Rwanda's Ethnic Crisis
Pamphile Sebahara (1998) in his article "The creation of ethnic division in Rwanda" writes: The genocide of the Tutsis and the massacres, which claimed almost a million lives in Rwanda between April and July 1994, are the result of a variety of interdependent factors. Reading the literature on the subject, we are left with one basic question: how can we comprehend the mass slaughter of men, women and children, primarily as a result of their belonging to a particular ethnic group? Observers believe that the genocide and its consequences, which still reverberate today, are to be understood in the context of the ethnic conflict (between Hutu, and Tutsi), which has been a feature of Rwanda's history since the late 1950s (pp 86-87).Republic of Rwanda has been the victim of Ethnic violence since its independence in 1962. Two predominant ethnic groups namely the Hutu and the Tutsi have clashed with each other resulting in large-scale massacres and flight of millions of people to
Subsequently the French troops were withdrawn in August 1994. The government and the Tutsi-led rebels of Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) signed a new peace accord in August 1993. Moreover another two million Hutu and Tutsi people fled to Zaire and other adjoining states. Then after 1945 it became a UN trust territory. Social stratification was based on socio-economic criteria; in other words, on the type of work favoured by the members of the group. The military rule continued from 1973 to 1990 when a multi-party democracy was installed in the country. Similarly a UN peacekeeping mission too ended on March 8, 1996. The Tutsis were not necessarily dominant, nor the Hutus their subjects (pp 86-87). Thus the Hutus tended to be farmers, the Tutsis were stockbreeders and the Twa were hunters or potters. General Juvenal overthrew the government in a bloodless coup. Fresh ethnic fighting assumed large proportions and about half a million people lost their lives out of which majority belonged to the Tutsi race. Later on the UN-sponsored tribunal gathered information about the people who had perpetrated genocide in Rwanda. But given the complex ancestral history, these were by no means exclusive categories. It shares common borders with Uganda on North, Zaire on West, Burundi on South and Tanzania on East.
Common topics in this essay:
Hutu Tutsi,
Civil War,
April July,
Maj Juvenal,
Republic Rwanda,
President Rwanda,
Republic Belgium,
Similarly UN,
Pamphile Sebahara,
Front RPF,
hutu tutsi,
namely hutu tutsi,
tutsi kingdom,
french troops,
rwandan patriotic,
republic rwanda,
patriotic front,
pp 86-87,
19th century,
rwandan patriotic front,
sebahara 1998,
ethnic division,
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Acceptance Essays
