Examining Genocide in Africa in the 1990’s Rwanda Examining Genocide in Africa in the 1990’s

What is Genocide? The word has a specific meaning Genocide is Acts committed With the intent To destroy (in whole or in part) A group of people Based on a specific characteristic of that group, such as Race Religion Ethnicity Or any other characteristic specific to that group

The Most Famous Genocide Is of course, the Holocaust Officials of Nazi Germany worked on a systematic campaign to rid their territory of Jews and others they found “undesirable”

But There Have Been Others Armenia, following WWI Cambodia in the 1970’s* Bosnia in the 1990’s* Sudan in the early 2000’s *We will look at these later

Our Focus Today Will be on the African nation of Rwanda In 1994, this small African nation saw over one million of its citizens slaughtered in under 100 days That’s roughly twice the population of Milwaukee

It Begins with Imperialism We’ve discussed how Europeans had a “Scramble for Africa,” which made many African areas colonies of Europe After World War I, Rwanda changed from a German colony to a Belgian one

The Germans in Rwanda Had been fairly well-liked They had also appreciated the African people who lived there They admired how unified the people of Rwanda were

The Belgians in Rwanda Felt threatened by the Africans when they took over the territory Worried that Africans would fight them, the Belgians began to divide the Africans and pit them against each other

Hutus, Tutsis, and Twa The Belgians divided the Africans into these three groups or tribes They engaged in racial classification The Tutsis were considered to be the best, because they were the most “white”

The Tutsis Do Quite Well Under the Belgians, the Tutsis are the only Rwandans who are allowed to go to school, own land, or get jobs within the government The Hutus and Twa were denied all of these things

As You Might Expect This leads to considerable discontent among the Hutus The Tutsis make up about 14-15% of the Africans in Rwanda The Hutus make up about 80-85%

In 1959 Things got so bad that violence occurred The Hutus overthrew Tutsi rule and proclaimed an independent republic The first Hutu President, Greg wa Kayabanda, was elected

Rather Than Simply Fix Things The Hutus sought revenge They began the same program of racial classification that the Tutsis had used, only now they used it to keep their control

More Time Passes Rwanda elects new Presidents, but the tensions between Hutus and Tutsis continue to exist However, one President seems to be ready to push for peace: Juvenal Habyarimana (president from ‘73-’94)

Others in Government Don’t like the idea that President Habyarimana seems to be willing to sign a peace treaty with the Tutsis Hutu extremists in the government begin preparations for violence Creating citizen militias Giving guns to Hutu civilians Providing training for ordinary citizens in how to use weaponry

Then, on April 6, 1994 Violence will begin again It starts when President Habyarimana’s plane is shot down While never proven, it is believed members of his own government ordered the plane shot down in order to get the President out of the way

With No President Seeking Peace. . . Violence rules Between 900,000-1 Million people are killed in under 100 days While the government had provided some weapons to citizens, most of the Hutus engaged in violence didn’t have guns The majority of the million who died were beaten to death or killed with everyday objects like garden tools, kitchen knives, and machetes The United Nations estimates that in the same time period, over a quarter-million Tutsi women were raped

The Tutsis in Rwanda Tried to rally They banded together to form military units to fight back against the Hutu This led to a civil war between the two groups, which only escalated the bloodshed

The International Response Was not helpful Leading up to April, the United Nations had received reports that the Hutus were planning a genocide, but they largely disbelieved or ignored it

Some Peacekeeping Forces Were Sent There were UN Peacekeeping Forces in Rwanda As the fighting escalated, however, the Belgian and U.S. Governments urged them to be removed for their own safety, and they were pulled out of Rwanda by UN Command

Flashback: Following WWII The United Nations had moved to make certain that no genocide like the Holocaust would be permitted again: “Never Again” The nations of the UN had signed an agreement making member nations legally obligated to step in and stop the violence, if the UN found that genocide was occurring

Rather Than Step In The UN refused to acknowledge Rwanda as a genocide, instead referring to it as a civil war Under this classification, the United Nations refused to intervene in Rwanda

The Genocide in Rwanda Stopped Only because the Tutsis military forces began to win battles over the loosely-organized Hutu militia groups Known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front, they established a new government made up of several groups, both Hutu and Tutsi

But There Were Problems Thousands of Rwandans had lost their lands and their homes Many were scattered throughout the nation and throughout Africa, because they had fled from the violence

In Addition Tens of thousands of children had become orphans because their parents had been killed HIV/AIDS had spread dramatically due to the amount of forced rapes Many of those who lived were missing limbs or hands, etc., and so could not work

The Search for Justice Thousands were jailed in the aftermath of the genocide There were so many arrested that some of them are still awaiting a trial today

The United Nations Has established a second court in neighboring Tanzania to deal with the backlog of cases Slowly, those who were involved in the genocide are being brought to justice

Rwanda Today Has rebounded fairly well Its economy is growing, and the nation seems to be doing well in terms of getting along While still healing, the nation is now considered one of Africa’s more promising countries