Genocide in Rwanda

Genocide in Rwanda

Introduction

Genocide, literally meaning “race murder,” got coined by Raphael Lemkin during his lifelong struggle to garner international support against mass extermination. His crowning achievement, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, was adopted by the United Nations in 1948. The Genocide Convention defines genocide as any action intended “to destroy in whole, or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Significantly, it asserts that recognizing a genocide event is an obligation to intervene, thereby giving genocide legal status as an internationally recognized crime.

Rwanda began as a tribal kingdom presided over by Tutsi kings. During the colonial era, Rwanda became a German colony, then a Belgian territory following Germany's World War I defeat. Rwanda gained independence from Belgian rule in 1962, with Hutu-Tutsi clashes shaping its modern-day landscape. Today, over 60 percent of the roughly 10 million Rwandans, live in poverty, with maternal well-being profoundly influenced by this adversity.

Discussion

There has long been a turbulent history between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, with the tension accelerating after Belgian colonists arrived in 1916 and classified Tutsis as superior to Hutus. In 1962, with Rwandan independence, the ethnic tension began to gradually reach a boil, leading up to the 1994 Hutu extremists' genocide in April and June. Approximately 800,000 Tutsis as well as Hutu moderates got slaughtered in just 100 days (Fisanick, 2004).

Role of United States

Having supported the Tutsi elite throughout the colonial period, the Belgian colonial authorities switched allegiance in the late 1950s. In the space of a few years, Rwanda was transformed from a Tutsi-dominated kingdom into a Hutu-led republic. Tens of thousands of Tutsis went into exile, many to southern Uganda and eastern Zaire. In July 1973, the military seized power under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Juvénal Habyarimana. He dissolved the National Assembly and abolished all political organizing (Thompson, 2007).

Under pressure from donor nations and the insurgency of the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) beginning in 1990, Habyarimana entered into power-sharing negotiations in 1991. Those negotiations intensified a split between moderates in the government and hard-line Hutus who opposed any cooperation with Tutsis. After the start of the civil war, hard-line Hutus armed local militias called interahamwe ("those who raid together") and began broadcasting messages of hatred and violence on the state radio stations (Barnett, 2002).

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamia was ...