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April 1994, Rwanda.A terrible incident happened at the time, where an unknown percentage of the population of people’s deaths went unknown in an era of high speed-communication and technology. Over 1,000,000 people were murdered over less than a hundred days, from the brothers of the same country they have lived in. The Hutus started killing the Tutsi through jealousy and loath, and nothing really helped or considered the survival of the Tutsis. Innocent people had died for their race, and for no one really cared about what was happening in a small country in Africa.
The massacre started in the morning of April 6th 1994, with the death of the Hutu people’s President Habyarimana where his plane was shot down by the rebels when he arrived at the Kigali airport. The media immediately started to brainwash the Hutu people, and the killings of Tutsi seemed to be more righteous than ever to the Hutus. Since 1930s when Rwanda was one of other territories of Belgium, the Tutsis always had the privileges for their skin color which was a little whiter than the Hutus. They had the power and authority, till the independence of Rwanda from Belgium in the 1960s.
Because of this, the jealousy and hatred of Hutu people among Tutsis grew and allowed themselves to justify the killing of the Tutsi race. Since the morning of the President’s death, the militia of the Rwandan army had put in road blocks for every road that was possible for escaping. And after 5 days the genocide had started, more than 20,000 Tutsis already had been killed in Kigali alone. From the date April 12th, the genocide became much focused, and the killing spread to churches, hospitals, schools, and villages.
There was no discrimination of child or adult, women or men; if someone’s identity card was shown Tutsi, there was no mercy among the Hutus. The large-scale massacres also became much violent; Tutsis were forced to be buried alive, forced to be killed for entertainment, and all sorts of inhumane things happened in Rwanda, where someone will not be able to believe what a person can do to another. Many people hid in the base camps of the UN troops or the missionary churches of foreign peoples, but it became useless after all the foreigners of Rwanda went deserted.
The foreign UN troops, or the “peacekeepers”, could not really help out the scene because of orders from their countries. The Belgian UN troops were the first to be recalled from their country, after ten Belgian peacekeepers were removed and tortured while protecting the Prime Minister of Rwanda whom happened to be a Tutsi. And one by one, the countries of the UN troops recalled their peacekeepers for the sake of their lives. Thousands of Tutsis who were hiding in UN base camps and churches were murdered due to the less help and cowardly doings of the UN and other major countries. The US denied to help after their soldiers deaths in Somalia while helping their government for peace. Other major countries also did not help actively since they did not care greatly for a small country in Africa where their own people could be harmed. The Global society had the chance and power to save thousands of lives of Rwandans, however, they were too dastard to act and change what could’ve been prevented.
Through out my whole life, before I had a chance to come to my current school, I have never heard about such thing as genocide in Rwanda, where thousands of people died innocently, neglected and unassisted by the international society. So, I ask you again. Have you heard about the Rwandan Genocide?
