Genocide, Social institutions, Theoretical frame work

“How the Rwandan Genocide Could have been Prevented”
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Abstract
The Rwandan genocide was one of the worst blood bath massacres to have been witnessed after the Second World War. The genocide was caused mainly by ethnic division amongst the Hutu and Tutsi communities in Rwanda. The Hutu-dominated the political scene in the country and drove out members of the Tutsi community, and those that remained in the country were slaughtered mercilessly. The division was brought along by the introduction of the identity card system which was introduced by the Belgians when they conducted the census. This animosity claimed many innocent lives.
However, the massacre could have been prevented if only the superpower countries had intervened in good time. The blame also lies with the media, since the press was used at the time to instigate violence instead of preaching peace and love amongst the citizens. The extremists should have been stopped before they did that much damage. This paper aims to analyze the Rwandan genocide and explain exactly what would have been done differently to put a stop to the mass killings before they even begun.

Introduction
In the year 1994, Rwanda experienced one of the worst cases of mass murder ever seen after the world war (Genocide Watch, n.d.). Rwanda was initially a colony of Germany before Belgium took claim. The Belgians introduced a system that separated one ethnic group from the other during the census. This practice, although widely used, brought along a lot of suffering and segregation.

This showed how invariable these labels had become in their heads. The Hutu and Tutsi had many practices in common; they spoke similar languages and even intermarried amongst themselves.
History
In 1959, the Hutu party led a revolution against the Tutsi’s, and this led to a bloody ethnic clash (Genocide Watch, n.d.). The attacks resulted in the death of thousands of people, and the survivors sought refuge in the neighboring countries. The National election was held in 1961, and Gregoire Kayibanda was elected president. They then got their independence one year later. The Tutsi’s that sought refuge in Burundi began launching attacks on the Rwanda government with support from the Burundi government which had then been infiltrated by Tutsi’s. The attacks were unsuccessful, and this led to heavy repercussions for the Tutsi people that still resided in Rwanda.
There was continued scramble for leadership between the Hutu where the elected president was overthrown by a Northern Hutu known as Major Habyarimana (Ball, 2010). He eliminated the former president and his high ranking officials as an active plan to suppress serious Hutu opposition. His relatives and staunch supporters filled up the vacant government positions. Rwanda was ruled by a dictatorship that implemented a single party rule, and the Tutsi were moved.
Rules were set that prohibited intermarriages by the members of the army (Ball, 2010). The identity cards and quota systems of the previous regime were maintained by the ruling government. As time went by, the number of people that had fled Rwanda to seek refuge in other countries had grown tremendously. The refugees were not allowed back into the country because Rwanda was highly populated and there was a scarcity of jobs and resources such land and food.
The other countries also could not accommodate their citizens together with the refugees, so the Tutsi had to fight their way back to Rwanda. They attempted several failed assaults to seize power. The fighting led to the displacement of many people. Habyarimana was killed by a missile attack on his plane as he neared the Airport on a return journey to Kigali. There were no survivors. The identity of the assassin was never cleared, but it is believed that the president died by the hands of Hutu extremists within his military.
Social institutions and how they would have prevented the genocide
The hour following the announcement of the death of the president was volatile with the people being very agitated. Members of the Hutu military put up roadblocks all through the town (Orriss, 2009). The identity cards were screened, and anyone who did not belong to the Hutu group or government was killed. RPF troops joined the war from the north and fought tirelessly in an attempt to stop the slaughter. They defeated the Hutu extremists that opposed them and ended the war (Orriss, 2009).
In such a case, Education as a social institution would have been resourceful in stopping the killings. Through education, the members of the Hutu military would have come up with a better way of dissolving the situation without necessarily killing the non-Hutus. Sometimes people act out of ignorance and in this case they may not have known any better way to make sure their demands were met. Education would have helped prevent the genocide in that the people would have gotten more civil and effective options to ensure their demands were heard and addressed without resorting to violence.
They joined forces with the non-extremists political parties to form a new government and effect the dawn of a new era, though the country was still in chaos. The new government committed to upholding a multiparty form of governance and end the identity card systems of the previous government. However, it is important to explain and understand the cause of the animosity before people eliminate it altogether. The Rwandan genocide, in this case, should be looked at from the colonial angle. The fear of colonialism led to an impulse of eliminating the colonizers who had come to settle in Rwanda.
Before colonization, the Tutsi received privileged treatment regarding authority. After the colonization, the Hutu were identified as the natives while the Tutsi identified more with the settlers. The Rwanda genocide is looked at as the native kind since the Hutu were determined to eliminate those who had come to conquer their land and posed a threat to their existence. The war began when the two tribes were separated by the identity card system. The Hutu were looked at as the Natives while the Tutsi as foreign. While the genocide is attributed to political identities based on race, it also attributes to the timing of the events that led to the genocide in the neighboring countries where the Tutsi sought refuge. For instance, when the Ugandan government required an established ancestry to be a citizen, the Tutsi were forced to return to their country (Lemkin, 2008).
Religion preaches equality amongst all. It urges people to treat their neighbors as they would want to be treated themselves. The privileges that the Tutsi enjoyed before colonization made the Hutu feel less worthy and when they got the chance they took out their frustration on the Tutsi’s. Through religion, they would have treated each other equally regardless of race. This would have ensured a harmonious existence, and there would have been no war perpetrated by hatred of either race.
In return, they went with some of Uganda’s problems into the country. They formed a patriotic alliance in the RPF that led to continuous attacks in Rwanda. It may be construed that if it were not for what happened in Uganda, the genocide mightht not have even happened in the first place. This is because the attacks by the RPF came during internal reforms rather that repression. The internal reforms had begun to take the course and the political situation in Rwanda was good when the attacks came and ruined it all. Multiparty democracy had already been implemented, and there was freedom of the press. The invasion was seen as a rebellion by the Ugandan citizens on the increased population of Tutsi refugees in their country.
There was more than enough reason for Tutsi to be hopeful (Lemkin, 2008). There was the promise of reconciliation in the second republic between the Hutu and the Tutsi. The economic state in Rwanda had been adversely affected by the violence; increased cases of corruption did not help the situation at all. Rwanda’s food production had hit rock bottom, and it was one of the worst countries when it came down to the food industry. This was caused partly by the increase in population with the major scarcity of land. However, these factors did not contribute to the genocide in any way.
There is absolutely no connection between humans slaughtering each other and inadequacy of resources. Genocide is a hate crime that should be highly condemned since the difference in race is not enough reason for people to claim each other’s lives and destroy peaceful coexistence (“The History of Place,” n.d.). Multiple other countries have citizens who belong to different racial and ethnic groups, but we don’t see them mercilessly ending the next person’s life because of such unorthodox reasons.
However, the genocide can be attributed to many underlying factors such as; limited land space, a decrease in food production, hunger, diseases caused by malnutrition and famine. The leaders responded to these problems by eliminating the minority who were also seen as foreigners and political rivals.
Religion would have been a key social institution used to prevent the genocide. Most believers can easily be swayed by the teachings from the fundamental symbol of their faith for instance religious books, leaders, and spiritual teachings. These aspects could have been used to preach peace and spread love, and in turn, it would have helped stopped the violence and killings. In many religious practices, believers are encouraged to share whatever little they have with their neighbors. Had the Rwandan people shared without having any selfish motives, they would not have kicked out the Tutsi people with claims of limited resources. This would have spread the love for one another and in turn maintained a peaceful coexistence.
Pinpointing the person solely responsible for the genocide is not easy. The genocide resort was consulted by a small portion of the Rwanda government and Hutu extremists. After the death of President Habyarimana, Bagosora organized the blood bath that was seen in the days to follow (“The History of Place,” n.d.). Another key player was the President’s widow. She played a role in the planning of the mass murder. The family has always been the primary social basis for every individual. It is important to most people that their families are kept safe and secure. Showing the people what effects violence and mass killings would have on their families would have invoked empathy. The need to protect their own would have prevented the violence since they would not do anything to jeopardize the safety and well-being of their loved ones.
The Presidents widow was in deep sorrow when her husband was assassinated and he collaboration with the extremists to orchestrate the genocide was in an attempt at vengeance. Had they considered there other family members and what going to war meant for them, they would have opted for a more peaceful way to ensure their demands were met. Violence not only led to great loss of life, but it also led to the displacement of the natives from their family lands, their traditions, and culture which defined them as a people.
The extremists and members of government also had families and values that they held dear. If only a voice of reason had reached out to their empathy for the sake of loved ones and family ties, they would have turned away from the violence. The superpower countries can also share in the blame because they were present in Rwanda when the genocide was being organized but they did not intervene. They share in the blame because they catalyzed the mass murder and they did nothing to stop it when the plan was already in motion. They did not care about the genocide because Rwanda as a country had no strategic influence whatsoever. Rwandans should not let the people forget how the superpower nations abandoned them at the time of utter need.
The media also had a role in fueling the mass killings; local news was used to perpetuate the hatred and violence while the international media just ignored them and acted like nothing was happening or when they reported on the issue they gave misleading information. Illiteracy levels were high at the time and radio was the major means of relaying information to the public. The two widely listened to radio stations instigated violence among the people while they spread hate messages and violence against the Tutsi. They repeatedly reported that the Hutu would be attacked by the Tutsi hence putting them on high alert and making them highly agitated. It is these anxiety levels that made them attack first to “protect themselves.”
Education could have also been used to ensure the media operators understood and upheld their journalistic ethics. Had the journalists used their education to spread peace and love messages and condemn the violence, maybe the genocide would not have happened. Also, the media would have ensured that the people assigned to report through the media outlets were well educated and qualified. The major media outlets of the Western countries also did not adhere to a journalistic code of conduct while giving reports on the Rwanda genocide. For instance, instead of covering the ongoing war in the country where there was a major blood bath, the foreign media covered the refugees who fled the country and were in other calm countries.
Measures to curb the genocide
The United Nations set out a mission for peacekeeping with thousands of troops to contain the situation in Rwanda. The commanding officer was given strict orders to maintain the ceasefire initiated by President Habyarimana. They were also tasked to assist in humanitarian aid, and see to it that the refugees were settled back in the country. However, the commanding officer faced so many challenges that he could not carry out the orders effectively, for instance, his troops were not enough, and they were under equipped. They also did not have any intelligence on the situation at hand. They were not allowed to engage fire since their mission was to maintain peace.
The commanding general had put in a request for more troops and high-grade weapons, but the U.N would hear none of it because it was too expensive. When the genocide enhanced, the troops were helpless against the extremists since they were not allowed to use force to stop the killings. This led to the brutal murder of Belgian soldiers by the extremists, and the Belgians threatened to withdraw their soldiers from the troops. With the intensifying of the genocide, the general asked for more troops to be sent to the peacekeeping mission, but instead, the Security Council ordered a reduction in the number of troops deployed to Rwanda. This decision was made despite the fact that hundreds of thousands had been murdered (Lemkin, 2008). After a few attempts to end the genocide, the U.N withdrew its troops from Rwanda and left the innocent civilians to handle the massacre on their own.
The leaders of the superpower countries knew that the genocide was not right, but they could not intervene because it did not serve any of their interests. There was very little interest in Rwanda by the international countries before the genocide, and it even became worse now that it had become a warring country. The only countries that had shown interest in that area were Belgium and France. Belgium and France had already understood the intensity of the issue within the first few hours into the war. Though they could not have foreseen the outcome, they could have at least put in the actionable effort to avert the situation. There was so much they could have done to end the massacre, for instance, shutting down the radio stations used to incite violence. A message from the superpowers condemning the genocide would have had some impact on the weak military groups of the extremists.
The United Nations failed in its responsibility of maintaining International peace. They should have taken actual measures to end the genocide and save many innocent lives. They had the power to assess the potential threat and find a way to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand. The genocide was not something that just happened abruptly. It took some planning and strategy. The government could have spotted the early signs and drafted prevention measures before it even began. The following measure would have been helpful at the time;
Since most genocides occurs during war, it is vital to address the cause which is violence. Violence is brought about by hatred, inequality, discrimination and intolerance. The right course of action, in this case, would have been to prevent the conflict, to begin with. In case the effort to curb the massacre before it began failed, the next course of action would be to protect the innocent civilians at all costs (Lemkin, 2008). This includes both the government and the United Nations. Civilians are the obvious target because of their ethnic, political and even religious affiliations.
After securing the civilians, it is important to carry out strict measures against all the people who were involved in the violence and upset the peace of the country. The best and most fair way to do so without instigating violence gain would be through the judicial system (Lemkin, 2008). This would deter people from engaging in violent behavior since they know that the justice system will catch up with them (Lemkin, 2008). The government and the people in charge of peacekeeping should issue early warnings to the people once they have actionable intelligence. This will ensure that the people prepare in advance for coming wars, steer clear of high alert areas and even evacuate before the tragedy strikes. When the massacre becomes intense, the military and peacekeeping troops should be allowed to use all means possible to contain the situation even if it means applying force.
Conclusion
The Rwandan genocide should not have escalated to the extreme ways that it did. I believe that the genocide would not have happened at all or that the containment process should have happened sooner had all the relevant parties acted as they were required to. The blame lies with the international organizations, the government, the media, the intelligence units and worse of all the perpetrators of violence. The innocent civilians deserved better, and it is a shame that many lives had to be lost for this to be seen and upheld.
References
Ball, Howard. (2010). Genocide: A reference Handbook. California: Greenwood Publishing
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Lemkin, Raphael. (2008). Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Foundations of the Laws of War
Publications of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of International Law
Genocide Watch: International Alliance to end Genocide. Retrieved on April 21, 2011,
Fromhttp://www.genocidewatch.org/aboutgenocide/whatisit.htmlOrriss, Matthew. (2009, April 10). Indicators and warnings: Case studies in genocide. Small
Wars Journal. Retrieved on May 24, 2011, from http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2009/04/case-studies-in-genocide/
The History Place. Genocide in the 20 Century. Retrieved on May 25, 2011, from
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/rwanda.htm