In 1994, in Rwanda, the mass killings of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus occurred. The killings were carried out by the Hutus, due to the tensions that rose between the two groups when the country gained its independence in the 1960s and the Belgians openly favoring the Tutsi. The mass killings that occurred should be considered as a genocide because it fits with the definition of genocide as it was the destruction of a whole/part of a specific group of people and the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation, and it follows the 8 stages of genocide. However the events in Rwanda could be considered as a civil war because it fits with the definition of civil war, which is a war between
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Classification (Stage 1); the categorization of cultures to distinguish people into ‘us vs them’. This stage occurred …show more content…
Prior to 1994, Rwanda had been under the colonial rule of Germany and then Belgium in the early 1900s. The Belgian rulers had openly favored the Tutsi as they thought that the Tutsi were more superior and that they had a ‘more European’ appearance. This led to the Tutsi having reserved educational privileges as well as governmental jobs. The Belgian colonial campaign began to crumble and they had rushed for an election which led to the Hutus gaining power in Rwanda and the Tutsi who had gained power in neighboring Burundi, by 1994, Rwanda had become one of the most densely populated and poverty stricken countries in the world and encouraged more ethnic conflicts between the Tutsi and the Hutus. In 1993, the Arusha Accords Peace Treaty was signed between the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), which mainly consisted of Tutsi, and the government of Rwanda, but tensions rose once again when the Melchior Ndadaye, the first Hutu president, was assassinated and the murders of one hundred thousand Hutus occurred. On the 7th of April 1994, President Juvenal Habyarimana and the second president of Burundi both died in a suspicious plane crash, after the plane crash took place, Belgian UN peacekeepers were taken and separated from the other peacekeeper and were murdered by Hutu extremists. The definition of civil war is “A
Classification (Stage 1); the categorization of cultures to distinguish people into ‘us vs them’. This stage occurred …show more content…
Prior to 1994, Rwanda had been under the colonial rule of Germany and then Belgium in the early 1900s. The Belgian rulers had openly favored the Tutsi as they thought that the Tutsi were more superior and that they had a ‘more European’ appearance. This led to the Tutsi having reserved educational privileges as well as governmental jobs. The Belgian colonial campaign began to crumble and they had rushed for an election which led to the Hutus gaining power in Rwanda and the Tutsi who had gained power in neighboring Burundi, by 1994, Rwanda had become one of the most densely populated and poverty stricken countries in the world and encouraged more ethnic conflicts between the Tutsi and the Hutus. In 1993, the Arusha Accords Peace Treaty was signed between the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), which mainly consisted of Tutsi, and the government of Rwanda, but tensions rose once again when the Melchior Ndadaye, the first Hutu president, was assassinated and the murders of one hundred thousand Hutus occurred. On the 7th of April 1994, President Juvenal Habyarimana and the second president of Burundi both died in a suspicious plane crash, after the plane crash took place, Belgian UN peacekeepers were taken and separated from the other peacekeeper and were murdered by Hutu extremists. The definition of civil war is “A