Prochaska 1

Evan Prochaska
Ms. Agar
English II Honors
22 March 2016
The Sin of a Nation
I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil Romeo Dallaire.
The true evil within the genocide of Rwanda lies within how the victims of the genocide were
killed. It wasnt the government killing its people, but rather friends killing friends because of the
anti-Tutsi propaganda that was sent around the country. The origins of the Rwandan Genocide
were deeply rooted in the history of the people and could not have been avoided but it could have
been stopped faster if the leaders of the free world stood up for the victims sooner.
Within Rwanda the origins of a genocide had been building up for centuries, the political
structure of Rwanda further increased the tension between the races. Ethnic hostility is nothing
new here, rooted in a centuries-old domination by the cattle-owning Tutsi minority of the Hutu
peasant majority (Genocide). The Hutus and the Tutsis have had hatred and distrust exist
between them since the group's first mingled in the Great Lakes region of Africa. This arose
because of the ownership of cattle and thus supremacy the Tutsis had over the peasant race of the
Hutus. The colonial power, Belgium, believed that the Tutsi were superior to the Hutu and the
Twa and put the Tutsis in charge of Rwanda (Rwandan). This act by the European colonials
further worsened the interrace relations. The reason the Europeans put the Tutsis in charge was
because they had been deemed a more attractive people than the other groups within the
Rwandan colony. This was merely the start of years of racial tension that would lead up to an
ethnic cleansing by the Hutu majority.

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The later government of Rwanda that the Hutu majority finally occupied increasingly
subjugated the Tutsi people. Unfortunately, Habyarimanas ascent ushered in 20 years of
progressively greater marginalization of the Tutsi people (Obadina 91). This first government
under the new leadership of the Hutu majority immediately went after the Tutsis. To get back at
them for years of persecution by the minority rule they had installed in Rwanda. This was
perhaps some of the first steps of the Hutu extremists in achieving their ultimate goal of ridding
the country of the Tutsi race. Relentless propaganda portrayed Tutsis as aliens, as invaders on
land that rightly belonged to Hutus (Obadina 93). The government sponsored radio was
increasingly racist towards Tutsis labeling them as cockroaches and scum. The radio station
called Radio-Tlvision Libre des Mille Collines (Free Radio and Television of One Thousand
Hills) had been promoting the training of Hutu militants in case of a Tutsi uprising. This
increasingly anti-Tutsi propaganda sent out by the Hutu majority government led to an eventual
slaughter of the Tutsis.
The increasingly marginalization of the Tutsis finally came to a head in the Spring of
1994 when a plane carrying President Habyarimana was shot down. It remains unclear who was
responsible for the assassination, though many experts suspect Hutu extremists angered at
Habyarimanas acceptance of the Arusha Accords (Obadina 96). The Hutu extremists are
suspected of shooting down the plane because the recent agreement the President had signed was
considered too lenient towards the Tutsi minority. Immediately after the Presidents plane was
shot down it seemed to be the start of a plan to kill all of the Tutsis within the country.
Approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered in a carefully organized
program of genocide over 100 days, making history as the quickest killing spree the world has

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ever seen (Rwandan). The Rwandan Genocide was one of the quickest and well organized
killings the world had ever seen since the Holocaust. The Hutu extremist did not just require the
usage of the army and its men, but everyday people who killed their neighbors, wives, and fellow
countrymen. Since many of the regular people did not have access to traditional weapons such as
guns and swords, they used whatever they had available. This led to people being killed by
things such as hoes and other farm tools, even people's bare hands. The radio was utilized to not
only list the location of specific Tutsis to be targeted, but to also justify the genocide
(Rwandan). The same radio that increased the racial tensions also helped the killings. The radio
helped the Hutus that committed these killings justify what they did by saying all of the evils the
Tutsis had done to the Hutu people. The genocide happened quickly but it could have been ended
towards the beginning of the killings if western countries had stepped in and helped stop this
horrible acts of violence.
The rest of the world completely ignored the mass murder of the Tutsi race and generally
avoided the topic of genocide in Rwanda. The Clinton administration held on to the idea that
there were no U.S. interests in Rwanda, so it was not their place to intervene (Rwandan). The
countries of the west including the U.S. turned a blind eye to Africa because they deemed it as
unimportant because of the lack of benefits for these countries to be involved. These countries
ignored the killings and allowed hundreds of thousands to die because this war did not affect
their income in any way. The media seldom wavered, however, from their habitual racist
portrayal of African strife as atavistic tribal savagery (Berlatsky). The countries of the west
considered the entire thing as a regular happening in Africa. They never even saw the
humanitarian aspect of the war and took a very racist viewpoint on the whole topic. If countries

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outside of the conflict zone had overcome this racist view of Africans, the genocide would have
ended much quicker.
Within Rwanda, there was a terrible occurrence when a country turned against itself
killing themselves. The endless propaganda against the Tutsi inhabitants brainwashed the Hutus
into believing that the Tutsis were actually their natural enemies and no their fellow countrymen.
This lead to one of the quickest and most efficient genocide of all time as it all took place in 100
days. Teachers killed their Tutsi students. Doctors killed their Tutsi patients. Husband's killed
their Tutsi wives.

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Works Cited
Berlatsky, Noah, and Frank Chalk. Rwanda. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Greenhaven Press, a part
of Gale, Cengage Learning, 2015. Print
"Genocide in Rwanda." The Economist 21 May 1994: 45. Student Edition. Web. 8 Mar. 2016.
Obadina, Elizabeth. Ethnic Groups in Africa. Philadelphia: Mason Crest, 2014. PDF.
"The Rwandan Genocide - United to End Genocide." United to End Genocide. Web. 10
Mar. 2016.
News > Pan-Armenian News (Genocide) > Objections lead United Nations to delay Rwandan
Genocide exhibit. Web. 6 Apr. 2016. <http://www.azad-hye.net/news/viewnews.asp?
newsId=935fgd45>.