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Originally Posted by Charlatan
RCAlyra2004 sorry but you are misinformed.
The Hutus and Tutsies share the same religion and language.
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Charlatan... thats my point, in fact I think now that we actually agree.
It's like the British and French praying to Jesus for support during their battle against each other, The main problem is that according to the tenets of their beleif (both sides) they are allowed to kill each other and still make it to heaven. In essence their religion allows them to demonize and kill another group and NOT lose their own eternal life.
The history of conflict between the two African tribes began four centuries ago. The Tutsis are a warrior tribe of Hamatic origin. Sometimes called the "Watutsi", they invaded the Hutu in Rwanda from the North. The Hutu couldn't defend themselves and they were taken over by the Tutsi and reduced to serfdom. Each Hutu chose a Tutsi Lord who gave them use of cattle. There wasn't much conflict until 1959 when a civil war broke out when the leaders of both tribes were killed. The Hutu tried to get equality through the National Party of Hutu Emancipation. This did not work however. In 1960, elections were held under Belgium supervision. More Hutus won and the Hutus took over the government. The Hutu Gregoire Kayibanda was elected president. Two years later Rwanda won independence and the Hutus started mistreating the Tutsis. After independence, violence erupted between the two tribes. In 1973 Kayibanda was accused of being lenient with Tutsis who slaughtered thousands of Hutus in Burundi. The army was unhappy about this so they took over the government. General Habyarinew was appointed president of Rwanda. In 1990 the Tutsis began a civil war against the Hutu government. The Tutsis forced the Hutus to Zairian refugee camps. Since Zaire is a poor country and they couldn't support the Hutu refugees they forced the Hutus back to Rwanda. Finally in 1994 settlements seemed to be working out. Later in 1994 a plane crashed at Kigali, Rwanda's capital, with a Hutu leader on board. The Hutus thought the Tutsis were responsible for this act. Hutu extremists began their campaign of genocide after this. 500,000 Tutsis were killed by the Hutu extremists, who also killed Hutus who wanted to live peacefully with the Tutsis.
Again... their religion allows them to kill as illustrated in my original post.