Hutus of Rwanda

- Majority of the population(90% in 1991)

- Many are poor peasants and cultivators
- They seized power in 1962, gaining independence from the Tutsis

Tutsis of Rwanda
- Minority of the population(9% in 1991)
- Wealthier group
- Were cattle farmers and had more money
- Belgians granted the Tutsis power to rule over the Hutus in 1919
- In 1962, the Hutus gained power and this led to refugees fleeing the country, many into
neighboring Congo (Zaire at the time)
- The tutsis who fled to the Congo formed the RPF(Rwandan Patriotic Front) to retaliate

Military vs. Militia- What is the difference?

Military- Government

Militia- Citizens, organized group of citizens

- The Tutsis and Hutus essentially share the same culture, ethnicity, religion and
language.
- Paul Kagame- Military leader- been in power since 1994, develop the country in a
positive way, he is viewed as being a dictator
- 10 Belgian UN Soldiers were killed by Hutus- Peacekeepers, not allowed to use their
weapons, not allowed to shoot.
- The United Nations Security Council abandoned Rwanda leaving only 200 soldiers to
protect the Rwanda people. The UN was not granted powers to fight back or defend but
only to protect. They were not allowed to use their weapons.
- After months of fighting, Tutsi rebels invaded neighboring countries and defeated the
Hutus.
- However, over the 3 months of conflict and violence it resulted in 800,000 - 1 million
people killed within 100 days
- THis led to a huge exodus of internally displaced people, refugee camps in neighboring
countries.

The Somalia Affair October 1993 - Canada's shame

- Somalia - poverty, lawless, warlords rule, clan warfare, famine

- Canadian Airborne Regiment(1968-1995) sent to Somalia as “Peace Enforcers”. Prime
Minister Mulroney a multilateralist and Pearsonian; active in Yugoslavia in 1992; wants to
support US mission to Somalia(UNOSOM)
 - “Operation Deliverance” - Peacekeeping mission to ensure food and humanitarian relief
reaches those in need without being obstructed by warring Somali factions
- US involved in Battle of Mogadishu Oct. 3-6, 1993 - Blackhawk helicopters (Delta forces)
downed, US soldiers killed, thousands of Somalis killed
- The US leaves Somalia, Canada leaves SOmalia…piracy, lawless…
- Silver Cross Mother 2017 - mother, Diane Abel of Pvte. Abel, her son was accidentally
killed in Somalia ( she came to the Ridge in March 2019)
- This was a year prior to the Rwanda

Genocide Eytimology:

Geno(Greek) - race or tribe.

Cide (Latin) - to kill.
The term was coined in 1944 by a Polish, Jewish Lawyer named Rafael Lemkin in an attempt to
describe the actions which took place during the Holocaust of 1941-45.

Lemkin, working with the United Nations, wanted to identify the Nazi sponsored systematic
killing of European Jewry and convince European governments to criminalize and prosecute
these acts.

“A coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of the essential functions of the
life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups.”

Genocidal Actions:
a. Killing members of the group;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. E.g. (Transferring indigenous
first nations children to residential schools)

Failure of Prevention

● Though massive atrocities against civillian populations were committed in the years
following the Holocaust and throughout the Cold War, the very countries that signed their
names to the Genocide Convention scarcely considered whether these crimes constitute
a genocide.

1988: U.S. Ratifies the Convention

● Despite facing strong opposition by those who believed it would diminish U.S.
sovereignty, President Ronald Reagan signed the 1948 UN Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of Genocide on November 5,1988.
 ● Among the Convention’s most vocal advocates was Wisconsin Senator William
Proxmire, who delivered more than 3,000 speeches before Congress arguing for its
passage.

Punishment in the Former Yugoslavia

Targeted civilian groups suffered brutal atrocities throughout the conflicts in the former Yugoslav
republics of Croatia (1991-95) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-95).

Though the international community showed little will to stop the crimes as they were taking
place, the UN Security Council did establish the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague.

It was the first international criminal tribunal since Nuremburg and the first mandated to
prosecute the crime of genocide.

1998: First Conviction for Genocide is Won

● On September 2, 1998, the International Criminal Tribual for Rwanda issued the first
conviction for genocide after a trial, declaring Jean-Paul Akayesu guilty for acts he
engaged in and oversaw as mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba.

2004: U.S Declares Genocide in Darfur

● Testifying before the U.S Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 9, 2004,
Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that “genocide has been committed in Darfur.”
● Though the United Nations and other governments agreed on the scale of atrocities
being committed against civilians, they did not declare them “genocide.”