The Rwandan genocide did not occur overnight, but was a result of the ethnic conflict building up between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. In the late 1980’s, Tutsi exiles living in Uganda, formed an army called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), with the intention to overthrow the Hutu government and return home. On October 1st, 1990, the RPF invaded Rwanda, beginning the civil war that lasted for almost two years. On July 12th, 1992, a cease-fire accord was signed, which went into effect on July 31st, 1992. Meanwhile, in the early 1990’s, Rwandan government officials met secretly and began assembling the Interahamwe, a militia of Hutu youths. Dr. Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, explains that the Rwandan army provided the Interahamwe
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
Throughout the 1600s to the mid 1990s, the Tutsi tribe in Rwanda, and the Hutu tribe of Rwanda have always been arch enemies. Although the Hutus have had a prolonged hate for the Tutsi tribe, this hate was not physically expressed, until 1994. From April to July of 1994, over 80,000 Tutsi people were murdered and tortured for their African heritage. The Rwanda genocide is considered to be one of the worst massacres the world has ever seen since the Holocaust. This paper will touch a few things that occurred after the massacre, and will also answer the questions of why this massacre started, what occurred during this genocide. The Rwandan genocide was a massacre based off of discrimination and hatred for a specific tribal group. This
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
Rwanda is located in central and east Africa; Rwanda is slightly smaller than Maryland. It has three main ethnic groups the Hutus, Twa and Tutsis. The hutus were farmers eking out a modest living from the land while the tutsis dominate the hutus with wealth and power their cattle gave them. The true cause of Rwanda Genocide was because of foreign imperialistic powers that causes indifference and hate among the tutsis and hutus.
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.
800,000, and most of those people were from of the Tutsi tribe. It began by the
On April 7th, 1994, one of the worst crimes against humanity was unleashed in Rwanda and in the following hundred days, almost one million Tutsi and moderate Hutus were heinously slaughtered. Scott Strauss, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, describes the horrors that occurred, revealing that "Over three months, government forces with militia and civilian assistance massacred at least 800,000 people in one of the worst human rights violations of the 1900’s” (Strauss 5). During the genocide, the majority of the Tutsi population were killed by the hands of the Hutus. Sadly, the Western world stood by, ignoring the atrocities being inflicted on defenseless people. The Rwandan genocide was an unimaginable event that took place in a third
Before long, the massacre has started as war crept up on the Tutsi’s and the Hutu’s. “Rwanda: How the genocide happened” states the start of the genocide was triggered by the death of the Rwanda President Juvenal Habyarimana, who’s plane had been shot down. The Rwandan’s were most certain the shot was from the President’s guard (Sullivan), but the act was pointed to President Paul Kagme, leader of the “Tutsi Rebel group” (“Rwanda: How the genocide happened”). Beforehand, Habyarimana signed a peace record with a rebel group of Tutsi, for his people had thought it was to share his power with Tutsis. Slaughter had taken place less than thirty minutes afterwards (Sullivan). Recruits were being sent throughout the continent to begin the massive
The Rwandan Genocide was one that will never be forgotten. It occured from April 7, 1994 to July 1994. Rwanda was mainly separated into three different ethnic groups. The Hutus, the Tutsis, and the Twa. The population of the Hutus in Rwanda was about 84 percent of the country, the Tutsis group was 15 percent, and the Twa ethnicity was only a trivial 1 percent. The start of the country’s civil war was triggered by the killing of the Rwandan president. The country was having difficulties before the assassination, and the killing only initiated the anger. The Rwandan Genocide left the country struggling to reconstruct the relationships between its people.
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.
Roughly 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers were killed during the events of the Rwandan genocide. Although tensions were high between the Hutus and the Tutsis long before the genocide began, the assassination of Rwanda's second president, President Habyariama, created even more hostility between the two ethnic groups. Extreme Hutu nationalists accused a Tutsi organization called the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), and many Tutsis blamed Hutus. Because of this disagreement, extremist Hutu groups such as the Hutu militia and the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) were encouraged by radical radio stations to use brutality and force to seek revenge for the death of the Hutu president. Within the first few days of the genocide, Hutu militia groups executed the US Ambassador to Rwanda, Ambassador Rawson, and 250 other Americans. The FAR and Hutu militia used rape as a tactic to defeat the opposing groups. Moreover, the Hutu radical groups used rape as a major weapon throughout the events of the genocide. In early July, towards the end of the genocide, the RPF "gained control of the country through a military offensive … hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were dead and many more displaced from their homes" . Because the genocide lasted only 100
The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was one of the worst crimes in human history, which saw the brutal killing of almost a million Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus. (Khan) The genocide had took place in the context of the Rwandan Civil War, an ongoing conflict beginning in 1990 between the Hutu-led government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was largely composed of Tutsi refugees whose families had fled to Uganda following earlier waves of Hutu violence against the Tutsi. The Arusha Accords (also known as the Arusha Peace Agreement, or Arusha negotiations) were a set of five accords (or protocols) signed in Arusha, Tanzania on August 4, 1993, by the government of Rwanda and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), under mediation, to end a three-year Rwandan Civil War.
In Uganda, many Tutsi exiles formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front. The RPF tried negotiating reinhabiting 700,000 Tutsi in Rwanda. The failure to come to an agreement made the RPF decide that force was the only option to reinstate a larger and safer Tutsi presence in Rwanda. The war began in October of 1990. In the end, a peace treaty was signed by both parties.
The killing of the people in this ethnic group leads to the genocide which is my dependent variable. As you can see in this first example each of my variables connect to one another to show what caused the genocide in Rwanda. Although, the fall of government was one big factor that caused the genocide there is also two more that I will eventually talk about in my paper.