They looked at the Rwandan people and thought the Tutsi had more European characteristics, such as lighter skin and a taller build. Thus they put Tutsis in roles of responsibility. In , the Belgians solidified the categories of "Tutsi" and "Hutu" by mandating that every person was to have an identity card that labeled them either Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa. The Twa are a very small group of hunter-gatherers who also live in Rwanda. Although the Tutsi constituted only about ten percent of Rwanda's population and the Hutu nearly 90 percent, the Belgians gave the Tutsi all the leadership positions.
This upset the Hutu. When Rwanda struggled for independence from Belgium, the Belgians switched the status of the two groups. Facing a revolution instigated by the Hutu, the Belgians let the Hutus, who constituted the majority of Rwanda's population, be in charge of the new government.
This upset the Tutsi, and the animosity between the two groups continued for decades. At p. All on board were killed in the crash. Since , President Habyarimana, a Hutu, had run a totalitarian regime in Rwanda, which had excluded all Tutsis from participating.
That changed on August 3, , when Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accords, which weakened the Hutu hold on Rwanda and allowed Tutsis to participate in the government, which greatly upset Hutu extremists. Although it has never been determined who was truly responsible for the assassination, Hutu extremists profited the most from Habyarimana's death.
Within 24 hours after the crash, Hutu extremists had taken over the government, blamed the Tutsis for the assassination, and begun the slaughter. The killings began in Rwanda's capital city of Kigali. The Interahamwe "those who strike as one" , an anti-Tutsi youth organization established by Hutu extremists, set up roadblocks. They checked identification cards and killed all who were Tutsi. Most of the killing was done with machetes, clubs, or knives.
Over the next few days and weeks, roadblocks were set up around Rwanda. On April 7, Hutu extremists began purging the government of their political opponents, which meant both Tutsis and Hutu moderates were killed. This included the prime minister. When ten Belgian U. This caused Belgium to start withdrawing its troops from Rwanda.
Over the next several days and weeks, the violence spread. Since the government had the names and addresses of nearly all Tutsis living in Rwanda remember, each Rwandan had an identity card that labeled them Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa , the killers could go door to door, slaughtering the Tutsis.
Men, women, and children were murdered. Since bullets were expensive, most Tutsis were killed by hand weapons, often machetes or clubs. Many were often tortured before being killed. Some of the victims were given the option of paying for a bullet so that they'd have a quicker death. Also during the violence, thousands of Tutsi women were raped. Some were raped and then killed, others were enslaved and subjected to sexual violence for weeks.
Some Tutsi women and girls were also tortured before being killed, such as having their breasts cut off or had sharp objects shoved up their vagina. Thousands of Tutsis tried to escape the slaughter by hiding in churches, hospitals, schools, and government offices. These places, which historically have been places of refuge, were turned into places of mass murder during the Rwandan Genocide. The Armenian genocide was the systematic killing and deportation of Armenians by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire.
In , during World War I, leaders of the Turkish government set in motion a plan to expel and massacre Armenians. By the early s, when the massacres and Gold from the American River! It enables a more direct route for shipping between Europe and Asia, effectively allowing for passage from the North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean without having to The leader of Zimbabwe since its independence in , Robert Mugabe was one of the longest-serving and, in the latter years of his reign, most infamous African rulers.
In , General Idi Amin overthrew the elected government of Milton Obote and declared himself president of Uganda, launching a ruthless eight-year regime in which an estimated , civilians were massacred. His expulsion of all Indian and Pakistani citizens in —along After the National Party gained power in South Africa in , its all-white government immediately began enforcing The South African activist and former president Nelson Mandela helped bring an end to apartheid and has been a global advocate for human rights.
A member of the African National Congress party beginning in the s, he was a leader of both peaceful protests and Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Rwandan Ethnic Tensions By the early s, Rwanda, a small country with an overwhelmingly agricultural economy, had one of the highest population densities in Africa. Recommended for you. Gorilla War. Idi Amin. Genocide Genocide is a term used to describe violence against members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the intent to destroy the entire group.
Bosnian Genocide In April , the government of the Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia.
Robert Mugabe The leader of Zimbabwe since its independence in , Robert Mugabe was one of the longest-serving and, in the latter years of his reign, most infamous African rulers.
Idi Amin In , General Idi Amin overthrew the elected government of Milton Obote and declared himself president of Uganda, launching a ruthless eight-year regime in which an estimated , civilians were massacred.
Nelson Mandela The South African activist and former president Nelson Mandela helped bring an end to apartheid and has been a global advocate for human rights. Most of the dead were Tutsis - and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus.
Even for a country with such a turbulent history as Rwanda, the scale and speed of the slaughter left its people reeling. 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 A French judge has blamed current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame - at the time the leader of a Tutsi rebel group - and some of his close associates for carrying out the rocket attack.
Mr Kagame vehemently denies this and says it was the work of Hutu extremists, in order to provide a pretext to carry out their well-laid plans to exterminate the Tutsi community.
Whoever was responsible, within hours a campaign of violence spread from the capital throughout the country, and did not subside until three months later. But the death of the president was by no means the only cause of Africa's largest genocide in modern times. Ethnic tension in Rwanda is nothing new. There have always been disagreements between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, but the animosity between them has grown substantially since the colonial period.
The two ethnic groups are actually very similar - they speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow the same traditions.
However, Tutsis are often taller and thinner than Hutus, with some saying their origins lie in Ethiopia. During the genocide, the bodies of Tutsis were thrown into rivers, with their killers saying they were being sent back to Ethiopia. When the Belgian colonists arrived in , they produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity. The Belgians considered the Tutsis to be superior to the Hutus.
Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than their neighbours. Resentment among the Hutus gradually built up, culminating in a series of riots in More than 20, Tutsis were killed, and many more fled to the neighbouring countries of Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.
When Belgium relinquished power and granted Rwanda independence in , the Hutus took their place. Over subsequent decades, the Tutsis were portrayed as the scapegoats for every crisis.
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