THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE
January 17, 2007
Throughout history, there has been much documentation on acts of genocide that have occurred in various countries. Many of them have been highly publicized while others have gone somewhat unnoticed by Western societies. Nevertheless, in spite of whatever publicity afforded, all acts of genocide have proven to be quite injurious to the development and continuity of a people.
Derived from the roots genos, Greek for family, tribe or race and cide, (Latin occidere or cideo) to massacre, the definition of genocide as stated by The Oxford Senior Dictionary © 1982 is “[the] deliberate extermination of a race of people.” It is further defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group, conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Incidences of acts of genocide since the 20th century include:
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the Armenian genocide from 1915–1918 where almost 2,000,000 Armenians were forced to leave Turkey through forced deportations and massacres
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the Ukraine famine from 1932-1933 where 7,000,000 persons who were thought to be seeking independence from the rule of Joseph Stalin were deprived of food and starved to death
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the Nanking massacre from 1937–1938 where 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers out of 600,000 were killed by the Japanese Imperial army
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the Nazi Holocaust from 1938–1945 where 6,000,000 Jews were killed by the Germans
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the Cambodian genocide from 1975-1979 where 2,000,000 died as a result of the Khmer Rouge leader’s attempt to form a Communist peasant farming society from starvation, overwork and executions
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the Bosnian genocide from 1992-1995 where 200,000 Muslims in Bosnia were killed by the Serbs (Orthodox Christians)
However, the act of genocide which is considered by some to be the most intensive killing campaign in human history is one which involved the killing of 800,000 Africans in 100 days by compatriots of a different ethnic group.
The Rwandan genocide occurred in 1994, beginning in April and continuing until July.
It involved the two larger of the three ethnic groups in the country of Rwanda, the Hutus and the Tutsis. It was essentially an attempt by the Hutus to stamp out the Tutsi population. The genocide was somewhat of a culmination of a long standing ethnic tension between the two groups which can be traced back to World War I when Belgium assumed rule over the country of Rwanda.
While the Belgians were in power, the Tutsis were afforded preferential treatment as they were considered to be more “European” in appearance than the Hutus. They were made auxiliaries to the Belgians and so assumed the status of Rwandan elite which earned them the resentment of the Hutus. However, after Rwanda gained independence in 1962, there was a shift in power as the Hutus claimed governance and proceeded to oppress the Tutsis in an act of revenge. As a result, many Tutsis sought to escape their persecutors by fleeing to neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Burundi; some of who later formed a rebel guerilla army called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).
The tension between the two groups continued to heighten over the years and in April 1994, the tension reached its boiling point. On April 6, 1994, Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi respectively, were assassinated when the plane in which they were traveling was shot down. It is alleged that the Hutus orchestrated the killing of their President because he had engaged in peace talks with the RPF with the assistance of the UN and had accommodated the idea of joint political power with the RPF. He confirmed his stance on the matter by authorizing the deployment of UN peace keeping officials to Rwanda.
Immediately following the deaths of the Presidents, the Hutus set out on a killing spree. Armed with machetes, guns, grenades, clubs and hoes, the Hutus targeted not only Tutsis but any one who they saw as a threat to their dominance, moderate Hutus included. Even ten Belgian peace keepers were victims in the horror that ensued. Identification cards were used to identify the Tutsis, a system which was initially introduced by the Belgians but was retained in the post-independence period. Persons were killed just about anywhere they were found, in the streets, in their homes, in churches or in schools. As a matter of fact, churches and schools were the scenes of some of the more brutal massacres as these were the places that the Tutsis sought refuge. Tutsi women and children were not spared, either. Many of the women were even raped before being killed. During this time of chaos, many families were separated, some members managing to flee to nearby countries, not knowing whether or not their relatives had survived the onslaught or not.
Skulls of the victims at the site of the infamous Nyarubuye Church Massacre
(Courtesy of http://news.bbc.co.uk)
The killings continued for one hundred days, only coming to an end when the RPF successfully invaded Rwanda and overpowered the Hutus. A large number of Hutus, men especially, lost their lives during the reprisal.
Approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, the equivalent of about one-tenth of the population, were chopped, shot or clobbered to death between April and July making it the most concentrated act of genocide in history alongside the mass murder of Soviet prisoners of war.
In the aftermath of the genocide 120,000 persons were imprisoned for their alleged involvement in the massacres, however, up to April 2000, only 300 of this number had been issued death sentences.
The situation in Rwanda has been somewhat stable in recent times. There has been a collective effort to unite the people of Rwanda and return to some sense of normalcy. Many of the families that had been separated during the massacre have reunited even though many have still yet to find their relatives. The government has also made every effort to promote peace between the Hutus and Tutsis and their first initiative in trying to achieve this was to abolish the identity cards which were symbolically death warrants during the massacres. Even though the threat of an uprising is always looming, for now, their efforts seem to be bearing fruit.
References
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Codere, Helen, The Biography of an African Society, Rwanda 1900-1960. Tervuren, Belgium: Musee Royal De L’Afrique Central, 1973.
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Compiled, Hawkins, Joyce M. The Oxford Senior Dictionary, Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1982.
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www.gendercide.org
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www.unitedhumanrights.org
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http://news.bbc.co.uk
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http://en.wikipedia.org
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