Hotel Rwanda Background

Rwanda

A Story of Genocide

Background

• Small African nation• Two ethnic groups

lived in Rwanda: Hutus and Tutsis

• Generally lived peacefully until the Europeans came

Background

Hutus• Majority - 80%• Migrated from

southern Africa• General: found

themselves as laborers and farmers

Background

Tutsis• Minority - 20%• Migrated from

Northern Africa (Egypt)

• General: found themselves as the elite and political rulers

Background

• German colony until 1918 (end of WWI)

• Belgium took it over• Put Tutsis in charge• Handed out “ethnic

identity cards”• Education only open

to Tutsis• Hutus could only be

laborers or low level workers

Independence

• Once Belgium granted independence in 1962, Hutu majority took control

• Over 200,000 Tutsis fled to neighboring countries and formed a rebel guerrilla army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Civil War

• In 1990, the rebel army invades Rwanda and forces Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana into signing an accord mandating that Hutus and Tutsis share power.

Escalating Conflict

• Ethnic tensions heightened in October 1993 upon the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye

• United Nations peacekeeping force of 2,500 is dispatched to preserve the cease-fire

Assassination

• On April 6, 1994, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana is assassinated when his plane is shot down

• Hutu extremists begin killing Tutsis

Unite Nations Response

• The U.N. Security Council votes unanimously to abandon Rwanda. The remainders of U.N. peacekeeping troops are pulled out, leaving only a tiny force of 200 soldiers for the entire country.

Aftermath

• Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days.

Still at Large• Hundreds of men

are still wanted in connection with the Rwandan genocide

• Do they look any different from anyone you’d see on the street?