Essay On Rwanda Genocide

Great Essays
The failure of the UN to act upon the reports of genocide in Rwanda caused an innumerable amounts of killing and anarchy. The problems started with the Belgium’s discrimination between the two populations. Going as far as to hire scientists to prove the Tutsi superiority, they only enabled the already present racism between the two groups. Then the Hutu population decided to act. After the president was shot down, supposedly by Hutu extremists, the anarchy began. The Hutu people was responsible for murdering Tutsi citizens and leaders, even other Hutus who sympathized with the Tutsi population.
It is said that in 1994 the United Nations failed to fulfill the needs of Rwanda. Information about the ominous genocide being formed was ignored by the UN and Rwanda was left abandoned when they sought protection the most. The UN could have prevented a numerous amount of deaths, but they kept the world oblivious to the genocide taking place right in front of them.
Rwanda is a relatively small country, about the size of Maryland, and consists of about 7 million people. It is bordered by the countries of Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1854,
…show more content…
A plane carrying the Rwandan and Burundian president was shot down, killing both presidents after signing a peace treaty. The group responsible for shooting down the plane is still unclear, but it’s believed that Hutu extremists might have been involved. Immediately after this incident, chaos erupted. Hutu citizens began uprising against the Tutsis. Hutu policeman and soldiers began to murder Tutsi leaders and citizens. They went as far as to even slaughter Hutus who sympathized with the Tutsi. This quickly came to be named the Rwandan Genocide, which was a calamitous mass murder of the Tutsis and Hutus living in Rwanda. This modern time genocide destroyed 80 percent of the country’s Tutsi population. (Rwanda,

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Ethnic conflict and Imperialism between the Hutus and Tutsis people started the uprising of the Rwandan Genocide. From the beginning of April to mid-July one of the worst genocides our world has been through happened in central africa between the Tutsis and the Hutus. Over the time span of an estimated 100 days around 800,000 people died. The tension between the Hutus and Tutsis started in around 1962 when Ruanda-Urundi became two different countries, Rwanda and Burundi.…

    • 77 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Left To Tell: Summary

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Hutu extremists sought to kill all Tutsis after the Tutsi rebels shot down the president’s plane. Nearly a million Tutsis were murdered during the genocide. Hutus were ordered to cleanse Rwanda of all Tutsis by the Rwandan government. Hutus used machine guns, machetes, and grenades to clear Rwanda of Tutsis. Hutus also raped and transmitted HIV to dehumanization and strip women of their dignity.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Without confirmation on who shot the plane down, both sides began to rally. Within an hour of the crash, an overwhelming message was blasted on radios … “kill all the cockroaches (Tutsi).” The Presidential Guard, Rwandan Armed Forces, and other Hutu militia forces set up blockades along major roads and national boundaries and began to hunt down and slaughter all Tutsis and non-Hutu extremists. By the end of the genocide, more than eight hundred thousand Rwandans. The Tutsi and Hutu-moderates had been viciously murdered; any people were struck by the machetes, bullets, beatings.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Paul Rusesabagina Analysis

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Over 800,000 dead bodies of slaughtered Rwandan men, women and children were found sprawled out across lawns and streets of neighborhoods for 100 days (Smith, et al. 113-114). The Hutu president of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana was killed in a plane that got shot down. His assassination sparked the beginning of a genocide between the Hutu and Tutsi groups. Paul Rusesabagina is a mix of both, his father is Hutu and his mother is Tutsi.…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1994, the Hutu government in Rwanda and their extremist supporters were on the verge of eliminating the entire Tutsi minority in the region. This incident is known as the Rwandan Genocide which is was biggest killing spree of a group in the twentieth century. In “Bystanders to Genocide,” Samantha Power accuses the United States of crimes because of their weak policies towards Rwanda when it was obvious to the world that genocide was occurring. Samantha Power accuses the U.S. of crimes because the decisions they made were more to protect themselves rather than the Tutsi.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rwanda is one of the world’s least dominant and poverty-stricken nations. The Hutu wiped out people with machetes, the most known agricultural device. The Rwandan massacre was mainly a domestic event. The…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ultranationalism In Rwanda

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the period of the genocide took place, one hundred days from April 7, 1994 to July. An estimated 500 000 - one million Rwandans were killed, taking roughly one fifth of their population. Hutu extremists launched their plans to destroy the entire Tutsi civilian population but any political leaders who might have been able to control the situation or other opponents of the Hutu extremists were killed immediately. Tutsi’s and others suspected as Tutsis were killed trying to flee their homes when stopped at roadblocks set up across the country, entire families were killed without hesitation, children were either killed or forced to join the cause as child soldiers and woman were systematically and brutally raped.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout history people have always attempted to eliminate each other for various reasons. In April 1994 Rwanda was in a brutal between the ethnic groups the Hutus and Tutsis. The Hutus led a genocide against another ethnic group the Tutsi in a gruesome civil war. Jean Hatzfeld’s book Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak. Hatzfeld interviews with a group of Hutu mass murderers that were all friends and came from the same region.…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Because of the many killings going on during the Rwandan genocide, many Tutsis have been killed by the Hutu. By May 20, 1994, the International Committee for the Red Cross estimated more than 500,000 Rwandans killed. In March of 1994, many more could have been killed if the situation in Rwanda had worsened beyond the point it already has. If there were any possibility for there to be a new generation of Tutsis, it was eliminated. In the year 1994, in only four months, the Hutu extremists had already killed approximately 700,000, which were mostly Tutsi, and roughly 50,000 politically moderate Hutus.…

    • 1398 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rwanda Genocide Tension

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The mysterious shooter has never been identified, and it’s unknown how the shooting was arranged. It was also unknown whether a Hutu or a Tutsi had committed the crime, however, the Hutus still blamed the Tutsis and began to murder them. Most of the Hutus slaughtered the Tutsis immediately, either with machetes or clubs. Some of the Tutsis were tortured. Hutu extremists forced other Hutus to kill their Tutsi spouses, while Tutsi men were forced to kill their entire family.…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    First, Rwanda split people up. The Europeans divided two groups mostly by economic statuses, the Tutsis being wealthier than the Hutus (10 atrocious genocides in human history). Obviously dividing people can cause serious problems. Second they began killing. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed during this time (10 atrocious genocides in human history).…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Before any of this mess started, the Hutu people and the Tutsi people lived harmonically with each other. It was not until the Belgium’s arrived to colonize Rwanda that everything went to chaos. The Belgium put the Tutsi on a higher level than the Hutu, which ended up with the Hutus being treated like dirt. It was not much later that Belgium suddenly switched the power between the two and gave the Hutus the higher level power. The Hutus were not going to let that opportunity to get revenge slip.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Rwanda Genocide

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages

    If nations across the world worked together to combat evil, genocide such as this could be prevented in the 21st Century. The division between minorities in Rwanda is a contributing to the genocide of 1994. The extreme Hutu nationalists are the ones who gained control of the genocide, and contributed to most of the killing. According to the documentary viewed in class, the Hutu wanted to exterminate the Tutsi community.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The Rwandan Genocide is known to be considered the genocide that was targeted towards the tutsi ethnic group of rwanda and it is also known that the actions of this genocide where mostly coordinated by the hutu majority. The Rwandan genocides resulted in the killings of an estimated 800,000 rwandans in the short period of just 100 days. The Rwandan Genocides took place on April 7 1994 and ended in July of 1994. The Rwandan genocides began shortly after the death of the hutu president of Rwanda Major General Juvénal Habyarimana. Before the death of the president there were still an ongoing civil war present between the tutsi and the hutus that had broke out during the 1990’s.…

    • 133 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The United Nations (UN) was established in 1945 to promote global peace and international cooperation. It replaced the League of Nations which was deemed as ineffective since it failed to prevent the Second World War. The organization enjoys a membership of 193 nations with the privilege to operate extraterritoriality. The UN also ensures that human rights of member states are not violated in any way. To ensure that the body achieves the task, UN has established a global structure that oversee human rights preservation.…

    • 2040 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics