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What are the causes and effects of political conflicts in africa today
Genocide in Rwanda
Genocide in Rwanda
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I personally believe that over time human beings have become less indifferent and as a result more human. There exists a multitude of examples that show how humans have progressed from not caring about their fellow man and environment to the complete opposite. The many different conflicts around the world and all of the efforts being done to end them are great examples. Africa for example is home to an exorbitant amount problems that include civil wars, disease, drugs, etc. Not only Africa 's government, but governments of other nations do what they can to fix these problems. In doing so they further help put an end to a belief that I believe is far too commonplace in not only government but humans as well. This belief being the fact that some feel that as long as something doesn’t involve or harm them, then they don’t have any sort obligation to help in some …show more content…
This cooperation between nation was at one point a figment of the imagination. The Rwandan Genocide is a great example of this. The Rwandan Genocide was the result of a longstanding civil war going on in Rwanda between rebels and the government that caused the deaths of over 800,000 other human beings. After the genocide occurred thought of what actions to take and decided that they wouldn’t intervene. Their decision to not intervene led to the rebels overtaking the nation, the 1st and 2nd congo war, and a severe amount of backlash to hit France, Belgium, and the U.S in particular for their indifference (Rwandan Genocide: Failure of the International community). I believe that Holocaust, Rwandan Genocide, and other events forced the human race to learn from their mistakes. These events resulted in drastic wake up calls that made people and their respective countries realize that they needed to help each other when it’s necessary to preserve the human race and protect it from event like the Holocaust or the Rwandan Genocide from ever
Cooperation in our global world is essential for harmony and peace. In Blood on the River, Carbone shows us the importance of friends, colonists, and natives. This relates to our modern world, which cooperation is important to live life. Without cooperation, we would not be able to work with other countries and the people around us. Even in our modern world, cooperation is still the key to
...es the world today, these people always choose ignorance over reason. Most people choose ignorance as a defence mechanism to stop thinking about these problems, they don’t realize that by doing that they are becoming more indifferent and they lose one of the most important traits that makes them human, compassion. Without compassion humans would become animals and the world we live in would become a jungle. As Edmund Burke warned “all that is needed for the triumph of evil, is that good men do nothing”, he warns the whole world that if they do not stand up for evil, it will win. Elie Weisle also explains “ The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference”, meaning that if the world does not stop their ignorance, and start to show compassion to one another , they might as well say goodbye to their precious world because it’s not going to be around for very long.
In the case of genocides, there are many factors that motivate the perpetrators to kill. In the Rwandan genocide there are many reasons why the Hutus would be motivated to kill the Tutsis. There were reasons, of long standing hatred toward Tutsis, fear of authority and repercussion, economic and many other motivating factors. In the book, Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak, Jean Hatzfeld explores these many reasons for genocide through interviews with killers. Even though were many motivating factors for the Rwandan genocide, the main motivation for the perpetrators were for economic reasons.
Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once said, "We were not realizing that with just a machete, you can do a genocide." To be candid, nobody anticipated the Rwandan Genocide that occurred in 1994. The genocide in Rwanda was an infamous blood-red blur in modern history where almost a million innocent people were murdered in cold blood. Members of the Tutsi tribe were systematically hacked or beaten to death by members of the Interahamwe, a militia made up of Hutu tribe members. In just 100 days, from April 6, 1994 to mid-July, 20% of Rwanda's population was killed; about 10,000 people a day. Bodies literally were strewn over city streets. Genocide obviously violates almost all articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; however, the article I find most important is Article 3 - the right to life, liberty, and personal security. In just 100 days, one million people were denied the most basic privilege granted to every human – the right to live, simply because they were born to the wrong tribe.
The definition of genocide as given in the Webster's College Dictionary is "The deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group." This definition depicts the situation in 1994 of Rwanda, a small, poor, central African country. The Rwandan genocide was the systematic extermination of over eight hundred thousand Tutsi, an ethnic group in Rwanda, by the Hutu, another ethnic group in Rwanda. In this essay I will briefly describe the history of the conflict of the Hutu and Tutsi, the 100 days of genocide in 1994, and the affects of the massacre on the economy and the people of Rwanda.
From April to July of 1994, in about 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda by Hutu extremists. The Hutu extremists were said to be targeting only the minority ethnic group called "Tutsi", but were also found to be killing any of their political enemies regardless of their race.
History contains horrific periods of time that which people suffer and are murdered. This period of time is known as genocide. The legal definition of genocide is “the international destruction of a group of people as such, a crime so severe that it demands immediate and total condemnation” (Rothenberg 395 ). The most well known genocide is the Holocaust, a genocide in which six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany. After World War II and the Holocaust, the word genocide was originated by Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin coined the word “genocide” by combining Greek genos, meaning race or group, with Latin cidere, meaning to kill or murder.
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 had always been tension between the Hutus and the Tutsis but, certain events increased tensions between the two groups. Rules, appearances, and opportunities were never the same for any of the groups therefore hate begin to build upon the two groups. This tension would continue for years until the genocide in 1994.
Massacre, annihilation, extermination, these are just some synonyms for the word Genocide. Genocide-the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. When one thinks of mass murder, they think of the Holocaust. A genocide that many people may not know of is the Rwandan genocide, also known as the Genocide against the Tutsi. It was a mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda by members of the Hutu Majority government in East Central Africa. They murdered from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people. This genocide took place during the Rwandan Civil War. Hutu nationalists were the first to start this genocide. This genocide spread through the country like an epidemic; fast and deadly.
The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in Africa's history that decimated many minorities in Rwanda. The Hutu killed 800,000 people of minority in Rwanda, including Tutsi and Pygmy people in 100 days, and if it was scaled to the length of time the Holocaust took place, the casualties would be more than 34 million people killed. Citizens were told to gather arms and fight against their neighbor, and many obeyed.
For years, Rwanda has been a hotbed of racial tension. The majority of the Rwandan population is made up of Hutu's, with Tutsi's making up the rest of it. Ever since European colonial powers entered the country and favoured the Tutsi ethnic group over the Hutu by putting Tutsi people in all important positions in society, there has been a decisive political divide between the two groups. This favouring of the Tutsi over the Hutu, and the Hutu subjugation as an ethnic lower class resulted in the civil war and revolution of 1959, where the Hutu overthrew the Tutsi dominated government, and resulted in Rwanda gaining their independence in 1962.
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.
Realism is one of the oldest and most popular theories in International Relations. It offers a perspective about competition and power, and can be used to explain the actions between states. An example of realism is the U.S. reaction – or lack thereof – during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.