Essay On Genocide In Rwanda

Prior to Rwanda gaining independence from Belgium in 1962, the country experienced a constant battle of right between the Hutu and the Tutsi religious groups. The Tutsi, although being the minority making up only 15-percent of the population, enjoyed privileged lives. However, following the country’s independence, the country experienced three decades of Hutu rule, under which the Tutsi faced extreme discrimination and bursts of extermination. This continual struggle between groups, and the assassination of both Rwanda’s and Burundi’s presidents, sparked violence and ‘primed the pump’ for genocide. Under the command of the Belgian government, the Tutsi lead privileged lives while the Hutu faced widespread discrimination. As soon as the Hutu government took over Rwanda following their independence from Belgium, they immediately flipped the distribution of rights giving the Hutu the privileges and forced the Tutsi to face discrimination. However, the Hutu’s did not just discriminate against the Tutsi in the same way that they had been discriminated against. Instead, they attempted to force all of the Tutsi people out of the country, and implemented ethnic cleansing on the remaining people. Similarly to the Hutu, the Tutsi did not take all of this laying down because they began rebelling against the Hutu government under the direction of
The Arusha Accords was a power-sharing agreement between the Hutu and the Tutsi that would allow both groups to rule the Rwandan government equally. As well as, the UN would go into Rwanda to demilitarize and demobilize all military forces on both sides. However potentially beneficial these accords sound, they were rejected by the Hutu who believed that if they did comply with them that as soon as the Tutsi regained some level of power, they would inflict the same violence on the Hutu that the Hutu had previously shown the