These were refugee camps of Tutsis trying to escape into neighboring countries.

This shows the force used from the Hutu soldiers to keep Tutsis away.

When people think of mass murdering the word "Holocaust" comes to mind. But there were other significant events similar to the European catastrophe. Like the Rwanda Genocide for example: You would think the UN would step in but no. The declaration of human rights that they created would have no say in this matter. When one tribe goes out of their way to single out one group because they think they are threat is ridiculous. The Hutus had no right to attack the Tutsis. Because of their actions they transformed this in to civil war or even worse, genocide.

After WWII the mindset of Europeans and people around the world was that another tragedy like the Holocaust would never occur again .That newly formed UN would prevent these mass exterminations, especially since they created the declaration of human rights which gives rights to people all over the world that should never be violated. But like the holocaust these rights were violated indeed. Rwanda had citizens who were innocent killed unmercifully just because one group had the impression that one group was going to take over the country. What is despicable about this situation is that it took place in their country and tried to help.

Even though the death total wasn't as tragic as the holocaust, but still eight hundred thousand to one million innocent people killed is still unnecessary. Humanism played no part in this because fear controlled the Hutus to kill off the Tutsis. No looking out for another. It was as if they took a peak in to Mien Kemp and started to believe they were sub human or something.

The UN is supposed to be an authority in the world when times like these occur, but nothing. You have to ask “where is the leadership for the better of mankind”, come on. You have to flashback to Louis XIV with his non shallot attitude on what happens with his people, that’s what happened with the Rwanda officials and especially the UN.

In short, I hope the people of Rwanda realize something. No one really won did they? I say learn to deal with one another because we all know we won’t get along all the time. It would make us perfect and we are not. If anything we need to stick together because doesn’t solve anything, it makes things worse.

QTIP

This shows the carelessness of the Hutus. They would kill people in the streets and just leave the dead bodies there.

Josh Freeman's Reflection

This is a horrible, terrifying thing that happened to the people of Rwanda. The Tutsis people did not deserve to die. As well as the Hutus people did not deserve to kill. It was mainly sparked by the death of Juvenal Habyarimana. He was the president on Rwanda when his plane was shot down on April 6th 1994. This is no reason for the Hutus people to kill nearly 800,000 Tutsis people. And this only lasted for 100 days.

Everyone said that no one ever wanted anything close to the Holocaust to happen again. But yet they let the Rwanda Genocide to happen in 1994. Although this isn’t the same as the Holocaust, they’re pretty close. Two different types of people, one being hated and killed while the other is doing the killing. This was just plain horrific. Over the course of about 3 months, 800,000 people were killed. Although Adolph Hitler just said, lets kill these types of people, the death of Juvenal made the Hutus people kill hundreds of thousands of Tutsis peoples.

If humanism is the idea that all individuals matter, then there is no humanism in Rwanda. This Genocide did not make all people equal. There was absolutely no humanism in this case. All it was was one group of people killing another group of people. Humanism is says that all people matter, then why is their killing? If everyone mattered then why did they ever kill anyone? There was no Humanism in the Rwanda Genocide. The only part of it that there was was the fact that the Hutus people were not killing each other. No one person being greater then the other, just one group of people thinking they are greater then the others.

The leaders of the Rwanda Genocide must have been heartless and had nothing worth living for. In order to kill hundreds and thousands of people in that short of a time period, you have to have a good method, and no heart. The Hutus people watched the Tutsis people burn, suffer, and die. And it didn’t bother them. No human should be able to do that. They stood on top of dozens of dead bodies, knowing that they helped to create that pile, and went on with life, normal as can be. Heartless. That’s the only word that I can say about the leaders of this Genocide. Heartless.
All and all, I believe that the Rwanda Genocide was nothing needed. That it was just a repeat of the Holocaust. I also believe that there was nothing but pure un-humane acts. Humanism was definitely not a thought towards this act. Finally, there were only heartless people who lead this Genocide. Nothing good came out of it and nothing good went into it. Overall, the Rwanda Genocide was a horrible and terrifying act that should never have happened and should never happen again.

Mark Pasqualini's Reflection

In 1948 the United Nations got together and wrote an act called the Universal Declaration of Human rights. A segment of it said "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, nonselfgoverning or under any other limitation of sovereignty." The Genocide violated this act because many people were slaughtered because of their race, ethnicity, and status. That just shows that the Act was not useful.

This event is much like the Holocaust. Hitler massacred millions of people based on their Religion. In Rwanda it was almost exactly the same. Hutu's took the lives of the Tutsis because of their ethnic beliefs. You would think the world would learn from Hitlers mistake. The genocide was in 1994 so apparently they didn't really care that what they were doing was wrong. Hitler also violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights act as well. The Hutu went into villages and slaughtered their enemy just like how Hitler sent his enemy's to concentration camps. They were both cruel and tortured each other. In a way the Holocaust and the Rwanda Genocide were very similar.

Humanism was the idea that all individuals madder. The genocide changed that idea into something different. There was a racist aspect to the genocide so that destroyed the thought of humanism. This aspect represents anti Semitism. Anti Semitism is discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed at a religious, racial, or ethnic group. The genocide was a very Anti Semitic event that happened in history. They seduced people to believe that they are nothing and that they are of a lower class in society. They turned people with certain beliefs into nothing.

In my opinion I think the genocide should not have occurred because the people that were killed were mostly not involved in the killing of the leader. The leadership in Rwanda was far too weak and they needed help. After the three leaders were killed the Genocide was over. After that there was another horrible war because of the genocide. The genocide fell apart because of the lack of good leadership.

I feel sad for the victims of the Genocide because most of them were Innocent and just living their lives. There was really no reason at all to start a war like that and the people that died should not have. Some of the victims were tortured and raped as others had to watch their family's and friends die and suffer. If any of the victims survived they would starve to death because the Hutu would also burn their crops and all their food supply. So I do feel sad for the innocent people that died in this. The people that were killing other innocent people i don't feel bad for because they are just as bad as the Hutu's.

This picture shows the torture that the kids got from there parents being killed. So many people were killed. Families members lost with nowhere to go.

Amber Sanabria Reflection

I think that the Rwnada Genocide shows how something as horrible as the Holocust is possible again. I think that it's horrible that they didn't have as much animosity towards eachother in the beginning. The genocide got as bad as it was because the Belgians came in and made the Tutsis more superior to the Hutus which caused alot of controversy within Rwanda. This was deffinatly a big problem that had been formed. My feelings toward the genocide is that it was a horrible event.

Nick Sandone Reflection

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights told people that every person in the world that they had the right to live, to be a human, and to be treated fair. But when the Hutu started there genocide in 1993 they did not follow the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They killed people out of a certain ethnic group even though they had not done anything previously to that.

The Rwandan Genocide was like the Holocaust a lot. There was anti-semitism but in a different way. The Hutus hated the Tutsi like the Nazis hated the Jews. The Hutus also massacred the Tutsi, just like the Nazis killed the Jews. I think that this was like the Holocaust very much because the Hutu acted alike to the Tutsi as did the Nazis to the Jews.

Humanism was completely avoided during the Rwandan Genocide. The idea that an individual mattered had no impact on what the Hutu did. The set up blockades and roadblocks just to get Tutsi into huge groups. They would then mow all of them down. It disregarded an individuals rights.

I think that the leadership in Rwanda was terrible. It showed that they had absolutely no eye on the Hutu. They had a large uprising to throw out foreign leaders. They killed 2 major leaders of the country. As soon as the third and final leader, until the end of the genocide, died they began there terrible act. From that point some of the leader countries that sent in leaders in the first place should have came in with military.

There is so much sorrow to give to these people were their lives were ended in a genocide. There were 800,000 people killed in 100 days. That means that there were 8,000 people killed every day. The Hutu gave absolutely no sorrow for anyone. That even includes children. They were treated like they were nothing.

Derek's Personal Reflection

The Declaration of Human Rights obviously does not mean anything to certain people in the world. For example, the Rwandan Genocide showed us that rights could be stripped away from a race and be treated as inferior. The United Nations did not even step in until after the Genocide had ended after countless bloodshed. If there is no one to reinforce the Declaration of Human Rights, no one will follow them. They are ignored. This relates to the Holocaust because the same occured, genocide and attempted extermination of a certain race by a stronger nation. In Germany, the Nazis beleived that the Jews were responsible for their downfall in WWI and exacted revenge by almost erasing their entire population from the face of the earth. In Rwanda, the Hutus attacked the Tutsis in beleif that the Tutsis wanted to take over but were only trying to express their right as a Rwandan citizen. In both cases, the innocent were violently harassed.

The Rwandan Genocide denied this major principle of individuals. Individuals did not matter to Hutus militia groups. They killed and and pillaged the Tutsis not thinking of humanism. They were inferior, a lower class of life, and subhuman to them. The Hutus killed because of race and appearance. That is why they killed 800,000 to 1,000,000 people in the hundred day Rwandan Genocide.

I feel terrible and almost disgusted of what had happened in the Kingdom of Rwanda. The Hutus violence towards the Tutsis was extremely un-called for. The victims of the Genocide, mainly the Tutsis, were only expressing their opinion to live in the Rwanda Kingdom. I feel extremely bad for the victims. They were innocent. The victims did not deserve any discrimination or death. The perpetrators are forever guilty. They killed thousands in cold blood relentlessly. I cannot begin to imagine this. The leadership of this Genocide surprised me even more. The government had supported the militia group. I was dumbfounded at how the Government had not taken a more peaceful way to solve this. Instead, they listened to a militia who had no evidence that the Tutsis were going to take over their kingdom. They gave weapons and helped build training camps. The government supported the Genocide and mass killings. They should also be punished for not seeing anything wrong with what the Hutus had been doing. The Hutus should be severly punished for their unspeakable atrocity.

Yes the peacekeepers by the United Nations are acceptable to me. If two groups of people get into a fight and both equally hate each other, who will stop them if there is no winner? There will just be more endless killing until each side is completely dead. This is why we need someone to intervene if the situation gets out of control. The fighting will not stop unless someone steps in between to break it up. Even if the sovereign countries do not want the peacekeepers help, we can judge on how bad the situation is and decide if we should make and effort to bring peace.

I would support the United Nations to step into the United States if they had a legitimate reason. The only time they could step in is if we had broken the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If there was a genocide inside the United States that we as a government could not control, I myself, would look for outside help such as the United Nations. This is why the world had created the United Nations in the first place. They must enter other countries in order to keep the peace if the country could not solve their problem or the country itself had broken human rights like Germany and the Holocaust.

WHO WAS INVOLVED?

There were two major ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutus made up more than half of the population. They were also the more technologically advanced than the Tutsis. They had guns and a military. The Tutsi later built a rebellious guerrilla army. There were two leaders, Francois Mitterand and Cyprien Ntarymirathat were killed. The Hutus continued to kill the leaders. Then in late 1993 the Hutu began to set up there roadblocks and barricades. They began their organized slaughter.

Results of the Genocide

The genocide was finally over in July of 1994. When it was all over the death toll was around 1,000,000 people. Paul Kagame seized power and over ruled Hutu. Thousands of Hutu retreated to Zaire because they were afraid of the enemy countering their attack. After the Genocide the remaining hatred led to the first and second Congo wars. Villages were burned and things were stolen and looted from the people. The war lasted about a year before it was put to an end.

Matt Sieminski's Reflection

Rwandan Genocide
Matt Sieminski Period 3


This event tells us that every human has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We all have these rights but people can take them away temporarily such as what was done to the Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers during the Rwandan Genocide. It is illegal to take away human rights without just cause and the United Nations should arrest those who take them away. Did the United Nations act? No, they were too busy in Europe to even send their regards to the people of Rwanda. Even though this is now over none of the survivors can pursuit happiness because their families were torn apart, killed and mangled, because of someone else’s beliefs. It was and still is an abomination how the U.N acted during the Rwandan Genocide.
This event is very similar to the Holocaust. Two groups called the Intehamwe and Interagumbi acted as the SS did during the holocaust. They tried to exterminate the Tutsis and Hutus who were like Jews and Homosexuals. They felt like they had the right to kill these people just because of their beliefs. They felt like they had the right to kill children because of their beliefs. Just like what happened in the Holocaust. The Rwandan genocide and the holocaust are wounds in humanity that still have not healed and may never heal.
This event denies the ideas of humanism. It doesn’t matter what kind of laws a government is based upon, there will always be people that think they are better than others. These thoughts have crippled society for thousands of years. Everyone thinks that humanism is a good thing but there are those who hold themselves higher then the human population. That is why humanism is denied. That is why events like the Rwanda Genocide have occurred.
This event makes me feel appalled how appointed government officials would betray their people and not only that but kill their people. It is sickening how they don’t even care. I seriously hate those that are responsible for these crimes. How they can kill, torture, and mangle humans just like the themselves is beyond me. UI pity the victims killed in the genocide, but I feel worse for those who had survived it. They had been torn from families, and they watched them die. It must be the worst possible feeling.
Peace keeping efforts by the United Nations are not acceptable to me. Even thought they know about the atrocities that were going on in Rwanda, they did nothing. They were too focused on a much smaller problem in Europe. If the United Nations won’t help, who will? The UN didn’t want to get involved, and by not getting involved millions of people were massacred in front of their own families. The Rwanda Genocide was one of the worst massacres in history, but it would have had less of an impact if the UN had actually done something about it.

Jonathan Bonds Personal Reflection

The Rwandan genocide was one of the more hideous events in recent world history. It is defiantly in the top 10 biggest and most obvious violations of the Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration of Human rights clearly states that all persons have the right to adequate diet, and shelter. That everyone has the right to security of person, and that all people, no matter how good or evil they may be, deserve a fair trial to whatever crime or crimes they are being accused of.
The Hutu, who composed approximately 90% of the Rwandan population, decided that they were not content with the way that the Tutsis were running the country. Although they only composed about 10% of the Rwandan population, they were more powerful (politically) and they were generally richer. The Hutu people of Rwanda decided to change this system of rich get richer and poor get poorer, so they overthrew the Tutsi Rwandan government, and began the Genocide of all Rwandan Tutsis. The horrific event lasted only one hundred days; from April 6th, to mid-July and the during the hundred days, over 800,000 Tutsis, and moderate Hutu were slaughtered.
The U.N., is an establishment to protect human rights, and maintain Global Peace. that is the job that they are required to do, but they rarely actually do any massive action. National Sovereignty is what usually is more important than individual rights to a government. i think this event is extremely close to the Holocaust. The minority , the Tutsi, and the majority, the Hutu. The Tutsi were forced into refugee camps and slave labor camps (hard labor). They were worked, murdered, or subject to unimaginable torture. while all this is going on, the U.N. did absolutely nothing physical to stop this mass slaughter. By the time any of the few concerned countries had even started voting about sending troops, hundreds of thousands of innocent Tutsis had been ruthlessly massacred by friends, family, or just a passing Hutu on the street. the Rwandan Genocide is a complete contradiction of the entire idea of Humanism. The Hutu Militia ( Impuzamugambi and Interhamwe) did things that were only equalled by Nazi SS officers. They ignored the individual, and focused on eliminating the entire ethnic group. This is the very idea of Ethnic Cleansing. to the Hutu Militia, a Tutsi was a Tutsi, and they did not posses the right to security of person, so they should die. The short lived Hutu Government was on a mission to exterminate an entire ethnic group of people. the individual did not matter, on either side. This was a definite contradiction of the Declaration of Human rights.
when i began to read about this horrific period in history, i was amazed at the rate of killing in Rwanda, and how much the two groups deeply hated each other for reasons that were not worth the cost in the end. the innocent people of Rwanda were sucked into a war between two groups in one government that was not entirely necessary.

Amber Sanabria, why they were tortured and killed.

Most of the dead were Tutsis and most of those who killed were Hutus. What triggered the genocide was the death of the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana who was a Hutu. He was killed when his plane was shot down on April 6, 1994. This was not the only reason the genocide had started. They weren't always enemies though. In 1916 Belgian colonists came and they saw the two groups as differnent people and made the Tutis superior to the Hutus. The Tutsis went along with this becuase the were given the luxury of better jobs and better education. This deffinatly got the Hutus mad over the years and started many riots killing many Tutsis. A group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was formed to overthrow Habyarimana and to secure their right to return to the homeland. After Habyarimana was killed the mass killing spree of those in the RPF.

This shows only a small amount of the people that were killed in the Rwanda Genocide.






Amber Sanabria

Tom Hill's Personal Reflection

I think that the horrors of the Rwandan Genocide tells us that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is established but is not listened to by people in the world. The Rwandan citizens human rights were stripped from them and were given absolutely nothing. The U.N. didn't act to stop this atrocity and the Declaration of Human Rights was just a piece of paper that people ignored. If the Declaration was something that people didn't ignore then things like this would have been avoided.

This event relates to the holocaust in that people's rights were severely violated. The government told them what to do and gave them absolutely no say. Also, in both instances people were killed in extreme amounts and given no mercy. In both countries the people had their human rights violated and were given absolutely no power or chance to change anything. People also heard things about what was going on in the countries but did nothing about it. The Rwandan Genocide and the Holocaust were both horrible incidents that will always be remembered.

The idea of humanism was completely ignored when the Rwandan Genocide took place. Individuals did not matter to the Interahamwe or the other Hutu militia groups. They killed the people without thinking about the person but just what they believed or were brainwashed with. They did not give the least of concern to the 800,000 to 1,000,000 people that were killed during the hundred day long genocide in Rwanda.

This event makes me wonder why people do this to other people that they used to live near or know and talk to. I don't know how a certain few people can make themselves think that it is okay for them to kill a whole entire kind of people. I feel very sorry for the victims that only wanted to live and did everything they can. These people murdered them in cold blood and didn't think twice. I also feel bad for the people that didn't die but went through the crisis and saw thousands die in front of their eyes. That must be extremely traumatizing for those people and I can't imagine trying to live with an experience like that. The leadership showed during this time that they don't deserve to be part of it. They should have seen something like this coming with all the hatred between the Tutsis and Hutus. The perpetrators that had the idea of doing this kind of thing should be punished severely. The things they did to those people were unforgivable.

I feel a lot of pity for the victims and survivors that were threatened or witnessed the death that occurred there. I can't imagine how it effected the kids that grew up in Rwanda during that time for the rest of their lives as long as the other people. In no way was the actions of those people justified because they had no right to tell an entire type of people that they should not live anymore. No one has that right to kill innocent people and anyone who thinks they do are strongly mistaken. Hopefully the things that are taking place now and how people learn from Rwanda and other genocides help to prevent the occurrence of this kind of thing from this point forward.

No I don't think that they are acceptable because they don't want to break the sovereignty of the countries. They are standing by that law while in that country laws are being repeatedly broken and people murdered in the streets. When things like that are going on and the Declaration of Human Rights is being completely ignored they should have the right to go in and stop the things that are going on. If the U.N. wanted to step into the sovereignty of the U.S. then I would not have a problem with it as long as they had a good reason like a genocide taking place. Overall, the Rwandan Genocide opened my eyes to what is happening other places and that people are being murdered inhumanely.

Tom Dunn's Personal Reflection

I think that the Rwandan Genocide clearly shows that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was not accepted by all people in the world. The Declaration was written some 60 years ago and still this happened only 13 years ago. After World War II, the world thought that something like the Holocaust was over with and could never happen again. Instead, this genocide went against everything mentioned in the Declaration. The tribes killed innocent children, men, and women, old and young. Over 800,000 people were killed in this giant massacre which directly violated the Declaration. In the Holocaust over 6 million Jews and other minorities were brutally massacred with no reguard for human rights. These two events were very similar. However, in the end, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights did not have the power to stop this horrible massacre from happening.

The Rwandan Genocide was very similar to the Holocaust. In both cases, the government decided that certain groups of people weren't worthy enough to live there so they initiated a system to get rid of those groups. They got rid of people based on their races, genders, religions, and history. Also, the killers used ways to kill mass amounts of people without taking a long time. The Interahamwe rounded up villages and then mowed them down with machettes while the Nazis put them in gas chambers. Both of these ways were effective in killing many people in a small amount of time. The only main difference is that in the Holocaust 6 million people were killed and in the Rwandan Genocide about 800,000 people were killed.

The idea of humanism was totally disregarded during the 100 days of the genocide. Obviously, the Interahamawe didn't care what happened to the people and just went on killing people without any thought about human life. The idea that all individuals matter didn't occur to any of the people. People were killed due to their race, gender, and beliefs. The government military just went on killing these people and didn't care about how many people they killed and the fact that they had no real reason for killing these people.

This event really changed the way I viewed the world and the people in it. Reading about the Holocaust effected me but I always really thought of it as something that happened a long time ago. This, however, was so recently. I mean, I was actually alive for this. I can't imagine how much pain and agony these families went through. They saw everything they cared about, their homes, families, and possesions, all torn apart. For those who committed the crimes, I felt extreme hatred towards them. I couldn't imagine what possessed a person the kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. It was horrible, especially for the government. These people are citizens of your country. They have been there for decades and you just decide that because they have different beliefs and look different, that they aren't worthy to live there. That's just unimaginable.

I think that the efforts by the United Nations are acceptable. The U.N. was created to be able to solve conflicts and uphold the Declaration of Human Rights which is understood to be accepted world wide. So, when something like the Rwanda Genocide happens, the U.N. is supposed to have the power to step in and stop the violence with a few casualties as possible. If the United Nations was to step in to the United States, I wouldn't have a problem with it as long as we were doing something to break the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If we were, then the United Nations would have the right to step in because that's why the world created it.

human rights pic

This picture clearly shows how the people in the Rwanda genocide were treated. This person was obviously mistreated and abused, if they had rights, then thsi wouldnt ahve be let to happen.

jamie
ashh
brie
luke

Human rights

Before the genocide in Rwanda broke out in 1994, alot of even led up to the death of over 800, 000 people. First of all, there was a massive civil war taking place in Rwanda, similar to WWII in germany and the holocaust, only not to the same extent. Leaders and government officals were fighting for control and were trying to exterminate any subhumans. Before the civil war, germany ahd control of Rwanda after the scramble for Africa, and the germans had alto fo influence on the people in Rwanda, the Hutu and the Tutsi and other ethinic groups had no freedom during this time. As the genocide broke out, there was no evident of human rights given towad tHe Hutu and the Tutsi. They were abused, tortured and massacred over a period of about 100 days. These peopel were stripped of their rights, and werent allowed to be free indivuiduals. Living in war camps, being starved, tortured and fighting for survial ever day, watching their loved ones be slaughtered, they had absolutly nothing, no rights, no life.

by-brie, ashh, jamie, luke

personal reflection

I think that the Rwanda Genocide was proof that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was more of ideas than something real, because if it were something real then there would be no way this could have happened. It's not like this even happened hundreds of years ago, this event was only 13 years into the past, and 59 years after the declaration was created, and even 62 years after the second world war, so the world had seen the and been done with the Holocaust, and should have know what to do when the government started to take control. Although the human rights had been around for sometime, it still didn’t prevent this massacre from happening. I think that it was just something made so that when the United Nations and allies were going through a similar situation, they would be able to save themselves. It seemed like it was more of a bluff and a scandal to comfort the world after the terror of the Holocaust, the rights themselves are necessary, but they aren’t enforced the way they should be, and the Rwanda genocide could have been avoided if these rights were enforced.

I think that the Rwanda Genocide was extremely similar to the Holocaust for many reasons. First and foremost, Rwanda was taken over by fanatic leaders, similar to the Nazi leaders in Germany who would follow the gory orders that their leader would tell them, without question, very similar to the SS of Hitler. Also, the government leaders and militia groups wanted to "cleanse" themselves from the two ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi, like Hitler wanted to rid himself of all Jews in the world, and managed to murder a great number of them over his period of leadership. I also think that the ways the Hutu and Tutsi were treated and killed were very much like non-Aryans during WWI, they were tortured, burned, and massacred over a course of 100 bloody days, like the Jews were experimented on, tortured and incinerated of many years. The overall idea of the Genocide and the Holocaust were basically the same to me.

I strongly believe that the idea of humanism didn’t once cross the mind of any military of government leader in Rwanda in 1994. If humanism was the idea that every individual matters, then clearly, it wasn’t an idea during this horrible massacre. The government and the two military forces (interahamawe and impuzamgumbi) wanted racial and ethnic cleansing, so anyone who was Hutu or Tutsi was killed, and that’s obviously not supporting the idea that every person matters. If humanism was an idea during the genocide, I seriously doubt that these hundred days would have happened. The only time I think that humanism would have been thought about would be the Interahamawe and Impuzamgumbi expressing that towards them selves, but that wouldn’t really be humanism, because they wouldn’t have thought that towards everyone, like the idea is suppose to be expressed.

The Rwanda Genocide really opened my eyes to the horrible things that people can do to one another. I knew that the Holocaust was extremely brutal and horrible, but it seems like it happened such a long time ago, but for something that happened 13 years ago, and could have been avoided, and something that was so much like the Holocaust, was let to happen, and to the extent that it did happen, it was mind blowing. Reading and learning about this genocide, made me sick. I felt so bad for the poor families who were brutally murdered for something as simple as their ethnicity. I really wish that these mothers, and fathers, brother and sisters, sons and daughters didn’t have to live through this terrible time, watching everything they lived for, be torn apart before their very eyes. As much as I felt sorrow for the victims, I felt an even greater disgust and loath towards the perpetrators, the government leaders and the Interahamawe and Impuzamgumbi, who lead violent rallies, and killed thousands of innocent civilians. I really wish I could have gone down there and just tortured all of them, the same way they tortured the Hutu and the Tutsi, but then I would stoop down to their level, and that, that would be so much worse. As much as I wish that this could have been stopped, it cant change what happened, and I can do now, is wish that no one else have to go through such pain and sorrow as those who died, and those who lived to tell the tail of the Rwanda Genocide

I feel a very deep sadness for the victims of the genocide, but what makes it so much worse, is that in my mind, I think that this whole time period could have been avoided. First of all, the government should have been stopped before all this got to the point it did, its not like this was in ancient times, it was in current times, and should have been stopped much sooner than it did. None of the actions the government or the Interahamawe and Impuzamgumbi did were justified at all. They had no right or reason to decide to kill thousands of innocent people. I’m not sure what they were thinking, but clearly they weren’t thinking at all, because if they were they could have saved many lives. I don’t know what to think, because as much as Id like to change what happened, I cant, so I think that the leaders and the Interahamawe and Impuzamgumbi should be brought to justice, because what they did was terrible and wrong, and should have been prevented, and shouldn’t ever happen again.

Luke's personal reflection

The Rwanda Genocide was a pointless massacre between two rival tribes. It goes against everything that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is about. These people killed innocent men, women, and children for a reason that is beyond words. These people's freedom to live was revoked by the war. These rights were founded on every man, woman, and child had the right to life and to live. This genocide ultimately denied these rights and killed 100s of thousands of people.
It all started in 1916 when the Belgium's came to to Rwanda and saw two different types of people. The Hutus and the Tutsi. They Belgium colonists decided that the Tutsi would be the superior race. They offered the Tutsis better jobs and education thereby denying the rights of the Hutus. They made it so there was now a judicial and fuedal system.
This can also be compared to the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler decided himself that the Jews would be the inferior race and "subhuman". He declared that pure Germans or Aryans would be the superior race and be treated far better than the Germans. These treatments were rights. The Jews were denied their rights and so were the Hutus. The very base of living were denied to these people. They could not vote or hold office. They were known and treated as subhumans.
Both Hitler and the Belgium colonists had the same way of classifying. They both decided that one group should ultimately be better superior to one. They thought that if you weren't in this group you were inferior and were denied your rights. In order to tell if you were a Jew, the Nazis decided on a system that every Jew should have to wear the word Jude or Jew on their arm. The Belgium's also did this. Every man in the country at the time had to have an identification card on them at all time. This card stated if you were a Hutu or Tutsis.
Again, by doing this they denied them of their rights. They were denied of their rights to live and to live free. If you were a Jew or a Hutu you were treated differently and discriminated against. You might be denied to vote or even enter a building, rights that we might think are stupid because we aren't being denied but if you were not allowed to do something because of who you were, you might think differently.
And now, the wick was getting short for the Hutu people. They were denied their rights for too long. It was just a matter of when. Everyone knew it would happen. Then, in 1994, it did. There was a massive civil war between them. The two extremist Hutu militia groups, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, led a massive attack on the Tutsis people and government. In this attack an estimated 800,000 people died! It was the worst civil war in Rwanda history.
I thought that this never should have happened. These people were divided and stripped of their rights which ultimately led to a civil war. This event is really no different from the Holocaust. This war should have never happened and the U.N. should have stepped in and provided peace.

picture and caption

The Rwanda Genocide was a massacre between the Hutus and the Tutsies. Each believed they were better and wanted power. Both were ready to fight to the death.


Luke
Jamie
Ashh
Brie

who was involved and when?

The Rwandan Genocide was a massacre of the Tutsis and Hutu tribes. The Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi killed the Tutsies and Hutu tribes in 1994 during the Rwandan civil war. What made this event so controversial was that the United Nations did not respond to any of the killings. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) even sent help for the United Nations to help but the United Nations declined this request and did not respond. The only foreign nations to intervene was the French Government and they did not go there to stop the genocide but to protect the Rwandan forces from the invading rebels. The U.N. did not act and instead waited for over 800,000 people to be killed and then they stepped in to charge people with war crimes. These people included Jean-Baptise Gatete and Augustin Bizimungo. Some people are still wanted for their crimes today.

Luke
Ashhhh
Jamie
Bri

Ashh's personal Reflection!!

The Rwanda Genocide is a tragic time in history. From my point of view I don't understand how people can torcher people like they did. Wouldn't you think that a little voice inside your head would be telling you this is completely wrong? Leaving people to strave and killing off even little children and their parents is horrible. Its hard to believe that a world like ours did such cruel things to people. Now their are at least laws that people have to follow. Even though it was the soldiers duty to kill people and take orders, they could of fought back and over powered the leaders since there were only two of them.

How would you feel if you were only five years old and you had to wittiness your mother,father,and sister and brother get killed right in front of you. With no one else to care for you,for the rest of your life. Being a young child and having no one their can basically ruin your life forever. No one could talk back either.They couldn't say what they wanted to get out, the rights we have today were no where near in forced at all. It's a shame that people couldn't have a freedom of speech because other wise they would be slaughtered in a fraction of a second. At this time in history I think something should of been done to stop everything that was happening.

To think about nothing being done or even at that, nothing could of been done it's a sad thing to here. It was only about 13-60 years ago that all of this was happening. It wasn't that long ago. Can history repeat itself like this again? Will the government of the United States step up to stop it from ever happening again. People were killed slowly and the soldiers would take people and without any pain killers pull peoples teeth out to see how much pain the human body could take. Did people of the Rwanda Genocide really think it was okay? Did having no laws actually make everything they did alright?

If feel extremely bad for all the people that had to go threw what they went through. Human actions were simply horrible at that time in history. It has changed a lot since then. Hopefully by keeping all the laws and rights of freedom the way they are, history will never ever repeat itself like this again. It's not good that people can't just simply talk things threw. People have no consideration for others. If people from the Rwanda Genocide could be brought back to the year 2007 and shown how things have changed their mouths would literally drop to the floor all the way. To show them how people get along and what rights people have. They would probably then feel bad for all the things they have done. I hope that no one in this time is really that cruel and agrees with the things that were done to innocent people.

The way things are justified now a days, has a big swing on things. Just thinking about The Rwanda Genocide is a skin crawling thought. Not giving people a chance and just not caring and killing them off isn't the right thing to do at all. Everyone should have a time to say whatever they want to. Just killing people because maybe they don't have a certain hair color or look a little different doesn't justify anything. All humans have the right of freedom of speech and laws that tells government about the situation of things. The Rwanda Genocide was a mistake that was made and is to cruel to be reminded of again.

briana deschaine's personal reflection

The Rwanda Genocide goes agaisnt human rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because it guarantees humanity to all but when the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they saw the two groups as distinct entities, and even produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity, which is not freedom for all. This relates to the Holocaust because the Jews were classified by numbers which is also taking away their freedom and taking away their humanity.
The Rwanda Genocide denys the idea of humanism because they were all classified into one group with identity cards that classified them by ethnicity. When the Belgians considered the Tutsis as superior to the Hutus, the Tutsis enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than the Hutus. Therefore, they were all considered one group, not individuals, that wasn't equal so it wasn't humanism.
The victims of event weren't at all to blame because the Belgians came in and changed their way of life making them think that each group was better than the other, so tension rose between the groups and its ahrd to ignore your problems so they resorted to killing.
I do feel sorrow for the victims of the Rwanda Genocide because so many were killed in so little time. Also, there was only one person who tried to stop this, no one else had the courage to put his life on the line and I don't blame them because no one wanted to die. But at the same time, if they had negoatiated instead of killed them maybe things wouldn't have turned out so bad and not many people would have died.
Peace keeping efforts by the United Nations in sovereign countries is acceptable to me bacause it means they are trying to keep the peace and make sure nothing like the Genocide happens again, even if it means going to extreme measures to keep the peace.
If the U.N. wanted to step into the sovereignty of the U.S. it might be a problem because it's not their country to run and if they tried to take over it might lead to problems, even problems like the Genocide.

video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-vLDxK86KM4

Brie
Ashh
Jamie
Luke

Why were these people tortured or killed?

Most of the dead were Tutsis - and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus. The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994. A recent French official report blamed current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame. The report extracts of which appeared in the daily, Le Monde said French police had concluded that Mr. Kagame gave direct orders for the rocket attack. Rwanda has rejected the report, describing it as a "fantasy". Within hours of the attack, a campaign of violence spread from the capital throughout the country, and did not subside until three months later. Also, ethnic tension in Rwanda is nothing new. There have been always been disagreements between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis.

Brie
Ashh
Jamie
Luke

Tommy DeVito's Personal Reflection

The Genocide in Rwanda was a serious miscarriage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. None of the Tutsi had the right to a fair trial. None had the right to food and shelter. They were considered criminal. The Hutu were seen by the Tutsi as the same, inhuman, undeserving of life. Although the Declaration says what SHOULD be done, certain things usually aren't. There simply is no way to assure that all peoples have these rights. The UN, although they threaten to inflict punishment, usually don't. Countries have the right to sovereignty and that usually outweighs individual rights. In many ways, this event can be compared to the holocaust. There is a ethnic minority, the Tutsi, and a ruling majority, the Hutu. The Tutsi were forced out of their home country and put into refugee camps. They were tortured, killed and worked. Also, the UN did nothing, as the League of Nations had done nothing, physical to stop these mass killings. By the time other countries did something, in both cases, hundreds of thousands had died. The Rwandan Genocide seriously undermines the idea of humanism. What the Interhamwe and Impuzamugambi, the Hutu militias, did was unacceptable. They associated individuals with a group. They made no distinction between pacifists and extremists. All opposing Hutu or Tutsi were non-human and therefore, their individuality did not matter. It was always in the interest of the government that these extremists did what they did, never for the people. Everyone has the right to be themselves, but the Hutu and Tutsi extremists disallowed the idea. The leadership of both parties seemed to be full of greed. They wanted their PARTY to succeed, not their people. Once again, a contradiction of humanism. The crimes committed were under the categories of "Crimes against Humanity" and "Crimes Against Peace". The Rwandan Patriotic Front, although they were the ones being persecuted, still chose invasion as their best bet to get their rights back. They incited the Genocide. Not to say that the Hutu were in the wrong, for it was their fault to begin with. Their reaction was an inappropriate one. Instead of fending off the RPF, they decided to attack defenseless civilians and suspected sympathizers. Those people had done nothing but support a cause. They had the right to do so under the Declaration of Human Rights. I feel both sorrow and pity for the victims of the Rwandan genocide. They were caught up in a political game of "I'm Better Than You". Because the victims were not strongly Hutu or because they were Tutsi, they took the fall for their government's ideals. The governments actions were completely unjustified. They seemed to have forgotten that it was two separate factions, not a total war.

The Rwanda Genocide started in April 1994, then ended in June of the same year. This event started when Juvenal Habyarimana was killed. He was on an airplane when it was shot down on April 6th 1994. He was the president of Rwanda and was the only reason for this Genocide to start. This was the largest Genocide to ever hit Africa. At first, this was only at the capital, but quickly spread to the entire country. This went on for three months before coming to a halt in June of 1994.


Josh Freeman

Rwanda is one of the smallest countries in Central Africa with about 7 million people living in it. Each day there were about 10,000 people being killed over 800,000 total. There is two main ethnic groups in Rwanda. There is the Hutu and Tutsi. Even though that the Hutu makes up about 90% of the population, the Tutsi still had a very strong minority. In 1962, Rwanda was given independence from Belgium. The Hutu took over. The Hutu treated the Tutsi like Hitler treated the Jews. The Hutu used systematic acts of discrimination and violence against the Tutsi. As a result to the bad treatment, 200,000 Tutsi fled the country and built up a Guerilla Army.


Nick Sandone

Rwanda is one of the smallest countries in Central Africa with about 7 million people living in it. Each day there were about 10,000 people being killed over 800,000 total. There is two main ethnic groups in Rwanda. There is the Hutu and Tutsi. Even though that the Hutu makes up about 90% of the population, the Tutsi still had a very strong minority. In 1962, Rwanda was given independence from Belgium. The Hutu took over. The Hutu treated the Tutsi like Hitler treated the Jews. The Hutu used systematic acts of discrimination and violence against the Tutsi. As a result to the bad treatment, 200,000 Tutsi fled the country and built up a Guerilla Army.


Nick Sandone

What was the Rwanda Genocide?

The Rwanda Genocide was a huge extermination of hundreds of thousands of moderate Hutus and Tutsis. It was carried out by two extreme Hutu militia groups, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi. During the 100 days from early April to to mid-July 1994, at least 800,000 people were brutally killed. The militia groups would go into villages and round up as many people as they could get. They would then kill them in mass amounts.

The United Nations, although knowing about the violence, refused to send any help into Rwanda. It took until the Tutsis rebeled in a movement known as the Rwanda Patriotic Front to end the violence. In this they overthrew the government and siezed power. It took until after the Rwandan Civil War for the United Nations to even start to arrest people for war crimes.

There has not been any found reason to explain why all of these people were killed. The government had directed the two groups to kill the moderate Hutus and Tutsis because they thought that they didn't deserve to live. They listened to the government without thinking about what was right and what wasn't because that's the way that they were taught to act. Those people truly thought that the Hutus and Tutsis were not really meant to be alive and deserved to die.

There has been a resolution of the Rwandan Genocide. First, the UN and United States both knew of the horrors occuring inRwanda but refused to act. With no assistance from the UN or US, the Security Forces deployed French forces in Goma, a land southwest of Rwanda. They stopped the Genocide inside that area. The Rwnadan Patriotiv Front continued to fight the Hutu controlled government. They recieved support from Uganda and Tanzania. They both helped invade Rwanda. The Genocide ended in July 1992 with the Tutsis defeating the Hutu regime. After the Genocide, the US used relief planes to drop supplies for the suffering in camps but did nothing further to help. In 2001, the UN set up an International Criminal Tribunal to prosecute the hugher level members while the Rwandan government took care of the lower end people. Many people have recieved the death penalty for their crimes but a few members are still at large!

Memorial site with thousands of graves in Rwanda.

shocking result of Rwanda

The result of the rwanda Genocide was very shocking and over 800,000 people were slaughtered because of this.

Ashh

Luke

Jamie

Brie

What was the result of the Rwandan Genocide?

Beginning on April 6, 1994, for one hundred days, approximately 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia using weapons other than fire arms such as machetes and simple home made clubs. In the climax of the fighting between the two major Rwandan tribes, the killing reached almost 10,000 per day.
Hundreds of thousands of Tutsis had been killed between April 6th to April 21st. the rate of killing and the level of danger to non-Hutus was cause for the U.N. to abandon Rwanda. All foreign troops were pulled out of Rwanda and left the Hutus and Tutsis to handle the escalating problem. The Hutu militia was now free from the danger of U.N. troops and they were also free to escalate their extermination of the Tutsis. They took control of the radio stations in Rwanda and played constant hate propaganda against the Tutsis. The stations encouraged all Hutu members to check all people they met for identity cards and if they were Tutsi, they should kill them. The country was a hell-on-earth for a Tutsi because anyone could just kill you for no apparent reason. old friends, or neighbors would just kill the other for his wife, or land. Tutsis tried to use sanctuary as a defense against annihilation but the Hutu militia would just lock the doors and burn the church down. They even attacked hospitals for the wounded Tutsis. in one case, at Musha, 1,200 Tutsis took refuge but around 8 in the morning, Hutu found them, and killed them all. the massacre and carnage was over in almost 12 hours. that was one of the worst single massacres.
In small villages, militiamen forced Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors or face a death for them and their families. They also forced Tutsis to kill members of their own families. By May, approximately 500,000 Tutsis had been massacred for one reason; they weren't Hutu. Tutsi bodies were seen commonly floating, bloated and undignified, down the Kigara River into Lake Victoria.
The massacring only ended after thousands of armed Tutsi rebels that had fled, invading from surrounding countries, managed to defeat the Hutus and halt the genocide in July 1994. But by then, more than one-tenth of the population, about 800,000 Tutsi people, had been killed.

Responce

I think that the Rwandan Genocide was horrible. I cant understand how you could hate someone you don't even know enough to hack them down with a machety. It also does not make sense because the two tribes are so similar. Outsiders said that the Tutsis were supierior to the Hutus and after that the Tutsis were considered the better of the two and ruled over the Hutus who represented the majority of the population. Then the first wave of blood shed started when the Hutus tried to gain power. The overthrown Tutsis no longer held any power witch only promoted ethnic hate between the two tribes. As the ethnic tension between the two tribes grew so did the hostilities between the two tribes. In 1985 the Tutsis launched a campaign to "regain their rights as Rwandans". The result was major repressing of Tutsis and any Hutus who were believed to be in league with them. During this period the plans for the genocide were being prepared to be put into action and when the hate between the two tribes reached its peak the genocide was put into action January 1994. It surprises me how long it took for any of the other nations to do anything. Between 800,000 and 1,071,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were dead by the time anything was done by other nations. I also don't understand how you could go up to someones house throw in a hand grenade and walk away to do the same to the next house and still be able to live with yourself the next day just to repeat the cycle.

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.

The bones of many victims of the Rwandan Genocide.

Two kids whose parents were killed during the Genocide.

A genocide museum which used to be where many victims were killed.

Victims of the Rwandan Genocide.

Graph showing the population of Rwanda over the past years.

Wanted sign showing pictures of those involved in the Rwandan Genocide.

This is a refugee camp in Zaire in 1994.

Map of Rwanda.

Cemetery to remember some of those killed during the Rwandan Genocide.

rwanada vs. holocaust picture.

The Impuzamugambi and the Interahamwe were Hutu military groups who acted violently toward the Tutsi and wanted to exterminate them, and kept them in camps, much simialr to the holocaust. There were between 800,000 to 1,071,000 Tutsis who were enslaved and killed.

When Did This Event Occur?

there had always been an aggravated atmosphere between the two tribes but the tension really started to mount in 1990 when the diaspora refuge camps were created. This tension remained until October 1, 1990 when the Tutsi rebels attacked because they wanted recognition of their rights as Rwandans. From 1990 to 1993 the tension between the two tribes increased because of the violence and ethnic hatred. In 1993 the Habyarimana government was blamed for genocide. In July 1993 preparations for the genocide began. On January 11, 1994 the order was given to begin the genocide. On the evening of April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying the Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, was shot down. This triggered the genocide into full action. The genocide gradually winded down until April 29, 1994, when the UN started a full scale relief operation to save as many people as possible.

result

The result of the event in April 6th, 1994 there were a total of 800,000 deaths. The untied nations made a peacekeeping force 2,500 soldiers to preserve the fires between the Hutu governments. Rwanda Genocide had the death-lists including Hutu politicians and Tutsi leaders. The killings then spread all over the country and the weapons used were clubs, guns and grenades to kill all innocent civilians. When the United nations and United states heard of this cruel news, the headquarters in New York they had categorized as a breakdown in the crease fire of Hutu and Tutsi. The opposition of the world for Hutu was clubbing and hacking to deaths in Tutsi families were then machetes everywhere were found. In one situation Tutsi people tried to fight back but were then killed beginning at 8am lasting until the evening. Hospitals became prime targets as wounded survivors were found and killed. The united Nation security council voted to send up 5,000 soldiers to Rwanda Genocide, in this act it failed because the troops were not sent in time to stop the massacre. Armed rebels stopped the killings over one tenth of the population as estimated 800,000 people were left reeling.

Ashh
luke
Jamie
Brie

rwanda vs holocaust

The Rwanda Genocide mainly involved the two ethnic groups the Hutu and the Tutsi. Rwanda began to change after the Berlin Conference and the scramble for Africa back in 1885 when Germany wanted total control of Rwanda, but instead of taking over the area itself, Germany would rule “indirectly”. Germany would choose what they thought were the most elite ethnic group and give them special privileges. In 1990, Rwanda had been given relief when they gained independence. In 1985, Rwandans formed the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) to help them gain back their rights, which were not all repaid after gaining independence. the Tutsi wanted to go back into power but the other ethnic groups reacted with severe violence, which would continue to increase. The current leader, Habyarimana, began telling people that the Tutsi wanted total control back and that they wanted to enslave and control the Hutu people by going back to the feudal ways. Government leaders would meet with leaders called the Interahamwe("Those who stand or fight together") and Impuzamugambi ("Those who have the same or a single goal"). Before the genocide broke out, Hutu nationalism skyrocketed, government controlled radio stations news papers and some television stations would promote fear and the absolute hate of the Tutsi, who were considered subhuman and would have extremely dangerous and violent rallies. The Government played a huge role in broadcasting and brainwashing the Hutu and manipulating them into becoming violent and hateful. There were no real “laws” made to separate the two groups, but it was the government who told the Interhamwe and the Impuzamugambi to slaughter these people. It was very much like the holocaust, it was lead by the government and they had the same goal and the same effect on human kind as the holocaust

by- jamie, luke, brie, ashlie

The Reasoning

The Rwandan Genocide was a product of large amounts of tension between ethnic Tutsi and Hutu. The Hutu had always been oppressed by the Tutsi. During the days of the Kingdom of Rwanda, the Hutu made up the peasants, farmers and poor. The Tutsi, on the other hand, were the leaders, the rich and the merchants. After the scramble for Africa and the Berlin Conference of 1885, Rwanda was ceded to Germany. Germany chose to rule Rwanda indirectly, appointing Tutsi leaders because they had always been the leaders before. This pulled the Hutu and Tutsi apart even farther socially and economically. After World War 1, Rwanda became a Belgian protectorate. They followed the German example of allowing the Tutsi to govern. In 1962, Belgium gave Rwanda the right to self govern. With an overwhelming number of votes, the majority-favored Hutu took power. They worked to empower the Hutu and in the process killed over 20,000 Tutsi. Over 200,000 more fled to neighboring countries like Uganda.

Paul Kagame, leader of the RPF

In 1985 the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front was formed by Paul Kagame. They saw an opportunity in their home country to gain the right to return. In 1990, RPF forces invaded from their base in Uganda. The RPF blamed the Rwandan government for failing to become Democratic and solve the problems of over 500,000 Tutsi living in refugee camps scattered across the world. The Rwandan government made the invasion out to be an attempt to replace the Tutsi into power and restore the Tutsi feudal state. Hutu rallied with the president and he personally repressed Tutsi and Hutu believed to be in league with the "rebels". In 1993, The Arusha Accords were signed Arusha, Tanzania, on August 4 by the two warring factions. These documents ended the civil war and established a new government. Each faction, along with other governmental parties that had also been in place, formed a temporary government until proper elections could be held. During this time, Hutu nationalism reached the breaking point. Radio stations began broadcasting veiled encouragement to destroy the Tutsi. Radical Hutu groups began stockpiling weapons and gathering and training supporters. April 6, 1994; The plane carrying the Hutu presidents Juvenal Habyarimana, from Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, from Uganda was shot down. Analysts argue whether it was Hutu extremists or the RPF. In any case, these events began the Rwandan Genocide.

This picture is one of an

SA-16 missile launcher, the

kind used to shoot down the presidential plane.

Who was involved?

The Rwandan Genocide in a nut-shell was a masacre of the ethnic Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers. This was done by the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi in 1994 during the Rwandan civil war. The death toll was between 800,000 and 1,000,000. Surprisingly the United Nations did not act even though they knew it was going on. The United Nations waited until the civil war was over to make arrests for war crimes. Some people convicted for war cimes were; Jean-Baptise Gatete, Augustin Bizimungo, Tharcisse Renzaho, and Idelphonse Hategekimana. Others that are still wanted are; Felicien Kabuga, Augustin Bizibana, Augustin Nigirabatware, Idelphonse Nizeyimana, Protais Impiranya, and Callixte Nzabonimana.

The government was directing this event. The Interhamwe and the Impuzamugambi were told by the government to exterminate the Tusis and the Hutu. If compared to the Holocaust the Interhamwe and the Impuzamugambi were like the SS. Unlike The Nrenberg Laws there was no written Law on how to Exterminate these ethnic groups it was told that these people were obsolite and needed to die. There was no remorse for these deaths and masacres because the ones who killed truly belived that the Tutsis and the Hutu deserved to die. This masacre was incredibly sedistic.