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The Rwandan Genocide

Hutus vs. Tutsis

The Historical Roots:  Scars of European Imperialism:

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      Both the German imperial power and Belgium had favored Tutsi minorities who were usually lighter in skin color, as the superior race fit to rule the Hutu majority. The Hutus faced discrimination were denied education and prestigious posts within the government. 

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     In 1926, Belgium imperial colony enforced ID classification of Hutus and Tutsis.

 

      The Hutu majority then reclaims power from Tutsis

In 1962 Hutus rebel against the Belgian rulers and the Tutsi elite, reclaiming Rwanda as an independent country controlled by the majority PARMEHUTU party. During this period, 200,000 Tutsi refugees were forced into exile.

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      Tutsis are reduced to wandering refugees being bounced between countries of Uganda, Burindi, and Tanzania (See Map Reference Above) where they were often massacred or refused citizenship. 

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Weapons used in the daily Rwandan slaughter.

Parallels between the  "Wandering" Tutsis

& the Persecuted Jews of Nazi-Occupied Europe.  

        The Tutsi's plight during this time paralleled that of the persecuted Jews during WWII. While Nazi-occupied countries marginalized Jews by barring them from applying to the higher tier of government occupation, restricting their social freedom, and perpetuating their discrimination, the Jews were unable to escape.  

 
 

       Countries deliberately sought measures to either expel Jews or prevent their migration into the country through quotas (example: United State 1924 Immigration Law.)  
 
 

       Similarly, the Tutsis were referred to as "wanderers," because like the Jews of the Holocaust era, the Tutsis were not able to secure a home nation.  

Whereas Jews were systematically massacred once entering Nazi occupied territories, Tutsis were often also massacred in the countries they sought refuge in. However, unlike how the Nazis often occupied territories before they began heavily punishing Jews, the African 'host governments' near Rwanda (Uganda Burundi, and Tanzania) weren't necessarily occupied by the perpetrator's political party.  

Tutsis bouncing between bordering countries are forced to become "wanderers."

Hutu Domination of Rwanda:

The Trigger for Mass Executions & the Dissemination of Propaganda

       Hutus executed pograms against Tutsi minorities throughout the early 1960s, sometimes in response to RPF offensives. Corpses are strewn across riverbeds. The slaughtering continues into the 1970s, when universities are purged of Tutsi students and faculty. These murders inspire a larger plan to extract Tutsis from all higher educational institutions.

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      Under the pretense of restoring order, Habyarimana, Rwandan Chief of Staff, seizes power and attempts to quell resistance. Ethnic quotas discriminating against Tutsis are adopted within all public service occupations as well as throughout schools and business. Hutus receive privileged treatment and are granted majority of government occupations.

Refugees (mostly Tutsis) form the foundation of RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front.) The refugees try reclaim their rights to live in Rwanda and to obtain their share of power within the government.  

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        Habarimyana begins to establish and sponsor the training of a youth Hutu militia called Interhamwe (meaning "those that attack together.")

The purpose of this militia is linked to the extermination of the Tutsi threat. The bloodshed is directly encouraged by the Radio Mille Collines, which is operated by branch of Hutus that are a part of Habyarimanya’s elitist clique of Northern Hutu Radicals. 

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        In 1990, RPF forces invade Rwanda, inspiring the eruption of villifying anti-Tutsi propaganda that only augment the discrimination of Tutsis who were already restricted from most occupations.

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       President Habarimanya is killed in a plane crash after his reluctant agreement to Arusha Peace Accord.

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        Hutus point fingers to the Tutsi inyenzi (meaning "cockroaches") as the killers.

They use the Tutsi's greivances against the Hutu government as the basis upon which they can declare their suspicion of the Tutsi-led RPF forces being responsible for the assassination. According to Hutu propaganda, the biter Tutsis killed the President, because they didn't want a peace agreement. Ironically, despite this concept, the Hutu extremists are suspected of possibly being the true conspirators behind the assassination. To date, no one has been made accountable for the attack. 

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The radios glorified the slaughter by claiming:

  • The 'herioc' Hutus are executing an honorable killing

  • The Hutus are cleansing Rwanda of the Tutsi inyenzi

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       Hutu citizens chased their Tutsi neighbors with machetes, knives, and clubs with nails protruding from them. The  raped women brutally and indiscriminately in masses as a declaration of Hutu's invincibility and the Tutsi's subsequent futility.

 

      The localized execution of the genocide has complicated the attempt to hold more  perpetrators within the government accountable for inciting the killings elusively and sometimes even directly. 

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The Execution of the Tutsi Final Solution: Drawing Parallels to Nazi Germany

        The ID policy mimicked the enforcement of the "yellow star" law in Nazi-occupied territories. The perpetrators exploited the ID cards to hunt down Tutsis who could otherwise be mistaken for a Hutu. 

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        Historically, an ethnic barrier was constructed by the enforcement of ethnic ID cards, the culmination of historical resentment, and the ongoing wars between ruling Tutsi minority and the overwhelming Hutu majority. 

 

       Jews, like the Tutsis, were also targets of pogroms and other forms of  mass murder largely carried out by civilians. 

 

        Both genocide victims were dehumanized  through the various pest names that they were labeled, including "rats," "parasites," or "microbes/germs." 

Degrading the Tutsis by flatly denying their humanity through the use of metaphors served to both desentitize the murders and to attach a sense of justification to what was excused as a "purifying" campaign. 

Civilian killers turned Tutsis into animals through their uses of metaphors. They had even developed a code to mask the murders as "extermination" of unwanted "cockroaches." 

 


       Jews, unlike the Tutsis, were never favored by their nation's government. However, like Tutsis, they were envied by their enemy for being wealthier and more privileged. Hutu women often complained about the general admiration of Tutsi women. Economic resentment is cited as another possible factor in encouraging otherwise "ordinary citizens" into committing to and even relishing their participation in upfront slaughter. 

Slogan from Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM)

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"Get to work... The graves are not yet full." 

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Footnotes:

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  1. Jaclyn Jaclyn Nardone, "Intolerably Inferior Identity: How the Social Construction of Race Erased a Rwandan Population," Peace and Conflict Monitor, Intolerably Inferior Identity: How the Social Construction of Race Erased a Rwandan Population, April 08, 2010, , accessed May 02, 2018, http://www.monitor.upeace.org/innerpg.cfm?id_article=707.

  2. Christina Fisanick, The Rwanda Genocide (San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004).

  3. "Rwanda: How the Genocide Happened," BBC News, May 17, 2011, , accessed May 02, 2018, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13431486.

  4. Christina Fisanick, The Rwanda Genocide (San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004).

  5. "The Genocide," The Genocide (HRW Report - Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, March 1999), July 19, 2017, , accessed May 02, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-02.htm#TopOfPage.

  6. Christina Fisanick, The Rwanda Genocide (San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004).

  7. "RTLM Transcripts," RwandanRadioTrascripts_RTLM, , accessed May 02, 2018, http://migs.concordia.ca/links/RwandanRadioTrascripts_RTLM.htm

  8. Christina Fisanick, The Rwanda Genocide (San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004).

  9. "The Genocide," The Genocide (HRW Report - Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, March 1999), July 19, 2017, , accessed May 02, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-02.htm#TopOfPage.

  10. "RTLM Transcripts," RwandanRadioTrascripts_RTLM, , accessed May 02, 2018, http://migs.concordia.ca/links/RwandanRadioTrascripts_RTLM.htm

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Other Works Consulted: â€‹

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