Rwanda. Rwandan society is comprised of representatives of 3 ethnicities: Hutu (85%), Tutsi (about 14%) and Twa (less than 1%). The 3 groups shared the same language and common membership in the state institutions. When Europeans colonized the country at the end of the 19th century the Tutsi minority exercised control of the government. Berlin Conference of 1884 assigned Rwanda to Germany, and in 1919 it was passed to Belgium. Colonialists intensified bipolar differentiation between Tutsi and Hutu by imposing a system of identity cards in 1935, which put an end to movement between classes and emphasized ethnicity; a land reform, which privatized all the territory owned by Hutus with low compensation to the latter; and securing Tutsi domination …show more content…
After the sovereign of Yugoslavia disappeared each country began looking for security, independence and control over its own population dispersed all over the Balkan Peninsula based on nationality, religion or culture. The oral history carried by representatives of each nation had different versions of their interactions between one another in the past, especially on the issues of the resistance to Turks, the Ustasha in the 30s and the tensions during the World War II, like those between Ustasha and Chetnicks. It was based on a dualistic perspective and used to fuel national antagonisms after the “Brotherhood and Unity” slogan was no more applicable. The region of Central Podrinje was of great strategic importance for the formation of a new political entity called Republika Srpska. Its armies forcefully removed or murdered unwanted Bosnian populations off of the territories they seized control of. The term “ethnic cleansing” was introduced to describe this objective and is now widely accepted by the scholarly community. The struggle for Srebrenica and its neighboring villages started in 1992 and in April 1993 the UN declared the territory a “safe area” on the conditions of full demilitarization and establishment of no-fly zone. The agreement was soon violated by both parties. The entrance to and exit from the area was controlled by Serbian Army and the Bosnian Army in turn flew helicopters inside the safe zone. In 1995 mass murders broke out resulting in more than 200 thousand civilian
C. Introduction The Rwandan genocide lasted three months and in those three months it is said that 1 million Tutsis were killed. The Holocaust lasted 4 years and 6 million Jews were killed. Bearing this in mind it would be expected that The Rwandan genocide should be extremely well known because of the loss of lives, impact and brutality of the event and the similarities it holds with The Holocaust. The fact is that the Rwandan Genocide is not very well known and is not thought to be in the same category as The Holocaust, where in fact it is.
Belgian occupied Africa in 1994 favouring the Tutsis over the Hutus giving them more privileges . Both of these groups developed a sense of nationalism, feeling victimized by one another, this sense of nationalism led to Ultranationalism among these groups causing tension among the groups. Extreme forms of Hutu nationalism fueled by propaganda led to a 100-day bloodbath in which caused mass casualties between these groups. Stirred feeling of nationalism in hopes of a better future increased tensions between these two groups leading to genocide. Ultranationalistic leaders used pride and devotion on one’s country as justification for the actions and racist
The two groups mentioned above, Hutu and Tutsi, had a strong dislike for one another as it has been described in source
(document 7) Belgians created the ideas of the Tutsis being the superior race and the Hutus are the inferior race, moreover, the Belgian had ethnic identity cards made to distinguish between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Someone shot the president of Rwanda, Habyarimana ‘s airplane down, this gave an open door to the Hutus to gain control of Rwanda and over the Tutsis. Since there was no president all hell broke loose, Hutu officials corrupted government ran radios and newspapers, they suggested the killing of Tutsis. (Document 8) A group called, Rwandan Patriotic Front founded by Tutsis attacked government forces and defeated radical Hutu in Kigali. More than 3 million migrated to Europe, Canada, the United States, or neighboring countries.
The American Government 's Response to The Rwandan Genocide The United States often have an had interest in the political, social and civil crises of other countries in order to benefit themselves. American senior officials hid the truth of the Rwanda Genocide to avoid public moral obligation. The government did not give any financial or political support to the country because Rwanda did not offer minerals or political advantages and stability; the US ' government did not want to be involved in another conflict, even though it has helped other countries in the past.1 But what is truly deeper hidden, are the stories of people like Immacule, a young girl, who, unlike thousands of others, survived the catastrophic genocide in Rwanda.
Over the course of 100 days more than 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by the Hutu majority, and in Sudan/Darfur over 300,000 indigenous people have been murdered by the Arabs. Both Sudan and Rwanda were colonized by foreign countries, Britain and Belgium. Many Europeans countries scrambled for a part of Africa to colonized. This sudden nationalism to colonized this new continent lead to the Conference of Berlin where these countries cut Africa into pieces to colonized. In these newly formed African colonies, Europeans had favored a particular ethnic group exacerbating much of the tension already in these colonies, more specifically Sudan and Rwanda.
Also in the 1930s, the Belgians introduced identity cards labeling individuals as either Tutsi or Hutu. These identity cards prevented any further movement between the classes, and directly undermined the ubuhake system, in which privileged, hard working Hutus could become Tutsis, and less hard working and well off Tutsis could be lowered to the rank of a Hutu (Melson, “Modern Genocide in
Have you ever been picked last in school or treated unfairly? I can tell you that the Tutsis people of Rwanda were. They were killed because they were thought to be different. In 1916 Belgium took over Rwanda from Germany, and they introduced ID cards naming the people by ethnicity. The Belgians thought the Tutsi were a better race, so they gave them better jobs and educational opportunities.
The method of human communication in Rwanda is Kinyarwanda, French, English, Kiswahili. In 1994, the country 's population had about seven million people there was about eighty five percent Hutus, fourteen percent tutsi
Genocide: The deliberate and systematic extermination of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation (Dictionary.com). When you look at the rawness of the definition of genocide, it seems crazy. The harsh reality, however, is that genocides happen more often than people would like to admit, the 75,000 Herero people can definitely attest to this (Zimmerer and Neuberger). The most well-known genocide is the Holocaust, however there are many more genocides, both before and after, as well as more brutal, than the Holocaust. The first known genocide is called the Herero Genocide, or the Herero-Nama Genocide, and involved the Herero and the Germans (Laumann).
When the Rwanda genocide began in 1994, its population stood at more that 7 people. Roughly 85% of the population was Hutu, 14% Tutsi, and 1% Twa (un.org). The decades following Rwanda’s independence from Belgium in 1962 saw growing ethnic tensions and periodic violent attacks and reprisals between Rwanda’s Hutu majority and its Tutsi minority. On April 6, 1994, the deaths of the Presidents of Burundi and Rwanda in a plane crash caused by a rocket attack, ignited several weeks of intense and systematic massacres.
Srebrenica Genocide was one of the most hurtful and bloody highlights of Bosnian War. Srebrenica was a safe area which UN was responsible for protection against any kind of enemy attack. However, United Nations has failed to do what they were supposed to do in July, 1995. Ratko Mladić attacked Srebrenica with Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and killed more than 8.000 people in Srebrenica Genocide. It was an attempt to achieve their ethnic cleansing campaign which has began in 1992.
This made large divides between the two cultures and later many civil conflicts between the groups. In 1994 when the president 's plane was shot down the government and Hutu militants blamed the Tutsis, radio broadcasts across the country encourages Hutus to take revenge and kill the Tutsis, in the end an estimated 800000 to 1 million people died. The globalization of Belgians colony and the scramble for africa through that part of the world into a blood conflict of cultures and terrorist/militant groups that still rages on
This made it easy for the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide as they did not need to do the classification stage themselves. Furthermore, the Belgians further split the ethnic groups by “requiring all Rwandans to carry identity cards that classified people by their ethnicity (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).” This
As opposed to how Rwanda was functioning before and during the genocide, the new government is determined to build something new. One people, one country, open to all Rwandans regardless of ethnic identity. After 21 years this method of government is still standing strong