Before I read Chris' paper, I did not know too much about the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. I knew that it had happened and that it was a terrible thing, but I had no idea of the extent of the killings. Over 800,000 at least were killed in three months, likely more than that. That is more people in that time span than the Nazis ever killed.

I had previously thought that the genocide was a civil war, and that the deaths were from casualties from guerilla warfare. I now see that this was not warfare, it was one-sided slaughter. The Tutsis had little to no defense from the Hutus, who mercilessly rounded them up and butchered them like cattle. How the Hutus killed shocked me, too. I had in my mind an idea that the Tutsis were gassed or burned or killed in a simililar such fashion. No, they were beaten to death with clubs of diced with machetes. Chris even points out that there were times when Tutsis payed to be shot instead of beaten because it was less painful. That is brutal.

I also did not have any background as to how the genocide began. I thought that the conflict sprang up in 1993-1994, possibly over an election or a leader; how off was I. The conflict dates back to the 1800s, when a class system formed with the Tutsis ruling over the Hutus. Then German settlers arrived and sided with the Tutsis, placing them in complete power. The Hutus were discriminated against and seen as lesser people, even though they had live on the land longer. The Hutus rebelled in 1959 and gained power. The two groups lived on strained terms for decades. Attempts at Tutsi rebellion were put down by the Hutu government. The last straw came when the Hutu president was killed and the Hutus blamed the Tutsis for his death. The Hutu militia began rounding up Tutsis ang slaughtering them for three months. It was only stopped when a Tutsi faction led by Paul Kagme took power in July of 1993.

Now that I know how horrible the Genocide in Rwanda was, I am shocked. Chris' paper taught me many things that I had no idea about and am now interested to possibly learn more about. Thanks, Chris.