Rwandan Genocide And The Lack Of International Intervention

Michelle Jimenez History 2010 November 19, 2015 Crabtree Rwandan Genocide-1994 After the atrocities of the Rwandan Genocide and the lack on international intervention, Rwandan was forced to rebuild itself from scratch. Rwanda is a small country located in central Africa. Its population is divided between two ethnic groups: the hutus and the tutsis. The roots of the Rwandan genocide date back to 1924 when Belgium first took over Rwanda, formally a part of Tanzania. The Belgians viewed Tutsi superior to the hutus. Many referred to this as Hamitic hypothesis. It was motivated mainly by the fact that Tutsi were taller and thinner than hutus. This lead to a major boost in Tutsi egos and mistreatment of the Hutus for decades. This angered the Hutus leading to a major conflict between the two ethnic groups. In 1959 a series of Hutu riots occurred killing around 20,000 Tutsis. After 38 years of being under Belgian control, Rwanda gained independence in 1962. After this, the fighting between Hutus and Tutsi continued to become more and more prevalent. In July of 1973, t he president of Rwanda Gregoire Kayibanda was overthrown by juvenile, Juvà ©nal Habyarimana who declared himself president. At the time hundreds of thousands Rwandan refugees were living in primarily neighboring countries. These countries were poor and did not have enough resources for the refugees. As president, Habyarimana would not let these refugees back into Rwanda. The refugees formed the Rwanda PatrioticShow MoreRelatedThe Rwandan Genocide Began On April 6Th 1994 Culminating1370 Words   |  6 PagesThe Rwandan Genocide began on April 6th 1994 culminating in the killing of an estimated 800,000 Hutus and their sympathizers. After it became apparent that the Rwandan government was not willing or able to protect it s citizens, the question became why did the international community do nothing to intervene. 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