Recent Event Highlights: Hutus seize power, and 15 more...
Created by daithi on Mar 21, 2011
Last updated: 03/24/11 at 10:37 AM
This is our video on the Rwandan Genocide
http://www.history.com/topics/rwandan-genocide/videos#rwanda-background-to-genocide
The hutus thought in an ultranationalist manner, they wanted to gain power of their nation, and eliminate the Tutsis, who they saw as their opressors. The results are that Rwanda is now seen as a country in ruins. A horrific amount of people lost their lives during this genocide. It has left a lasting impression on the continent of Africa and has led people to believe that the Hutus are a dangerous people. This event has been highly significant to the world as it exposed the UN's flaws.
Our link is from the BBC News website, where there were numerous articles regarding the topic of the Rwandan Genocide. The page was last updated on December 18, 2008. We made use of the information provided by all of the articles, aswell as another site: http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_rwanda.html which was a site devoted to telling the stories of all the genocides the earth has seen.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/africa/2004/rwanda/default.stm
The curent Rwandan president accused the French of complicity in the genocide. Belgium and South Africa have appologised fot their inactivity
By the end of 2001 about 125,000 prisoners still awaited trial in overcrowded prisons.
An independent report condemned the UN Leadership for ignoring the evidence that a slaughter was planned, failure to act, removal of UN staff from the area and abandoning victims. Kofi Annan responded by admitting 'systematic failure' and displayed his deep remorse
The new Rwandan government then urged people to return to normal communal life. They did so over radio broadcasts, and the new president's message was that "the Rwandan people were able to live together peacefully for 600 years, and there is no reason why they can't live together in peace again.
However, the struggle was still not over. Freedom for the genocidaires gave them another chance to kill againm there were sustained Hutu-Tutsis confrontations in the northern hills of Rwanda, and the RPF got caught up in the conflicts in the Congo. 3 months after the genocide, Hutus murdered many witnesses who would have gotten them convicted. The remaining Interahamwe knew only war and for some, the political struggle is still on.
The Rwandan government then decided to suspend the arrests of genocidaires. This was aimed at dealing with the impossible situation in the country and the overcrowded jails
After the genocide, and international War Crimes Tribunal to try leaders of the genocide, and nearly 50 high ranking Hutu officials are still awaiting trials
Refugees who had fled to refugee camps in the Congo were forced to leave by the Congan government.
Before the RPF gained control up to a million people were killed. These deaths occured throughout all of the difficulties in Rwanda, not just the genocide in 1994
Aid agencies were helpless and were forced to leave hospitals, leaving the injured and dying to rot.
The UN Security Council met in secret after the violence broke out. Here Great Britain urged UNAMIR to pull out, and later blocked US proposal to send a fact-finding mission when the death toll reached six figures
The French backed most French speaking African countries and advised them to improe their global image, hence the hiding of bodies
The State provided the Hutus with supporting organizations such as politicians, intellectuals and professional soldiers who encouraged the fighters to continue their work
Throughout the genocide in Rwanda reporters in Rwanda showed the world the attrocites that were occuring. However, nothing was done as the UN Force (UNAMIR) "had no mandate to intervene" and only wanted to get foreigners out of Rwanda, not helping the Tutsis or moderate Hutus.
The Tutsis people were rounded up and killed in churches and schools. The clergy often colluded in the crimes. The worst part was that the Tutsis were being killed by neighbours, workmates and even relations.
The West portrayed the events as 'tribal violence', 'ancient ethnic hatreds', 'breakdown of an existing ceasefire' and 'a failed state'.
During the genocide, the organizers feared that the world would scrutinize them, and thus asked the Hutus to leave "no more corpses on the roads". And in the countryside bodies were covered with banana leaves.
There had been at least 10 clear warnings to the UN of the Hutu Power Action. This included an anxious telegram from UNAMIR Commander to the UN Secretary-General 3 months before the event.
Interahamwe means those who fight together. They were men trained to carry out massacres and were members of civilian death squads . They received transport and fuel supplies from the Hutus. They were fuelled by their fanatic dedication to the political cause.
A plane carrying the Rwandan president is shot down, and the Tutsis are blamed. The Hutus being their 'Final Solution'. Radio broadcasts and word of mouth tell the Hutus that it is their duty to wipe out the Tutsis
A ceasefire is enforced, and there is a UN led negotiation for a multiparty coalition government
The Rwandan Patriotic Front attack, thus beginning a civil war between the Hutus and Tutsis
The Hutus pass a law that excludes the Tutsis from attending secondary school and university, thus oppressing their education possibilities.
A new Rwandan government is elected with the Hutus in power
Hutus begin stripping land from the Tutsis as revenge for their opression
The church taught them to feel opressed. They had previously been treated as slaves after the Belgians made the Tutsis the 'intermediaries', maiking them the priviledged and educated. 100,000 people were killed.
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