Web Assign
Summary of:
Genocide in Rwanda
by Chris deBettencourt
    The small country of Rwanda is made up of two different types of people labeled as

either Hutus or Tutsis.  The nation held that the Tutsis were of a higher class than the

Hutus.  These feelings produced a lot of turmoil between Rwanda's inhabitants.  The coals

of injustice were further proded when Germans established colonial rule and favored the

Tutsis for trade, mainly because they looked more European.  Later, when Rwanda became

a protectorate of Belgium, Hutus were further discriminated against in social life, politics,

and education.  During what was known as the Revolution of 1959, Hutus took over the

government.  In response to protests and vicious guerilla fighting Habyarimana, a Hutu,

organized against the Tutsis.  In 1993, a UN investigative commision observed that the

Hutus were the main source of violence in Rwanda.  Reluctantly, President Habyarimana

signed the suggested peace agreement, but he was still willing the Hutu to combat the

Tutsi. Nevertheless, both Hutu and Tutsi were angered by Habyarimana and in April 1994

he was assasinated.  This was the spark that Hutu radicals needed to inflict major damage

to the Tutsi.  Hutu indiscriminate annhilation of the Tutsis was most certainly a genocide.

The killing continued for 100 days after April 6 until the Hutus were finally defeated, and by

the end over 800,000 Rwandans were killed.  During this period, the greater part of the

world denied the genocide taking place in Rwanda and refused to provide aid.  The world

response to the disaster if often thought to be a complete failure.  The travesty was a

failure of humanity and some of the major leaders in the genoicide, along with thousands of

murderors, still go unpunished to this day.