With tear filled eyes, I write about one of the worst genocides in African history. In Kigali, Rwanda, Spring of 1994 over eight-hundred thousand people were massacred in the streets surrounding the Milles Collines Hotel. This hotel ran by Paul Rusesabagina became shelter to 1,268 Tutsi and Hutu refugees. In December 2004, Terry George releases the film Hotel Rwanda which not only captivates its audience but revisits the mass murderers that the global community collectively turned a blind eye causing many innocent lives to parrish. Georges ability to capture the realism of the event surpasses a film 's primary purpose of entertainment, it educates and reminds viewers to never turn our backs to a country in need.…
One major historical problem is the fact that peace-makers within Rwanda and Burundi are not looking at the situation in the correct manner. They are comparing Rwanda and Burundi to other war torn nation states within Africa, but this is impossible to do because these two nations are vastly different from any other nation. They are not war torn states, but states that are afflicted with despair and hatred because of genocide. It is stated by Rene Lemarchand, “Dealing with ‘post-conflict’ situations is one thing; healing the wounds of genocide is a very different manner.”…
Despite the great name and power of the U.S. and the U.N., little was done to assist or prevent the Rwandan genocide. In 1993, the U.N. sent “peacemakers” to Rwanda with the simple task: keep any wars from starting. For the first month, all the peacemakers were ignorant to what was going on around them. Then Roméo Dallaire, commander of the peacemakers in Rwanda, began receiving tips and information on potential conflicts after Rwanda’s independence. In distress, Dallaire sent a message to the U.N. that mainly requested more troops and a way to get the Tutsi out of Rwanda.…
After reports of the genocide had spread across the globe, the United Nations embraced its role as a global peace force and created a commission of experts to investigate and review the situation in Rwanda. By October of 1994, the commission provided “undeniable and overwhelming evidence that actions against the Tutsi constituted genocide.” With the concurrence of the Rwandan government, the United Nations adopted Resolution 955, which ICTR, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Chapter VII grants the power to “determine the existence of any threat to peace, breach of peace, or act of aggression.” In addition, it gives the Security Council the power to “restore international peace and security,” but does not specify any…
Annotated Bibliography Livingston, S, Annan, K (Author), & Thompson, A. Ed). (2007). Limited vision: How both the American media and government failed Rwanda. The media and the Rwanda genocide (pp 188-197). Pluto Books.…
Back in 1994, Rwanda faced its darker period of time in its history. A horrifying and historical genocide took place over three months on Rwandan soil. The horror and brutality of that act has been compared to what happened in Nazi Germany over World War II. About one million Rwandan people got literally exterminated by their countrymen because of their ethnic group given by Belgian colonizers over occupation (1916-1962). Nevertheless, that tragedy could have been lower and prevented if some countries would have intervened and did not think to their own interests first.…
Rwanda is a small, densely populated state located in East Africa. Already under German rule, but above all during the Belgian colonial rule after World War I, Christian missionaries became active in the country. This led to a predominance of Roman Catholics, who, shortly before the genocide accounted for some two-thirds of the population. The background to the Rwandan genocide is inseparable from the destructive legacy of first German, then Belgian and finally the French on the country’s inter-ethnic politics. Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium in 1961 after years of living in a society that promoted the Hutus as the colonial master’s preferred ruling elite.…
Shattered societies such as Rwanda can be refurbished by each ethic group forgiving each other for the violence over the decades. The United Nations should continue to help refurbish Rwanda because along with other organizations they can help promote peace and harmony in the country of…
In 1989, the world coffee prices collapsed leaving Rwanda with a wounded economy. The Rwandan Patriotic Front decided this was a perfect time to make their move. The RPF was a Ugandan-based rebel army made up mostly of Tutsi refugees. These Tutsis had experienced exile and Uganda’s ruthless dictatorship. These living conditions convinced the Tutsis that they needed to change their circumstances.…
Rwanda was a country divided between 1990 through 1995, for genocide was prepared and committed here in this small African country. It all started when in 1990, Belgium gave up control of the now diamond-less country, the only reason Belgium kept hold of this otherwise useless country. People were classified into 3 groups, 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi, and then 1% Twa (http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm). Hutus were the lowest class and watched as the Tutsis got all the praise and good lives. Since the Tutsis looked more like Europeans than the Hutus, the Belgians treated them so much better than the Hutus.…
Due to the inaction of the international community, The Rwandan Genocide—a preventable event—is considered one of the greatest recent failures of international…
Genocide is “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group” (“Genocide”). In short, genocide is the mass murder of a certain group of people, whether it’s because of their race, beliefs, political opinions, or ethnic background. Everyone in this world is different, but some of these differences can cause tension. Some of these tensions stem from hatred, politics, and power, which are all causes of the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan genocide is one of the most brutal and bloodiest genocides of all time, resulting in over 800,000 deaths.…
Replication of Jewish Scientific Development in Rwanda Rwanda is arguably best known for the horrific genocide that devastated the nation killing nearly one million people within a one hundred day period in 1994. Author Philip Gourevitch introduced most of the world to the events of the genocide and connected it to the Holocaust through his book, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families. Since the Rwandan genocide, also referred to as the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis, the nation has taken several important and dramatic steps towards stability and development. One of the key steps is economic development based on a market-oriented system praised by many Western governments and institutions such as the World Bank. The narrative on Rwanda’s development contains a glaring absence, the nation’s drive to replicate Israel…
In 1973 Major General Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, gained control over the government. (“The Rwandan Genocide”) For the next twenty years the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (NRMD) was founded. Habyarimana was notified to end his control, which caused him to lose popularity. However he still wanted to maintain his position. (White)…
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.…