Ethnic Conflicts
First of all, the ethnic conflict is a sociological term to define any violent o military confrontation among ethnic groups, that is to say, group of people with different cultural, religious, racial or geographical origins.
An ethnic conflict could be between white and black people for example in the US and South Africa in relation to the racial segregation, between catholic and protestant people, completely different groups which is the case of the Arab-Israeli conflict, or even between group of people with the same religion but ethnically different for example the Hutus vs. Tutsis being this one of the most important conflicts that affect the poorest continent in the world.
History
The ethnic conflicts have existed since the beginning of Humanity. Some anthropologists believe that the Neanderthal group was extinguished by the Homo sapiens due to an ethnic war. Then some primitives groups had conflicts with nomadic and trivial societies. In the middle age, the ethnic conflicts were frequent being the Crusades one of the biggest in the history, and then many ethnic conflicts because of the Conquest of America and the Colonialism of the European countries.
Ethnic Conflicts in Africa
Europe and the US joined to the Africa’s partition according to the Berlin Conference, and here we have the main problem because if you see the African map, the border lines are straight. So different ethnic groups were separated, while rival groups were joined, having as a result relations of domination, social hierarchies and divisions of work.
The colonial powers took the opportunity because of the conflicts to impose their way of domination in Africa.
Then, when the WWII finished, many of the colonies were politically independent and the conflicts fell down. Here, some politically well-organized ethnics were in charge over others, and in some cases, two or three ethnics fought for leading the government.
Due to the ethnic conflicts, separatist movements inside the states and nationalist movements fighting for the independence were created.
And today, some states are politically organized to defend the aspirations of other ethnic groups. This is unfortunately the cases of Rwanda, Uganda and Somalia.
Important aspects in Uganda
300,000 deaths due to the Idi Amin’s military regime in 1971.
Child Slavery: 20,000 kids have been kidnapped to use them as soldiers in the last 24 years.
The ethnic confrontation between the Ugandan’s Army and a rebel group called The Lord's Resistance Army provoked the death of 12,000 people.
Due to this, more than 1 million people have leaved their houses.
Important aspects in Somalia
Coup d’ état in 1969: the president Abdi Rashid Shermake was killed and Siad Barre was in charge.
Economic crisis in the 80’ and the end of Siad Barre’s regime.
Civil War caused by ethnic conflicts and internal divisions induced several droughts and a big famine.
16,000 deaths and 1 million people without home due to the violent confrontations with Ethiopia.
Violence, famine, poverty, diseases and illegal people traffic are still affecting Africa.
Today more than 3 million people are in death risk due to the biggest food crisis that affected Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya in the last 20 years.
Rwandan Genocide
Rwanda is a small country with an agricultural economy. The ethnic groups that share this territory corresponds to the Hutus (85%), Tutsis (14%) and finally the Twas (original inhabitants of Rwanda), that represent 1% of the population.
This Genocide was an internal conflict in which 800,000 Tutsis were murdered in 1994 by the Hutu ethnic majority.
Tutsis used to be landowners and the Hutus the people who work the land. This division maintained a social balance, the problems begun when European (Belgians) colonists moved to this land. They established the practice of colonial administration.
Belgians choose the Tutsis to be favored and educated. This situation broke 600 years of social stability among the two ethnic groups mentioned before. The Hutus did not like this situation, because they feel that the way they were treated was, in simple words, as slaves.
That was the fact that cause the Rwandan Genocide.
Consequences of the Rwandan Genocide
- 11% of the Rwandan population died in this conflict.
-Due to violations during the Genocide, the quantity of people infected with HIV increased. Nowadays more than the 30% of the Rwandan population is affected by this virus.
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was created by the Security Council due to the violations of humanitarian law accomplished in Rwanda in 1994 and the seat is located in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. The objective of this tribunal was to help with the national reconciliation in Rwanda and to maintain the peace in the country. The main idea of the tribunal is the prosecution of the guilty people for the genocide and other human rights violations committed by Rwandan citizens and people of neighboring countries in Rwanda in 1994.
ICTR: Peace and Justice.
· Never again. African countries must to learn the lessons of the Rwanda genocides in order to avoid any repetition of this tragedy.
· Evolution of the political and legal accountability. This situation is the first one that has been taken into account by an international court of law due to the genocide in Africa. With this action the tribunal sends a powerful message to the leaders and warlords of the country and provides an example to other states in which crimes like these have been accomplished.
· Cooperation of African countries. A lot of countries of Africa have cooperated by transferring the accused people.
· Enforcement of prison sentences. The idea is to implement sentences for different reasons, to create new jails for the genocide guilty in the country and to create alliances in order to provide prison facilities for the tribunal.
· Political, moral and material support. This Tribunal together with African countries and other governments are substantially contributing to the international peace in the 21century.
