Rwanda has almost always been somewhat of a melting pot, much like other African nations. People of various ethnicities, occupations, and social classes lived in the country without much more trouble than the surrounding nations. Even so, much like other nations, Rwanda still had underlying issues beneath the surface that still had to be faced. Beginning on April 9th, 1994, the genocide had begun, leading to a systematic killing of over 800,000 Rwandans. For what reason were these people killed to begin with? Each of these people were killed for being either Tutsi, an upper-classed ethnic group in the nation, or for refusing to partake in the barbaric bloodletting. After the confrontations between the “upper class” Tutsi and the “lower class” Hutu subsided at the outset of the summer of 1994, the grim horror of what had just happened finally sunk in. More disgustingly, it seemed that the entire world had watched in dull horror as Rwandans – neighbors, friends, families- slaughtered each other, and rather than assist, they continued on with daily activities, as if nothing was happening. Even the organization that had been established to prevent this exact dilemma from occurring, the United Nations, had failed to actually help anyone, even though there were plenty of members of the UN right there in Rwanda as this was happening. Overall, the United Nations, and the entire world itself, had either been too poorly organized, too cowardly, or too apathetic to even begin to ever do any good outside of their proper nations.
Before the genocide had even begun, the Hutu and the Tutsi had already faced fierce hostility years before any violence was immediately evident. Even before colonialism began in the 1800’s, the Hutu and Tut...
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The film follows the story of a Hutu man, Paul Rusesabagina, as he housed over 1200 Tutsi refugees in his hotel. The Hotel De Milles Collines, a five-star resort in the capital city Kigali, was a safe haven for several hundred Tutsis during the 100 days of slaughter in Rwanda. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the differences between the film Hotel Rwanda and the reality of the Rwandan genocide. I will seek to determine how accurately the film draws from history and how much of the film is fiction. For this essay I will first look at the history of the relations between the Hutus and the Tutsis dating back to the 1950s, so to grasp the background of the country.
The state-sponsored massacres of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated Burundian army in 1972 was one of the most significant post-Holocaust genocides and as such received appropriate levels of international attention due to a lack of political distractions within western nations. The genocide broke out as a Hutu-lead rebellion in which Hutu insurgents massacred Tutsis and resisting Hutus in the lakeside towns of Rumonge and Nyanza-Lac. As many as 1200 people killed in this initial incident, the Tutsi-dominated government responded by declaring martial law and systematically proceeded to slaughter Hutus (Totten 325). After hundreds of thousands of Hutus had been massacred by the Burundian government, the neighboring nation of Zaire aided the Hutus in a counteroffensive attack on the Tutsi-controlled army. Having succeeded in their effort, the genocide was quickly brought to international attention within a few days. The United Nations invested $25,000 from the World Disaster Relief Account’s fund...
The media has critical impact in Sontag 's article. She demonstrates her argument when she states, “Parked in front of the little screens-television, computer, palmtop- we can surf to images and brief reports of disasters throughout the world” (437). Individuals regularly decide to overlook pictures of others anguish. People decide to envision that others don 't suffer, and would rather keep on living in ignorance of other third-world nations.
The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in history caused by a constantly weakening relationship between two groups of people. The country of Rwanda is located in Africa and consists of multiple groups of people. Majority of Rwanda is Hutu, while a smaller amount of people are Tutsis. The genocide started due to multiple events that really stretched the relationship between the two groups to its end. One of the starting factors was at the end of World War 1. Rwanda was a German colony but then was given to Belgium “who favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbated[exacerbating] the tendency of the few to oppress the many”(History.com). This created a feeling of anger towards the Tutsis, because they had much more power then Hutus.
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
The Rwandan Genocide “It is our responsibility to empower the powerless while giving voice to the voiceless” -(Irwin Cotler “Six Lessons from the Rwandan Genocide”) When the Rwandan Hutu majority betrayed the Tutsi minority, a destructive mass murdering broke out where neighbor turned on neighbor and teachers killed their students; this was the start of a genocide. In this paper I will tell you about the horrors the people of Rwanda had to face while genocide destroyed their homes, and I will also tell you about the mental trauma they still face today. Hutu and Tutsi Origins When Rwanda was first settled, the people there raised cattle, the ones with the most cattle were considered “Tutsi” and everyone else was ‘Hutu”.
There are several ethical issues surrounding the decision by the Hutu politicians to start the genocide. It is unfair and unethical for the Hutus to blame the entire Tutsi tribe for the president’s death. The Hutu politicians are so much driven by hatred that they fail to consider the innocent lives to be lost in the planned genocide. Instead, they organiz...
When the Belgian colonizers entered Rwanda in 1924, they created an ethnic classification between the Hutu and the Tutsi, two tribes who used to live together as one. After independence in 1962, there was a constant power struggle between the two tribes. Former Canadian Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Chrétien described the situation as “tribalism without tribes.” (Destexhe, 1995) There were many signs leading towards genocide, yet the nations in power chose to ignore them. From April 6, 1994 until mid-July, a time spanning approximately of 100 days, 800,000 people were murdered when the Hutu attacked the Tutsi. No foreign aid came to the rescue until it was too late. Ten years after the genocide the United Nations was still involved in Rwanda, cleaning up the mess that was left behind because of man’s sinful nature. Could the Rwandan Genocide have been prevented, or is it simply a fact of life? Even though the international community is monitoring every country and race, such an event as the Rwandan Genocide could occur again because the European colonizers introduced ethnic classification where it did not exist and the nations in power chose to ignore the blatant signs of genocide.
April 7th 1994 marks the start of on of the worst things ever to happen to human beings, The Rwandan Genocide. It is known that over 800’000 Rwandans were massacred, 800’000 is 20% of the countries population, over 70% of the tutsis were brutally murdered within the 100 day genocide of Rwanda. Both Hutus and tutsis were killed and murdered at the hands of their neighbours machetes. During this compare and contrast essay I will discuss the long and short term causes of both the Rwandan and Congolese Conflicts. I will also discuss how the natives of these two countries were forced to leave their homes and migrate in seek of aid. The genocide was between April 7th and July 15th 1994, therefore it is known as the 100 day war. The genocide or in context the Rwandan Civil War was fought between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Ongoing conflicts began in 1990 between the hutu-led government and the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front). The RPF was created in 1987 by the Tutsi refugee diaspora in Uganda. The first Tutsi refugees fled to Uganda to escape ethnic purges in the beginning of 1959.
Final Paper - Analysis of the United Nations Of the many non-profit institutions, the United Nations is possibly the most prevalent and influential. The United Nations is an authority, extending influence over numerous countries, as well as garnering power and support from them. It began as a replacement, just after the end of the Second World War on the 24th of October, for the League of Nations. This ineffective organization’s flaws were due to it’s leadership by two of Europe’s most destroyed countries- France and England. These two diminished powers were unable to deploy their massacred armies or create trade restrictions.they instead relied on moral condemnation, which could mostly go ignored.
The Rwandan Genocide. A horrible nightmare for many nations, but mainly for Rwanda. After a potential peace treaty going south, the Hutus, viciously murdered close to 1 million Tutsi. The United Nations and the United States stayed out of Rwanda in fear that another Somalia may take place. This paper is taking a look at the sociological ways that explain the chain events. In the tragedy of Rwanda, there have been different sayings of what was the official cause. In this particular case with the Rwandan Genocide the political aspect, the racial divide, and the theory of conflict are the main causes of this genocide.
The Rwanda Genocide, sparked by the death of the interim Hutu President Habyarimana on April 9, 1994, it was the fastest, most vicious human massacre in the twentieth century. It was carried out with no significant intervention or aid force from any international communities. Many administrations claim they had no knowledge that a genocide was in the making, thus they were unable to intervene due to the lack of warning signs and information. This is not true. My thesis will focus on how the international community utterly failed to prevent nor help this atrocity.
During the Rwandan Genocide, the persecuted Tutsi’s banded together to form the “Tutsi Rebellion Group” in order to drive back the Hutu’s who were indiscriminately murdering “Tutsi’s and those with ties to the Tutsi ethnic group” (Rwandan Genocide
Under the Hutu’s government reign the people of Rwanda voted to become a republic. A year later on July 1, 1962 Ruanda-Urandi became two separate countries. Though Belgium was no longer in power over Rwanda, ethnic dissension continued to affect the people. At independence a Hutu was elected, and later on another Hutu whom favored his ethnicity came into power. Hutu’s continued to dominate the governme...
The Hutu’s and Tutsi’s racial rift started growing when the countries created a class system while in power. The Tutsi were favored over the Hutu and given privileges. Because of this, mistrust and hatred was introduced. In the minds of the Hutu, they were under the oppression of the Tutsi when the Europeans left..They differentiated the Hutu from the Tutsi. The