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WHen the conflict started.
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Timespan
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an estimated 500,000-1,000,000 Rwandans were killed constituting as much as 20% of the country's total population and 70% of the Tutsi then living in Rwanda.
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The genocide was planned by members of the core political elite known as the akazu, many of whom occupied positions at top levels of the national government.
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Hutus began slaughtering the Tutsis in the African country of Rwanda. As the brutal killings continued, the world stood idly by and just watched the slaughter. Lasting 100 days, the Rwanda genocide left approximately 800,000
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The Hutu and Tutsi are two peoples who share a common past. When Rwanda was first settled, the people who lived there raised cattle. the people who owned the most cattle were called "Tutsi" and everyone else was called "Hutu."
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It wasn't until Europeans came to colonize the area that the terms "Tutsi" and "Hutu" took on a racial role. They looked at the Rwandan people and thought the Tutsi had more European characteristics, such as lighter skin and a taller build. Thus they put Tutsis in roles of responsibility.
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At 8:30 p.m. on April 6, 1994, President Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda was returning from a summit in Tanzania when a surface-to-air missile shot his plane out of the sky over Rwanda's capital city of Kigali. All on board were killed in the crash.
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The killings began in Rwanda's capital city of Kigali
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Most of the killing was done with machetes, clubs, or knives. When ten Belgian U.N. peacekeepers tried to protect the prime minister, they too were killed.
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To further degrade the Tutsi, Hutu extremists would not allow the Tutsi dead to be buried. Their bodies were left where they were slaughtered, exposed to the elements, eaten by rats and dogs.
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saw a million people killed in 100 days.
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The Rwanda Genocide ended only when the RPF took over the country. The RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) were a trained military group consisting of Tutsis who had been exiled in earlier years, many of whom lived in Uganda.
