Tension In Rwanda

Rwanda is a nation built on three major ethnic groups and continuous ethnic tension over the course of history. The main cause of the tension was the strained relationship between the Hutus and the Tutsis, the two major ethnic groups of Rwanda. The hostility between the two groups became strong around the beginning of World War I. The Belgians ruled Rwanda and they preferred the Tutsi minority, causing ethnic tension between the Hutus and the Tutsis from the start. The Hutus took action and led several attacks on the Tutsis, trying to drive a large percentage of the Tutsi population into exile. The attempts were successful enough for the Hutus to gain Rwandan independence in 1962 and governed with a republic instead of a Tutsi-created monarchy.

Meanwhile, the exiled Tutsis formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and in 1990 they invaded Rwanda. The hostility between the two groups was put on hold by the creation of the Arusha Accords, an agreement for a transition in government where the RPF has a role. However, the Hutus' loathing for the Tutsis never died and they were looking for any opportunity to seek revenge. The airplane of the president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, a Hutu, flew over the Rwandan capital of Kigali and was shot down. Cyprien Ntaryamira did not survive the crash and the Hutus took this as an opportunity to attack. The first killings marked the start of the Rwandan Genocide and began an hour after the Hutu president's plane got shot down. The mass killings went on for about three months. According to the Survivors Fund (SURF), an estimated eight hundred thousand to one million Tutsis and some moderate Hutus were slaughtered over the course of the one hundred day genocide (Statistics of the Genocide). However, the Rwandan Genocide should have been easy to predict when reflecting on the numerous Tutsi assaults in the