The+Rwandan+Genocide


 * __ The Rwandan Genocide __**


 * __ Brief Overview __**

In Rwanda there have always been ethnic disagreements between the Hutus and the Tutsis, from the colonial period, the hatred between them grew greatly.

The Hutus and Tutsis speak the same language and all live in the same areas and have the same traditions. But the Tutsis are usually taller and slimmer than the Hutus, and the Tutsis said that their origins are from Ethiopia. During the genocide the dead bodies of the Tutsis were thrown into the rivers and were told to go back to Ethiopia by their killers.

In Rwanda the economics became worse and the current president began losing his popularity. On April 6th of 1994 the President Juvenal Habarimana was killed as his plane was shot down over top of an airport. Whoever killed the president, its effect was instantaneous and disastrous.

In Kagali, the presidential guard quickly started retribution. The political opposition leaders were murdered first, and then rapidly the mass killing of the Tutsis and some Hutus started. Within hours there were recruits sent out all across the country to continue the wave of mayhem.

This first was created by the military leaders, politicians, and business men, soon after many others joined into the slaughter. An unofficial militia group called the Interahamwe were encouraged to join into it as well; this group had about 30,000 militia members. Ordinary citizens were also encouraged to join by soldiers and police officers. The people in it were bribed with land, food or money. UN troops quickly withdrew due to 10 soldiers got killed.

The day after Habarimana’s murder, the RPF assaulted government forces; the UN made numerous tries to negotiate a cease fire was unsuccessful. In July, the Rwandan Patriotic Front finally captured Kagili and then the government crumbled, after this RPF declared a cease fire. When it was obvious that the RPF was victorious nearly 2 million Hutus fled to Zaire, which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The government was first built up of a Hutu, Pasteur Bizimungu. And Mr. Kagili became his deputy. Even though the killings in Rwanda was done, there was still Hutu militias of the DR Congo, and since been years of conflict causing 5 million deaths.

In result of this genocide, there is a total of 800,000 deaths within the 100 days. Rwanda is now a Tutsi led government and has invaded their neighboring country twice, refusing to lay down the arms, and is at risk of another genocide. The UN has been unable to cease the fighting.

President Juvenal Habyarimana’s death is in the centre of this whole tragedy, as BBC news quoted, “In August 1993, after several attacks and months of negotiation, a peace accord was signed between Habyarimana and the RPF, but it did little to stop the continued unrest. When Habyarimana's plane was shot down at the beginning of April 1994, it was the final nail in the coffin.”
 * __ Proof of Persecution __**

Extreme Hutus started killing Tutsis, sometimes their neighbours, women and children in a brutal way such as smacking them with machetes several times. Captured women would be raped by militias and army personnel. They would call Tutsis “cockroaches” and encouraged Hutu civilians to join the killing spree through Hutu radio propagandas, presidential guards and Hutu militias. Participants were often given incentives, such as money or food, and some were even told they could appropriate the land of the Tutsis they killed.

Immaculee Illibagiza was a college student who had a loving family. But during Rwandan genocide, she lost two brothers and her parents. Especially, her father was shot trying to get food for his neighbour’s children. Immaculee recalled her memories in TV program “60 minutes” on CBS.
 * __ Case Study __**

Immaculee described her fear during the development of the genocide: "I remember looking up to the hill across the river. And I saw somebody actually with a machete cutting somebody. And we were all like, 'Wow! Something's happening here. They're going to kill us,'" "A person like when they're cutting, cutting. And somebody was screaming.” “People were screaming all over the country. The genocide had begun. It was extremely low tech - no gas chambers here - just machetes, spears and knives, wielded by Hutus, the majority tribe as they tried to wipe out the minority Tutsis.”

Her father told Immaculee to run to the minister's house, and she ran toward a minister’s house 3 miles away with others. There the minister provided a tiny, 3 by 4 feet, rarely used bathroom to hide 7 women including Illibagiza herself from the eyes of Hutu militias. The room was so small that everyone couldn’t move at the same time and had to take turns standing and stretching. However, she expressed her relief just by being in that room: "So, when he took us in the bathroom, I was like, 'Oh my God. I will be saved here. This bathroom is so hidden that we're going to be saved.'"

Just after they moved to larger room since they couldn’t take any longer, some people expressed a suspicion of that house, and Hutus stormed in hope to kill the women. "So they come inside," she recalls. "I never been so scared in my life. I remember it was like, life swept out of your body in a second. I became dry instantly. I couldn't even find saliva to swallow." Immaculee heard the radio from the room that French troops had finally arrived in Rwanda and their camp is located just few miles away. She persuaded the pastor to sneak out at night. They snuck out at two in the morning, on the day Immaculee calls "liberation day", and managed to walk, and run, concealed by the night to the French compound. Immaculee recalls, "And when we reached the gate, I was like, 'We are Tutsi, please help us,'" she remembers. "So he said, 'Come in' and we went in, and it was the first time in three months that we saw somebody have pity on us." She was safe, but soon sorry because Immaculee learned that her two brothers, and her mother and father had all been killed. Her father had been shot trying to get food for his neighbors' children.

Now she's a woman on a mission to spread the story of the genocide hoping it can prevent future atrocities. She has giving lectures; she has written a book; and she is determined to stop the inevitable revisionists who claim the genocide never happened. Immaculee said in final, "You started to hear on radios, people denying that it wasn't genocide. And that almost takes your breath away. Like, what I have lived isn't genocide? What is genocide? Every child, every woman, every man, Tutsi, at least in my village as I have seen, is dead."

In Kigali, Rwanda President Clinton apologizes to the victims of genocide. "... the international community, together with nations in Africa, must bear its share of responsibility for this tragedy, as well. We did not act quickly enough after the killing began. We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe havens for the killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide. We cannot change the past. But we can and must do everything in our power to help you build a future without fear, and full of hope ..." There has been quite a few published works based on the genocide in Rwanda. Below are a list of movies and a couple books that have been released over the years. There also exists a large number of documentaries on the subject. __ Movies: __ // Hotel Rwanda (2004) // // Shooting Dogs (2005) // // Sometimes in April (2005) // // A Sunday in Kigali (2006) // // Shake Hands with the Devil (2007) // // Munyurangabo (2007) // __ Books: __ // Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2003) // // -By Romeo Dallaire // // We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families // // -By Philip Gourevitch //
 * __ Historical Relevance __**
 * __ Influence on Culture __**

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** __ Works __ __Cited__**
**__Brief Overview (Jordan Weimer)__**

**__Proof of Persecution (Ben Kim)__**

[|**http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1288230.stm**]

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**__Case Study (Ben Kim)__**

[|**http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/30/60minutes/main2218371.shtml**]

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**__Historical Relevance (Chad Piers)__**  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/etc/slaughter.html  **__Influence on Culture (Jay Hildebrand)__**  [] [|http://epress.anu.edu.au/hrj/2007_02/pdf/whole-book.pdf#page=53] [] [] [] [] <span style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">