How It All Started Between April and June of 1994, approximately 800,000 Rwandans were killed, all within one hundred days in a small eastern Africa nation. How did this all start? The Hutu tribe blamed Tutsi tribe for country increasing social, economic, and political pressures. In 1990 the Rwanda Political Front or the RPF which is a rebel group of Tutsi's tried to invade northern Rwanda from Uganda. This then started the Rwandan civil war against the Hutu's who had support from parts of Africa and parts of France. The RPF had support from Uganda. The Tutsi's wanted to capture and enslave the Hutu's at all costs. The Big Reason On April 6th, 1994, President Habyarimana was shot down while on a plane. After this, violence started immediately, mass murder. Whole families died at the time. Tutsi's tried to flee to neighboring country's as road blocks were set up all around Rwanda during the genocide. Nearly 200,000 people participated in the killing while twenty percent of the population of Hutu's and Tutsi's were killed. Three fourths of the Tutsi population died. It wasn't just the Tutsis being killed, thousands of Hutus were killed as well because they opposed the killings. Tutsi's bodies were being thrown in rivers because their killers were saying that they were going to be sent back to Ethiopia. Tutsi's are usually described as taller and thinner than Hutus. This isn't unusual for this part of Africa, they have a history of violence due to ethnic tension between tribes. After President Habyarimana died, President Kagame was elected. Kagame was the leader of the Tutsi rebel group for the rocket attack. The Rwanda civil war and genocide only ended when the Tutsi dominated rebel group, the RPF, defeated the Hutu perpetrator regime and President Paul Kagame took control. During August 1933, after months of attack and negotiation, a peace document was signed between Habyarimana and RPF. Little did this do to stop the problems going on. Could This Have Been Stopped? The genocide had been planned from the Hutu group Akazu which were the people in top positions of the governments. Belgium, France, and the United States were all aware of the plans for the mass murder and failed to take jump that was needed to prevent the event from happening. They were aware that the Tutsi's had a target on their backs and let the shots be fires. They wanted nothing to do with the genocide and ignored that it was even going on. Then they went on to refused to use their political and moral authority to challenge the genocidal government. They refused to provide assistance. They didn't do anything to stop the radio and televised calls for slaughter. Americans shut out the event that was going on. What would have happened if the other countries had stepped in? Would so many have died? Would the event of mass killing have had happened? What if... If you want to know more visit these links: 1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1288230.stm 2. http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm 3. http://www.rwandagenocide.org/