The Rwanda Civil War - Research Paper Example

? Civil War Teacher’s In the post-World War I era Belgium was given the ity by the League of Nations to govern Rwanda and its Southern neighbor, Burundi. Rwanda, which lies in the central and eastern Africa, is predominantly a rural-based society which relies mainly on agriculture to sustain its economy. It is primarily comprised of three ethnic groups, namely, Hutus, Tutsis and Twa pygmies with Hutus being the majority (about 88% of the population). Following World War II, Rwanda became a UN trust territory administered solely by the Belgians with a mandate to oversee independence. Belgian rule created more of an ethnic divide between the Tutsi and Hutu. Tutsis, who were visually fair in complexion and usually taller, were considered superior to the Hutus and had their roots in the region for centuries. The Belgian government being aware of that fact supported Tutsi political power. Each individual was issued a racial identification card which stated one as legally Hutu or Tutsi. By 1931, an ethnic identity was officially mandated and each Rwandan possessed an ethnic identity card at that time (Globalsecurity.org, 2011). Tutsis due to their superior racial status started exploiting their power over Hutu majority. There was discrimination all over the region. Any person owning 10 or more cattle was considered as a member of the Tutsi class. The Hutus were treated as the third class citizens and were not given any opportunity to excel in the society. Even the education system was entirely different for both groups. This created a sense of social injustice and hatred among the Hutus for Tutsi behavior and started rebelling against them. In 1960, the Belgian diplomats surprised everyone by reversing their favoritism and encouraged Hutu uprising in the name of democracy. In the same year, Belgium government decided to hold democratic elections in Rwanda-Burundi region. The Hutu majority elected Hutu representatives ending Tutsi monarchy. By 1962, Rwanda had become a Hutu dominated state and most of the Tutsis were exiled, if not killed, to the neighboring countries for their undesirable behavior with the Hutus (Phillip, 2000). By 1990, Hutus had gained full control and were administering the country. But there still was political unrest due to slumping economy and food shortages. The main reason however was something else. The Tutsis who were exiled more than 30 years ago were now grouping together in an attempt to overthrow Hutu led government in Rwanda and also to attain the right to live there. As a result, Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) was formed with the help of Ugandan army consisting mostly of Tutsi refugees or their descendants who were exiled earlier. The RPF, under the command of Major General Fred Rwigema began to pressurize Rwandan government and demanded Habyarimana, the Rwandan president, to make concessions and allow Tutsis to freely live there and be a part of the democratic system in the country. Habyarimana, after not being able to satisfy RPF’s demands and also RPF’s unwillingness to wait any longer and trust any longer the Rwandan government to fulfill its promises led RPF to wage civil war in the country (Globalsecurity.org, 2011). On 1st October, 1990, around 50 RPF rebels crossed the Ugandan border into Rwanda killing a guard at the Kagitumba border post. Hundreds more followed them with artillery and support provided to them by the Ugandan National Army. In few days after the first attack, the RPF army had advanced 60km to the south in the town of Gabiro creating violence and chaos in the region. This forced the government to launch a counterattack on RPF. The Rwandan Armed Forces (RAF) had a greater army and more advanced weaponry provided to them by the French as compared to rebels. However, RPF forces continued to invade Rwanda and more and more troops were deployed. As the civil war continued in the north, opposition to the government increased in Kigali. President Habyarimana was placed under immense pressure to take democratization measures and to talk with the RPF. The war as dragged on for almost 2.5 years until a ceasefire came into effect between RPF and the government with the help of UN forces (Valerie & Thomas, 1995). The situation between Hutus and Tutsis was further derailed when on 6th April, 1994, Habyarinama, the President of Rwanda’s plane was shot down above the capital city of Kigali. Within hours of the incident, RAF army attempted to exploit the death of the president and used it to ignite an anti-Tutsi backlash. The army began a systematic operation with two goals in mind: to eradicate the country of all the Tutsis and to continue fighting the RPF. The RAF used media, mostly radio, as the primary means of communication with the civilians and turning them against Tutsis and encouraged mass killing and riots. Government leaders communicated with local people to form militant organizations such as Interahamwe, “those who stand together”, and Impuzamugambi, “those who have the same goal”. These organizations or groups consisted mostly of young blood which caused most of the destruction. The Prime Minister and her 10 Belgian bodyguards were among the first victims. Check posts were formed on every single road where Interahamwe guards were posted to check identity cards. Only Hutus were allowed to pass through and any one from Tutsi ethnical group was captured and tortured. Men were mostly murdered in front of their families while women and young girls were raped in front of children and were too killed eventually. Militants went in to each and every house throughout the country and hunted for Tutsis. RAF referred Tutsis as ‘cockroaches’ who must be either killed or exiled permanently out of the country. They did not even spare liberal Hutus who were in favor of supporting Tutsis living in their neighborhood or working with them. The Rwandan genocide had begun killing hundreds of thousands of people. (George, & Pearson, 2002). From April to July 1994, approximately 0.5 million Rwandan Tutsi, some 80% of the total Tutsi population were exterminated in the most efficient and complete genocide of modern times (Thompson, 2007). The news media played a crucial part in the genocide. Radio media and print media fueled the killings whereas the international media either ignored or misrepresented the situation. According to writer Alan J.Kuperman, “Western reporting was marred by four lapses. First, it mistook genocide for civil war. The civil war had ended in 1993 and these killings were considered to be as resumption of that war instead of genocide. Secondly, the international media gave an impression that violence was on the wane whereas it had only started to peak. Thirdly, there was huge reporting error in the death counts during genocide. After the first week into the killing, media had reported seven to eight thousand deaths only whereas the actual number was in hundreds of thousands. And lastly, the western news organizations only focused on the situation in the city of Kigali which contained only 4% of the country’s population and did not report far broader atrocities going on around them” (Thompson, 2007). The RPF forces however refused to back down despite all the killings and continued to march forward. In the east, they faced little resistance from the government and easily reached Tanzanian border. Their main target however was the capital, Kigali. They started to close in on the centre of the capital, continuously fighting with the government forces and attacking from all the sides with heavy artillery and mortars. The fighting continued for almost a month until the government forces laid down their weapons and started to withdraw from the capital mainly because of the shortage of ammunition and supplies. And finally on 4th July, 1994, the RPF forces moved in and took control of the entire capital. With the fall of Kigali, it was almost impossible for the government now to resist RPF any further and started to collapse. The Rwandan army was quickly defeated by RPF and fled across the border to Zaire along with 2 million refugees taking shelter in Zaire, Tanzania and Burundi. And thus RPF ended the prolonged genocide and took control of the country (Valerie & Thomas, 1995). The Rwanda civil war and genocide saw more than 0.8 million mass murders with more than a million internally displaced. More than 2 million refugees fled to neighboring countries. By the time international media realized the gravity of the situation, it was all but too late. However, the international community was still able to respond and participated in one of the largest humanitarian relief efforts ever mounted. Numerous refugee camps were opened throughout the country together with food supplies. Although the situation in the country settled down reasonably well after the 1994 events and RPF forming their own coalition government, but the dreadful times and atrocities faced by the Rwandan people in those four years was nothing less than a nightmare. And had the international media responded well to the situation, the amount of bloodshed would have been much less and the result not so dreadful. (Globalsecurity.org, 2011) References George, T. (Director) & Pearson, K. (Writer). (2002). Hotel Rwanda [Motion Picture], Lions Gate Films. Globalsecurity.org, (2011). Rwanda civil war. Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/rwanda.htm Prunier, G. (1995). The Rwanda crisis: History of genocide, Chapter 3 “Civil War and Foreign Intervention” Thompson, A. (2007). The media and the Rwanda genocide, Chapter 22. Valerie, P., & Thomas, H. (1995). Environmental scarcity and violent conflict: The case of Rwanda. Retrieved from http://www.library.utoronto.ca/pcs/eps/rwanda/rwanda1.htm Read More