Rwanda Genocide and Refugee Crisis Essay example

How can I ever forget the scene where my husband was massacred right in my presence. It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. I live through it every day and it is engraved forever in my memory.† During one April, not so long ago, the world sat back and watched as a turbulent political situation in central Africa turned into something the world will never be able to forget. 800,000 people murdered in just 100 days, 800,000 people needlessly slaughtered at the hands of extremists, 800,000 men, women, and children gone because of a more serious problem rooted in social prejudice and inequality, 800,000 killed in a genocide that the world could do nothing about until it was too late. Almost 50 years after the world pledged to never let†¦show more content†¦Next, the issue of return and repartition will be explored, including the issues of the forced repartition of refugees as well as the socio-political factors that returning refugees and the Rwandan government must not only face, but deal with. Finally, this paper will talk about the future for Rwanda and the future of refugees within the Great Lakes region of Africa. In order to help visualize the processes of re fugee movements, as well as the geography of the Great Lakes region, a map of the region has been included in Appendix 1. The Creation of a Refugee Crisis: War and Genocide The violent events of 1994 were not something that occurred by surprise or without warning. Ethnic tensions and political unrest have fueled a hostile environment within Rwanda as well as within other countries in the surrounding Great Lakes region for many years, the roots of which date back to well before the conflict in 1994 began. In order to truly understand the genocide that occurred, events dating back to 1959 and even before must be briefly examined. A majority of the ethnic tensions throughout the tumultuous history of Rwanda lies within the two major groups known as the Hutu and the Tutsi. As Tony Waters points out â€Å"ThereShow MoreRelatedRwanda s Current Government And Foreign Policy878 Words   |  4 Pages Rwandans experienced periods of exile, internal displacement and refugee status since the closing years of Rwanda’s colonial rule under Belgium. Starting in 1959 and up until what could still be argued as on-going is a section of the Rwandan population not being able to living in their ancestral homeland. There are two significant period of Rwandan exile in terms of Rwanda’s current government and foreign policy. The first was the period of 1959 to 1962 when an estimated one million, mostly TutsiRead MoreThe Rwandan Genocide And The Genocide1654 Words   |  7 PagesRwandan Genocide A genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of a group of people, especially of a certain ethnicity. By that definition and almost any other a dictionary could define, the killing of the Tutsis was certainly a genocide.The Rwandan Genocide occurred in 1994, in an African country called Rwanda. A long history of building friction between the Hutus and the Tutsis undeniably caused the mass murder of over 800,000 Tutsis, but various countries’ failure to act allowed the genocide to goRead MoreViolations of Human Rights Essay1122 Words   |  5 Pagesthe Gates, shows audiences the horror that took place during the Rwandan genocide. Shot in the same area as the actual genocide took place, the film tells the story of the Hutu extremist attempt at destroying the countries minority group known as the Tutsi. Many human rights violations were shown in this movie, shedding light on the real issue of how the international community failed to intervene during this time of crisis and p revent the deaths of thousands of people. A few examples of human rightsRead MoreThe Conflict Of Syria During The Arab Spring Protests1147 Words   |  5 Pageshundred-thousands. About 7.6 million people are internally displaced, One in a five Syrian is now refugee. More than four million Syrians have fled their homes. Neighboring countries take in most refugees. (UCHR). Around 14000 children were killed. The Assad regime and the rebel groups were already investigated, and the Assad regime implicated in the use of chemical weapons of war by UN auditors. Figure 1: Syrian refugee crisis Source: www.aljazeera.com According to Human Rights Watch, hospitals have becomeRead MoreModern Genocide in Africa Essay928 Words   |  4 Pageshave been two instances of genocide: the 1972 mass killings of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated government, and the 1993 mass killings of the Tutsis by the Hutu populace. Both of these events in Burundi received different levels of attention by the international community and the western media due to a lack of foreign governmental interest, political distraction, and an unwillingness to acknowledge the severity of these atrocities in Burundi. Interestingly, events of genocide occurring at times withoutRead MoreGenocide and the Propaganda Media Essay1446 Words   |  6 Pagesfeeling of being a bystander as countries slaughter their own people has been in legal debate since 1933, it has gradually developed into a concept that can be applied in many situations, both historical and contemporary. The meaning of the phrase genocide is the cleansing of a race or ethnicity i n a country. There has been evidence that this phrase can be used to describe past and present day massacres being committed around the world and how media has changed its perception on this issue overtimeRead MoreExtermination in Genocide1105 Words   |  5 PagesMarch 2012 Extermination in Genocide All genocides that have occurred in human history include various stages that are usually present; however, extermination, the 7th stage of genocide, is one that is present in all genocides. From the Armenian genocide and Darfur genocide, to the Rwandan and Jewish genocides, extermination is ever present in all of these. Extermination is explained to be mass killings of people, which defines the legal term â€Å"genocide†, and is caused when the killersRead MoreViolence Is A Form Of Violence1838 Words   |  8 Pagesconcept of violence is genocide. There has been much contest over the definition of genocide, but generally it refers to the intentional destruction of a particular race, ethnicity, religious group, or nationality. Genocide is a form of violence that has plagued history throughout time in both ancient and modern societies—from the Moriori genocide in 1835 to the current day genocide in Darfur. One of the most ambiguous cases of genocide since the Holocaust was the Rwandan genocide, which began in 1994Read MoreThe Death Of Genocide : The Annihilation Of Minorities Essay1548 Words   |  7 Pages Genocide is the systematic mass murder of an ethnic, race, religious, or national group based on discriminatory preconceptions (Payne 33). The heart of genocide is destruction: the annihilation of minorities. Minorities have always been the scapegoat for most governments in times of crisis or when the government has been mismanaged. Minorities are even considered non-human. The annihilation of a specific target group does raise to question why and how this would be carried out. A genocide happensRead MoreThe Political And Media Views On The Genocide3280 Words   |  14 Pagesindividuals will know multi situations that happened in the genocide of Rwanda. All in all, the focus is clearly on the political and media views on the genocide, but overall this paper talks about what happened before, during, and after the genocide, to get a complete understanding of what actual went on. Before the genocide, there was already a division between the Hutus and Tutsis. This came about because Eur opean colonist moved into Rwanda causing many issues. During the war A plane the president