Comments | boundfate: Hutu's vs. Tutsi's

boundfate

Hutu's vs. Tutsi's

Aug 27, 2010 12:58

What constitutes a civilian vs. a soldier?

I'm researching / reading about the Rawandan conflict in 1995, where around 1 million Tutsi's were killed in 100 days by the Hutu majority. To kill so many so quickly, the entire population of Hutu's rose up against the Tutsi's, to the point that modertate Hutu's who refused to kill or condone the killing ( Read more... )

Comments 5

dylia August 27 2010, 20:02:25 UTC

The thing is, the same cycle happens all through history. The root of it all is an Us v. Them tendency that's probably left-over from when we were all small bands of nomads & competing for with other tribes/clans for resources. Big Clan wants Little Clan's stuff & decides to take it by force. Little Clan is decimated but not wiped out entirely, rebuilds & wants to get their stuff back. Little Clan devises a sneaky way to beat the numbers. But Little Clan doesn't ONLY want their stuff back now. They want to make Big Clan regret having taken their stuff in the first place so it never happens again. Not to be deterred, Big Clan rebuilds & decides to show Little Clan who's boss. Lather, rinse, repeat ( ... )

boundfate August 27 2010, 21:35:13 UTC

Thank you for the response - it was definitely thought provoking ( ... )

dylia August 27 2010, 22:38:00 UTC

I think the urge toward genocide is born largely from a need to have someone to blame and/or a long time of offense/revenge cycling. Eventually, one tribe or the other decides that the only way to effectively deal with the problem the other tribe presents is to wipe them out entirely or has a charismatic leader who manages to convince his/her people that all of their problems are the fault of the target group. Either way, the mindset becomes, "If we get rid of those people over there, it'll fix everything ( ... )

boundfate August 27 2010, 23:35:53 UTC

Per George Stanton, the leading world expert in genocide, the turning point towards genocide is when there is a denial of mixing. Intercultural children are forced to one camp or the other - no one can be both. Per Stanton, dehuminization comes next and genocide cannot occur without it. Its important to note that dehuminization alone won't cause genocide - you need organization for that - but it comes before anything else ( ... )

sandwell August 31 2010, 07:22:01 UTC

So at what point does a civilian who turned soldier to murder their neighbors at the government's request turn back into a civilian?eeep ( ... )