Holocaust

Genocide has occurred in a number of countries around the world leading to loss of lives and destruction of properties. Rwanda and Cambodia are among the countries that have experienced genocides in the past years. This essay compares and contrasts the different aspects of genocides that happened in Rwanda and Cambodia. It further gives the reasons for occurrence of these genocides even after the Holocaust and United Nations 1948 convention against genocide.

Genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia have some similarities with regards to their causes and consequences. The main similarity between the genocides that happened in Cambodia and Rwanda was that both of them led to a considerable loss of people’s lives. There were more than one million people killed in both Rwanda and Cambodia. Another similarity was that the governments of the two countries were involved in the genocide (Cook, 2006).

There were also a number of similarities that existed between the genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia with regards to the consequences and causes. The main difference was that the genocide in Rwanda was caused by the rivalry between two ethnic groups that included Hutus and Tutsis (Cook, 2006). This is in contrast to the Cambodian massacre that was as a result of class and political differences in the country. Another difference between these two genocides was that it took a period of one hundred days for genocide in Rwanda to come to an end. While on the other hand the genocide in Cambodia took four years to come to an end (Cook, 2006).

Two main reasons can be used to explain the occurrence of genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia after the Holocaust and United Nations 1998 Convention against the genocide.  The first reason can be attributed to lack of international and United Nations intervention. The second reason for the occurrences of the genocides was due to lack of cooperation between the governments of the two countries and the international community.

Reference

Cook, S. E. (2006). Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda: new perspectives. Transaction Books