A Comprehensive Analysis of the Rwandan Genocide to the Holocaust

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Beginning on April 6, 1994, Hutus began a mass slaughtering of the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. This mass slaughtering is labeled as genocide, the deliberate obliteration of an ethnic, racial, religious, or political group. The Rwandan genocide lasted 100 days while other countries stood idly by and watched the brutal killings continue. The hatred against the Tutsis began after the RPF invasion in October of 1990. Accusations from editorials and radio broadcasts claimed Tutsis wanted to establish a monarchy with Hutu slaves; other racial libel included all the Tutsis being called cockroaches.
Many years prior to the Rwandan genocide, a similar deliberate extinction occurred. Between 1933 and 1945, members of the Nazi
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George Stanton, the president of Genocide Watch, suggested genocide develops in eight stages that are “predictable but not inexorable” (Mare, 2011). Stage one is classification where people are alienated into “us and them” depending on ethnicity, nationality, race, and religion; in this case, German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi depict the mentality of the superior group. According to Mare, “The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions” (2011).
Symbolization, the second stage, is used to classify these groups; names or symbols may be forced upon reluctant members of the groups. For example, the Nazis used the yellow star to symbolize the Jews; this symbol was worn on clothing or imprinted on Jewish establishments. A preventive measure used to combat the symbolization is to outlaw hate symbols along with hate speech.
The next includes dehumanization, where one group establishes their superiority and rejects the humanity of an additional group. Animals, insects, or diseases are normally equated with members of the dehumanized group; case in point, the Hutus equated the Tutsis with cockroaches during the…

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