Understanding The Rwandan 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.

In Rwanda during 1994 Genocide happened between the Hutus and Tutsis. Hutus and Tutsis had disagreements on who will have power which effected the whole population of Rwanda. This leads to the question why there is Genocide in Rwanda? Genocide happened by two clans who caused mass causalities. Others did little to help which caused Genocide to happen in Rwanda.

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Habyarimana and Burundi’s president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali their were no survivors. They did not know who shot the plane down but they are blaming Hutu extremists and the leaders of the RPF. An hour after the plane went down the Rwandan armed forces and the Hutu militia groups had started setting up roadblocks and barricades, and started killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus. the first victims of the genocide were the moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her 10 Belgian bodyguards, with that happening it started more conflict and interim government of extremist Hutu Power leaders from the military high command had stepped in on april 9. The killing in Rwanda had spreaded to the rest of the country, up to 800,000 or more had been slaughtered within 3 months.

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.

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.

History has a funny way of repeating itself. After World War II, the United States and the rest of the international community promised to do all they could to prevent future genocides. However this was a promise they were unable to keep. In 1994 when Rwanda went through genocide the United States and U.N were absent, leaving the Tutsis to be brutally murdered by the Hutus. As a consequence 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed and dumped into mass graves. Once again the United States and U.N promised to do more, but this time it was too late.

On April 4, 1994, Hutu President, Juvenal Habyaimana and another Hutu leader, Cyprien Ntaryamira were on an airplane flying back to Rwanda. The plane was shot down and everyone on board was killed. The Hutu people blamed the terrorist attack on the RPF political group. They began to create hit lists for the Hutu militia to kill all of the Tutsi officials. Roadblocks were set up by the Hutu and if Tutsi people tried to pass, their IDs were checked. If they had any form of Tutsi identification, they were killed. The slaughter was just getting started. Neighbors were killing neighbors. Friends were killing friends. Family was killing family. Even religious leaders were killing the Tutsi people. There was thought to be no stop to the slaughter. (BBC)

The Rwandan Genocide was a genocide against the Tutsis by the Hutus in 1994 taking place in Rwanda. This event like any other did not just happen randomly and had many factors involved for it to have happened. Factors such as certain leaders, the nature of state of Rwanda, attitude of the community, economy war, and many more are what caused the Rwandan Genocide.

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.

One particular case that has been studied recently is the Rwandan Genocide that occurred in 1994. The Rwandan Genocide remains one of the fastest and most brutal cases of genocide in modern history (Temitope and Danjibo 2013). In the years leading up to the genocide there was a civil war between the Government of Rwanda (led by Hutu General Habyarimana) and the Tutsi expat group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, who had been in exile in Uganda (Buhr 2015). Following the cease-fire agreement in 1993, there were signs that the agreement would not hold despite the presence of UN peacekeepers (Buhr 2015). In April 1994 General Habyarimana was assassinated, and violence ensued (Buhr 2015). Tutsis were blamed for the death of Habyarimana, despite a lack of evidence (Buhr 2015). From April to July of 1994 vengeful Hutus slaughtered approximately one million Tutsis (Temitope and Danjibo 2013).

Rwanda has had a tragic past filled with a devastating civil war and a heartbreaking mass murder that took the whole country by storm. The Rwandan genocide of 1944 was

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

First, in order to understand the implications of the state with the genocide, its colonial and post-colonial history must be understood. Rwanda was under Belgium colonial rule. When Rwanda was formed, its two major ethnic groups consisted of the Tutsies and the Hutus. During colonial rule, the Belg favoured the minority which were the Tutsies. The Tutsies were favoured by receiving better education and public treatment (Hintjens, 1999, p.245). Near the end of colonial rule, the Hutus obtained power. In post-colonialism the Hutus remained in power, but they were struggling in governance and economically. Therefore, in order to protect the Hutus government from being overthrown or perceived as weak, the Hutus government blamed their struggles on the Tutsies. In effect, the Hutus government used ethnicity as an instrument to protect themselves and put their failures on the Tutsies. When the government tells their population that the Tutsies are to blame and ''if you do not kill them, they will kill you'', there is an incentive for Hutus to want to protect themselves. Scott Strauss argues that even though some individuals do not actually believe the problem was the Tutsies, they will kill in order to protect themselves because they carry fear (Strauss, 2008, p.521). The horrid events of which occurred during these 100 days and caused around 800,000 deaths have left a population with multiple physical and mental scars (Abrahamsen, 2016). The state of Rwanda played a horrid role in the creation of the genocide. Although rivalry in ethnicities seemed to be the cause of the genocide, ethnicity was only an instrument used in order to achieve national interest. The sate is largely to blame for the genocide, but post-genocide the conversation of the genocide was no longer legal (Amnesty International, 2010). Genocide ideology was criminalized in

The Rwandan Genocide was one of the most violent genocides in the history of the world and was intricately planned and implemented by the ethnic group called the Hutu in an attempt to eliminate another, the Tutsis. Though the genocide lasted only one hundred days, the number of deaths is estimated to be approximately 800,000. In the wake of the genocide, mass chaos plagued the country of Rwanda, deepening the divide between the groups Hutu and Tutsi. Although it can be said the genocide was caused only by the animosity between the groups in an effort for revenge, several causes led to the genocide—including social, economic, political and historical factors that had been a result of past interactions. The Rwandan Genocide was caused by

The Rwandan president, Habyarimana and the president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, are killed when the president’s plane is shot down near Kigali Airport, on April 6th, 1994. That night on the 6th of April, 1994, the genocide begins. Hutu people take to the streets with guns and machetes. The Hutus set up roadblocks and stopped anyone that looked Tutsi or suspected of helping Tutsi people to hide. On April 7th, 1994 the Rwandan Armed Forces set up roadblocks and went house to house to kill any Tutsis found. Thousands of people die on the first, while the U.N. just stands by and watches the slaughter go on. On April 8th, 1994 the U.N. cuts its forces from 2,500 to 250 after ten U.N. soldiers were disarmed and tortured and shot or hacked to death by machetes, trying to protect the Prime Minister. As the slaughter continues the U.N. sends 6,800 soldiers to Rwanda to protect the civilians, on May 17th, 1994, they were meant to be the peacekeepers. The slaughter continues until July 15th, 1994, in the 100 days that the genocide lasted 800,000-1,000,000 Tutsis and Hutus