Assigned blog #16

[4Lindsey]

Rwanda: 1994: Genocide. Over the course of 100 days, more than 800,000 people were left dead, murdered in mass quantities. Most of the victims were from the minority people group of Tutsis, and most of the perpetrators were from the majority people group of Hutus. Any victims that weren't Tutsi were found to be moderate Hutus.The cause of the event was very obvious; on April 6th, 1994, a plane carrying the (Hutu) then-president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana, and several other government officials was shot down. Who actually shot the plane down remains a mystery, as most Hutus blamed the Tutsis, and the Tutsis denied every accusation. Only hours after news of the shot-down plane spread, approx. 30,000 Hutus country-wide had mobilized, calling themselves Interahamwe (meaning "those who attack together"), and a sort of civil war commenced. Citizens were encouraged by government officials, police officers, important society figures, soldiers, and radio propaganda to take part in the fight on the side of the Hutus. Some [moderate] Hutus were forced or bribed to murder their Tutsi neighbors; some were kill-or-be-killed circumstances, some were bribed with food, money, or land.Bitterness between the two ethnic groups did not start in 1994. In 1959, Hutus-led riots filled the streets, killing thousands of Tutsis, causing many more to flee to neighboring countries. These riots were probably due to the build up of resentment the Hutus had since 1916, when Belgian colonists showed an obvious preference for the Tutsis, giving them better jobs, educations, and resources than they gave to the Hutus. Finally, in 1962, Rwanda gained its independence from Belgium and the Hutus ethnic group took over. Over the course of the Hutus-led government, the remaining Tutsis had bee blamed for many of Rwanda's problems. This did not stop when several Tutsis formed a rebel group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in hopes to overthrow Habyarimana and bring fairness to the country. In fact, it caused the Hutus to accuse ALL Tutsis of collaborating with RPF, not just the actual group involved in it. So, it was no surprise that the genocide occurred the way it did, violently and throughout the whole country, specifically against Tutsis.During the 100-day period, the UN did almost nothing about it, taking troops out after only 10 were killed. They let the people fight it out, and they did. Eventually the Tutsis managed to gain the upper hand, despite so many of them being massacred by the ever-vengeful Hutus. Once the Hutus realized who was actually winning the "war", they backed down, over 2 million of them fleeing to the Democratic Republic of Congo (then called Zaire). In the years after the genocide, Hutus in the DR of Congo have continued to form militias and riots there, causing even more deaths. Meanwhile, the Tutsis and the RPF tried to set up a mixed-ethnic government, but that fell through and the government of Rwanda is now mainly Tutsi, with the current president being Paul Kagame (former leader of the RPF). However, disputes between the Tustis and the Hutus have never ceased completely, and the UN remains inactive in resolving their conflict.Snapshot of genocide aftermath in a Tutsi village.Location of Rwanda....While researching what happened in Rwanda, i couldn't help but think of how the Nazi's slaughtered the Jews during WW2. I know the two events are completely unrelated to each other, but they are similar in how one people group viciously attacked another, although they had been living together for decades. They're also similar with how much people were fooled by propaganda, rumors, lies and confusion to do something they would later regret. Overall, i thought the whole thing was a bit depressing and unfair, although it seems like nothing could have prevented it.

[Mr. Bruns]

Good job!!