces captured the country’s capital, Kigali, and violence began to taper off. Ten years after the 1994 genocide, ethnic relations in Rwanda remain tense. The government has become increasingly intolerant of dissent, and a steady flow of individuals has sought political asylum outside

The Rwanda revolution of 1959 was significant because it marked the shift in power between two ethic groups within Rwanda. The country was originally led by the Tutsis and was later given to the Hutus by their colonizers Belgium. The change in power between the Tutsis and the Hutus caused tensions within the country as both groups battled for power. These tensions led to uprisings and as a result led to the death of many Tutsis. The revolution of 1959 not only emphasized the exsiting tensions between the two ethnic groups but it as well showed the impact of Belgium’s influcences even after Rwanda gained independce in 1962.

Many were killed and had to be buried in mass graves due to the corpses in mass amounts (“Genocide”). The few survivors lost their families, homes, friends, and suffered awful health complications. Many survivors already lived in poverty, but now lived in unpropitious poverty. Survivors also had to undergo severe trauma from their horrific experiences. They had to reconstruct their lives as well as the city they knew and loved. These people subsided the awful treachery they had endured and united as a community to rebuild their homeland. Although, ten years after the genocide, ethnic relations in Rwanda remained tense (Genocide & Persecution Rwanda 39). Signs of genocide are still everywhere today and the effects of this tragedy are

In the spring of 1994, more than eight thousand Rwandans were murdered, slaughtered, and bodies piled up upon the streets in less hundred days. But yet, the only reason this genocide had actually stopped, was at the cost of the Rwandan Patriotic Army, a militant group primarily composed of Rwandan refugees whom reclaimed Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Yet, before the Rwandan genocide occurred, for many years, tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi had growth to extreme measures and lead to far more than just disputes- it lead to the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide was a mass slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority in which the Hutu were the ones attempting to overrule the colony in

One of the most prominent genocides that has occurred within the century was not only the Holocaust in 1940s, but also occurred in 1994 in Rwanda… which eventually would be referred to as a “preventable genocide” (p. 447). Rwanda was considered this because, “…On the one hand, it is possible to isolate the key developments that led step by step from the earliest colonial period in Rwanda to the genocide a full century later. On the other, there was nothing inevitable about this process” (p. 447). The genocide that occurred within Rwanda initiated between the two main groups of the country… the Tutsi and the Hutu. The genocide would last for roughly one-hundred days of which, “During 100 days in 1994, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandan Tutsi

With this conceded class distinction came the fight for reigning ability, and amidst this power vacuum, Rwandans fell victim to conflicting groups and crime, the eventual building blocks that lead to the massacre of 800,000 civilians. The origins of this ethnic loathing and in turn ethnic genocide can be secured to European colonialism, where those who arrived to colonize and yield the wealth of western knowledge, instead carried racist beliefs. Through this haunting event in history, when foreign governments unfittingly place their ideologies in unknown territory, revealed is how uninvited nations can destabilize a state by stimulating ethnic warfare, causing it to collapse and crumble through conflict.

Rwanda is a small country located in central Africa. It borders with Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. One of the most terrible “ethnic conflicts” occurred here in 1994, two tribes fought each other within the same territory, the rest of the world bizarrely ignored this event and thousands of people were killed. The event lasted 100 days and almost 1 million people died, even though the Rwanda government asked other countries for military

Prior to colonial era, Rwanda had larger population of Hutus compared to Tutsis and Twa. Rwanda as a country was divided into three ethnic groups i.e. Hutu (approximately about 85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%) (United Nations). Although, Tutsis were the minorities, they belonged to the higher strata compared to the other ethnic groups; Tutsis were privileged and had power and control over the Hutus and Twas. “Hutus were formerly bound to their Tutsi patrons via client ship” (Sinema, 2012). When Rwanda was colonized by Germany followed by Belgium, they favored Tutsis as they represented the upper class prior to the colonization. These created a social system like feudal system where there was a power difference between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Tutsis were considered as lord and the Hutus on the other hand, were considered as peasants. As a consequence, this created an ethic tension between the Hutus and the Tutsis and created a system more like apartheid. Nonetheless, they managed to co exist in Rwanda until they were decolonized. Although there is no social distinction between the Hutus and the Tutsis, the conflict between these tribes increased tremendously after the independence from Belgian that led to mass murder and ethnic cleansing of the Tutsi by the Hutu.