Post on 12-Jan-2015
description
transcript
Rwanda
A Story of Genocide
Background
• Small African nation• Two ethnic groups
lived in Rwanda: Hutus and Tutsis
• Generally lived peacefully until the Europeans came
Background
Hutus• Majority - 80%• Migrated from
southern Africa• General: found
themselves as laborers and farmers
Background
Tutsis• Minority - 20%• Migrated from
Northern Africa (Egypt)
• General: found themselves as the elite and political rulers
Background
• German colony until 1918 (end of WWI)
• Belgium took it over• Put Tutsis in charge• Handed out “ethnic
identity cards”• Education only open
to Tutsis• Hutus could only be
laborers or low level workers
Independence
• Once Belgium granted independence in 1962, Hutu majority took control
• Over 200,000 Tutsis fled to neighboring countries and formed a rebel guerrilla army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front.
Civil War
• In 1990, the rebel army invades Rwanda and forces Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana into signing an accord mandating that Hutus and Tutsis share power.
Escalating Conflict• Ethnic tensions heightened
in October 1993 upon the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye, Burundi’s president and the first member of the Hutu ethnic majority to rule
• United Nations peacekeeping force of 2,500 is dispatched to preserve the cease-fire
Assassination
• On April 6, 1994, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana is assassinated when his plane is shot down
• Hutu extremists begin killing Tutsis
United Nations Response
• The U.N. Security Council votes unanimously to abandon Rwanda. The remainders of U.N. peacekeeping troops are pulled out, leaving only a tiny force of 200 soldiers for the entire country.
Aftermath
• Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days.
Still at Large
• Hundreds of men are still wanted in connection with the Rwandan genocide