Ethnic Cleansing and African Genocide Unit 8 Notes

I. Ethnic Cleansing A. Ethnic cleansing is defined as a campaign of terror and murder intended to drive out a certain ethic group from a region or an area (also known as Genocide)

II. The Bosnian War A. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 the new country of The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was an unstable mix of diverse cultures and religions. 1. One third of the population actually identified themselves as being Serbian and one fifth identified with being Croatian. 2. Muslims made up 44% of the population 3. Orthodox Christian Serbs made up 31% 4. And Catholic Croatians made up 17%

II. The Bosnian War A. In 1992 war broke out between Bosnia Herzegovina and the Croatia and Serbia supported rebel groups within Bosnia Herzegovina. 1. The war was primarily a territorial conflict

II. The Bosnian War 2. However the fighting was some of the most bitter fighting the world has seen. All of the following were seen throughout the region during the war. a. Indiscriminate bombing of civilians, over 80,000 civilians were killed b. Systematic mass rape, nearly 50,000 women were raped c. And ethnic cleansing, as many as 10,000 civilians may have been murdered for their ethnicity. d. Over 2 million people were displaced from their homes and had to seek refuge.

III. African Genocide A. Genocide - the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. B. Rwanda - one of the smallest countries in Africa, has a population of less than 10 million people. That population is divided into two different ethnic groups. The Hutu – account for nearly 90% of the population 2. The Tutsi – make up less than 10% of the population

III. African Genocide C. Belgium – during Belgium’s nearly 100 year reign over Rwanda the Tutsi gained favor within society. They favored the Tutsi over the Hutu because: 1. They had larger skulls 2. They were taller 3. They had lighter skin

III. African Genocide D. Independence – Rwandan independence from Belgium in the early 1960’s would begin a long series of oppression against the Tutsi’s by the Hutu’s that would culminate in a massacre in the 1990’s.

IV. The Killings Begin A. In April of 1994 an airplane carrying the Rwandan President and the Hutu President of neighboring country Burundi was reportedly shot down by Tutsi rebels. Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana  Burundi President Cyprian Ntayamira 

IV. The Killings Begin B. This act brought about the systematic mass killing of Tutsi’s by Hutu Military, and organized militia groups (similar to the gestapo) 1. Murders were carried out in mass, in neighborhoods, cities, churches, and hospitals. 2. Hutu’s used guns, clubs, and machetes to murder their Tutsi victims. 3. Hutu extremist controlled the state run radio and played hate messages encouraging the murder of Tutsi’s day and night. 4. One month into the killings and over 500,000 Tutsi’s were dead 5. When it finally ended in July of 1994 over 800,000, or nearly 90% of the Tutsi’s were dead.

IV. The Killings Begin C. International Attention – this event received very little media attention. 1. The U.S. , France, Italy, and Belgium all had troops within Rwanda for peace keeping purposes and all pulled their forces out of the country when the killings began. 2. The U.N. tried to minimize the media coverage of the killings and refused to use the word genocide when discussing it. 3. Eventually even the U.N. forces withdrew from Rwanda leaving the Tutsi’s utterly helpless. 4. Armed Tutsi rebels from neighboring countries finally helped to put the massacre to an end in July of 1994.

V. Other African Genocides The Rwandan Genocide is one of the worst in African history but it is not the only one. 1. Zulu Kingdom leader Shaka Zulu is said to have killed anywhere from 1 to 2 million people throughout Southern Africa in the early 19th century. Shaka kaSenzangakhona

V. Other African Genocides 2. It is estimated that the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party was responsible for the deaths of nearly a half a million Ethiopians in the late 1970’s in what is known as the Ethiopian Red Terror.

V. Other African Genocides 4. And most recently the U.N. had reported that nearly 400,000 people were killed in Darfur, Sudan by the Sudanese military in 2004.