Mass Violence In Rwanda Genocide

Throughout history the world has experienced countless acts of mass violence and brutality. That being said few of these instances have rivaled that of the Rwandan genocide. In the early days of April 1994 until mid July of that same year upwards of 800,000 people were murdered, a rate that surpassed the Nazis in their killing of the Jews during the Holocaust. The perpetrators of these murders were a Rwandan ethnic group called the Hutu and their victims were not only of a separate ethnic tribe known as the Tutsi. Why and how were thousands of Hutus mobilized and able to so effectively carry out such an act of mass violence? Hutu political and military elite fearing an imminent loss of absolute power utilized long standing ethnic tensions, …show more content…
This would soon change with the arrival of colonizers first being the Germans and finally the Belgians. Although the Germans were the initial colonizers soon the Belgians, who would control the region until the late 1950s, would replace them. Under Belgian control there would be a system of indirect rule in which the Tutsis would be labeled as the “natural rulers”, thus beginning the long road of strong ethnic tensions. With this decision Tutsi were given many privileges over the Hutu specifically regarding education and positions of influence. Tutsi were given advanced education in order to prepare them for colonial administrative roles while all Hutus were barred from such opportunity and in addition any Hutu that may have held power as a chieftain or other role was promptly removed and replaced by a Tutsi minority instead. The Hutus were also burdened with supplying the intense labor necessary to build the vast infrastructure of the Belgian colonies to include roads, administrative …show more content…
Along with the anger towards the Tutsi RPF for economic hardship came the fear of possible targeting against Hutu civilians. During the last several years of the civil war there were many instances in which the RPF had killed large amounts of Hutu civilians in furtherance of their goals. This fact led to obvious fears amongst the ordinary Hutu, fears that the Hutu regime would soon convince the masses to portray onto ordinary Tutsi civilians. The regime began using propaganda and convinced the civilian populace to be weary of all Tutsi for it was likely that they were members of the RPF hiding in plain sight, preparing to target and fight to overthrow the government. It would not be long before such fears were heightened when the elite reminded the Hutu populace of the vast inequality and abuse suffered under the previous Tutsi leadership. Through the use of hatred, desperation, and fear the Hutu elite were effectively able to convince the masses the only way to end the current difficulties and prevent future oppression and suffering was to purge the Hutu of all Tutsi, to eliminate this imaginary threat would be to eliminate all political competition and ensure the continued rule of the current regime. These frustrations and fears finally erupted and on April 7, 1994