Topic 1: Social – Key Question (AJW)



One key question of relevance to today’s society, discussed as a contemporary issue for society rather than an academic argument:

“How can social psychology be used to explain the atrocities committed by the Hutus against the Tutsis, in the Rwandan Genocide (1994), people who once lived as neighbours and the next murdered each other in cold blood?

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|Why is the genocide of 1994 relevant today? |

|Twenty years on, in 2014, Pascal Simbikangwa was the first person in France, to be tried for his crimes against humanity during the Rwandan |

|genocide of 1994. |

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|Read the articles from The Guardian and PBS and write a statement of no more than 100 words summarising why the genocide in Rwanda is still of |

|grave global interest. Make sure you note down and look up any words that you do not understand. |

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|Use the individual stories on the second guardian link to research examples of …Demagogues/organisers (authority figures) and their “hatchet men” |

|(killers) |

Some basic facts: Use the sources to find information to fill in the gaps.

In 1994, .................. minority Tutsi and moderate Hutus were murdered by the majority Hutus. Most were killed face to face using weapons such as ........................ Victims included children and babies and thousands of women were ganged raped during the violence.

This atrocity, which was eventually classified as ................., followed a three year civil war and was initiated by the death of Hutu president, .........................., whose .............................was shot down.

Within hours a campaign of violence spread from the capital city, ......................, throughout the land. Those responsible for the assassination are still unknown, although the Tutsi group, The ................................................. (RPF) were widely publicised as the culprits.

Encouraged by the presidential guard and dehumanizing ..................... .................., an unofficial militia group called the .................................. (‘those who attack together’) was mobilized. Quickly, many normal citizens joined the mayhem and ............................... Hutu townsfolk began to kill their Tutsi neighbours.

The 1994 genocide poses many questions for social psychologists such as ...

• how could friends and neighbours turn against each other and kill in this horrific manner?

• why did so few people speak out against what was happening?

• are the Hutu people somehow different to us?

• could a similar occurrence ever occur in Britain?

• can societies do anything to decrease this type of prejudice?

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