Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide, the United States reflects on its failure to respond to the tragic conflict. Over the course of 100 days in 1994, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis suffered and were killed by machetes, grenades, clubs and rape; all provoked by the Hutu. Fueled by growing tensions between the two ethnic groups over domination and economic suffering, the Hutu people began to blame the Tutsis for all their problems, and the pressure eventually turned into an outright massacre. In 1918, 600 years of harmony between the two ethnic groups The Hutu and Tutsi populations were ruined by the arrival of the Belgians. By assigning identity cards it was now easier to distinguish the two groups without studying their physical characteristics; the Tutsis had longer noses and were taller and thinner than the Hutus. The Belgians also established a caste system and classified the Tutsis as the upper class. This identification led to two civil wars between the ethnic groups. The first occurred in 1959, when the Belgians sided with the Tutsis. To avoid the unrest inflicted by the Hutus, approximately 300,000 Tutsis fled the country, becoming an even smaller minority. In 1962, Rwanda gained independence and a government was established on which few agreements were reached. To avoid conflicts in the government, 100,000 Hutus were killed by the Tutsis. The second civil war took place in 1990 after the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda. Following the war, the United Nations issued the Arusha Accords in 1993, which provide for a Hutu-Tutsi government and a ceasefire. The ceasefire, however, did not last long: on 6 April 1994 the plane with President Juvenal Habyariamna on board was shot down. This plane crash not only claimed the lives of all on board, but resulted in the killing of approximately 1... half the paper... the world has failed the people of Rwanda." Looking back, the UN now sees the genocide as one of its greatest failures. At the time they denied the fact that it was a genocide and avoided using the word "Genocide" so as not to be forced to intervene earlier may have stopped the widespread terror the Hutu inflicted on the Tutsi people. Works Cited “Aftermath.” United States Holocaust Memorial Council, nd Web May 7, 2014. Rosenberg, Jennifer “Rwanda Genocide Timeline About.com History of the 20th About.com, nd Web. 07 May 2014."Rwanda: the genocide and its consequences." Xplore Inc, 2014. May 13, 2014. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/k/kofiannan383923.htm