Role of The International Community in The Rwandan Genocide - Background Information

Background Information

The genocide in Rwanda was based on two ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. The population in the year 1994 was approximately seven million people. 85% was composed on the Hutu, 14% was the Tutsi, and 1% the Twa. The Hutu’s feared the minority and the Tutsi rule because of the populations increase in social, political and economic pressures. President Habyarimana increased divisions between the Tutsi and Hutu’s in the year of 1992. In the year of 1994, the Hutu extremists released their plots to vanquish the Tutsi population, violence struck immediately after the President Habyarimana, a Hutu was shot down in a plane on April 6. It is estimated that about 800,000 men, women, and children were killed in the genocide. Three quarters of the Tutsi population. Most women and children were raped and brutally murdered. Anyone suspected of being a Tutsi were killed while fleeing the roadblocks and leaving the country. Hutu’s were also perished if they opposed the killing force. Genocide of Rwanda was a result from greed to hold power. The Rwandan Patriotic Front. faced success with the majority and the powers held transformed a plan of ethnic division into genocide. The massacre was believed to win the war and reinstate the Hutu as leaders. The genocide and war was stopped when the rebel group of Tutsi and the RPF defeated the Hutu. It leads to the control with President Paul Kagame. Full responsibilities lay with the Rwandans. However the governments of France, Belgium, United States and the United Nations failed to provide prevention and stop the massacre. Governments ignored their political and moral authority to challenge the genocidal government. Americans had feared the genocidal word as they believed it would lead to an intervention demand.