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Twentieth Century Rwanda Genocide

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One major genocide of the twentieth century took place in Rwanda in 1994. It began when the Hutus, who were then in charge of the government, worked to overthrow and eliminate the entire Tutsi population as well as those who opposed government policies; in order to maintain dominance over the minority group. Around 500,000 to a million victims were killed in the massacre which lasted only one hundred days; from April to mid-July. The mass murder began when President Juvenal Habyarimana was suspiciously killed in a plane crash. Because of his death, a peace treaty being implemented between the government and a rebel Tutsi group was never brought to action. This group, known as the Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR), was immediately targeted by the in-control Hutu group, and a some three-quarters of the Tutsi population was murdered. Eyewitness Damas Gisimba describes the horror of reality, “We were no longer scared of dying. We lived the death; it surrounded us. Death walked among us. And so I was …show more content…
Leading a Communist movement, the ultimate goal of the Khmer was to to create a classless utopia. They went about this through a series of endless labor, mind control, and mass execution. It began with the emptying of the cities. All Cambodians were targeted. All were stripped of self-expression through religion and pop culture. All individuals appeared the same. Families were split and many were forced into slave labor. They became soulless bodies driven by orders. Survivor Denise Affonço describes the brutality, “Every day, people died in the village. Every morning, they were hauling away a corpse.” (qtd. in par. 6) Major attention was brought to ethnic minorities as well, who faced the most drastic of consequences. Even members of the Khmer Rouge itself were prosecuted for treason. An end was brought only to the Khmer regime due to an invasion from neighboring Vietnam in

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