Rwanda Genocide Research Paper

The Rwandan Genocide was from April to July of 1994. During the Rwandan Genocide, there were two major groups. The two groups were the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutus were poor farmers they were the lower class or peasants and did not have a lot of resources or a lot of money. The Hutus was recognized as the ethnic majority of Rwandan. The Hutus appearances were quite different from the Tutsis. The Hutus were darker, shorter, and uneducated. The Tutsis were cattle farmers and were identified as a foreign race. The Tutsis were taller, skinnier, and well educated. Germany believed that the Tutsis were upper-class and have the majority of weapons. The Hutu ethnic majority in the east-central African nation of Rwanda murdered majority of the
Tutsis minority. The Tutsis more focused on building a military while the Hutus focused on political structure. Eight hundred thousand to one million men, women, and children perished in the genocide; the majority of the Tutsi minority. (History Channel.com stuff, 2009). This atrocity rose from three different factors: Imperialism and colonization under Germany. The Rwandan civil war was caused by both the Hutus, Tutsis, and The assassination of the Hutus president.
The first cause of the Rwandan Genocide would be that the Rwandan people were colonized and imperialized by Germany.
In 1897 before Belgium took over, Europeans believed that the Tutsis were the superior group in Africa. They worked together with the Tutsi monarchy to rule Rwandan. According to Thabo Mbeki “One of the matters that must be addressed is that Rwanda and Uganda have to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We're also supporting processes to ensure that the political dialogue among the Congolese themselves takes place so that the people there can decide their future”. The identities of the Hutus and Tutsi were constructed and reinforced by Belgian colonists when they introduced identity cards, assigning it to the ethnicity of Hutus, which created tension between the Hutus and Tutsis, thinking the Tutsis were better than the Hutus (The media as a tool of War: Propaganda in the Rwandan Genocide,
2014).
Another cause would be the Rwandan civil war, there was a conflict between President Juvenal Habyarimana and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic front.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front lead to extensive propaganda campaigns of Rwandan media, the media draw attention to the colonial period and spread fear that Hutus could be the victim of defeat if Tutsis were to take over Rwanda. According to Michael Ignatieff “Genocide is not just a murderous madness; it is, more deeply, a politics that promises a utopia beyond politics - one people, one land, one truth, the end of difference. Since genocide is a form of political utopia, it remains an enduring temptation in any multiethnic and multicultural society in crisis”. The Hutus group use propaganda to make the Tutsis look like the enemy to survive. The Republic of Rwanda has been torn apart by ethnic division, The Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front was successful and has formed a new government. (The media as a tool of War: Propaganda in the Rwandan Genocide,
2014).
The last cause would be the assassination of the Hutus president by a plane explosion from the Tutsis which made the Hutus furious and started a massacre. The Hutus used it as an excuse for the mass killings of the Tutsi rivals. His assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and helped spark the Rwandan Genocide (Scherrer, 2009). There was a cease- fire agreement called the Lusaka to the halt war in the Congo between Namibia, Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe, they seek to end vicious violence within the territory of Democratic Republic Congo. It addresses a variety of issues, including the ending of the vicious violence. The agreement also calls for deployment of the United Nations peacekeeping force to observe the ceasefire, investigate violations with the Joint Military Commission and disarm, and demobilize and improve armed groups (Document Retrieval, n.d.).
To conclude the Rwandan Genocide there are three causes that were the most important, which this atrocity rose from three different factors: Imperialism/colonization under Germany, The Rwandan civil war between majority of the Tutsi and the minority of the Hutus, and The assassination of the Hutus president. It only lasted one hundred days and over eight hundred thousands of lives were killed and some of the people of Rwanda suffer terribly. The Hutus and the Tutsis have the same religion, language, and culture. Nowadays, Rwanda may not be the outstanding country, but it has come a long way and will continue to build its way up to becoming internationally recognized. According to Immaculee Ilibagiza, “Rwanda can be a paradise again, but it will take the love of the entire world to heal my homeland. And that's as it should be, for what happened in Rwanda happened to us all - humanity was wounded by the genocide”.