Rwanda’S Story, Genocide

Rwanda’s story, Genocide

Now, to understand the causes of genocide, you have to go back to the colonial era in Africa, that is, at the end of the 19th century.The first colonizers were the Germans, who arrived around 1897 to take control of the territory, subsequently chose the Tutsi ethnicity as the new ruling class dominant class among ethnicities, in part, because morphologically they were high, slender and colorFrom his skin it was clearer than that of the rest of ethnicities, they were also established in power with a dominant hierarchy. On the other hand, those of the Hutu ethnic group, which were more robust, with very dark skin and with a wide nose, discriminated against it considering it lower;This biologicist racial differentiation since the beginning of colonization contributed greatly to the clashes and radicalization of ethnicities later give rise to the trigger of the conflict.

Later the Belgians appeared on the scene, when they defeated these to the German troops in Central Africa in May 1916, during World War I (1914-1918);These followed the same racial classification line that the Germans had already initiated, and even increased the differences between ethnicities with the creation of new administrative measures. Thus, in 1931 it was mandatory to indicate in the identity card the ethnicity to which each citizen belonged. The administrative positions were assigned to the tutsis, which were considered smarter and trained to govern, therefore marginalizing the Hutus and treating them as inferior beings;what he did originated the increase in feelings such as humiliation, frustration and resentment of the Hutus.

On the other hand, in the fifties an independence wave emerged throughout the African contine. In this context, a call to the social revolution began through the publication in 1957 of "The Bahutu Manifesto", this is considered one of the greatest claims on the abolition of the privileges with which the tutsis had. This revolution unleashed between 1959 and 1961. The exchange of power of the tutsis bosses to the Hutus bosses, with the approval of the Belgian administration and the missionary church was carried out.

On July 1, 1962 Ruanda proclaimed its independence and established the Republic chaired by the Radical Hutu, Grégoire Kayibanda, in this period the Hutus will focus on blaming the minority Tutsi of all existing problems in the country.

At the end of 1963, Tutsis refugees in Burundi tried to take Rwand. In addition during 1972 there were constant power struggles among the Hutus themselves, President Kayibanda tried to maintain unity against the tutsis. In 1973 there were new murders perpetrated by the Hutus and again a great human wave took refuge in neighboring countries.

In July 1973, taking advantage of political instability, there was a coup d’etat protected by General Juvénal Habyarimana, thus establishing the Second Republic. From this moment on, the name of all the tutsis became written in a list limiting them even more access to the administration and schools, also cutting the hope of the exiles to return to their country one day;But these did not remain impassive, politically and militarily organized, they created the Rwandés Patriotic Front (FPR) based on Uganda.

From 1990 to 1993 Rwanda with an overpopulation of about eight million people, was in a complicated political situation aggravated by other factors such as the crisis of agriculture, famine or access to water … On October 1, 1990, FPRHe took advantage of the circumstances and initiated an offensive through his arm Armando APR (Ruandesa Patriotic Navy), thus producing the invasion of the north of the country by thousands of refugees Tutsis. At the moment France will support the Ruandesas Armed Forces (FAR) and President Habyarimana, in order to expel the APR from the territory. Finally in 1993 the Arusha and the UN Shipping 2 agreements were signed.500 "Blue Casks" to try to make the agreements respected.