What Was The Belgians To Blame For The Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide took place in 1994 between the Hutu and Tutsi. The Genocide rippled when the plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down. Even though this was a starting point to the genocide, there were other factors that contributed to the Genocide. In this essay, I will explain why the Belgians are to blame for death of the Hutu President and causing the Genocide.
Rwanda gained independence from Belgium (another group that is highly blamed for the genocide) in 1962. The Belgians left the country leaving the divide they created to suit their needs in maintaining their society well-structured and functioning the way they wanted. Having this divide made for strong point for the two ethnic groups to fight, it is this reason that many people blame the Belgians, for making the Tutsi of higher value than the Hutu. This is a very valid reason to blame the Belgians since without them, the two ethnic groups would not have known their supposed differences and hypothetically not have conflict between them. This is putting the reason very lightly, since this divide was morally wrong towards the natives with Hutu ethnicity. The Belgians made the Tutsi the superior people in Rwanda, not that this was their intention, they …show more content…
were essentially reserved the rights for anything with high value, examples of this include jobs, education and healthcare. The Belgians had their ways to maintain this structure in there societies as well, even creating identity cards solely for distinguishing between the two ethnicities. Over time, the Tutsi began accepting themselves as the more superior people and took advantage of it using their status to the fullest.
The Belgians started being requested to give Rwanda its independence by the United Nations; in response, they began placing members of the Hutu into their political hierarchy. After a few changes to the society that the Tutsi have accustomed to, the people were unhappy with the Hutus gain of power and attempted to rid these new events. The Hutu retaliated and forced many Tutsi to flee the country.
Rwanda finally gained its independence from Belgium in 1962 as mentioned before; different political parties were formed such as the PARMEHUTU who quickly gained power in the country. With their ideology being formed around the idea of having majority rule, in other ways seen as Hutu supremacy. They began implementing ways to improve the rights that the Hutu had in the country, understandable because of their history, but with their methods came the issue of the Tutsi being affected from these issues, forcing them once again to flee the country into neighbouring ones.
In 1987 the Rwandan Patriotic Front was formed by the refugees that sought help in Uganda.
They attempted to push back into the country and seize what they thought was theirs and regain power. In response the President, (President Habyarimana had overthrown the PARMEHUTU in a coup) requested aid from their allies, Belgium and Congo (Zaire) who sent troops that returned home after a short period. The Hutu were able to push back the RPF and attempted to make peace with the Tutsi, in 1990 the rebel army invaded once again and forced the President to sign the Arusha accords which required the two ethnic groups to share power. After series of events, tensions increased between the Hutu and Tutsi, with the President trying to make peace with the
rebels. In 1994, a plane carrying the President of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down, assassinating both passengers. It is then that the genocide broke out. This being said, no one has solid evidence of which group had been involved in the assassination of the president, which caused the ripple effect of the genocide, though there is reason to believe that it was the Hutu Extremists that are to blame. Reason for this is because these activists had no interest in sharing power with the Tutsi, and planned many assassinations in order to restore their perspective of order in the country, including both Hutu and Tutsi officials. From this point onwards, genocide broke out as I mentioned before starting on April 6th 1994 for 100 days (July 15th 1994). According to statistics, over 800,000 people were said to be killed in the genocide, supposedly killing off around 75% of the Tutsi population in Rwanda, not only Tutsi were killed, Hutu were also killed in response to the fighting.
During the Genocide the UN attempted to send troops
Rwanda gained independence from Belgium (another group that is highly blamed for the genocide) in 1962. The Belgians left the country leaving the divide they created to suit their needs in maintaining their society well-structured and functioning the way they wanted. Having this divide made for strong point for the two ethnic groups to fight, it is this reason that many people blame the Belgians, for making the Tutsi of higher value than the Hutu. This is a very valid reason to blame the Belgians since without them, the two ethnic groups would not have known their supposed differences and hypothetically not have conflict between them. This is putting the reason very lightly, since this divide was morally wrong towards the natives with Hutu ethnicity. The Belgians made the Tutsi the superior people in Rwanda, not that this was their intention, they …show more content…
were essentially reserved the rights for anything with high value, examples of this include jobs, education and healthcare. The Belgians had their ways to maintain this structure in there societies as well, even creating identity cards solely for distinguishing between the two ethnicities. Over time, the Tutsi began accepting themselves as the more superior people and took advantage of it using their status to the fullest.
The Belgians started being requested to give Rwanda its independence by the United Nations; in response, they began placing members of the Hutu into their political hierarchy. After a few changes to the society that the Tutsi have accustomed to, the people were unhappy with the Hutus gain of power and attempted to rid these new events. The Hutu retaliated and forced many Tutsi to flee the country.
Rwanda finally gained its independence from Belgium in 1962 as mentioned before; different political parties were formed such as the PARMEHUTU who quickly gained power in the country. With their ideology being formed around the idea of having majority rule, in other ways seen as Hutu supremacy. They began implementing ways to improve the rights that the Hutu had in the country, understandable because of their history, but with their methods came the issue of the Tutsi being affected from these issues, forcing them once again to flee the country into neighbouring ones.
In 1987 the Rwandan Patriotic Front was formed by the refugees that sought help in Uganda.
They attempted to push back into the country and seize what they thought was theirs and regain power. In response the President, (President Habyarimana had overthrown the PARMEHUTU in a coup) requested aid from their allies, Belgium and Congo (Zaire) who sent troops that returned home after a short period. The Hutu were able to push back the RPF and attempted to make peace with the Tutsi, in 1990 the rebel army invaded once again and forced the President to sign the Arusha accords which required the two ethnic groups to share power. After series of events, tensions increased between the Hutu and Tutsi, with the President trying to make peace with the
rebels. In 1994, a plane carrying the President of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down, assassinating both passengers. It is then that the genocide broke out. This being said, no one has solid evidence of which group had been involved in the assassination of the president, which caused the ripple effect of the genocide, though there is reason to believe that it was the Hutu Extremists that are to blame. Reason for this is because these activists had no interest in sharing power with the Tutsi, and planned many assassinations in order to restore their perspective of order in the country, including both Hutu and Tutsi officials. From this point onwards, genocide broke out as I mentioned before starting on April 6th 1994 for 100 days (July 15th 1994). According to statistics, over 800,000 people were said to be killed in the genocide, supposedly killing off around 75% of the Tutsi population in Rwanda, not only Tutsi were killed, Hutu were also killed in response to the fighting.
During the Genocide the UN attempted to send troops