...Rwandan Genocide I. Background of the Case Though there is a stunning progress in the present Republic of Rwanda which is located in African continent surrounded by Uganda, Tanzania, Zaire and Burundi, the bloody rampage happened during the mid-1990s will never be effaced with the passage of time. The two well-known races – the Tutsi which is only 14% and the Hutu which made up of 85% of the total population – have seethed with hatred towards one another since ancient past. The tension hit the boiling point when Belgium came to colonize the country after Germany in the Post-World War I. Since Tutsis were given advantages over Hutus, several revolts and conflicts continuously happened in the country. The tension has even been aggravated when...
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...the Rwandan civil war, but Rwanda, a small rural nation in central Africa, is still coming to terms with its violent past. Significant ethnic tensions between the two Rwandan tribes – the Tutsis and the Hutus, had been brewing for decades. The Tutsis, despite being the minority, controlled Rwandan economy and politics for centuries - one of the reasons why the Hutus were taught to hate Tutsis from birth. In 1994, fueled by hate media, tensions between the two Tribes rose to an extreme. The result: a full-scale civil war. Today, although Rwanda has made progress, the country is still in recovery. Rwanda is still in the process of rebuilding its country and healing its shattered society. Historically, the Rwandan genocide was one of the International community’s greatest failures. With the world focused on Yugoslavia, few acknowledged the tensions that were brewing in Africa. Approximately 2,000 United Nation (U.N.) troops were on the ground when the genocide began, but after the deaths of 10 Belgium soldiers and the Rwandan Prime Minister, the number was reduced to a mere 270. By refusing to acknowledge that Rwanda needed more troops, the U.N. and the International community were not able to prevent one of the most horrific genocides of the 20th century. Despite the U.N.’s failure however, the Rwandan genocide was historically, a turning point for the United Nations. The U.N. acknowledges the incident, and made reforms to prevent further genocides from occurring. To start, they’ve...
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...The consequences of the atrocities on neighbouring states is a significant, yet often ignored, aspect of the post-genocide recovery. In the days following the end of the Genocide, two million refugees fled Rwanda into neighbouring countries, which is believed to be the fastest migration in history. As a result, refugee camps formed in neighbouring countries, the most notable of which were those in Zaire (present day DRC). The nature of Operation Turquoise meant that the Hutu Elite were able to escape alongside these fleeing civilians and seize control of these refugee camps, allowing them to monopolise aid and turn refugees who wanted to return to Rwanda into “quasi-hostages”. These camps also placed the refugees in “squalid” conditions,...
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...The Rwandan Genocide In April and July of 1994, around “800,000 Tutsi and Moderate Hutus(ethnic groups that lived in Rwanda) were slaughtered” when they tried to rebel against the Hutu extremist-led government. He was trying to murder all the Tutsi minority and willing to kill anyone who stepped in the way. The genocide is one of the worst moments in human history. This genocide went down in history as the quickest killing spree the world has ever seen. The Hutu extremist-let government made a plan to kill and wipe out all the Tutsis in the country. The Hutus blamed the Tutsi people for the country’s increasing social, economic, and political pressures. On October 2, 1990, a civil war broke out between Hutus and Tutsis. The tutsi rebel group, Rwandan Patriotic Front, invaded Rwanda from the north. The main perpetrators were the Hutu extremists....
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...1. The Implausibility of Genocide Prevention That hatred soon leads to genocide. ... Lastly, Genocide cannot be prevented because the guarantee that everyone is not going to turn against the agreement to prevent future genocide is an unrealistic belief. ... Some may understand how one could disagree, arguing that genocide could be prevented. ... In conclusion, Genocide cannot be prevented. ... Therefore ge... Word Count: 1618 Approx Pages: 6 2. Rwanda RWANDARwanda: Genocide or Civil War? ... Unfortunately, it has happened, but do the conditions and outcomes warrant using the term genocide? ... The Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide hammered out the statutes concerning genocide, which went into force January 12, 1951. ... There have been several ... Word Count: 898 Approx Pages: 4 Has Bibliography 3. Genocide Genocide will occur in the FutureMass genocides have taken place during the Holocaust, the Killing Fields, and Rwanda and many other tragic events. ... All of these genocides have occurred due to the failure of the international community. ... Did the United Nations stop this genocide? ... What happens when the threats of genocide come at their fingertips? &#... Word Count: 1647 Approx Pages: 7 4. Fighting to Stop Genocide This lasted about thirty years until the next large scale genocide in 1975, this is when the Cambodian genocide began. ... Genocide affects everyone, and it's best that every...
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...Global Community Failure to Eradicate Genocide Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Abstract When it comes to global criminology, the subject is fatal in the sense of reprisals accustomed to it. In any case, international criminal activities are largely based geopolitical factors rather than the genuine purpose of ending human to human barbarism. This paper will attempt to prove that ‘global community’ commitment to end genocide events is categorically challenged by lack of sufficient devotion to ‘the pledge’ to eradicate the vice. The paper is structured into three main parts and one secondary part. The background will attempt to examine the scholarly effort attempting to relate the basis of global community pledge and the general act of genocide. A further sub category of this part will introduce the role played by United Nations in minimizing genocide. The second section will be substantial in analyzing past genocide events; courtesy of three relevant examples, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Rwanda. In this section, the document will examine the various roles played by United Nations in fueling the genocide. The third section will examine 21 century events, and how United Nations has chosen a back player in preventing the occurrences of these genocides. The secondary section will attempt to examine the role played by International Criminal Court and how it has been challenged in limiting genocide events. Background Research has attempted relate the end of the holocaust and the emergence...
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...shook Rwanda and the world in 1994, there have been many attempts to explain, or at least understand, the nature of the human tragedy known as the Rwandan genocide. Most accounts describe how two rival ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi, were engaged in a bitter dispute culminating in 1994. During a period of less than three months, widespread torture and brutality resulted in 500,000 to 800,000 (mainly Tutsi) deaths.[1] After over three years of civil war following an invasion of mainly Tutsi refugees from neighbouring Burundi, a series of negotiations resulted in the adoption of the Arusha accord, which called for the eventual sharing of power between the invaders (known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front or RPF) and the former regime of Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana, and his party, the Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND). The widespread killings, mainly committed by the interahamwe, a group of Hutu extremist militias, began after the plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down on the night of April 6, 1994. In the months that followed, the international community essentially turned a blind eye to the bloody massacre that was to unfold in the Rwandan anarchy. It seems no overstatement to portray the Rwandan genocide of 1994 as a “failure of humanity,” to use the words of the commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), Canadian General Roméo Dallaire.[2] There is a distinct danger, however, of oversimplifying Rwanda as a case...
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...Scientific Poster – Genocide Rwanda 1994 Introduction: “The international community didn’t give one damn for Rwandans because Rwanda was a country of no strategic importance” – these are the words General Romeo Dallaire, Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission For Rwanda (UNAMIR) used to describe the reaction and failure of the international community to the Rwandan Civil War and the genocide which erased roughly one tenth of the Rwandan population. Often described as one of the fastest, most brutal genocide in the history of mankind, it is nowadays also seen as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, failure of the UN to act according to what they obliged themselves to in paragraph one of article one of the UN charter. With this scientific analysis we aim at researching the (re-)actions of the UN and the incentives and motives that lead to them in order to explain how and why such a tragic event could happen under the eyes of the international community. However, to reconstruct how the civil war started one has to see the events in a historical context that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. After possession of the colony Rwanda has been given to Belgium in the aftermath of World War I, the Rwandan population, until then peacefully living and working together, has been divided into “races” based on physical characteristics. This has been institutionalized by giving out different ID cards to “label” the status. Supremacy and the right to hold...
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...The United Nations, defines genocide as “Acts committed with the intent to destroy… a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” In Rwanda, 1994 around one million Tutsi and Hutu opposition members were slaughtered by the extremist Hutu government the Hutu’s; the majority ethnic group in Rwanda. Their aim was to exterminate the minority of Tutsis, whom comprised about 25% of Rwanda’s population, and thus makes it one of the 3 genocides of the 20th century. In order to discuss the Rwandan genocide it is important to analyse the nature of the genocide and investigating the catalytic events that trigged the causing of it, in the first place. This includes the ethnic conflicts between Hutu’s and Tutsis, Western colonisation, propaganda, lack of international intervention and genocide denial. Belgium/Germany colonized Rwanda in 1916, due to the LON. The Belgians divided Rwanda’s unified population into a system of racial classification, mainly consisting of Tutsi’s and Hutu’s. With making the discriminatory system, the Europeans decides to make the Tutsi’s the more superior race, due to the Caucasian-ness of their physical features, when compared to the Hutus. As a result the Tutsi’s were given a more aristocratic appearance in Belgian eyes as they were provided with higher education and job standards while the militia relegated the Hutus to menial tasks. This created resentment towards the Tutsis among the Hutu which was further exacerbated when under Belgian imperial rule...
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...and the U.S.'s failure in Somalia ultimately lead to complete inaction in Rwanda. A Canadian Major-General of UNAMIR, Roméo Dallaire, was stationed in Rwanda before the genocide noticed the stockpiling of weapons in Kagali and warned the United Nations that these weapons were going to be used against the Tutsi's. Nevertheless, the United Nations ignored Dallaire's warnings and did not try to apprehend the weapons shipment. There were many warning signs that violence was about to break out and that this violence would be directed towards Tutsi's, but still the United Nations and the United States wanted to remain uninvolved. All the warning signs were there and the animosity between Hutu's and Tutsi's was so tangible, this massacre did not come out of nowhere yet nothing was done to prevent it. The biggest problem facing intervention to prevent a genocide is the lack of international interest in preventing these genocides. Despite the creation of the Genocide Convention, the international community is always going to be hesitant to put their soldiers lives at risks even when there is a genocide on the horizon due to the fact that states are self interested. The Genocide Convention has not really made the international community more prepared to handle genocides, it has just made nations avoid using the term "genocide" to avoid their obligation to intervene. Today, we see mounting ethnic tensions and the potential for genocide mounting in the Darfur region of Sudan...
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...Rwandan Genocide (1994) Name Grade Course Tutor’s Name Date Outline: 1. Introduction A. Definition of genocide B. Overview of the genocide 2. The Historical Rivalry between Hutu and Tutsi A. Background of Hutu and Tutsi B. Effect of the West in Rwanda 3. The Massacre A. The mass killings B. The Perpetrators C. Women and Children in the genocide 4. The Aftermath A. Tutsi Government B. Economic Recovery C. Physical and Psychological effects 5. Conclusion A. Personal Opinion B. Recommendations Introduction The genocide concept comprised two words, genos, a Greek word meaning tribe or race and cide a Latin word meaning killing of pointed out by Polish Jurist Raphael Lemkin. According to the definition agreed upon on the United Nations Genocide Convention, the term means “Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” (Hinton 3). The Rwandan genocide involved group killings and physically harming individuals in a specified ethnic community. It is the worst occurrence in the modern history. Rwanda, a colony...
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...close. In addition, over fifty-one countries committed themselves to maintaining international peace across the globe, all with the hope of preventing future genocide. Almost forty-seven years after taking this pledge, the world turned their backs on the country of Rwanda, while Hutu extremists slaughtered almost a million Tutsis. George and Keir Pearson wrote the movie Hotel Rwanda to help expose the injustices felt by the people of Rwanda during this time. It is through the use of Colonel Oliver’s role within the movie that the lack of humanitarian intervention in the Rwandan genocide is shown. His actions as a liaison officer for the UN, as well as his unbiased views, make Colonel Oliver the perfect character to unearth the reasons behind the international community’s inaction towards the Rwandan massacre. Early on in the movie, it is noted that Canadian officer Colonel Oliver is acting on behalf of the wishes of the United Nations. This is initially appreciated in a scene with a journalist. In response to her inquiry as to whether or not the UN planned on stopping the Rwandan bloodshed, the Colonel replied, “We're here as peacekeepers, not as peacemakers. My orders are not to intervene”. This statement shows the United Nations resistance to the use of firearms shortly after the massacre in Somalia took place. The failure of the UN seen in Somalia was accounted largely to the contradictory use of weapons within a peacekeeping mission. This argument is again supported by Colonel...
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...Genocide - as defined by the Oxford Dictionary: The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group. Date: 6 April 1994 Site: Presidential Palace Gardens, Kigali Passengers: 9 Crew: 3 Fatalities: Everyone on the plane Aircraft Type: Dassault Falcon 50 Destination: Burundi … Not reached The surface-to-air missile struck one of the wings of the Dassault Falcon, before a second missile hit its tail. The plane erupted into flames in mid-air before crashing into the garden of the Presidential Palace. Nobody claimed responsibility for this attack. Extremists are believed to be behind the attack. But, Marc Doyle, a BBC News correspondent noted that the identities of the assassins “could turn...
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...The Rwandan genocide seems to be the forgotten civil war that the world does not talk about. The conflict between the Tutsis and Hutus dates back centuries and has escalated until it reached a boiling point in 1994 when the hundred-day genocide was planned and executed by the Hutus onto the Tutsis. It was an utter disregard for human right by the world when no one responded to this atrocity and even abandon and proposals to assist. On December 10th, 1945 the United Nations (UN) approved the Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR) following the atrocities of World War II. The UDHR was to ensure that such atrocities would never happen again, and just a short forty-nine years later the UN pulls peacekeepers out of Rwanda because of the genocide that was in direct violation of...
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...A Summary of the Rwandan Genocide Rwanda: A Brief History of the Country Rwanda’s population of more than 7 million people is divided into three ethnic groups: the Hutu (who made up roughly 85% of the population), the Tutsi (14%) and the Twa (1%). Prior to the colonial era, Tutsis generally occupied the higher strata in the social system and the Hutus the lower. However, social mobility was possible, a Hutu who acquired a large number of cattle or other wealth could be assimilated into the Tutsi group and impoverished Tutsi would be regarded as Hutu. A clan system also functioned, with the Tutsi clan known as the Nyinginya being the most powerful. Throughout the 1800s, the Nyingiya expanded their influence by conquest and by offering protection in return for tribute. Ethnic Conflict Begins The former colonial power, Germany, lost possession of Rwanda during the First World War and the territory was then placed under Belgian administration. In the late 1950’s during the great wave of decolonization, tensions increased in Rwanda. The Hutu political movement, which stood to gain from majority rule, was gaining momentum while segments of the Tutsi establishment resisted democratization and the loss of their acquired privileges. In November 1959, a violent incident sparked a Hutu uprising in which hundreds of Tutsi were killed and thousands displaced and forced to flee to neighboring countries. This marked the start of the so- called ‘Hutu Peasant Revolution’ or ‘social revolution’...
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