Crisis in the Heart of Africa HUTU-TUTSI WAR IN ZAIRE
Ethnic conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi first became violent during Belgium's colonial rule. From the late 1950s to independence in 1962, colonial authorities sought to maintain control by playing the tribes off one another. The Belgians for years backed the better-educated Tutsi; but in 195...
Rwanda Hutu Uprising (1959) Congo "Crisis" (1960- 1967) Tutsi Invasion of Rwanda (1963) Tutsi Invasion of Rwanda (1964) Congolese (Brazzaville) Rebellions (1965-1969) Rwandan Civil War (1990-1994) Burundian Civil War (1995-Present) Zairian/Congolese Civil War (1996-1997)-Also involved Ango...
Rwanda, a small country in East Africa, was under European colonial influence for much of the 20th century. Independence from European control in the early 1960s was associated with intense ethnic conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples....
and intentional HIV transmission (Morrison and Orlando, 2004). These tactics have been predominantly seen in conflicts motivated by race, tribal and religious issues. In Rwanda, Tutsi women were taunted by Hutu rapists who told them they would be infected with HIV, and figures suggest that 70%...
The Arusha Accords, in fact, proved a major turning point in relations between the traditionally dominant Tutsi minority (which comprises only 14% of the population but controls, among others, the armed forces) and the Hutu majority. Conceived broadly as a political and military power-sharing agr...
and an unfathomable disregard for human life. It was in 1994 that the world got its first enduring taste of this region with the Rwandan genocide. The conflict spilled into neighboring countries as the Hutu militias, known collectively as the Interwahamwe—whose war with the minority Tutsi ...
“Genocidal Language Games,” the philosopher Lynne Tirrell describes how, for some years before the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu majority called their Tutsi neighbors “cockroaches” and “snakes.” In Rwanda, snakes are public health threats. Ms. Tirrell writes, “in Rwanda, boys are proud when...
The colonial system and the Cold War created strong central governments that maintained order, but at times arbitrarily nationalized various ethnic groups that oppressed other groups within the national boundaries (e.g., Rwanda with Tutsi and Hutu, Yugoslavia with Bosnians and Serbs). These "civil...
RWANDA'S genocidal civil war appears to be nearly over, won by the Tutsi rebels.The mostly Tutsi rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) declared itself the winner of the civil war on July 18 and announced a new government headed by two Hutus. "There is no need for anyone to flee Rwanda,"...