Happy Tuesday! 5/15

Happy Tuesday! 5/15 Please turn in your Blood Diamond reflection questions! Take a Ghosts of Rwanda handout and a card!

Genocide • Genocide =the deliberate destruction of, or attempt to destroy, a group of people targeted based on ethnic, racial, religious, or national identification. • Internationally Prosecuted: The Holocaust, Bosnian Genocide (1992-1995), Rwanda (1994), Cambodia (1975-1979) • Difficulties with labeling. For example, some say there is genocide happening in Darfur, Sudan. Others say it is not genocide.

Genocide • In 1996, Gregory Stanton, the president of Genocide Watch, presented a briefing paper called "The 8 Stages of Genocide" at the U.S. Department of State. In it he suggested that genocide develops in eight stages that are "predictable“ but not impossible to prevent.

Stage 1 - Classification • People are divided into "us and them".

Stage 2 - Symbolization • "When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of [targeted] groups..."

Stage 3 - Dehumanization • "One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases."

Stage 4 - Organization • "Genocide is always organized... Special army units or militias are often trained and armed..."

Stage 5 - Polarization • "Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda..."

Stage 6 - Preparation • "Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity..."

Stage 7 - Extermination • "It is 'extermination' to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human".

Stage 8 – Denial • "The perpetrators... deny that they committed any crimes..."

Rwanda RWANDA

Rwanda • Before Belgian occupation during World War I, Rwanda was a self-ruling kingdom. The Tutsi people were landowners and similar in status to nobles. The Hutu were the lower class farmers and laborers. There are some ethnic differences, but many Hutus and Tutsis married and became honorary members of the other group. • Before Belgian occupation, ethnic violence never occurred in large scale between Hutu and Tutsi. • Became a colony for Belgium after World War I.

Rwanda under Belgian rule • Each person was required to be classified as Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa. The Belgians developed a strict system of racial identification based on racist scientific theories. People with the whiter skin and Caucasian features were chosen Tutsi. • Believing the Tutsi were superior to the Hutu, only Tutsi were given access to higher education and as a result made up the ruling elite despite being minority.

Rwanda under Belgian rule • The Hutu are subject to the forced labor, similar to many European colonies in Africa. The Belgian colonial powers favored Tutsis as supervisors over the Hutu. • Because the Tutsis were favored by the Belgians, resentment among the Hutu was very high.

Rwanda • Independence officially in 1962 • Hutus (the majority) were now in power. • The country's most fervently racist newspaper publishes in December the Hutu Ten Commandments. • The eighth commandment, quoted at the time more often than any other, is: 'Hutus must stop having mercy on the Tutsis.' • In 1991 a name is coined for this new level of ethnic identity and goals - Hutu Power. • Government supports creating Hutu youth militias. These become known as the Interahamwe, meaning 'those who attack together'.

Rwanda • Early 1990s… • Civil war - Tutsi rebels (Rwandan Patriotic Front) are trying to fight the Hutu government troops for power. • President of Rwanda (he is Hutu) starts to negotiate with the Tutsi rebel army • Ethnic violence increases. • 1994: After signing a peace treaty with the RPF in 1993, Rwanda’s Hutu President is killed when his plane is shot down in spring 1994.

Rwanda • Hutu radio broadcasts urge people to do their duty and seek out the Tutsis and Tutsi-sympathizers living among them in their streets or villages. The message is: eliminate the “cockroaches” or die with them.

Ghosts of Rwanda

Happy Tuesday! 5/15