Rape as a War Tactic in the Rwandan Genocide

Viewing the perpetrators of vile deeds as motivated merely by evil is a gross oversimplification. In the introduction, Jean Hatzfield states that the story will follow the lives of the killers: the Hutu men who perpetrated the Rwandan genocide and murdered their Tutsi neighbors en masse. The narration style switches between chapters written in third person omniscient style and chapters composed of many short sections of first person narratives from the perspectives of the Hutu men interviewed by the author. The third person chapters provide context for the stories of the Hutus, while the numerous stories themselves add a personal element that reveals the thoughts and mindsets of the Hutu’s who participated in one of the largest and most

Rwanda is a country located in the middle of the African continent. The two ethnic groups present in the country lived in peace under their monarch until the arrival of Europeans. The Belgians arrival into Rwandan is what split the two ethnic groups of the Tutsi and Hutus, making them identify themselves with ID cards. This caused tension between the two groups as the Belgians favored the ethnic Tutsi, and made them the head of the government. Decade’s later Hutu extremists would take over the government and have revenge on the Tutsi. The new government would send out broadcasts calling on Hutus to kill their friends and neighbors. The Rwandan genocide would become the worst genocide to ever happen in Africa and one of the worst in the world. Today Rwanda’s recovery is surprisingly fast with the help of multiple nations and organizations. Rwanda’s recovery is nothing short of a miracle and is an amazing story of a war between two peoples.

On the day of April 6th 1994, the mass murders sparked a ferocious wave of bloody reprisals as thousands of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered over the next three months, killing almost 10,000 people everyday. Hutu extremists were told to load up on weapons like knives, guns, axes, whatever they could find so they could kill tutsis. They could do whatever they wanted to the Tutsis. The Hutu government said “Spare no one, especially the babies.” The Hutus goal was to kill every Tutsi in Rwanda. As told by Border guards, people have been floating down the river in hundreds everyday for weeks. Many bodies had their hands tied behind their backs. They were either shot, hacked, clubbed, burned, or drowned.

On October 30th, 2014, over 220 women were raped in less than 36 hours in Tabit. The HRW (Human Rights Watch) had been following the case with caution. Although the Tibet government has been trying to hide this terrible case, a man told the HRW, “They said if I talked about Tabit again that I was going to be finished. They kicked me. Tied me and hanged me up. They beat me with whips and electric wires” (Human Rights Watch). This mass rape was claimed to be a “deliberate attack on Tabit and the mass rape of the town’s women and girls is a new low in the catalog of atrocities in Darfur” (Human Rights Watch). The Sudanese armed forces caused a mass rape of over 200 women as a political statement in war. One of the soldiers told a mother “You killed our man. We are going to show you true hell” (Humans Right

War never changes, it will always be around for as long as we are here, with it, it brings genocide. Every day we are in a constant battle with each other, whether it be at home or across the oceans. We have invented weapons solely to cause mass destruction across entire continents. This has led to limitations being placed on warfare, but sometimes it's not enough. "We have to protect our Earth, so our children and grandchildren will never suffer like that"

J.P. Stassen’s Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda gives us an emotionally harrowing tale of the pre- and post-Rwandan genocide from the perspective of a Hutu named Deogratias. In the pre-genocide era, Deogratias is depicted as a normal young man who is still trying to figure out his way in the world. He goes to school, works, drink alcohol, and flirts with the opposite sex. In the post genocide era, Deogratias is depicted with a torn, murky white shirt and red, haunted eyes. He is shown to be constantly suffering from the guilt and memories of his actions in the genocide.

Before watching this documentary from Frontline, I had never realized about the atrocities that had occurred in Rwanda in 1994. I had been naive in not realizing that mass genocidal killings like the ones shown were happening in our modern world. It was my assumption that international organizations like the United Nations or the United States would take action to prevent these horrendous acts from occurring. It was deeply shocking and overwhelming to see the horrendous acts humans were doing to each other. The murderers in Rwanda acted like savage animals without society or government to stop them from killing 800,000 innocent people. The most interesting aspect of the documentary was learning that the international community failed on purpose and let hundreds of thousands of people die.

On April 7, 1994, tragedy began. In the small country of Rwanda, a civil war between

You sit in your kitchen, shivering, hearing the bombs surround you. Fear covers any other thought in your mind, you don’t want to think of what is to come for you nor your family. The deliberate and systematic murdering of a group, a genocide, have made millions experience these very feelings. When every genocide starts, the days seem endless and the problem exacerbates. It’s not until the other countries and the victims work together that they can end what the perpetrators started, mass murderings. Yet the foreign countries still lack the will needed to help find a solution. People are scared of what will come if their countries contribute to helping, though the the phrase “never again” is always spoken among them. The only way for these

The Belgians’ act of inhumanity through the discrimination of the Hutu is the main reason that the Rwandan genocide took place. In the article titled, Rwanda Genocide of 1994, the author begins by introducing the background of Rwanda: “The three groups, Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa lived together for centuries. Belgium ruled Rwanda in the 19th century and granted the Tutsi social power over the Hutu.” (“Rwanda Genocide”). For instance, the Belgian colonizers threw the Hutu into agriculturist and other primary jobs which did not earn them enough to support themselves. Tutsis were given complete control over the government. This cruel classification of the Hutus directly relates to the different acts of inhumanity present before the genocide even started.

During the Rwandan genocide, systematic rape was also practiced “as a weapon of war” (End Genocide). There was around 250,000 to 500,000 women raped and it was done to destroy the Tutsi by emotional pain. The Hutus wanted the woman to “die of sadness” and to cripple them with health problems. In most cases, the women were murdered after being raped. Eventually, in the span of 100 days, the RPF started to “make gains on both the battlefield and in the negotiations led by Tanzania”. In the beginning of July, the RPF gained authority over the majority of the country and many Hutus left the

The first argument that my essay will posit how be wartime rape can be utilised as an instrument of conducting ethnic cleansing on a populous. Here I will be discussing the conditions which condoned the ethnic-gender based sexual violence in Rwanda and the aftereffects of the civil war in Rwanda. Secondly, my essay will be looking into rape as an expression of superiority, most notably seen through the German incursions where comfort women and prisoners of war were used to satisfy their soldiers needs. Moreover, my last section will be discussing sexual violence as retaliation against enemy incursions in war, my dominant discourse here will be the Soviet counterattack against Nazi Germany where an estimated 100,000 women were raped in Berlin alone as vengeance against Nazi Germany for invading

From April to June of 1994, in Rwanda, Tutsis and moderate Hutus were systematically killed in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. In these three months, it was estimated that more than a million Tutsis were murderered.(“Statistics | Survivors Fund,” n.d.) About six people a minute were murdered, every minute of every day for these three months(“Statistics | Survivors Fund,” n.d.) In addition to the mass murder of Tutsis, mass rape (especially by HIV positive men) was used as a weapon. Approximately half a million women were raped and of those more than 2/3 eventually contracted HIV as a result. More than 20,000 children were born out of rape in the months following the genocide(“Statistics | Survivors Fund,” n.d.). This genocide was especially unique in that, it was carried out by normal citizens of the country rather than generals or government officials. Neighbors murdered neighbors and former friendly acquaintances were attacked by people they knew (Staub, 2004).

In 1994 the country of Rwanda experienced genocide that killed thousands of people. This genocide was mostly against the Tutsi but also men, women and children of Hutu decent that were found to be in contact with Tutsi. The conflict between the Tutsi, Twa and Hutu people began when the Belgium colonizers decided to divide the three groups. According to Herndon and Randell (2013) “colonial ideology had promoted the notion of Tutsi women as more aesthetically pleasing because of imagined similarities to European features (p.73). Which is why during the genocide of 1994, Tutsi women were victims of sexual violence, were told by their perpetrators that they wanted to find out if Tutsi women were really different from Hutu women. A lot of women

The genocide in Rwanda is representative of one of the most horrendous and unnecessary losses to life in recent world history. Rwanda’s crisis is a historical product, not a biological fatality or a ‘spontaneous’ bestial outburst. Both the Tutsi and the Hutu, were not predestined for all eternity to disembowel one another because the taller and thinner of the two came from Egypt, while the shorter stockier ones were born in the shores of Lake Kivu. This genocide has a history filled with complex roots, many contradictions, and brutal twists of fates, sudden accelerations, and periods of spiritual collapse. Hence, the aim of this paper is to examine, the Rwandan genocide’s impact on the lived experiences of the children and youths present