Rwandan Genocide VS. Nuremberg Laws

The Rwandan Genocide occured between two ethnic groups, the Hutus and Tutsis. They were rival groups that had lived in the Rwandan Kingdom together. Power struggles between the two ethnic groups were the main reason of the Genocide. Their rivalry is seen back to the 15th century. The Hutus took up most of the population but were very poor. The Tutsis were the kings. Political and military power was argued over both groups. In 1990 the Tutsis lived in refugee camps around Uganda, a neighboring base to Rwanda. They demanded rights to live in Rwanda and created the RPF, or The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front. The Rwandan government saw this as an invasion to take over Rwanda and enslave the Hutus. Due to pressure from Hutus, the Rwandan Government unleased violence and Genocide along with the Hutus. The extemist Hutu militia carried out the Genocide. At least 500,000 Tutsis and thousands of Hutus were killed.

The Nuremberg laws dehumanized the Jewish population. They were based on physical appearance and their past generations. It took away all rights from the Jews. Marriage and sexual relations were prohibited between Germans and the Jews, rights of political power and other rights. The Jewish population were descriminated. How does this compare to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide?

The Rwandan Genocide was built on centurys of rival ethnic groups and power. The Nuremberg laws were put into play during the Holocaust. The Nazi reason of this was to kill the Jewish population. Hitler created these laws to make sure each and everyone of the Jewish population was illegal and sent to concentration camps. This was racial discrimination and in the view of the Nazi power, it was racial cleansing.

The Rwandan government soon took the same type of action using propaganda and the media to promote that the Tutsis were a subhuman race. Newspapers and radio stations called for immediate violence toward the Tutsis. The goverment also supplied weapons to the radical Hutus group. Training camps for militias began to appear as the government leaders met with the militia leaders forming pacts to fight together. Youth groups were also put in play just as the Holocaust.

Evidence of this was in killing areas of the Tutsis. There were about 30,000 militia men nationwide. One for every ten families in Rwanda. This meant that the government had supported participation in the militia. Also weapons were given by the government. The militia had been able to require these rifles through requistion forms. They were heavily armed with grenades and other weapons. The government had many of these weapons.

The Nuremberg laws and the Rwandan Genocide included their governments in the extermination of their supposed enemy. The Nuremberg laws took away rights of all the Jewish population, but in Rwanda the Tutsis never had rights in Rwanda. The laws also dehumanized the Jews to a subhuman race. The same incident occured in Rwanda. In both situations the media and propaganda were used to influence their nation's civilians to take up arms and use violence against the labled inferior race. Genocide occured in both the nations. The Nuremberg Laws and the Rwandan Genocide were very much alike in how they influenced participants, dehumanized their enemy, and that both their governments fully supported these terrible occurrents.