Explain the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda as discussed by Phillip Gourevitch. What lessons do we learn from the Rwanda genocide case? How would you apply those lessons to preventing conflicts and violence from erupting in Kuwait?
What lessons do we learn from the Rwanda genocide and other cases of political violence discussed in class? How would you apply those lessons to preventing conflicts and violence from erupting in Kuwait?
Lessons Learned from Rwanda
ReplyDeleteThe history between the Tutsis and Hutus has been paved with blood since before the 70’s. A deep-rooted hate between these two tribes dates back since the Hutus migrated from chad and the Tutsis from Ethiopia. Since after the Belgians took control in the 60’s power has been flip-flopping back and forth from the Tutsi to the Hutus and mass killing by the hundreds ensued.
April 27 1972 Burundi, a group of Hutu policemen who are loyal to Hutu extremists operating in Tanzania kill 800 to 1,200 Hutus and Tutsi’s who refuse to join the Hutu rebellion. With this the Tutsi president Michel Micombero declares martial law and in doing so sets in motion a genocide on the Hutus, and estimated 300,000 Hutus are killed.
In 1993 Melchior Ndadaye is elected president in Burundi but is assassinated shortly after. This caused a death toll of 25,000 Tutsi civilians. The Tutsi respond in revenge killings bring a total of 50,000 deaths.
Finally in 1994, Hutus Cyprien Ntaryamira and Juvenal Habyarimana the president of Rwanda are assassinated. This event starts off the Rwandan Genocide Hate radio dictates violence and breeds hate yielding a death toll of over 500,000 Tutsis.
A major lesson to be learned in a conflict like this is monitoring events and actions between to parties that seem to teeter at the brink of war. A conference between the two parties should be held and a means to end the killing should be discussed ending with a treaty and a compromise between the two parties. However, this can only happen if the two parties aren’t hell bent on killing each other.
For Kuwait, a Kuwaiti oneness must be instated and the line that differentiates the parties should be liquefied. If the conflict is between expats, I believe the only method is deportation of the expats. The fear of deportation will cripple any sense of rebellion, while this may seem extreme, the priority goes to the nationals and a conflict between nationals and expats may bring a country to its knees. If the events occurs the expats will go back to their homelands’ and the nationals will be left with a broken state to rebuild.
But…. that’s just my two cents
Hisham Najem
6800
the conflict between the tutsi and hutus was all about revenge that one tribe supressed the other and the rage to take revenge happened. we would apply that to kuwait by how do we treat our foriegn servents, that treating them bad will lead to an emotion of rage then turns to revenge and to avoid this occuring we need to treat them with the treatment of a professioal job rather than a slave owned.
ReplyDeleteAn account of the Rwandan genocide is offered up by author Philip Gourevitch in his book “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families,” which offers a haunting background into the mass killings by Hutu Racial extremists of the Tutsi people as well as non-racist Hutus. At the end of the 100 day slaughter, an estimated 800,000 people were killed: hacked away at with machetes or shot to death with guns supplied from foreign countries unaware of their intended use. Although clashes and the beginning of the killings can be pinpointed to the death of the Rwandan president, Habyarimana, upon the shooting down of his plane, the conflict had been stirring for many years before that. Conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis can be traced back to their colonial past with Belgium, who in 1957 handed authority over to the Hutu’s, and forced Tutsis into labor, raised their taxes, and subjected them to whipping. With the issue of mistreatment lingering under the social patchwork of Rwanda, it was without very much surprise that Hutu’s exploited their given position of power and began to plot the mass murder of Tutsi’s, whom they believed they needed to suppress before they themselves were harmed. Incidents began in the 70s, with spurts of killing here and there, until the largest attack in ’94. The international community was not in the dark as to these occurrences, and had they recognized the warning signs (or cared enough to recognize them) then perhaps some deaths would have been spared. Perhaps the biggest lesson we have learned from the Rwandan genocide case is the power of indifference, lowly politics, and bureaucracy. Some countries took the route of indifference, turning the other cheek and ignoring the conflict because Rwanda, perhaps, had nothing of importance to them if they were to help the country in the midst of their turmoil. Other countries, like the US, got caught up in political precedence, worried more about the negative outcomes with Somalia shortly before the Rwandan case than with the deaths of thousands. This preoccupation with bureaucracy and set rules extended into army troops, the United Nations, and foreign workers who insisted of following orders and protocol that were detrimental to the human lives of Rwandas, more specifically Tutsis and Tutsi “sympathizers.”
ReplyDeleteThis lesson is easily applied to the prevention of conflicts and violence in Kuwait. It is imperative that we as citizens do not become complacent and indifferent to the suffering of others within our country, more specifically domestic workers and Bedoons. It is not enough to believer that it will be handled by the government if we do not lobby for it to be handled. After all, it is the laws and the customs of the government that are keeping domestic workers without proper laws in place to protect them, and it is the government that is keeping Bedoons from even being formally recognized.
S00013050
The conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis took place in Rwanda, a small African nation and would come to be known as the Rwandan Genocide. In the year of 1994, over the course of 100 days a mass murder took place taking the lives of over 800,000 people. The Hutus armed with low-tech forms of warfare, machetes, chopped innocent women and children and men into pieces defiling them in every way possible making their deaths the most gruesome illustration. This was the result of a long ongoing ethnic competition between Hutus and the Tutsis. An outburst of rebellion, anger and pure hate.
ReplyDeleteThe book "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families", by Phillip Gourevtich describes this conflict, the genocide, the history and the after math of such an event. He illustrates how Rwandans cope with everyday life and the impact of psycholigcal challenges on their survival. How does a place with so much horrifying history advance and move on with life? With temptations for revenge at every corner and the need for justice to be served staring you in the face.
The lesson I learn from the Rwanda genocide case is hate and revenge get you no where. Being so consumed with rage and committing any acts under that blind folded influence will always be acts of regretfulness. The Rwandan genocide tore a nation apart and left it in pieces just like the bodies of those 800,000. Now it is about picking up these pieces and putting them back together to rebuild what was lost to cope, to heal and to forgive. Although they maybe sharp and reopen old wounds of they must be covered to stop a continuing vicious cycle where no one wins.
To prevent conflicts and violence from erupting in Kuwait I think the lesson of the Rwanda genocide can be used In the case of domestic workers. We are all human beings with equal rights and opportunities of life. No human being can ever own another. A domestic worker is not a slave, it is a job and like other jobs there are restrictions and requirements of the employee that need to be followed however, these should not be taken to the extreme where their rights are no longer visible.
Also with the Bedoons, I believe they too have a right to be in this country. The struggle for citizenship is anther battle but, it does not mean they should be treated like less of a human being either. Just because the government does not recognize their national status does not mean they do not exist.
Gourevitch begins explaining the conflict between Hutus and Tutsis by stating the main roots of the conflicts which are Speke theory of the black people being all descendants of Ham son, Canaan who is said to be the first Black man (this story was also used to justify slavery). But between those men Speke said that he found a superior race, in which the Tutsi are included, they are said to descents of an Israel tribe. In the 50's and 60's, the Hutus rebelled, took power and send many Tutsis to exile. Those exiled performed guerrilla wars against the Hutu Power, they also formed a political group, the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front).
ReplyDeleteIn the 90's Habyarimana was obliged to sign the Arusha Accords by the International community. The Hutu opposition was angry with this signature because they said that it gave too much power to the Tutsis.
Hutus began training for killing; the Hutu commandments summarized the Hutu way of thinking about Tutsis and Hutus against Hutu Power.
The ethnic group was written on all Rwandan IDs so they could be found and rapidly killed.
The International community did not act when before the genocide clear signs of waht was about to happen were send to the UN.
Another lesson is that people could if they want stop the genocide before it happened. International and local by-standards could have said "Stop". People gave this genocide a chance to happen by not saying what they really thought. A lesson is to speak your mind before it is too late.
Education should have stand against and not with hate ideas, in school and at home.
Kuwaiti people should put their differences aside and work together. Degrees of nationality should be suppressed from the nationality law, because law are used to justify and rationalize possible hate actions as the "national work" asked by the Rwandan government. The Kuwaiti identity, no matter when it was received, should be put at top of all other identities. Privileges should be suppressed because they were one of the hate sources between Tutsis and Hutus. All Kuwaitis should be equal, at least before the laws and the duties and privileges their state provides them, even if a privilege is no more a privilege when it is given to everybody.
Religious identities should stay private, at home and not exposed publicly (secularism) because we are all Kuwaitis but not all believing in the same religious principles (Kuwaitis are Shii, Sunni, Christian, Bahman and so on).
The fighting between Tutsis and Hutus in central Africa has been going on for decades, ever since Belgium lost control of the area in the 1950s. The Hutu and Tutsi are two groups in Africa that became known to most in other parts of the world through the 1994 Rwanda genocide, but the history of conflict between the two ethnic groups reaches back further than that.
ReplyDeleteThe Hutus and Tutsis lived in harmony in Central Africa. The Tutsis are tall, warrior people, moved south from Ethiopia and invaded the homeland of the Hutus. Though much smaller in number, they conquered the Hutus, who agreed to raise crops for them in return for protection. Even in the colonial era when Belgium ruled the area, after taking it from Germany in 1916 the two groups lived as one and speaking the same language.
On April 6, 1994, the Hutu president of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana was assassinated when his plane was shot down near Kigali International Airport. This sparked the chillingly well-organized extermination of Tutsis by Hutu militias even though blame for the plane attack has never been established. Sexual violence against Tutsi women was also widespread, and the United Nations only conceded that "acts of genocide" had likely happened after an estimated half-million Rwandans had already been killed.
The lessons that we learned from the Rwanda genocide case is that people are capable of doing horrible things because we also have to show that we have learnt from the mistakes and will avoid them in the future.
The lessons that I would apply to prevent conflicts and violence from erupting in Kuwait is to learn something that you cannot forget from the rest of your life. Example: in August 2 1990, people still have not forgotten the day of the Iraq invasion in Kuwait even the prisoners of war. It is hard to forget the painful memories that people have suffered something from the past and it never goes away but sticks in your mind.
Wed Darwish
The problem between the Hutus and Tutsis happened in Rwanda, Africa. In the year of 1994, in about 3 and a half months 800,000 people were dead. The hutus killed and tortured women and childeren. The reason is because they are Tutsis. This happened as a result of "revenge" outbursting hatered.
ReplyDeleteThe book "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families", by Phillip Gourevtich illustrates the genocide and hurtfull history the impacted a lot of psychological minds and caused disturbtion. Its also shows how he Rwandans tried to survive such trategy and how they were able to "try" to survive each day by day.
The question is how can a place such as a small town in Africa try to forget and move on and pick up the missing pieces.
The result of the corruption and conflicts between 2 different groups that came from the same country outbursting anger and hatered due to racial statuses. Justice was a very hard word to define back then. No one knew what is and how it felt.
The lesson gained from such event was hatered will not get u anywhere, other than causing a chaos. It caused a civil war and seprated a son from his mother and father from his childeren , and today they are trying to make up all the corruption, 800,00 how will it fill up space?
Comparing such event with kuwait is not easy, but we do have examples such domestic helpers, some houses not all see them as slaves. You can look at it from a different point of view, all jobs have rules and regulations. Domestic helping is classified as a job too yet you do not have to go to the extreme just cause the sleep at your house for example. They are human , not all that they do have official papers from the government that they can work and live.
Another issue is the bedoons, they should work and live and have education just liek anyone else. The government should encourage such thing or else it will one day turn against them.
The gory conflict in which the Hutus and the Tutsis have engaged in back in 1994 really portrays humanity at its very worst. The clash will forever stain civilization and will ceaselessly remind us the penalty of ignorance in the most horrific of ways.
ReplyDeleteThis conflict, to me, represents the Rwandans' struggle against Hutu radicalism. This was Hutu radicals vs. everyone else, where even the Hutu civilians were no safer from the Hutu militants than the Tutsi civilians were, even had they initially held their differences and hostile objections with the Tutsis. The goal of Hutu radicalism was to establish a precise definition of a Hutu, a 'true' Hutu. Such was an evident implication that being a Hutu was no longer enough. You had to be a Hutu and absolutely nothing else. One's identity as a Hutu surpassed the identity as a parent, a husband. Marriage, for instance, or any other form of association with a Tutsi, had the potential to very easily disqualify you as a Hutu and consequently further disqualify your chances of survival. It seemed as though the only way to successfully convey and prove one's loyalty and authenticity as a Hutu was to engage militarily against those that were not militarily involved, to be among those doing the massacring. Scary.
Naturally, various factors contribute to the brutality of the strife and shape it; among these factors I find Rwanda's history of colonization to be the most relevant, as it is, after all, the introduction to the conflict. Our situations are all products of our past. It has been factually noted that Belgian colonization performed a chief role in decisively establishing the social division between the Hutus and the Tutsis to the extent that even ID cards professing one's tribal affinity had been specifically prompted by the Belgian rule. This systematic approach of inserting and maintaining tribal discord was exploitatively taken in support of Belgium's political gain. When the time neared for Rwanda's independence, the tribal dispute had been largely habituated and cemented into the mentality of the Rwandan society. In this case, independence of Rwanda instilled alarm, for this meant that Rwandans were now to take this dispute into their own hands, with the result of that now gruesomely clear.
We also learn of the importance of worldly response, or certainly lack thereof, to the intensity and prevalence of the conflict. The global reaction was, in a word, nonexistent. Apathy such as this perpetuates the conflict, heightening it in effect. Lack of restraint and active condemnation certainly provides the perpetrators of crimes the full encouragement to proceed as they wish, to entitle themselves to more. Whilst superpowers quarrelled among themselves of the advantages and gains that would come from their involvement, Rwandans were being slaughtered left and right. If we were to be brutally honest here, we could conclude that their being African may have somewhat rendered their problem to be of less importance. Had it been, say, Westerners in the place of the Rwandans, it is likely that the response of the global community would not have been as pathetic and ineffective as the one the Rwandans have received. Bottom line: never underestimate the influence of bystanders.
If we were to apply the lessons we've learned here onto Kuwait's situation, I would say it is fundamental that we do not turn a blind eye to those suffering, as by doing so would only deem us responsible of their intensified suffering that is bound to follow as a result of our indifference. In all honesty, the struggles in which foreigners in particular may face in Kuwait do not receive full appreciation and may not be dealt with as gravely as that of a Kuwaiti's. Bystanders may not be as guilty as criminals; however they do influence and determine the outcome significantly, as they become involved in the conflict. A cry for help should be answered anywhere, anytime.
This mobility was eliminated as the Belgian Colonizers enforced a scientist racist model, polarizing the two groups into fixed identities. Tutsi were seen as closer to Caucasian race while the Hutus were pushed to the margins of society. The myth of differentiating and superiority was reinforced with “ethnic identity cards”
ReplyDeletePhillip Gourevitch book “we wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families” while offers a graphic and intimate depiction of the genocide that took place in 1994 over the period of 100 days, yet stays clear of sensualizing it.
He says, “we are, each of us, functions of how we imagine ourselves and how others imagine us”
Several lesson might be derived from the Rwandan genocide; the consequences of indifference are often more fetal than acts of blunt violence, the passive and slow reaction of UN and international community speaks of a deeper issue, skin color is a determining factor to you human worth.
Perhaps applied to Kuwait the lesson that I think should learn is, understanding that that genocide starts not the moment of eruption, but the “priming” process often creates grounds for it. In case of Kuwait, The bedoon inferior status is often marked in “impure origin” the myths around them often links them to an immanent danger “they are spies” or moral corruption and greed “they are only after privileges”
Often polarization of Kuwaiti society to “a true Kuwait” and a “beddon” often is rooted in family history in Kuwait. The flexibility is then lost as the decedents of bedoon, regardless of long residence in Kuwait, will always be bedoon.
Their identities are marked by their lack of identification documents.
The protest seen last year by the bedoon community was met with violent force by security forces. An act of brutal force against a group that protested their marginalization and abuse.
The priming of beddon for potential genocide is evident is the state policies, what can be learn from the Rwandan case is to act before its too late and acknowledge the state genocial polices before it become a genocide
Philip Gourevitch describes, in his book ‘tomorrow we will be killed with our families’, the Genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. He describes the historical spark of the conflict spanning back as far as the initial formation of Hutus and Tutsi. He argues that historians don’t actually know the origins and ‘order of immigration’ of the Hutus and Tutsis; also they are so similar in language, religion and so commonly intermarried that they cannot be described as distinct ethnic groups. Nonetheless, the terms Hutu and Tutsi became culturally constructed to mean ‘cultivators’ and ‘herdsmen’; Tutsi being the more politically elite. Despite this distinction, Gourevitch argues that Rwanda was still a homologous state.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 19th century, while ‘race science’ was booming in Europe, John Hanning Speke, an anthropologist, created a theory on the civilization on central Africa; differentiating on the types of black people: Caucasoid, the superior race of Ethiopian origin which resembled Europe more closely then there are the Negros’s, the ‘morally ugly’ and the inferior. Even, 100 years after Spekes ‘discovery’ many Rwandans believed that Tutsi’s, which also later the Belgians deemed superior, were Caucasoid: in 1992 a Hutu power said that all Hutu’s should send the Tutsi back to Ethiopian.
The divide of Hutu’s and Tutsi grew over the decades with the clear racial distinctions created by Europeans destroying the nation’s solidarity. The result was numerous accounts of mass murder on both sides that went undocumented. And in 1994, finally the slaughter of about 800,000 Tutsi’s were carried in out in a systematic bureaucratic fashion. No longer were Tutsi’s and Hutu’s from one nation; Tutsi were dehumanized into ‘cockroaches’ and cockroaches must be exterminated. Dividing groups creates a plural society which in effect creates and us and them relationship which is dangerous
Appling this case to Kuwait is easy. There are many segments of Kuwait’s society. The most important one I feel is the social divide; like many Arab countries Kuwait has strong attachments to family and concepts like family loyalty. There are a lot of distinctions between the families of Kuwaitis and you see Kuwaitis using their last names almost as and ID; Al Sabah, Ashkanani etc. Each name fits in a rank in the social hierarchy; creating levels of superiority. From this Genocide we must learn to not forget. Stressing the differences between people, or ethnic groups or nations almost always ends in disaster. Kuwait should emphasize the sameness and Kuwaiti-ness; and should work hard to get rid of economic, political and social bias towards groups of Kuwaitis. Stressing Kuwaiti-ness is the key.