User:Iah group 8

The 1994 Rwanda Genocide was a murdering of around 800,000 people in less than 100 days. Much like the genocide of the Jews in the Nazi Germany, the world got a front row seat of the Rwanda genocide. The Hutu majority group decided to get rid of the Tutsi minority group because of the belief that Europeans favored the Tutsi over them and that the Tutsi controlled the state for centuries when the Hutu were the majority of the population. Rwandan media being accused starting the hatred that led to the violence by using an ethnic framework to broadcast what was just a political struggle (Ransford and McDonald). Before the Genocide began in 1994, a civil war broke out in the late 1980s which came in the after math of the Hutu overthrowing the Tutsi government in 1957. The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), Tutsi rebel group, started a civil war against the Hutu government. This civil war end with peace agreement but led the Hutu government to believe that getting rid of all Tutsi, all of Rwanda's problems will be over. In turn, 1994 the mass killings of thousands began.

The Hutu and Tutsi Conflict

Most of Rwandan population belonged to the Hutu ethic group, who were traditionally crop growers. Over time Rwanda would attract other groups such as Tutsi and Twas. The Tutsi would end up being the the second lending population in Rwanda. The Tutsi populations were traditionally herdsmen from northern Africa .Through hundreds of years the Tutsi owned the land and the Hutus would work them. The two populations shared their language, their culture and their nationality. While most the world was being explored by Europeans, the German colonists come across the Rwanda in 1898. When the Belgian colonial adminstration took over in 1916, it allied itself with the Tutsi. In the Europeans view the Tutsi people were more fit for the European life style. This caused a wedge between the Hutu and Tutsi population. The new attitude for the Tutsi had them behaving like aristocrats and treating the Hutu population like they are under them. For years on the Tutsi monarchy controlled Rwanda, with the help of European influence. In 1959 the Hutu people had enough and decided to overthrow the Tutsi government. By the late 1962 they did just that and many Tutsi retreated into exile in neighboring countries. At least 10,000 Tutsi were killed in the Revoluntion of 1959 (R). The years after following the revolution more than 20,000 Tutsis were executed and over 150,000 fled to neighboring countries(R). In the late 1980s the Tutsi refuges invade Rwanda to regain the power that was once taken from them.

The rebellion was led by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, with a couple thousands warriors, the Tutsi people fought for three years but came up short. In August of 1993 the Rwandan government and the Tutsi warriors signed the Arusha Accords to end the civil war. The Hutu still in power detained many Tutsi because of the civil war and once again Tutsi was a in a position of exile.

 The Genocide and The Role of the Radio 

Since the end of the civil war the Hutu led government had new plans for the Tutsi people. The Hutu government believed that the country of Rwandan would have no problems if the Tutsi were not a part of it. The Rwandan Military and Hutu militia groups, Interahamwe, set out to wipe out the Tutsi population. The Rwandan genocide was born of a civil war which intensified when the settlement to contain it broke down. The settlement, reached at the Arusha Conference, broke down because neither the Hutu Power tendency nor the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) had any interest in observing the power-sharing arrangement at the core of the settlement: the former because it was excluded from the settlement and the latter because it was unwilling to share power in any meaningful way. (4)

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(anne). The Hutu saw it has a pay back from the RFP. With no regards to humanity they killed Tutsi of all ages. And with the help of propaganda Hutu society saw their neighbors, friends and family members who were Tutsi, now as their enemy. From the outset, the mass killings in Rwanda were given to the Western media. An estimated ten thousand people had been killed in the first six days. The Hutu militia killed th After a 100 it began the RPF rebels put an end to the Hutu regime and the genocide in July 1994.

Just like the Nazis and the Jews, the Hutu used the role of the radio and broadcasting their hatred of the Tutsi and talks about slaughtering them(3).

 The Aftermath and World's View 


 * No one would admit there was even an genocide, but just a civil war

Citiation Ransford Danso, David A. McDonald, Writing Xenophobia: Immigration and the Print Media in Post-apartheid South Africa, Africa Today, 2001, 48, 3, 114

http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_rwanda.html

Anne Jolis. "Rwanda's Genocide: The Untold Story. " Wall Street Journal 26  Feb. 2010, Eastern edition: ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest. Web. 27 Nov. 2010.

Rwandan Genocide and the International Law of Radio Jamming Jamie Frederic Metzl The American Journal of International Law Vol. 91, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 628-651 Published by: American Society of International Law Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2998097

mahmood mamdani