Rwanda Genocide

Well to start off, the Rwanda Genocide was a mass killing of hundreds thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu politcal members in 1994 by the Hutu winning government. Wow, thats a good way to start off a blog. Just think if you were one of those hundreds or thousands, or you had relatives that were one of those hundreds of thousands of people who were killed over the 100 days. Ugh, what a feeling. The series of killing people went through mid-July when a total number between 500,000 and 1,000,000 lives were lost by brutal murder. That was 20% of the country's population gone just like that. I can't imagine 20% of the people in the US dead.Well, it all began with the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994. His plane was shot down above the Kigali airport. A French judge is accusing the current leader of Rwanda that the rocket incident was planned.But, that doesn't really matter in the big picture because hours later, the country was filled with violence and Rwanda genocide had begun. It didn't end until three whole months later. Three months of continuos murder sounds terrible. The president's death wasn't the only main cause of this though. Rwanda is filled with Tutsis and Hutu people and there has always been ethnic tensions between the two groups. Even though they do not get along at all, they have a lot in common. They both speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow mostly the same traditions. Even though that sounds like they should be able to get along, the Hutus did not like that the Tutsis people are often taller and thinner than them, and some of them would say their origins lie in Ethiopia.During the massacre, Tutsis bodies were thrown into the rivers while the killers would say they were being sent back to their original country, Ethiopia. Well, I guess it was kind of a little bit creative, but still extremely cruel. When some of the Belgium colonists went to Rwanda, they considered the Tutsis to be "superior" compared to the Hutus. The Tutsis took that in and enjoyed better jobs, education and living for the next 20 years. Anger built up in the Hutu people and decided to kill more than 20000 Tutsis in 1959 and send more to other countries.In August 1993, there were many attacks because the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) and the now dead president, Habyarimana. But that doesn't really matter anymore either considering he passed away shortly after. The person/people who shot the plane down is still unkown. I don't know how you wouldn't be able to find them, that's so weird. Usually when a disaster shooting takes place, people are trying to do everything to prevent and stop it. This was not the case during the genocide. Everyone was taking part in it; police officers and soldiers convinced oridinary citizens to take part in the massacre. People even bribed them with money, food and land. That seems so crazy to me, how you can get so many people to give in and have a part in that.The United Nations troops withdrew after 10 soldiers were murdered. Finally in July, the RPF claimed Kigali and over 2 million Hutu peple fled to Zaire, which is the Democratic Repulic of Congo. I guess they were just sore losers. This seems like something the UN can try and settle, but they have tried and no one is really cooperating and willing to change. That's so sad.

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  • Good blog!
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