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Jocelyne Enriquez
30, April 2014
Mrs. Petty
English 102

Rwanda Genocide
The Hutu people are recognized as the major ethnic group of Rwanda. On the
other hand, the Tutsi people were identified as foreign race. There is no physical
difference between the Hutu and the Tutsis. The main difference has to do about origin
and who is more than likely to represent what being Rwandan really is. The one sided
government it was changed this harmonious country from peaceful to down right ugly.
Rwandas political elite blamed the entire population of Tutsi people for the
countries increase in economical, social, and political problems that the country was
facing (films on demand, 2002). By already blaming one group of people for the whole
countries problems is absurd. The Hutus and the Tutsis already had bad blood because
the Hutus had felt that the Tutsi people always wanted to over throw the government and
be rebellious. However, that was not the case. All the Tutsi people were doing was
expressing how they felt about the government, by doing so this led to a theory of a one
sided bias government in Rwanda due to the fact that no one was being reprimanded for
the events happening prior to the genocide The Tutsi people were treated extremely
poorly and inhumane, they did nothing but express their opinions and how bias the
government was being. In other words, these people were getting slaughtered because of
a political standpoint and the strong hatred from the powerful political circle in Rwanda.
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About 600 years ago the Hutus and Tutsi people lived together in peace in
Central Africa (Rugema, 4)). The Tutsis created a hostile environment for their own
selves by proceeding to move south from Ethiopia and invaded the Hutus homeland. The
Rwanda Genocide started officially in April 6, 1994. The hatred in Rwanda stemmed
from the already strong hatred between the Tutsi people and the Hutus. Just as the Jews
had hatred because of government, the one sided government that chose at the time, to let
the riots continue and not put a stop to them. Because of that the Rwanda government
was at one time favoring the Tutsis over the Hutus. Just like when Hitler took over.
People followed him. They followed him because he made them believe what he
believed. Which is the case when it comes to being a biased government; you need
people on your side to reassure that you are following the wants and needs of the people.
The Rwanda government has a lot to do with the on going hatred between the two similar
cultural groups.
Prior to the genocide the Tutsi people went ahead and invaded the Hutus living
area. The government was already aware of the invasions going on south of Ethiopia.
With no one regulating what was going on when the Tutsis went on a conquering spree,
which causes hatred, obviously from no one defending them with their homeland and
their own territory. The Hutus basically pleaded to get their home back so they ended up
making a trade with the Hutus; the Hutus convinced the Tutsi people that they would
grow crops for them in return for protection. So, the government basically let the two
groups figure out what they were going to do and let those both sides make decisions,
decisions that neither group should have made. The government should have made it.
There are the rules and regulations in that. No one should have let the Tutsi people dictate
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other around him or her. But with no one there to over rule and over power the population
anything can be done. Thats how rebel groups form and people get used to no one rule,
boundaries or regulations. The issue sometimes is too much freedom.
When the civil war broke out in 1994 (Rugema, 10) it was in other words it was
the last straw for the Tutsi people are pushing around the Hutus. The Hutu people were
so tired of being pushed around for centuries that with the presidents death it fueled so
much hatred than what was already built inside the Hutus. Finally, a Hutu was running
Rwanda, and once that came about the Tutsi people had no problem brushing off the
issues and just forming their own rebel groups. Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)
(Thompson, 4). Once the Hutus came into power it was not going to hold the Tutsi
people back from leading the government into the direction they wanted to be in. When
the Tutsi people realized that the Hutu people were no longer stepping down from the
Tutsi people there was only one thing to do. War. The Tutsi people went on their own
scheming plan and decided to kill the president.
The Tutsi people were used to the Rwanda territory being ruled by a Tutsi king
since the 15
th
century but that all stopped in 1961 (Philip, G). The Tutsis were not going
to stand back and let this comes between what kind of government they wanted and what
kind they were going to have. Many people ask why did the Hutu militias want to kill the
Tutsis? The simple answer is the ongoing hatred between the two groups. 85% of
Rwandans are Hutus but the Tutsi people were a minority in which dominated the
country. The Rwandan government tries not getting involved in what seems like just two
groups crying over spilled milk. But once the RPF continuously attempts to invade
Rwanda in 1990 the fighting continues between both parties. Once the United Nations
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started becoming aware of the fighting going on they went ahead and started stepping in
(Philip G, 2). Than the Rwandan government had to stand up and do their job. Which
was finally trying to put an end to the massive killing spree going on between the two
groups; which share similar just about everything, from languages to the same ethnic
groups. The problem comes from wanting to be above or over others. But in 1993 a
peace deal was granted between both groups and that did not last very long. Did the Tutsi
people go around that but they also killed the Hutus beloved president and his right hand
man Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, both men were Hutus and both men were shot down
on their plane and killed. The Hutus completely ignored the truce and almost
immediately started the well-organized campaign to manslaughter every since Tutsi for
the death of their president.
With the death of both important Hutus it gave the Hutus, in their eyes, a
reasonable excuse to go ahead and pursue the genocide. The genocide was carries about
by malicious organizations. The government was right behind the Hutus when the topic
of genocide had come up. They neither approved it nor tore the subject down. A list of
opponents were handed out to militias by their own government because they were also
extremely upset at their colleagues death but tried to keep their hands out of the water
when it came to making sure the rest of the world did not find out about their
involvement with the genocide (Eugenie, 2012). Since their was an intertwined mix with
marriages between Tutsi and Hutus. Hutu husbands were killing their wives, Tutsi wives
and it was just an ongoing manslaughter of killing everyone and everything.
In all honesty the government did a good job keeping their hands clean and free
from the genocide. The Hutus were basically given the green flag to go ahead and kill
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thousands of innocent people. That was the wrong move on the governments part
because the rest of the world was looking suspicious when the Tutsi people were getting
blamed for all of the problems going on within the country itself.
When the Rwanda government was confronted from the United Nations about the
genocide that was rumored to have been going on for quite awhile. The government
claimed they knew nothing about a genocide occurring. On the contrary, they had a lot of
say about the genocide especially when it came to giving the ok to the Hutus.
The government knew exactly what would happen if the United Nations found out
they had favoritism going on between both groups, the Hutus and Tutsi people. What
would happen is that the United Nations found out, they would start investigating the
Rwanda government and pin point exactly the ones that were involved with the genocide
and who just stood by and let it happen without notifying the rest of the world that there
was a problem going on in Rwanda and help was needed to stop it.
During the genocide as many as 800,000 people were killed, most of the people
killed were of the Tutsi minority (Thompson, 1). The genocide spread throughout the
country in high rates of speed. One of the fastest spreading genocides on record. The
Rwandan government literally didnt involve them at all. Although, if it was reversed and
the Tutsi people tried to start a genocide like the one that was started by the Hutus it
would not have gotten very far due to the nature of history between the two ethnic
groups.
Within an hour of the plane crash many members of the Hutu well known
officials such as the presidential guard and members of the Rwandan armed forces, also
known as the FAR met with the presidential guard members. This is a clear indication
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that the government never had the whole countries best interest at heart. Any president or
president elective officials would not go on a rampage letting people go out and barricade
the streets to kill tons of innocent people. We can use the John F. Kennedy example, he
was murdered and it had been said that the killer had been found, but that was just a
theory the rest of the government didnt go ahead and give anyone the ok to go out and
kill the ethnic groups that they believed assassinated the president.
By allowing the Hutu people to immediately pin the blame on the Tutsi people
was the first step that turned everything wrong. Right then and there the government
should have stopped the accusations even if it was true, which in this case it was. By
stopping the accusations it would have bought time to calm down the Hutu people and
also calm down the Tutsi people. So that it could have all been resolved in a timely
manor instead of going out and starting a killing spree of even innocent women and
children.
The genocide originally started in Kigali and quickly spread, the RPF continued
fighting for their rights and quickly gained control of the country (Gourevitch, 1). In
result of the Tutsi people starting to win the ongoing civil war the Hutus starting fleeing
Rwanda. The Hutu people started crowding into refugee camps and going to other
countries nearby for safety. They knew this battle was already lost.
During the genocide the government had went ahead and allowed to make the
genocide public through government sponsored radios telling people to murder their
neighbors and the announcement went out to all ordinary Rwandan civilians. Both sides
went into defense mode especially the Tutsis because they knew that they were being
attacked for the killing of the president.
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What many people didnt suspect was that the Tutsis would come out on top with
a victory with this civil war. After the victory the Tutsi groups (RPF) created a coalition
government. It was created with Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, which would be president,
and Paul Kagame, a Tutsi that would be a Vice President and defense minister. The
president prior, Habyarimana had his own party which was NRDM party became
outlawed. After that was outlawed a new constitution was adopted in 2003 (films on
demand, 2002). The new constitution stated the outlaw of the NRDM party. That was the
party that had a lot to do with the organization of the genocide. Following the genocide,
with the new constitution in place that led to Kagames re election to a 10-year term as
the president of Rwanda and it also led to the countrys first ever elections.
You have to understand that there are two wars going on here. Theres a
shooting war and a genocide war. The two are connected, but also distinct. In the
shooting war, there are two conventional armies at each other, and in the genocide war,
one of those armies, the government side with help from civilians, is involved in mass
killings. (BBC, 14) . Said by Mark Doyle a reporter in BBC in Kigali. This quote shows
a clear indication of the involvement of the bias government. Although, the quote is
refuting my stance because it is stating that there were two different wars going on at the
same time, he is stating that both wars are similar but are also very different due to the
fact that the government was dealing with his own issues at the time. This quote is
however wrong, it has been clear that the government started this genocide by publicly
giving announcing the wrong acts of the Tutsi people and that they were involved with
the mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people
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The Rwanda government played the biggest part in this genocide since 600 years
ago. They knew about the things that were happening between the two groups of people
and decided to let them continue to take it into their own hands. The one sided bias
government was responsible for the deaths of tons of people by throwing out
announcements about the Tutsi on public government funded programs, and blaming
them for all the hardships the country also had to deal with. When you give someone or
some group so much power that knows what they will do with it. Too much power is
exactly what happened in the Rwanda Genocide.





Works Cited

"Armenia: A Genocide Denied." Films On Demand. Films Media Group, 2002.
Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
<http://digital.films.com.libproxy.estrellamountain.edu/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=15362&
xtid=31480>.

Gourevitch, Philip (2000). We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be
Killed With Our Families (Reprint ed.). London; New York, N.Y.: Picador. p. 52.
ISBN 978-0-330-37120-9
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Mukeshimana, Eugenie. "Bearing Witness To The Rwanda Genocide." Juniata Voices
12.(2012): 122-134. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.

Rugema, Lawrence, et al. "Traumatic Episodes Experienced During The Genocide Period
In Rwanda Influence Life Circumstances In Young Men And Women 17 Years Later."
BMC Public Health 13.1 (2013): 1-24. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Thompson, Allan. The Media And The Rwanda Genocide. London: Pluto, 2007.
eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 7 May 2014.