History - Rwanda Genocide Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History - Rwanda Genocide - Research Paper Example Though efforts are done, those harms do still happen in controlled settings. Mutual understanding among nations and people may have reduced the occurrences of conflicts and violence. Conflicts and violence may occur anytime and anywhere which means people must be aware of their surroundings at all time. Nobody knows when it may happen though there are some ways that people especially the government agencies can predict the occurrences of violence through patterns they get from the data of past events. One of the nations that experienced a significant violence and conflict is Rwanda. That country is located in the eastern part of Africa near Tanzania and Congo. The topography of the land of Rwanda is composed of mountains and valleys. Rwanda then has the highest peak at 4,324 meters which is the top of a volcano called Mount Karisimbi (King 2007, p. 7). The people then that live the mountains and valleys are generally called Rwandans and composed of the ethnic groups Pygmy, Hamitic an d Bantu. The population overall of the Rwandans is approximately 11 million and the size of population is attributed to high mortality rate. Many die because of diseases because of poor sanitation and major diseases like the dreaded Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS. They are mostly poor as only 19 percent of them are in the urban areas. They also lack potable water to cater the needs of everyone. In terms of religion, Rwandans are mostly Christians with majority of them are Catholic. When it comes to basic education, most of them know how to read and write by 15 years old and above (Streissguth 2007, p. 36). The government of Rwanda then became a parliament recently and its laws are patterned after France and Belgium. The constitution of Rwanda was then ratified in 2003. The said constitution pledges to protect the rights of the Rwandans, to provide peace among groups there and to prevent political party formations based on culture and race. The government then is divided into judicial, legislative and executive just like in the government form seen in Europe and USA. The people allowed to vote must be at least 18 years old. Once the election is finished, the president then has been decided and he is the one responsible to appoint the prime minister and the cabinet who will assist him in leading the country (King 2007, p. 43). Before the government of Rwanda has been patterned after the Western nations, the country started as a land roamed by Pygmy group called Twa but the said ethnic group is only one percent of the current population. It was known in the past that Twa had interactions and interrelationships with the other ethnic groups like Tutsi and Hutu. The two groups were very similar in traditions but they are differentiated for their source of livelihood as Tutsi are cattle growers while Hutu are crop growers. It was then in 1933 when Belgian people controlled Rwanda and commanded the Rwandans to wear identification cards to clearly separate them by races (Kalayjian and Paloutzian 2009, p. 73). Probably that decision of the Belgians had bred further conflicts and violence among the ethnic groups which became prevalent since the independence of Rwanda. Rwanda became occupied by Germany before. When the First World War came, Belgium took over Rwanda as the Belgians snatched it from the Germans. After the war, it became a joint-state with Burundi which was also a colony of Belgium. It was then under the custody of United Nations which also played a big role in giving those