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Tragic Series Of Events Prior To The Rwanda Genocide

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Genocide, the calculated mass killing of a particular group of people with the goal of complete annihilation. The Rwanda Genocide, a tragic series of events where 800,000 to 1 million people were brutally murdered in 1994 from April to July, lasting approximately 100 days, targeting Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The roots of tension can be traced back to the 1860s during the reign of King Rwabugiri (1867-1895), who favored the Tutsis by assigning them higher status roles and paying jobs. This bias continued during the Belgian administration, which began in 1919 when Rwanda became a mandate territory of the League of Nations. The long history of pressure between the Tutsis and Hutus set the stage for the Genocide. In Rwanda, three main ethnic …show more content…

This conflict began in 1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a group mostly made up of Tutsis, invaded Rwanda from Uganda. This invasion started up the long-standing ethnic tensions, which led to years of fighting and violence between the RPF and Hutu government forces. Laying the foundation for the genocide. Both sides committed many atrocities, but the Hutu government's propaganda campaigns against the Tutsis significantly escalated the situation. Peter Uvin states “Prior to the genocide, Rwanda was entangled in a civil war. This conflict began in 1990 when the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a group mostly made up of Tutsis, invaded Rwanda from Uganda. This invasion started up the long-standing ethnic tensions, which led to years of fighting and violence between the RPF and Hutu government forces. Laying the foundation for the genocide. Both sides committed many atrocities, but the Hutu government's propaganda campaigns against the Tutsis significantly escalated the situation.”. This quote highlights a specific event caused by the Hutu government's use of manipulation and propaganda where they staged a false attack on Kigali and blamed the Tutsis. This technique was used to deceive the international community and justify the imprisonment of thousands of Tutsis. This illustrates the consequences and dangers of spreading misinformation and false

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The Rwandan Genocide began with the murder of the Rwandan president and the uprising of Hutu citizens. Hutu citizens became upset with it and began to hunt and kill Tutsi citizens. The killing of many Tutsis was part of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide(Powell). The initial start of the Rwandan genocide was the killing of the Rwandan president in 1933(Bower) After the murder of the president, Hutu citizens are encouraged to kill Tutsi citizens.

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To conclude, it is important to acknowledge the historical context of this horrific genocide. There are multiple factors causing the Rwandan Genocide, such as the social, political, and economic factors. First, “social differences between the Hutu and the Tutsi traditionally were profound” (“Rwandan Genocide of 1994”). These differences lead to prejudice and

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Like a tsunami the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was an atrocious calamity that ripped through the already destabilized country of Rwanda. It lasted from the beginning of April 1994 till July of that same year. Even though this horrific event only lasted approximately 100 days the precursors of this genocide were evident nearly a century before. There are two main ethnic groups in the country of Rwanda and they are the Hutus and the Tutsis. The country was made up of approximately 90% Hutus and 10% Tutsis.

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Upon leaving Rwanda the Germans and Belgians agreed upon a Hutu elite and set them in charge of the Country. The differences, both economically and politically, between the Hutu and Tutsi gave each group the motive to gain power and protect their respected groups, the start of their ethnic national differences (Clark 80). The establishment of the Hutu elites started the Hutu nationalist movement. Once the Hutu’s were in charge with the help of the Hutu peasants the Hutu people finally had a sense of dominance in Rwanda and wanted to keep their high status above the Tutsi people. During the rule of the first Rwandan president, Grégoire Kayibanda a Hutu, the Tutsi people were subjected to many different Hutu laws.

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This article is a section of a series titled Starting a Genocide. Based on the title, a reader can infer that this article would talk about the beginning of the genocide and how it started. Since the article is just a section of the genocide, it goes extremely into detail about the preparation of the civilians in Rwanda to protect themselves from the war. It tells the reader how the Hutu planned to start the war and their actions taken quickly after. The war started almost immediately after the plane carrying the president was shot down and it shocked many of the Tutsis living in Rwanda.

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The Rwandan genocide was a mass murder of thousands of Tutsi people by the Hutu people, they were viciously killed and scared out of their country, partly due to the rumor that a Tutsi man ordered the death of the Rwandan President. To begin, from April to July 1994, members of the Hutu ethnic group in the East-Central African nation murdered 800,000 men, women, and children from the Tutsi ethnic group. During this period Hutu civilians were forced by military soldier and police officers to kill their neighbors, friends, and family (“10 facts About the Rwandan Genocide-Borgen”). Radio stations encouraged ordinary civilians to take part in the killings (“10 facts About the Rwandan Genocide-Borgen”).

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The Rwandan Genocide first began in 1962, when both Rwanda and Burundi gained their independence. The clash between the Hutus and Tutsis grew more intense and became a series of killings between the two peoples. In Rwanda, the Hutus gained control under Hutu general, Habyarimana, who led Rwanda during a prosperous 15 years. According to Jarod Diamond, Habyarimana killed many Hutus and Tutsis all over Rwanda, in order to strengthen his reigns on Rwanda, after the attempted Tutsi invasion by Uganda in Rwanda. A peace agreement signed at Arusha in 1993 called for power-sharing and a multi-powered government; in that same year, Hutus fear was increased after extremist Tutsis killed Hutu president.

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Rwanda is a nation built on three major ethnic groups and a prolonged 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 circa 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 right off the bat.

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In its early days as a rebel group, it inspired to achieve the goals of establishing a ‘one Rwanda’, which encompasses a non-ethnic country and the right of return for the nearly one million Rwandan diaspora Tutsi community. However, the genocide greatly altered these objectives by the psychological impacts of the scale of the massacres as well as how it was able to conduct a full military victory against the genocide Rwandan government. By the end of the genocide, Rwanda was under the full control of the RPA and its political wing, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). Despite military victory, the previous genocide government was not destroyed; it instead was displaced out of Rwanda and into eastern Zaire. From 1994 to 1996, former Rwandan military personal alongside with genocide perpetrators conducted raids against Rwanda and planned to take back the nation from RPF control.

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Rwanda, April 7 1994. The day that marks the start of a “massacre” that that will last 100 days and end with a death toll of 1,000,000 people. More famously known as “The Rwandan Genocide”, one of the most horrific and ghastly acts of genocides to have happened in recent history. The Hutus planned to exterminate the Tutsis, one of the minority groups in Rwanda. After the 100 day genocide, July 1994, 70% of the Tutsis have unfortunately been exterminated leaving only 30% of the population left.

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The United Nations has taken a pledge to aid any country where a genocide or acts of genocide are occuring. In Rwanda’s current state, approximately 170,000 people have perished, innocent men women and children, by the hands of the Hutu rebel group. At this rate, in another 140 days, the entire Tutsi population will be eliminated. This ongoing rivalry has led the two groups to blame each other for every dilemma that has occured in Rwanda. This rivalry climaxed on April 6th when the Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana died in a plane crash, and the Hutus blamed the Tutsi Rebel Group (the RPF) for his death.

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Serious outbreaks rose and heated up the Rwanda War as the Genocide continued. At the sight of the scene, Smyth says, “There were beatings, rapes and murders. Rwandan intelligence distributed Kalashnikovs to municipal authorities in selected villages. They gathered with ruling party militants, most of whom carried staves, clubs and machetes . . . they went from field to field in search of Tutsis, killing thousands . . .

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In 1994, a small country known as Rwanda, located in Africa, was devastated by a mass genocide over a short span of time. This tragedy between the Hutus and the Tutsis occurred over a span of 100 days and had 800 000 to 1 000 000 fatalities. Although small in comparison to other genocides such as the holocaust, the damage, emotionally and physically, was certain. The two populations, the Hutus and the Tutsis had major conflict in previous years, this eventually built up, thus resulting in the Hutu people to enforce mass murder on the Tutsis. Over the years there is and was great controversy as to what the main motivation of the Hutu people was to start the genocide.

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The Rwandan Genocide is understood to be one of the biggest genocides of the 90s. The genocide was essentially the methodical eradication and murder of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority by its Hutu majority in 1994. Approximately up to one million civilians were systematically slaughtered, tortured, rape, and displaced (Uvin, 2001:75). For the purpose of this essay, genocide is defined as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group” (Genocide Convention,). First, I will outline the debate concerning the causes of the Rwandan genocide.

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In fact, Rwanda has a long history of politicization of land: those who held political power often intervened and appropriated land for their own purposes” Thus struggle for power by both ethnic groups is what we ultimately see on the outside as to why this conflict occurred, however it is in fact because those who owned the land had the power that we know that this issue was more of a territorial one. This conflict turned into such violent one as the Hutus believed that the only way to gain ownership of the land and of the power was to exterminate the Tutsi. Land belonging to Tutsi was distributed to Hutu after they were killed or exiled. It is because of the twos deep rooted hatred and resentment of one and other that the violence escalated to such a horrific

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