Rwandan Genocide

Category: Genocide`

Main players -- President Juvenal Habyarimana, moderate Hutu, his death prompted the Rwandan Genocide. Paul Kagame, current president of Rwanda, leader of the RPF. Romeo Dallaire was Major-
General of UNAMIR the UN mission to Rwanda. When genocide broke out, he worked hard to minimize violence while being stripped of his forces by the UN. Augustine Bizimungu, former general of the Rwandan Armed Forces, one of the main leaders of the genocide. Theoneste Bagosora, former Rwandan military officer, another main leader of the genocide.
Victims -- Tutsi and moderate Hutu sympathizers.
Estimated death toll -- 800,000
Aftermath -- July 17 the genocide ended. The Tutsi RPF forces captured Kigali on July 4, and the Hutu government fled to Zaire along with many Hutu refugees. Ethiopian UN troops replaced French troops and the RPF set up an interim government in Kigali. Many Hutus fled to refugee camps in Zaire, Burundi, and Tanzania when the Tutsis took over the government. Around March 1995, humanitaria workers were helping the Hutus return to their homes in Rwanda, but many Hutus were afraid for their safety. In 1996, the Rwandan government began the genocide trials after DR Congo and Tanzania expelled the Rwandan refugees living there. Soon after, the UN created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. The latter was set up to punish the orchestrators of the Genocide, while the Rwandan government would deal with the lower-level perpetrators.
History -- When Rwanda was a colony, the German and later the Belgian colonists made distinctions between the Tutsis and the Hutus. Based on these distinctions, the colonists favored the Tutsis (thought to be slender, taller, lighter-skinned) and gave them privilages over the Hutus (education, Positions in government). After WWII, the Tutsi began challenging the Belgian government and calling for Rwandan independence. So the Belgians fired all the Tutsi officials and favored the Hutus and started oppressing the Tutsis. Thus, when the Belgian government left Rwanda, the Hutus had control of the government, and started their long period of Tutsi discrimination and harrassment. This lead to the Rwandan genocide after the president was killed when his plane was shot down. To this day no one knows whether it was the Tutsi rebel forces or the Hutu extremists who shot the plane down.
Sources-
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno15-8-05.htm#P1081_336018
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/etc/crontext.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230.stm