Roots+of+the+Problems+in+Rwanda+and+Burundi

=How It Started=

In World War One Germany invaded Belgium, in response Belgium moves from the Belgian Congo to Ruanda-Urundi. At the time Germany had claimed what is today's Rwanda and Burundi, and made it one territory. After the war the League of Nations grants Belgium a mandate to administer the colony. Source: http://media.maps.com/magellan/Images/RWANDA-W1.gif

The Hutus are put into forced labor, while the Tutsis were made to be the superiors of the Hutus and supervise them at work. Then in 1933 the people of Ruanda-Urundi are issued racial identity cards defining them as either Hutuse (85% of the population), Tutsi (14%), or Twa (1%, the Twa are the remnants of the original Pygmies inhabiting the area). Future conflicts were caused by the Belgians laying a distinction between the two groups.

The first serious conflict between the two groups started in 1959 when a group of Tutsi political activists beat up a Hutu rival, Dominique Mbonyumutwa. This action by the Tutsi results in a campaign of Hutu violence, called 'the wind of destruction.' When this started many Tutsis fled Ruanda (later renamed Rwanda).

Other examples of conflict: -December 1963: a couple hundred Tutsi guerrillas enter southern Rwanda from Burundi, they get within 12 miles of the capital before being taken out by the Rwandan army. As a sort of response 14,000 Tutsis were killed in Gikongoro. -In 1994 the Hutus of Rwanda are told to, through state radio messages, kill all of the Tutsis. About 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda are killed.

Article by: Zach G.

Source of Information: Gascoigne, Bamber, Peter Donebauer, Ian Henghes, et al. __History World__. 17 Jan. 2008. 20 Feb. 2008 <[|http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories...]>.