Genocide: The destructive storm

The words brutal and ugly could

have different meanings for some people
depending on their perspective. For U.S
citizens these terms could be words that
used without thinking too much about them.
But for people who are victims of a
genocide, these terms have a very haunting
effect on their minds. The events in a
genocide are truly horrific and terrible.
Genocide truly describes the meaning of
brutal and ugly.
Getting Started
In 1994 civilian violence in the East
African nation of Rwanda claimed the lives
of an estimated 800,000 people. (The
Rwanda Genocide) The numbers of deaths
that are tied in with genocides are
outrageous. This was a number for a year,
and that number only grew bigger. We all
remember the horrible events of the
holocaust, and how many innocent people
were killed. That event was a genocide and
it is among the most horrific ones. There are
a lot of other genocides that have happened,
some claiming more lives than others. But
the main reason we only know about a few
is because they were the most talked about.
Every genocide needs to be talked about and
made known. These are innocent people
being killed. That is not something to skip
over and not pay attention to.

This is a cemetery with victims who have fallen

from a genocide

The worst part of it all was that there

was no age limit of people killed. Men,
woman, and children, were all targeted.
Families where torn apart right in front of
their eyes. Imagine your brother being taken
away from you and that would be the last
time you ever saw him. That is something
all of us could not imagine or grasp what
that feeling would be like. But the victims
had to experience that pain, and sometimes
it wouldnt just be one time that they would
have to experience it.
The people in charge really didnt
have any mercy and most of these genocides
where not quick to end. Guatemala had a
war lasting 36 years claiming two hundred
thousand peoples lives (Paley). So for 36
years the victims of that genocide (or as they
called it, war) had to endure that pain and
that hatred. That is something that we could
not go through and ever give forgiveness to
the people who caused all that pain. But the
most amazing this is that there are people
who had their family killed but they forgave.
Aftermath
The genocide is horrible and
terrifying by its self, but what happens after
is in a very close second place. The effects
after a genocide have a great impact on the

Genocide: The destructive storm

culture and on the victims mind. People who
were lucky enough to survive said that the
killers during the genocide were animals that
couldnt be stopped (White). The mental
effects that this put on not only adults but
children were awful. The fact that they
treated the kids the way they did is
sickening. In most cases children were
exposed severely to multiple years of abuse.
Not just physical, but sexual and emotional.
(Paley). That kind of abuse is going to ruin
the kids mental state. No child should ever
be exposed to the events these kids were.
The people are not the only ones
affected when a genocide ends. Huge
amounts of aid were now directed at the
refugee crisis. Western governments
allocated millions of dollars for emergency
food, shelter and medicine and the public
donated huge sums of money: in the UK
alone over 40 million euros were raised.
(White). So other countries are donating
money because the ones affected have
literally nothing left. So the effect after
genocide is there country. These other
countries are donating money, giving food,
providing medicine, and giving shelter.
Without this being done the people of the
country would not be able to live. The
genocide takes peoples lives and a piece of
the country with it.
Brutality of Genocide
The Brutality of a genocide is truly
sickening. This sub topic is what people
really need to focus on and really need to
grasp. This is important because it shows
what these people went through and how
terrible these events were. During the
Rwanda Genocide, villagers would run and

hide in churches or other buildings. This was

there way of gaining protection from the
killers. But that didnt help that, the killers
would throw grenades into the buildings.
Then after that they would finish them off
by using their machetes. (White). This truly
describes how brutal they were. After they
had hit the villagers with grenades, it wasnt
enough so they had to use machetes. There
was no mercy from these people.
The other side that goes along with
how brutal they were and how heartless the
killers actually were is how they disposed of
the bodies. Bodies were covered with
banana leaves so they would not be visible
to photographers of journalists traveling
overhead in airplanes or helicopters. Orders
came over the radio instructing the
interahamwe attackers to stop clogging the
roads with bodies. Thousands of corpses
were dumped into rivers (The Rwanda
Genocide). The thousands of dead bodies
were not important to the killers. They
seemed unaffected that there were thousands
of dead people lying around them. The fact
that they just left them lying there, and then
eventually just dumped them into the river
shows that they did not care.
After all of this information the one
thing that you should never forget is how
ugly all of this is and the brutality that was
used. All in all a Genocide is among the
worst of catastrophes to happen in this
world. But after reading this it will hopefully
make you realize what those people had to
endure and experience. The topic of
genocide is not something to just blow past.
This is a terrible event that needs to be
recognized and stopped. What can you do to
help?

Genocide: The destructive storm

Work Cited
PALEY, DAWN, and SANDRA CUFFE. Genocide ON TRAIL. Canadian Dimension 47.6
(2013): 36-40. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Jan. 2015
The Rwandan Genocide. Gale student resources in context. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Student
Resources in context. Web. 25 Jan. 2015
White, Dean. An African Holocaust. History Today 64.6 (2014): 40-46. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 26 Jan. 2015