The Rwandan Genocide: A Lesson in Humanity
The Rwandan government adopted a law in 1994 allowing members of the Hutu majority to murder members of the Tutsi group. There were about 800,000 civilian deaths. This was a memorable example of how people's responses to genocide taught us important lessons about humanity. This extraordinary encounter informs us of the events that have occurred in Rwanda and its neighboring nations, such as the Congo, since 1994, when the Rwandan government enacted this policy.
The Somber History and Tragic Effects
According to scholars, this is a somber history that is marked by vivid background information about the incident and an unforgettable encounter with its effects, including mass migrations, temptations to exact vengeance and cries for justice, replacement of people and the cries of survivors, the hardship crowded prisons and the militant refugee camps. Its effect portraits of the people of Rwanda in every aspect of life as they struggle to adapt with the psychological torture and political difficulties of surviving make their tragic condition that occurred unexpectedly and familiar (Fisanick, 57). The narrative of the genocide also reveals the genocidal forces that threatened to push the central Africa into fierce war and also how this lead to the drive to remove Mobutu from ruling in Congo. The event also tries to contrast the Rwandans' provocatively original political response to the terror with the wholly limited responses from international human organizations and the foreign countries.
The Massacre and Its Horrifying Impact
Although the massacre was mainly carried out by the use of machete weapons, it was done at a very alarming speed. Around 800,000 civilians were killed in cold blood within a hundred days. A Tutsi bishop, in a written letter to the church president who was a Hutu, used a unique phrase that granted Gourevitch a title. With observant dramatic intensity, Philip Gourevitch outlines the beginning and the horror of the people of Rwanda genocide in the war anguish of its effects. With the massive displacements of people, the urge for revenge and the outcry for justice on the victims, it becomes a trauma ordeal that has still effects to Rwandans to date. Gourevitch who was a journalist through his interaction with the survivors brings out the huge brutality of the massacre ordeal impossible on an academic paper. He toured churches where the Tutsi were under refuge and were man-slaughtered. He also toured mass graves. He came along elderly persons and children who had somehow survived the genocide (Fisanick, 103).
The Manipulation and Devastating Consequences
In his recitation of the horror event, by drawing detail by detail and on individual account, he brings out the manner in which the Hutu extremists convinced villagers to bring down their compatriots, both of whom were of the same language, shared one religion, and had similar physical characteristics despite that they were known as Tutsi the only difference from the Hutu who refused to kill their compatriots. Messages about this moving ordeal are several. The major one narrates that UN and the West would have come in to prevent the killings from resulting into a genocide. The other is a narration that fear was capable of forcing apathetic villagers to be butchered. Genocides are signs of powerful political ends. (Fisanick, 113)
A Lesson for Humanity
In conclusion, this reading fits in with the other reading and lecture response in the sense that a country made up of many perpetrators and victims can create a cohesive national society. This narrative contribution to the field of literature of witnesses informs us more about struggles everywhere to forge sane, habitable political occurrences, and about the humanitarian spirit in a world of extremity.
Work Cited
Fisanick, Christina. The Rwanda Genocide. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. Print.
