Rwandan Genocide.

This week in my Salgado reading, it focused on the Genocide in Rwanda. One of the facts that stood out to me most was the number of orphans that were forced to live on their own. A brief history of the Rwandan Genocide is in 1994, over the course of approximately 100 days, more than 20% of Rwanda’s total population, an estimated 800,000 people, was murdered. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–62. In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from Uganda in an attempt to defeat the Hutu-led government. They began the Rwandan Civil War, fought between the Hutu regime, with support from Francophone Africa and France, and the RPF, with support from Uganda. In response, many Hutu gravitated toward the Hutu Power ideology; Hutu Power asserted that the Tutsi intended to enslave the Hutu and must be resisted at all costs. Continuing ethnic strife resulted in the rebels' displacing large numbers of Hutu in the north, plus periodic localized Hutu killings of Tutsi in the south. Throughout many years the country went from cease-fire, to civil war, to relatively peaceful times. Until the assassination of the Hutu leader, this set off a violent reaction. Genocide had been planned by members of the Hutu power group known as the Akazu, many of whom occupied positions at top levels of the national government; the genocide was supported and coordinated by the national government as well as by local military and civil officials and mass media. Alongside the military, primary responsibility for the killings themselves rests with two Hutu militias that had been organized for this purpose by political parties: the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, although once the genocide was underway a great number of Hutu civilians took part in the murders. It was the end of the peace agreement. The Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, defeating the army and seizing control of the country.

While I was researching the Genocide I realized that everything I read seemed rather impersonal, and it wasn’t until I looked at the Salgado photographs that I realized, these are real people. These are people just like me. Granted, they have had a completely different life experience from me, but they still are people just like me. They have feelings, and dreams, and love. Looking at the pictures of the orphans I tried to imagine myself in that situation. I can’t even comprehend what it would be like to watch both of your parents murdered and be forced to flee to a foreign land on your own. These people are so much braver than I could ever be. Especially the children. In the photo below, all of the children in the Biaro Refugee camp were told to line up along the train track and told to wait to be counted and receive rationed food; both of which never happened and many children died of starvation and disease at this time.

In the photo below it shows how terrible the genocide was. This is of a school that was abandoned with all the bodies left inside, because all of the survivors had to flee for their own life before they had time to bury the dead.

With every story I research, I become  more and more shocked by the horrid things that people do to one another. That this genocide was all though up because one group of people thought they were superior. I know it seems rather “beauty pageant”, but how can we ever seek world peace if we can’t even tolerate our neighbor? Even if you can’t go to Africa and solve the tribal issues, reach out within your own community. Volunteer, serve, and love one another. Their issues are our issues, and if we don’t start trying to help now, soon we won’t have any other option.

Works Cited

Salgado, Sebastião, and Lélia Wanick. Salgado. "Rwanda, A Torn Nation." Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. 197-217. Print.

"Rwandan Genocide." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Nov. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide>.