Rwanda Genocide

Rwanda Genocide

"Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation." (Genocide) Introduction "In 1994 Rwanda experienced the worst genocide in modern times. The Rwandan Genocide was a genocidal mass slaughter of the Tutsis by the Hutus that took place in 1994 in the East African state of Rwanda. It is considered the most organized genocide of the 20th century. Over the course of approximately 100 days (from the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6 through mid-July) over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate. Estimates of the death toll have ranged from 500,000–1,000,000, or as much as 20% of the country's total population. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–62." ("Rwandan Genocide") History between the Hutu and Tutsi people "In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from Uganda in an attempt to defeat the Hutu-led government. They began the Rwandan Civil War, fought between the Hutu regime, with support from Francophone Africa and France, and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, with support from Uganda. This exacerbated ethnic tensions in the country. In response, many Hutu gravitated toward the Hutu Power"("Rwandan Genocide"), an ideology propounded by Hutu extremist, with the prompting of state-controlled and independent Rwandan media. "As an ideology, Hutu Power asserted that the Tutsi intended to enslave the Hutu and must be resisted at all costs. Continuing ethnic strife resulted in the rebels' displacing large numbers of Hutu in the north, plus periodic localized Hutu killings of Tutsi in the south. International pressure on the Hutu-led government of Juvenal Habyarimana resulted in a cease-fire in...

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