Genocide in Rwanda

SOCIAL 10-1 U2L4

Chapter 8 To what extent have attempts to respond to
the legacies of historical globalization been effective?
Please have your textbooks open – Ch. 8 –pg. 187
 Mr. Leonard Quilty

Author
Family Man

Reader
 U2 Test – Tuesday, October 29

30 m/c questions – many are source analysis.

Also: please complete the U2L3 Quiz today!

HOW EFFECTIVELY HAVE PEOPLE RESPONDED TO THE LEGACIES
OF HISTORICAL GLOBALIZATION? (PAGES 187 – 193)

Genocide in Rwanda – justice and reconciliation

What does Rwanda have to do with legacies of historical globalization??

PRE-COLONIAL RWANDA

 For many centuries, Rwandan society was comprised of

Tutsis--traditionally herdsmen who owned the land—and
Hutus—the people who worked the land. The Tutsis
represented approximately 15% of the population and
the Hutus made up the other 85% of the population.

 For 600 years the two groups shared the business of

farming, essential for survival, between them. They have
also shared their language, their culture, and their
nationality.

6
COLONIAL RULE

 In the ‘Scramble for Africa’, Rwanda fell under the

control of Germany.
 German colonial officials favoured the Tutsis in the
dispensation of key positions in the colony, which served
to build up resentment among the Hutu majority.
 After WWI, Germany was forced to relinquish its claim
on Rwanda to Belgium.

7
BELGIAN COLONIAL RULE
 The Belgians continued to allow Tutsis to hold key positions in
the colonial administration of the colony.
 The Belgians also helped to increase the ethnic divisions in the
country by requiring all Rwandans to register themselves and
carry identification cards which identified citizens as either
Hutus or Tutsis.
 An alien political divide was born.

8
 THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT

 By the 1950s, an independence movement was beginning to gain

momentum in some African colonies.
 In 1959, the Hutus seized power of the government and were
stripping Tutsi communities of their lands, which led to violent
clashes between the two groups.
 Many Tutsis retreated to exile in neighbouring countries such as
Uganda and the Congo, where they formed the Rwandan Patriotic
Front (RPF), trained their soldiers, and waited.

9
INDEPENDENCE FOR RWANDA
 Rwanda gained independence from Belgium in 1962 and
continued to be controlled by the Hutu government.
 Tutsi resistance was continually nurtured by repressive
measures against them (in 1973, for example, Tutsis
were excluded by law from secondary schools and
university).

10
CIVIL WAR

 In 1990, RPF rebels began invading the country and fighting

for Tutsi involvement in the government.
 After 3 years of fighting, a ceasefire was achieved in 1993,
followed by UN-backed negotiations to develop a multi-party
constitution.
 However, Hutu leaders opposed any Tutsi involvement in
government.

11
Genocide– the mass killing of human beings, especially a
targeted group of people.

12
GENOCIDE BEGINS

 With the political assassination of the Rwandan

president, Juvenal Habyarimana, on April 6th 1994, this
triggered a call-to-arms by Hutu extremists.
 Radio broadcasts and propaganda called on Hutus to kill
all Tutsis and moderate Hutus who weren’t anti-Tutsi.

13
INTERNATIONAL INEPTITUDE
 Journalists and television cameras reported what they saw, but
they were powerless to do anything to stop the violence.
 There was a UN force (UNAMIR) monitoring the ceasefire of
the civil war under the command of Gen. Romeo Dallaire, but
they were now obliged to watch as people were killed in the
street by grenades, guns and machetes.

14
 UNAMIR did their best to protect trapped foreigners, until they
were pulled out of Rwanda altogether, but the UN refused to
intervene in the massacres for fear of being seen as taking
sides.

 Meanwhile, Dallaire was pleading with UN officials to allow

him to stop the carnage going on all around his small
detachment of troops stationed in and around the capital,
Kigali.

15
COLLUSION

 Local officials assisted in rounding up victims and

making suitable places available for their slaughter.
 Tutsi men, women, children and babies were killed
in thousands in schools.
 They were also killed in churches: some clergy
colluded in the crime.

16
DEATH TOLL

 Estimates on the number of people killed in Rwanda range from

800,000 to 1 million.
 The vast majority of these killings occurred in a very short
period of time—a hundred day period between April 6 and July
19, 1994.
 Most of the killings were carried out entirely by hand—often
using machetes and clubs to beat the victims to death.

17
Gacaca Courts– Community courts established in Rwanda to
try low-level officials and ordinary people accused of taking
part in the Rwandan genocide. The purpose of these courts
was to speed up the process of bringing those people to justice
who had participated in the genocide and to encourage
reconciliation.

18
JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION

 After the genocide in 1994, the UN security council

created the International Tribunal for Rwanda to try
high-ranking government and army officials accused of
genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
 Gacaca courts were also established to try low-level
officials and encourage reconciliation.

19
 TAKE HOME POINTS

 The roots of the Rwandan genocide stem from its

colonial past, in which ethnicity became an important
aspect of colonial rule.
 Favouritism towards the Tutsi minority by colonial
officials bred resentment and sowed the seeds for future
ethnic clashes between the Hutus and the Tutsis.

20
 Take Home Points, cont’d.

 The lessons of Rwanda were an indictment of the UN and its

inability or unwillingness to take decisive action to stop the
atrocities.
 Rwanda has been reconciling the traumatic events of the
genocide and attempting to convict those responsible for the
most serious crimes against humanity.
 The task of rebuilding Rwanda is monumental considering the
horrific legacies of the past.

21
Rebuilding Rwandan Society

-United Nations Security Council – International Criminal Tribunal

-Rebuilding economy – coffee exports

-International support – Ubuntu Edmonton Rwanda is Women for Women International

 HOW EFFECTIVELY HAVE GOVERNMENTS RESPONDED TO THE
LEGACIES OF HISTORICAL GLOBALIZATION? (PAGES 196 – 205)

United Nations and Indigenous peoples

-Canada is represented at the UN, and in 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly
-- UN established Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2002
-Forum discusses issues related to Indigenous economic and social development, culture, the
environment, education, health, and human rights
South Africa – apartheid (racism as a government policy)

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Nelson Mandela
 Legacies of Historical Globalization in Canada – Internment Camps

German & Ukrainian Canadians- World War 1

Japanese Canadians – WW2

Lemon Creek, BC Castle Mountain, BC

The Canadian government enforced the federal War Measures Act, (WW1) which allowed the
government to control civil liberties of individuals who were from enemy nation states.
Legacies of the Indian Act
1991 - Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

1998 - Statement of Reconciliation

2002 - Changing the Indian Act

HOW EFFECTIVE HAVE ORGANIZATIONS RESPONDED TO
THE LEGACIES OF HISTORICAL GLOBALIZATION? (PAGES 202 -
205)

NGOs – Non Governmental Organizations

Human Rights Watch

HOW DOES HISTORICAL GLOBALIZATION CONTINUE TO
AFFECT THE WORLD (PAGES 206 – 209)

Global Income Inequality

Foreign Aid –
GNI – amount of money earned by earned by everyone in a country
U2L4 Assignment & U2L4 Quiz due 9:00 am Monday, October 28.
QUESTIONS