Critical Thinking Question:
What are the events that lead to the Rwandan Genocide?
What are the events that lead to the Rwandan Genocide?
Overview
In the first decade of the 21st century, Rwanda was still recovering from the effects of a massive Rwandan genocide from the post WWII. This issue started in April 1994 and lasted until August 1994. Rwanda is a small country located in east- central Africa and it is considered to be slightly smaller than Maryland. The Rwandan Genocide is considered to be a global issue because it affected neighboring countries like Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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In 1994 Rwanda's population composed of of three ethnic groups: Hutu (approximately 85%), Tutsi (14%) and Twa (1%). In 1899 German forces conquered the Tutsi kingdom. The Germans issued ethnic identity cards to separate the ethnic groups and gave the Tutsis the leadership positions and better jobs, and it started tensions between the two groups. After World War I, Belgium administered Rwanda as a United Nations (UN) Trust Territory until independence. Like the Germans, the Belgians instituted a classification system, and granting Tutsi chiefs nearly all of the power. Inequalities grew until 1959, when the frustrated Hutus rose up in a series of violent riots against the Tutsis. Belgium gave Rwanda its independence in 1961 and called for democratic elections. Since 85 percent of the population of Rwanda was Hutu, the Tutsis lost power to the Hutu. More than 750,000 Tutsis migrated to Uganda and Tanzania. A Civil War broke out when the Tutsis returned to Rwanda in 1990, ending in a cease-fire, signed by the Hutu president, and presided over by the United Nations peacekeeping force. In the early 1990's Hutu extremists blamed the entire Tutsi minority population for the country’s increasing social, economic, and political pressures. Through the use of propaganda and constant political maneuvering, Habyarimana, who was the president at the time, and his group increased divisions between Hutu and Tutsi by the end of 1992.
On April 6th, 1994, President Habyarimana's plane was shot down. The Hutu blamed the Tutsi. The fighting had begun by extreme Hutu nationalists in the capital of Kigali, the genocide spread throughout the country with staggering speed and brutality. Rwandan militia went from house to house killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus. If Hutus refused to help with the murders, then they were murdered too. In this way, they were able to murder 20,000 people in one week. The Hutu wanted to rid Rwanda of the Tutsi. If a Tutsi tried to flee, they were stopped at checkpoints on the road, and killed.
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The Hutu ethnic majority in the east-central African nation of Rwanda murdered as many as 800,000 people, mostly of the Tutsi minority. Many Tutsi women were gang-raped, sometimes for weeks at a time. More than 7,000 women died from AIDS in this way and children too were targets. It is estimated that some 200,000 people participated in the Rwandan Genocide during the 1990s. In the weeks after April 6, 1994, 800,000 men, women, and children perished in the Rwandan genocide, as many as three quarters of the Tutsi population. The United Nations (UN) Security Council responded to what it called crimes against humanity and serious violations of humanitarian law by establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in September 1994. The Rwandan genocide was one of the most monstrous crimes against humanity. In a short time of 100 days, over 800,000 people were killed.
Effects of the Rwandan Genocide
- The UN Security Council established International Criminal Tribunal
- The mass murder of almost 75% of the Tutsi population
- Nearly 9% of the adult population is HIV-positive
- By 1997, the Tutsi ran the government