Hutu's vs. Tutsi's

[boundfate]

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

Comments

[boundfate]

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.

Genocide really isn't about material things, although it's sometimes framed up that way. Jews in Germany were less than 3% of the population and were primarily middle class. Tutsi's were around 18% of the population and often worse off than the Hutus. The Armenians, the cambodians, even the russians were all the same way. You can get displacement type genocide (like the native americans) but I really think that's a different animal than true genocide. True genocide is "I'm making the world a better place by making sure you aren't in it." (Think KKK.) No material gain, no revenge, just systematic distruction. Displacement genocide to me follows the same lines as any other war with one dominant aggressor that happens to have a racial or cultural dividing line.

Stenton is pretty cool (you should google his paper) and he's pioneering the stages leading up to genocide, although he isn't without controversy. That said, he doesn't address how to heal a country that has experienced genocide. I think the magic bullet has to involve a large, unified response of we will not tolerate this followed by an influx of jobs. That's what seemed to fix germany and it's also what is missing from many of the genocide areas that are still having problems.