“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
-Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor
Genocide?
After the systematic killings of millions of
Jews in Europe during the Holocaust,
Raphael Lemkin (Jewish scholar) gave the
atrocities a name: GENOCIDE
Defined as being…
Genocide is a term created during the Holocaust and declared an
international crime in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The
Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts
committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
a. Killing members of the group;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the
group;
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in
part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the
group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The specific "intent to destroy" particular groups is unique to
genocide. A closely related category of international law, crimes
against humanity, is defined as widespread or systematic attacks
against civilians.
• After the Holocaust the world said NEVER
AGAIN.
• It happened again… and again…and
again…and again…it’s still happening
today.
Picture of the memorial at Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany.
The countries on the next slide are
ones that either CURRENTLY are
engaging in genocide or are at
risk…
Country
Genocide Watch
April 2010
7-Current Massacres
Victims
Killers
DR Congo
7
Women, civilians, Congo Tutsis
Ex-Rwandan genocidists,
LRA
Sudan
7
Darfurese, southerners
Sudan army,
Arab militias
Somalia
7
Opposing clans
Al Shabaab
Afghanistan
7
Gov’t supporters
Taliban, Al Queda
Pakistan
7
Gov’t supporters
Taliban, Al Queda
North Korea
7
Gov’t opponents
Korean Army
Burma
7
Shan, Karen, Rohinga,
democrats
Burmese Army
Ethiopia
7
Gov’t opponents
Tigrean Army
6-Potential
Massacres
Nigeria
6
Ethnic, religious
Ethnic, religious
PRChina
6
Falun Gong, Uighers
Chinese army
Yemen
6
North Yemen
South Yemen
Colombia
6
Gov’t officials
Drug gangs, FARC
Equatorial Guinea
6
Bubi minority
Gov’t police
Uganda, Eastern Congo,
Sudan
6
Civilians
Lord’s Resistance Army
Chad
6
Zaghawas
Sudanese raiders
Central Afr. Rep.
6
African farmers
Arab militias
Rwanda: 1994
• Between April and June 1994 an estimated ONE
MILLION Rwandans were killed…
• …in 100 days
The world did
nothing
to stop it
Rwanda: Background
• Rwanda was a Belgian colony until 1962
• There were two predominant ethnic groups in
Rwanda: the Hutus and the Tutsis
• When the Belgian’s arrived in 1916 they made
and had all Rwandans carry identity cards which
classified them according to their ethnicity
• The Belgians preferred the Tutsis (they thought
they were superior to the Hutus)
Tutsis vs. Hutus (Ethnicity)
• Tutsis are said to be taller, thinner with their
roots in Ethiopia
• The Hutus are said to have their roots in Chad
• The Belgian’s thought the Tutsis were superior
so they gave them better jobs/educational
opportunities, put them as overseers to the
Hutus (European colonial powers creating a
divide between two ethnicities…sound familiar?)
• The Hutus did not like this
• There was a tension between the two ethnic
groups as a result of this Belgian imposed status
Belgium Leaves…
• In 1962 Belgium relinquished power and left Rwanda
• The Hutus took control (there was a series of revolts and
uprisings prior to Belgium leaving)
• Over the next few decades (decade = 10 years) many
Hutus blamed the Tutsis for everything, they were the
scapegoats
• This is a result of the resentment the Hutus built up for
the Tutsis when they were the ‘preferred’ ethnic group by
the Belgian’s
• Some RADICAL Hutu’s have some repressed animosity
toward Tutsi minority
– Not all Tutsi’s and Hutu’s hated one another, in many cases they
were neighbors, coworkers, friends or even relatives by marriage
A Nail in the Coffin…
• The Hutu president’s airplane was shot down
(Habyarimana) killing the president and other officials
• Who do you think was blamed for this assasination?
• The Tutsis.
…within hours of the president being killed the retribution
and mass killing of Tutsi CIVILIANS began…
((It is commonly believed that it was actually a Hutu
extremist who shot the plane down to incite the
genocide))
Cockroaches
• The presidential guard and radio propaganda
encouraged Hutus to mobilize
• The radio broadcasts called for a final war to
‘exterminate the cockroaches’… during the genocide it
gave names of Tutsis and instructed the killers on where
to find them
• The Interahamwe was the main Hutu group carrying out
the killings
• The US evacuates all Americans and all French, Italian,
and Belgians are evacuated by troops from their
countries…those troops did not stay to help the conflict.
They did not stay to stop the genocide.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
• The Hutus primarily used machetes, clubs, sticks, grenades
and guns to carry out their mass genocide
• Some of the worst massacres took place in churches
• The cries for help from the Tutsis and those UN peacekeepers
on the ground went unheeded
• The world watched as one-tenth of the Rwandan population
was executed
• The Tutsis were helpless.
• No one does anything while innocent men, women and
children are being killed every second of every day
• Often times the Hutu’s who participated in the genocide were
civilians promised Tutsi land/fields (crops to feed their
families)…they frequently had to kill their OWN Tutsi
neighbors and friends
((pause to hear testimony of survivors))
Machetes used in the
attacks
Timeline
April 7: 8,000
April 9: 32,000
April 15: 64,000
April 16: 72,000
April 19: 100,000
April 21,22: 112,000
April 25: 144,000
April 27: 160,000
April 28: 168,000
May 1: 200,000
May 3: 216,000
May 5: 232,000
May 13: 296,000
May 17: 328,000
May 25: 392,000
June 22: 616,000
July 17: Day 100: Between 800,000-1
MILLION RWANDANS KILLED
The Genocide Ends…in Rwanda
• The genocide of the Hutus against the minority
Tutsis ends with the Tutsi RPF (RPF: Rwandan
Patriotic Front– Tutsi exiles and descendents,
refugees)
• The RPF took over Kigali (the capital), the Hutu
govt collapsed and a ceasefire was established
• An International Tribunal in Tanzania has been
established to try the higher up officials who
participated in the genocide…
• Since the atrocities 34 have been convicted and
there are still roughly 30 on trial
“Between 800,000 and 1,071,00
Tutsis, including some moderate
Hutus, were murdered.
Many more were mutilated,
maimed or physically scarred for
life.
The mental anguish and the
trauma cannot be measured”
– Holocaust Memorial Museum
What can WE do?
??
What about
DARFUR
?
Resources
• BBC has very comprehensive Rwandan genocide resources
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3594187.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/africa/2004/rwanda/default.stm
• The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has fantastic
resources on genocide
http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/genocide
• Hotel Rwanda is an excellent movie BUT you need to watch it with a
parent/guardian
• Ghosts of Rwanda is a documentary on the genocide but is very
difficult to watch and again, you need to watch it with a
parent/guardian and I would advise waiting until you are older so
you can fully process everything