Rwanda Genocide Research Paper

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Civil war remains to be a major feature of present-day developing countries, and a source of underdevelopment. Much of the contemporary conflict has been associated to politics, ethnicity and religious differences. Most of the conflicts in Africa have an economic and a political basis, In Africa conflicts have been recorded since 1989 and the period between 1990 and 2002 alone has experienced 12 high intensity, 90 low intensity, and several cases of violent political conflicts. As a result of these conflicts there have been massive suffering such as loss of lives, rape cases, tortures and the forced enlistment of women and children as soldiers e.g. in Sudan where we had children soldiers. These conflicts have been reported to be as a result …show more content…
Their role and their aims is undoubtedly central to the genocide. Through the use of media, (Kangura, radio stations) they spread propaganda often referring the Tutsis as cockroaches and calling themselves superior which is a clear example of elite actions. We cannot ignore the historical processes that led to this toxic extremism; the colonial discrimination and exclusion, envy, racism, power plays all set the stage for Genocide.
The theory of instrumentalism is therefore brought out clearly in the Rwandan genocide where ethnic conflict was driven by the goals of political leaders.
Rwanda was colonised by the Belgium until 1962,before then, the Belgians had introduced Identity cards that classified the Rwandese people according to their ethnic groups firmly establishing boundaries and labelling each one of them not allowing them to choose where they belonged. Ethnicity was assigned to the Rwandan people by the Belgian who openly showed their liking of the Tutsis and even considered them to be more superior to the Hutus to an extent of giving them better jobs, and educational opportunities. The Hutus developed resentment towards the Tutsi and in 1959 riots were witnessed leading to more than 20,000 Tutsis fleeing the country to neighbouring …show more content…
During their trip back from Arusha, the plane of the then President of Rwanda together with the then president of Burundi was shot down just 4kms from the presidential Palace.
Following this assassination, the 1994 Genocide started in Rwanda and lasted for 100days.the shooting of the president plane was a trigger of a conflict that had been brewing since 1962. For 32 years the Hutu extremists who were the ruling party and were in charge of the government bureaucracy and the police had been planning on how to execute the genocide. The radical Hutu extremists called for the extermination of all Tutsis that were against the government fearing that they would continue marginalizing them economically and
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