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Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee Ga-Iii SOCIAL, HUMANITARIAN AND CULTURAL COMMITTEE GA-III STUDY GUIDE Naz Ece Kundak Enes Tonbul President Chair Deputy Chair Vefa Lisesi Model United Nations Conference March 31st – April 3rd, 2017 Istanbul, Turkey Agenda Item: “Addressing the social and political consequences of genocide in Rwanda” 1 INDEX 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. Genocide a. Timeline of Genocide b. International Involvement c. Aftermath of Genocide 4. Current Situation in Rwanda 5. Conclusion 6. Points That A Resolution Should Cover 7. Further Readings and Links 2 “The most horrible and systematic human massacre we have had occasion to witness since the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis” — Bertrand Russel 1. INTRODUCTION In 1994, the world had witnessed the worst side of humanity. An airplane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi had an accident, sparked off an organized violence against Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians in April 1994 by Hutu militias across the country as a result of a historical dispute between two ethnical groups; Hutu and Tutsi. Approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates, %20 of the country’s population and %70 of all Tutsis, were atrociously slaughtered in an organized program of genocide over 100 days. 2. BACKGROUND The 1884 Berlin Conference assigned the administration of the territory to Germany and began to rule the country through Rwandan monarchy.This ruling policy had eased the colonization for small European troops. German colonists found it easier to convince the Tutsis had migrated to Rwanda from Ethiopia. They believed that the Tutsis were more caucasian than the Hutus, therefore the Tutsis were thought as racially superior and better suited to carry out colonial administration. The King Yuhi V Musinag welcomed the Germans warmly to strengthen his rule over the territory. After the end of World War I, Belgium gained the control of the administration of Rwanda by a League of Nations mandate in 1919.The Belgium initially followed the same ruling policy with Germans but from 1926 they started direct colonial ruling policy over the country. They simplified the chieftaincy system, directed the Tutsi chiefs to control the country on behalf of the Belgium. In the 1930s, the Belgians planned large-scale projects in education, health, public works, and agricultural supervision. Although the country was modernized, the Tutsi superiority remained and the Hutus left disenfranchised. In 1935, Belgium created different identity cards for each ethnic groups to separate each individual. In spite of ease to be honorary Tutsi for a wealthy Hutu, the identity cards prevented any further movement between classes. After the World War II, a Hutu salvation movement began in Rwanda because of increasing resentments regarding the inter-war social reforms and increasing sympathy for the Hutus within the Catholic Church. Catholic missionaries increasingly believed to empower the underprivileged Hutus rather than the Tutsi elite. In 1953, a group of Hutu scholars published the "Bahutu Manifesto" which was the first written document to separate the Tutsis and the Hutus as different races and call for exchanging of power among the races. On 1 November 1959, a Hutu sub-chief, Dominique Mbonyumutwa, was attacked in the capital city, Kigali, by supporters of the pro-Tutsi party. Although Mbonyumutwa survived after this attack, it was begun spreading that he had been killed. The Hutu extremists responded this attack by killing the Tutsis, both the elites and civilians, marked the beginning of the Rwandan Revolution. By this stage, the Hutus had full support from the Belgian administration who wanted to overturn the Tutsi domination.The Belgium granted independence for Rwanda in 1962 and left the administration to the Hutus. 3 As the revolution progressed, the Tutsis started to leave the country in order to escape from the Hutu cruelty and they settled into four neighboring countries: Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Zaire. These who fled the country were regarded as refugees in host countries. They created armed groups, known as Inyenzi, which launched unsuccessful attacks into Rwanda and this attacks led to reprisal killings against the Tutsis and further exiles. By 1964, more than 300,000 Tutsis had fled the country. These killings and exiles resulted with the 1973 coup which brought Juvenal Habyarimana for presidency. In 1980s, a group of 500 refugees, led by Fred Rwigyema, fought with the rebel army in Ugandan Bush War and resulted with the inauguration of Yoweri Museveni as president of Uganda. These soldiers remained in the Ugandan army and began to plan an invasion to Rwanda. In October 1990, Rwigyema directed a force of over 4,000 rebels from Uganda under the name of the Rwandan Patriotic Front(RPF). Rwigyema had been killed on the third day of the attack into the Rwanda, France and Zaire deployed forces for support of the Rwandan army to prevent the invasion. Rwigyema's deputy, Paul Kagame, took command of the RPF forces and restarted the war in 1991 and waged a hit-and-run style guerrilla war to capture some border areas but the RPF was not able to make significant gains against the Rwandan Army. In 1992, with the formation of a multiparty coalition government in Kigali, the RPF decided on a ceasefire and started peace negotiations with the government in Arusha, Tanzania. However in early 1993, several Hutu extremist groups formed and began campaigns of large-scale violence against the Tutsi, resulted with the suspension of the peace talks and launch of major attacks. The peace talks eventually continued in Arusha. The peace talks resulted with a set of agreements known as the Arusha Accords was signed in 1993 August. 3. GENOCIDE In the small central African country of Rwanda, there was already a critical history of the tension between two major ethnical groups; the Hutus and the Tutsis.Dramatically, the Belgians considered the Tutsis more invulnerable than the Hutus.The Tutsis were favored originally by the Belgians because they looked more “European” with a lighter skin tone and sharper nose. The Belgians guaranteed more opportunities for the Tutsis because the Belgians found it easier to enforce their decisions to the Tutsis. When Belgium granted Rwanda their independence in 1962, the Hutus took over the state. However, the Belgians left the country in a chaotic situation. As not too familiar to anyone, the Hutus started to target the Tutsis long before 1994. In 1959, the year marked the end of Kings of Rwanda and resulted in “The Hutu Revolution”, the Hutus killed 20,000 Tutsis. Also, between 1963 and 1967, about 100,000 Tutsis were killed with machetes bought from China. Those clearly happened because of the hate and grudge of the Hutus towards the Tutsis. Till the 1994 genocide, the Hutus organized assaults towards the Tutsis frequently. The Hutus considered that the Tutsis were the insects of Belgians. Though the governments and authorities witnessed the attacks towards the Tutsis, they do not make any response. The hate of the Hutus grew increasingly day by day. As they targeted the Tutsis, some of the Hutus, mostly moderated ones, had been assaulted. 4 The genocide was planned by members of the core political elite who at top levels of the national government. Perpetrators came from the ranks of the Rwandan army, the Gendarmerie, government-backed militias including the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, as well as Catholic clergy and countless ordinary civilians. Some militias called themselves the "Army of Jesus" and they believed their mission was to destroy God's enemies.The genocide took place after the Rwandan Civil War, an ongoing conflict beginning in 1990 between the Hutu-led government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which largely consisted of Tutsi refugees whose families had fled to Uganda or other neighboring countries after the 1959 Hutu revolution against Belgian colonial rule. On April 6th 1994, as Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, returned from peace talks with Rwandan Patriotic Front(RPF) in neighboring Tanzania, his plane was shot down outside of the country’s capital, Kigali. The responsibility of this attack was disputed, both the RPF and Hutu extremists were blamed as the possible responsible for this attack. It is still unsure who did it but the Hutus automatically blamed the Tutsis. This attack was the perfect excuse for the Hutus to begin the massacre. However, A later investigation by the Rwandan government blamed Hutu extremists in the Rwandan army. After few hours of shooting of the plane carrying the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, the Hutu militias began the genocide immediately which they had planned long before against the Tutsis and moderate Hutu civilians across the country.The Hutus started to make hate speeches and propagandas from radios. In just a matter of hours, the Hutu militias surrounded the capital and took over the control of the streets of Kigali. Within a few days, the Hutus had successfully ruled the moderate leadership of Rwanda out. As the weeks passed, Tutsis and anyone suspected of having any relations to a Tutsi were killed. As Rwanda was a very poor country, most of the killings were carried out by any closest tools they could find such as machete, whip, knives and spears. The political vacuum enabled Hutu extremists to take control of the country. The list of Tutsis targets prepared in detail and government called upon Rwandans who are Hutu to murder their neighbors who are Tutsi. These prepared lists included names, addresses and license plates.Through radio hate speeches, people were encouraged to take over the streets and eradicate those who matched the list. In addition to the brutal mass killings, systematic rape was also generally used as a weapon of war against the Tutsi women during the Rwandan genocide.
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