In between 1930 and 1945, an event took place that changed the world in many ways. The Holocaust was a genocide that consisted of the decimation of one single race, the Jews. This solemn event is very similar (and also quite different) to another event that took place only four thousand miles away. Like the Holocaust, this event is was a genocide and it took place at Rwanda in 1994. This genocide was between the Hutus and Tutsis. These two groups have a long background with each other that consisted of civil wars, switches in power and superiority, and tension. It began when the Europeans put the Tutsis in a superior position because they were the ones that closely resembled them, the Europeans, in physical appearance. It was the death of …show more content…
Gourevitch talks about a character, Paul Rusesabagina, who played a large role in the Rwandan genocide. He was a hotel manager who hid Tutsis from the Hutus. He filled the hotel up over its capacity and even bargained with money for their safety. Gourevitch says, “Paul sought to save everybody he could, and if that meant negotiating with everybody who wanted to kill them - so be it.” This attitude was commonly shared during the Holocaust as well. There were many people around Germany and even in other countries that helped hid the Jews from the Nazis. This can be seen from Miep Gies who hid eight Jews in her attic, one of them being Anne Frank. “They were powerless, they didn't know where to turn..." she says. "We did our duty as human beings: helping people in need." In such a tragic time, people from both Rwanda and Germany helped their people as they could. It was one of the only things they seemed to be able to do to make the world seem less hopeless. Ironically, both of these people’s stories were made into movies, “Hotel Rwanda” and “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Another correlation that can be seen is the racism that the leaders, or leading groups, had toward a specific race or group of people. Gourevitch talks about the different measures that were taken in Rwanda when identification cards were being distributed to people. “The scientists brought scales and measuring tapes and calipers, and they went about weighing Rwandans, measuring Rwandans
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.
The Hutus are now in the position of power; the Hutu officials began to carry out massive genocides on the Tutsis. According to Document 8 it states, “The Hutu officials who took over the government organized the murders [of Tutsis] nationwide…Meanwhile, when the murders started the RPF [Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front] in Uganda invaded Rwanda again.” This quote demonstrates the back and forth genocide each ethnic group is imposing on each other. The genocide in Rwanda was sparked by the death of the Hutu Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, when his place was shot down. Many Hutus blamed the Rwandan Patriotic Front and instantly started campaigns of slaughter. This also provided additional reasons why the Hutu had hatred against the Tutsis. According to Document 9a it states, “Over the course of the genocide nearly one million people were killed.” This shows how extreme the genocide was and how extensive the genocide
With over eight hundred thousand to one million deaths, the Rwandan genocide is undoubtedly one of the most sad and shocking examples of the lack of intervention by not only the US and the UN, but by other countries as well. The ongoing tensions between the Hutu, the largest population in Rwanda, and the Tutsi, the smaller and more elite population is what eventually lead to the Rwandan genocide. The killings began quickly after President Habyarimana 's plane was shot down. After hundreds of thousands of deaths, the US did not intervene in Rwanda because being a landlocked country with no natural resources to benefit the US, there was no economical benefit, and the risk of sending in troops simply outweighed the rewards. The aftermath of the genocide has not only impacted those who lived through it, but it has also impacted future generations as well. At the end of the genocide, the ICTR was formed by the UN to find justice. The Rwandan genocide has shocking similarities between the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide as well. Overall, the Rwandan genocide was a terrible event that escalated far beyond what it should have if there had been intervention from other countries and the UN.
The Tutsi are a people who live in Rwanda, Burundi, and the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The location, size, and history, most importantly, is why the Tutsi tribe the second largest population division among the three largest groups in Rwanda and Burundi, the other two being the Hutu and the Twa. Although the Tutsi tribe is one of the most known tribes in Africa, it comes from a long way of fighting for its' rights and independence.
“When you start to see another human being as less than you, it 's a danger.”-Immaculee Ilibagiza. In 1994, a mass genocide broke out in Rwanda, a small country in Africa. The genocide occurred between the two ethnic groups where the Hutus were targeting the tutsis. The Rwandan genocide, ranking in the top five largest genocides in the world, was caused because of the resentment the hutus had towards the tutsis and was even more instigated by media and outsiders causing differences between the two parties. This quote is trying to provide an insight on what happened in rwanda and why. The local and international media played a significant role in the rwandan genocide of 1994; however racial hatred intensified from European colonists and the
The first know people to live in the region near Rwanda were the Twa, other wise know as Pygmies. However, between 700 and 1000 BC, Hutu people from the Congo River basin migrated to the area. Although the Hutu had been well functioning since their arrival, in the 15th century, the Tutsi tribe arrived from Northern Africa. The Tutsi were more powerful and conquered the Hutu, creating an intricate feudal system. The Tutsi became the ruling, landowning class and the Hutu became peasants and surfs, while any remaining Twa were the lowest in the social pyramid. Through the end of the 19th century, the region consisting much of modern-day Rwanda was ruled by a single Tutsi king– the mwami. Similar to the Medieval feudal system, the King controlled other Tusti lords and vassals, who then controlled the Hutu working class. By the middle of the 19th century, the kingdom was at its pinnacle, financially well and equipped with a modernly armed military, thanks to trade with eastern Africans.
After they had gained control of Rwanda, colonizers sought to clearly draw the line between ethnic groups that co-existed in the country; the Hutu and Tutsi. As Reader discussed on page 621, European colonizers issued identification cards to distinguish between the two groups; however, it was a difficult task considering the many “generations of intermarriage, migration and changes in occupation and economic standing...” Understanding the outright labeling of each ethnic group, Reader’s knowledge allows individuals to better understand the chapter called “A Neighborhood Genocide” in Machete Season. In this chapter, Hatzfeld claims that “the government had been recording the ethnic background of all its citizens…since 1931” (Hatzfeld, J). From this knowledge alone, it is easy to see how the murderers knew the “identity” of their neighbors, their friends and co-workers, seen in both the text
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.
The Rwandan Genocide, triggered by the murder of Rwandan President Habyarimana on April 9, 1994, was the fastest, if not most barbarous bloodbath in human history, and was carried out with little to no intervention or aid force from any of the many capable Western governments, such as the United States. Though these administration 's may claim that they were unable to intervene due to lack of warning signs and insufficient information; those statements are false. The United States government refused to intervene in the Rwandan genocide due to its economic disinterest, political indifference, and pure African prejudice, completely ignoring the obvious signs of the genocide.
The world’s history has been tainted by many instances of violence targeted at specific groups of people due to either their ethnicity or beliefs. This paper will discuss the characteristics of the Rwanda Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. The Rwanda Genocide targeted the Tutsis because of their ethnicity, while the Holocaust targeted the Jews because of their ethnicity and religion.
The last and most important similarity is that these events still require our attention and help. The infrastructure has been rebuilt, Hutus and Tutsis live together as neighbors and there have been no major outbreaks of violence. In the years since the genocide, Rwandans have worked hard to overcome that legacy. It is considered a safe country with little to no corruption and a burgeoning economy (O’Donnell 4). Remains of victims are still being found. Here is a quotation that might better help you understand the recovery process from the prospective of a first hand witness in Rwanda:
War, a method people use when communication is useless. In Rwanda, an estimation of 800,000 people had died in such a short time. It was called Rwanda genocide. Rwanda is a small country in Africa with a great agriculture economy. It was controlled by Belgium. Belgium likes the Tutsi's family more than the Hutu's. The Hutu's did not like it so they started violence resulted of the migrating of most of the Tutsi. They were becoming less every time. On 1961, Hutus forced Rwanda's Tutsi Prince into dropping and declaring the country as republic. A year later, Belgium finally granted them their independence. In 1990, the Tutsi formed an army named (RPF) to conquer back their land from Uganda. The attacks started on the 7th of April and ended on
Sometime in April 1994, during the Rwandan Genocide, Father Athanase Seromba helped lure 2,000 Tutsi men, women, and children into his church where they thought they would be safe. One day, Seromba began clearing out the Communion chalices. A refugee in the church begged him to leave the Eucharist so that they could hold a final mass. However, Seromba refused, telling the congregation that the building was no longer a church. Another refugee asked the priest if he would pray for them. He answered, “Is the God of the Tutsis still alive?” Later, Seromba would have the church bulldozed and would send the militia in to kill the survivors (Kimani, 2010). In a continent as vast as Africa, it is not uncommon to see the struggles of both Christianity and Islam play out. Just a couple years ago, the world heard about the Boko Haram Islamic extremist group kidnapping schoolgirls in Nigeria, forcing them to convert to Islam and marriage with other members of Boko Haram. Lesser known are the Christian terrorists of the African continent who attack and kill the Muslim community among them. In the last two decades, the Western world has become so fearful after news of Muslim terrorist attacks and genocides, especially after 9/11. So much so that Western citizens have turned on other citizens simply because they are Muslim, look Middle-Eastern, or have an Arabic name. Sometimes we forget that some of the worst genocides in history have been instigated or participated in by Christians –
“One ugly, deadly and recurrent reality check persists: genocide. Genocide has occurred so often and so uncontested in the last fifty years that an epithet more apt in describing recent event than the often chanted “Never Again” (Power 1998, p. 1). Genocide is one of the most devastating phenomena in the international community it is so often unchallenged that the occurrences continue to repeat. While envisioning the impending danger of these incidents, it is necessary, through cross-country comparison to understand what drives and sustains genocide. This essay will analyze three paradigms that are suggested causes of the phenomena, idealism, political, and state interest while assessing the genocides in both Rwanda and Darfur in order to prevent
Our Conclusion, is that for Human Rights to be violated, the person accountable must be part of some part of community or government who are not getting their expectations met. In the Rwandan genocide the Hutus were feeling that their expectations were not being met and they decided to start a war. Accountability should look like unfairness, and violations and expectations not being met, this caused the Human Rights to be broken.