Genocide

What is genocide?

· Genocide

· Killing members of a group.

· Causing serious bodily harm/mental harm to members of the group.

· Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole/part.

· Imposing measures to bring about destruction.

· Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Genocide is the ultimate act of discrimination.

How is genocide often explained?

· Sociobiology – humans driven by aggressive instincts that emerge when society falls apart.

· Integration causes conflict.

· Long history of blood feuds in the region

· Economic Crisis

· Rise of minority power

“In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front”

Rwanda

· People involved: Tutsi (minority pastoralists), Hutu (majority agriculturalists), Twa (minority labourers).

· Myths of superiority and inferiority.

· History of colonization (Maquet 1961, Detexhe 1987, Mamdani 2001) by Germans and Belgians.

· Return of Tutsis (RPF) into Rwanda

· Misinformation and stirring of ethnic hatred.

· Many Hutus still in neighbouring countries: Uganda,Tanzania and DRC: humanitarian crisi in these countries.

Possible solutions:

· Cross culture education

· Using media to promote understanding.

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