Rwanda





Located in Central Africa. Rwanda is one of Africa's smallest countries. Population: 3 million people Two Major Ethnic Group: The Hutu and the Tutsi. =BEFORE THE GENOCIDE = . In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was composed of Tutsi refugees, invaded. . This caused the Rwandan Civil War between the Tutsi and the Hutu. . In 1990, this rebel army invaded Rwanda and forced Hutu President Juvenal Habyalimana into signing an agreement that said that the Hutus and Tutsis would share power. . Increased tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi were a result, and led to the rise of the Hutu Power.  . Ethnic tensions were hightened after the assassination of Habyarimana. = Rwanda Genocide 1994 =  The mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Rwanda's Tutsis and Hutu political moderates by Hutus. media type="youtube" key="5c8ih1MZWv4" height="344" width="425"  . . The United Nation sent about 2,500 soliders to help cease fire between the Hutu's and Tutsi's. . But the peace was threatned by Hutu government because they did not want to share power with the Tutsi's. . The killings began to get worse. Hutu militia began moving to the country side armed with machetes, clubs, guns and grenades. They began killing innocent Tutsi civilians. . All individuals in Rwanda had to carry around an identification card that specifies their ethnic background. These cards would serve as a civilan in Rwanda to live or die.

. The UN troops were overwhelmed with Tutsi families seeking protection. . Ten soldiers from Belgium who were captured by the Hutus, tortured and murdered. As a result, the United States, France, Belgium, and Italy all began taking their soliders out of Rwanda. The Tutsi civilians sent out help signals to the rest of the world including the United States.  The United States didn't even classify this event as a genocide. 

The Hutu engaged in genocidal mania, clubbing and hacking to death defenseless Tutsi families with machetes everywhere they were found. The Rwandan state radio, controlled by Hutu extremists, further encouraged the killings by broadcasting non-stop hate propaganda and even pinpointed the locations of Tutsis in hiding.



The killings only ended after armed Tutsi rebels, invading from neighboring countries, managed to defeat the Hutus and halt the genocide in July 1994. By then, an estimated 800,000 people, had been killed.

====<span style="display: block; font-size: 150%; color: #ff00ae; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; text-align: center;">Today, Rwanda is still trying to recover from the horrific even known as the Rwanda Genocide. ====