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As you read your foreign policy briefing, take these notes:

 What groups are involved in the conflict?


 What are the long term causes of this conflict?
 What have been the results of the conflict thus far?

Notes
. The groups are involved in this conflict are two tribes called is Rwanda.

Foreign Policy Briefing – Rwanda, 1994


OVERVIEW
Before Europeans came, two major tribes lived in Rwanda. One tribe raised and herded cattle
and were called the Tutsi. The other tribe were farmers and were called the Hutu. The tribes had
lived in relative peace. The Hutu and the Tutsi speak the same languages, follow essentially the
same clan and kinship systems, and practice the same religions.
BEGINNINGS
When Europeans (Germans and Belgians) colonized Rwanda, they chose Tutsi people to rule
Rwanda because they thought they were taller and looked more European and thus, were “more
fit” to rule and a superior race. The Tutsi (14% of the population) were allowed to be educated
and were given special privileges. Europeans used the Tutsi to enforce their rule by giving them
all of the government positions. The Hutus (85% of the population) were treated as second-class

HISD Social Studies Curriculum 2019 World History Studies


citizens, denied higher education and government positions. Beginning in the 1930s, all Africans
in Rwanda had to carry ID cards which identified whether they were Hutu or Tutsi.
GENOCIDE
In 1962, Rwanda gained its independence. Racial tension increased and 700,000 Tutsis fled the
country and became refugees in neighboring countries. The children of these Tutsi refugees
formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or the RPF.
In 1973, a moderate Hutu, Major General Habyarimana, became the leader of the Rwandan
government. The RPF began a civil war in 1990 when they invaded Rwanda from Uganda. A
million Rwandan refugees went to Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, and Zaire (now the Democratic
Republic of the Congo) to escape the war.
In 1993, Habyarimana signed an agreement that called for a government that would include the
RPF. This angered extreme Hutu nationalists, called the Hutu Power Government. In 1994, the
Rwandan president’s plane was shot down. The Hutu-controlled media and the Hutu Power
Government blamed the assassination on the Tutsis, and urged the Hutus to avenge his death by
killing all Tutsis. In the next 100 days, nearly one million Rwandans, mostly Tutsis but also
moderate Hutus, were murdered by Hutu “death squads”. By the time the Tutsi rebels (the RPF)
defeated the Hutu government, hundreds of thousands had died and more than 2 million were
refugees.
The United Nations sent in a force of 2500 soldiers to Rwanda, but they were prevented from
taking military action. Other countries were reluctant to send in troops, especially the United
States, which had lost soldiers the year before in Somalia and didn’t want to get involved in
another conflict in Africa. Most countries didn’t even initially characterize the killings as genocide,
which would have increased the demand for intervention. Finally, in May 1994 the UN
acknowledged that “acts of genocide may have been committed” and agreed to send in 5000
additional troops; however, the troops didn’t arrive until June because of arguments over who
would pay for the mission.

Copy and paste and watch the video.

HISD Social Studies Curriculum 2019 World History Studies


https://vimeo.com/38594193

Examples of Genocide – Resources

Rwanda
Victim Accounts:
Cassius Niyonsaba - 12 years old
"It was not yet noon when the interahamwe arrived...they threw grenades,...they rushed into the
church and started slicing people up with machetes and spears. ...In the thick of the afternoon,
the interahamwe burned little children in front of the door. I saw them with my own eyes...."

Jeannette Ayinkamiye - 17 years old


"...they chopped both her arms off first, then her legs. Mama was murmering 'Saint Cecile', but
she didn't beg for mercy...My two little sisters saw everything because they were laying right
beside her."

Statistics
During the 100 days of genocide, between 250,000 and 500,000 women were raped as a
weapon of war. Many were attacked by HIV Positive men.
(Source: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~frimp20s/briefhistoryintro.html)

Ntarama Genocide Memorial Centre – One of six genocide museums in Rwanda. 5,000 people
were killed here in a Catholic Church.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntarama_Genocide_Memorial_Centre.)

HISD Social Studies Curriculum 2019 World History Studies


The Balkans

(Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yugoslavia_ethnic_map.jpg.)

Darfur

HISD Social Studies Curriculum 2019 World History Studies


What do you think the UN should do about the genocide in Rwanda? Let's look at some
options. Before just wildly selecting one, let’s discuss some of the consequences of each of
the options.

Show the various options below to students.Discuss with students the consequences of
some of the options. Highlight your choice.

Options for your UN assignment:

A. Do nothing.

B. Politely ask the groups in conflict to stop fighting.

C. Economic Sanctions: get all nations to stop trading with the nation until the
fighting stops.
D. Give military and economic assistance to one of the groups (the one we agree with
most.)

E. Invade the nation, take over the government and write a new constitution for
them, occupy the nation until we are sure the fighting will stop.

Consequences for each option might include:

A. Do nothing – the genocide will continue and get worse. No one else from other nations
will be harmed.

HISD Social Studies Curriculum 2019 World History Studies


B. Ask groups to stop- chance they won’t listen or care. But a chance they will listen and
stop fighting.

C. Sanctions: might work but will take years for sanctions to be felt. And sanctions might
not work if you can’t convince all nations to abide by them.

D. Military/economic assistance – that would help one side win but would that also drag
the UN or even the US into a war like Vietnam.

E. Invade – does the UN have the right to take over a whole nation? Would we have to
invade all nations that the UN disagreed with?It would probably end the violence, though.

In the aftermath of the genocide, approximately 1.7 million Hutu fled across the border into
the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Tutsi rebels took control of the government. They
chose a Hutu to serve as president and Paul Kagame, the Tutsi rebel leader, became vice
president. Refugees, continued massacres, and the legacy of genocide continued to haunt
the nation. In 1998, a UN tribunal sentenced the former prime minister of Rwanda to life in
prison for his part in the genocide. By 2001, eight others had also been convicted of the
same charge. In 2000, Paul Kagame became the first Tutsi president of the nation.

Aftermath

Sudan - In 2009, the ICC indicted [formally accused] President al-Bashir of ordering the
mass killing, rape and destruction against the civilians of Darfur and issued a warrant for
his arrest, as well as for the former Minister for the Interior and the Janjaweed military
leader. None of the suspects were apprehended. Another arrest warrant was issued for al-
Bashir for three counts of genocide in 2010, again with no arrest made. According to UN
estimates, as of 2016, 2.7 million Darfuris still remain in refugee camps and over 4.7 million
still rely on humanitarian aid.

Balkans – The war came to an end in 1995 when NATO forces forced the Serbs to negotiate
a peace agreement. The result was the Dayton Accords. A US-brokered peace divided

HISD Social Studies Curriculum 2019 World History Studies


Bosnia into two self-governing entities, a Bosnian Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat
federation lightly bound by a central government. In August 1995, the Croatian army
stormed areas in Croatia under Serb control prompting thousands to flee. Soon Croatia and
Bosnia were fully independent nations. Slovenia and Macedonia were already independent.
Montenegro became independent later. In 1999, Kosovo's ethnic Albanians fought Serbs in
another war to gain independence. By 2001, Bosnia-Herzegovina did not need as much
supervision by the international community. The UN General Assembly declared that the
Bosnian Serb army was guilty of genocide and its military leaders were convicted of war
crimes and crimes against humanity. Slobadan Milosevic was to stand trial for war crimes
but died in 2006.

United Nations – Persuasive Speech


You are going to write a speech to deliver to the United Nations
Security Council on the situation in either Darfur or the Balkans and
give your solution to end it.
The object of your speech is to convince others that your solution will
be the best one. Remember, a speech is only heard once and
therefore, needs to leave a strong impression. The listeners will
remember the important parts of a short, organized speech much more
than a long, rambling speech.
Must Haves
Statement of the problem or issue. (20 points)
Statistics (this includes deaths, refugees, etc.) (20 points)
Causes of the genocide (20 points)
Solution to the genocide (20 points)
Why this is the best solution (to do this, you may need to explain why other options are
NOT going to work as well.) (10 points)
 Few to no spelling or grammar errors. Written in complete sentences. Meaning is clear.
(10 points)
Sample:
Good morning delegates.

HISD Social Studies Curriculum 2019 World History Studies


My name is ____ and I represent the nation of ________. I am here to discuss one of the most
important issues in the world. I am here to discuss the HIV virus, most commonly known as
AIDS.
As all of you are aware, HIV/AIDS is affecting 1.1 million people in the country of ____. This
disease is most commonly transmitted by armed soldiers raping women during times of
war. Survivors of rape are frequently abandoned by their families and communities; therefore
they are forced to leave their homes and are left in poverty. Women are three times as likely to
be living with HIV/AIDS than men, and within the next ten years, more than half of the
population will be threatened by it. Because of the country’s poverty, state health facilities
offer no treatment for HIV/AIDS other than voluntary tests and counsel.
For this reason, I urge you to support our plan of sending money, medical resources, and
educational materials to the nation. These resources will not simply be sent, but will be taken
by an international UN force to oversee and the distribution of all monies. Other solutions have
called for sending money to the government. This has not worked as there is no means of
insuring that the money sent reaches the neediest citizens. We urge all delegates of the house
to vote in favor of our resolution.
Thank you for your attention.

Write your own speech, making sure you have included all of the “must haves” listed above.

HISD Social Studies Curriculum 2019 World History Studies

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