The Pros And Cons Of The Rwandan Genocide

In both the Rwandan and Bosnian genocide, the UN was “involved.” Their main job was to be peacekeepers and try to keep the remaining peace that was left, intact. They were equipped with guns and weapons to defend themselves, but they were not to be used to protect the victims during the genocides. The UN decided they would only

The United Nations failed Rwanda, in a time of need they abandoned the Rwandan people giving them no physical protection. Sadly, things go wrong with the slaughter of almost 800,000 Rwanda people, left defenseless in a country where no one outside cared. U.N. troops were present as only “peace-keepers.” The dispute was between the Hutus and Tutsis people could of been controlled if the U.N. changed their position, but the result could bring more consequences. This conflict between the two social groups in Rwanda,was left to be resolved on its own with many lives lost.

Throughout the 20th century, numerous acts of genocides have attempted to bring the complete elimination and devastation of large groups of people originating from various particular ethnicities. With these genocides occurring in many regions of the world, the perpetrators often organizing such crimes, have historically been larger and more powerful than the victims themselves. Often being the government and its military forces. However, the lack of international response associated with these genocides, further contributed to the devastating outcomes. On April 6,1994, the fastest killing spree of the century took place in Rwanda against the Tutsi minority population. With many warning signs having already been proclaimed prior to the start of the Rwandan genocide, I believe that with international interference, this bloodshed could have ultimately been prevented.

During the 100 days of the brutal massacre known as the Rwandan Genocide, between 800,000 to a million people were tragically murdered. Tutsis were not the only ones being killed. Hutus were also being killed for various reasons. If people thought they felt regretful for what they were doing to the Tutsi, they would be killed. If the Hutus tried to help the Tutsi in anyway they were killed. Many of the Hutus were killed if they opposed the killing campaign and the forces directing it.

Nevertheless, they failed to prevent this ridiculous genocide because of their lack of attempt and lack of effort to stop it. On the fourteenth-anniversary of the genocide, the UN’s thoughts go out to the victims who have been traumatized, hurt, or dead during Rwanda’s Genocide. Quote UN secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s message “It is often those who most need their rights protected, who also need to be informed that the Declaration exists -- and that it exists for them.”- This message was a little too late after hundreds of thousands of people have been brutally massacred in the genocide in Rwanda. Though the UN seemed to have convinced the people in Rwanda that they were doing their best to stop this, nevertheless, the UN is respectively responsible for their inability to keep peace among the ethnic tribes (Hutus and Tutsis). (M2PressWIRE, 2008)

George Santayana once said “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” The Rwanda Genocide is a contemporary representation of the events that occurred during the Armenian Genocide. It is an unforgiving circumstance that even after massacres from the latter and the Holocaust that Genocides still emerge in a world who far too often shuts their door to the idea of intervention. Countries can have an abundance of supplies, unmatchable man-power, and exceptional military equipment, however, with interests in absentia, countries will be reluctant to deploy forces despite exclamations of help. The culmination of the Rwanda Genocide is absolutely an unforgiving portion of history that will be remembered by the victims, the witnesses, and the decision-makers.

Over the course of hundreds of years, Genocides have been a major problem in the world. A genocide is a mass killing of people by a group or nation. One of the worst genocides that had happened was the Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda is a country located in East Africa, between Uganda and Tanzania. There was a dispute in the government between the Hutus and the Tutsis for many years. In 1994, the genocide had begun and millions of people were slaughtered. During the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu government killed the Tutsis until Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and United Nations (UN) stopped the Hutus; the survivors are still haunted by the horrifying memories.

Even with this very clear definition of genocide the United Nations Security Council still proved ineffective in preventing the genocide that occurred in Rwanda between the Hutu and Tutsi people. There are a number of theories as to why the U.N. was so inefficient in preventing the genocide such as : there was little political will to intervene from Western countries, the tragedy which had recently occurred in Somalia, and the overlooking of early warning signs.

The 1990 's was a grim time in history all across the globe, its epicentre being Rwanda. In April of 1994 the Rwandan President Habyarimana was shot down from a plane. In consequence, immediate war was struck and the goal of extermination of the Tutsi was commenced. This genocide was the result of conscious choice of the elite, therefore, president Habyarimana to promote hatred and fear to keep itself in power. Rwanda’s political elite blamed the entire Tutsi minority population for the country’s increasing social, economic, and political pressures. Tutsi civilians were also accused of supporting a Tutsi-dominated rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Using hateful propaganda, reading out names of people that must be killed and articles on newspapers. Tutsi and people suspected of being Tutsi were killed in their homes and as they tried to flee at roadblocks set up across the country during the genocide. Leaving an unimaginable 800,000 people dead. Mothers and daughters raped, children, boys and men slaughtered with machetes (United Human rights coucil,2015). How did it get this far? What was the worlds reaction to this gruesome mass murder?

Over 800,000 people, mostly Tutsi minorities, were killed by Hutu extremists in just one hundred days (Rwanda Genocide). The United Nations failed to provide support and protection to the people of Rwanda, and were ashamed of the abandonment of the helpless people. At the twentieth anniversary ceremony of the genocide, UN chief Ban Ki-moon mentioned, "In Rwanda, troops were withdrawn when they were most needed (Rwanda Genocide)." The UN left the victims to fend for themselves, resulting in an even larger death total. They ignored the fact that the genocide was planned, and refused to take action, when the Rwandans needed their help (Winfield). As stated by the former Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson in a press conference, "Our conclusion is there is one overriding failure which explains why the UN could not stop or prevent the genocide, and that is a lack of resources and a lack of will - a lack of will to take on the commitment necessary to prevent the genocide (Winfield)." If the UN had taken more action and became more involved, the Rwandan Genocide wouldn’t have reached the extremity that it had reached. The inaction in Rwanda was the largest failure the UN has ever had. Just about 1,200 miles away about ten years later, the UN once again fails the people of the corrupt country of

The UN had failed to resolve conflict in Rwanda there is still some little minor conflict going on in Rwanda this day. The UN had put up some camps for the tutsis and helped alittle for people to seek shelter and safety. The hutus knew that the UN could not do anything physical because they are primarily peacekeepers and trying to resolve the problem so the hutus was still killing everyone so nothing was resolved.

The Rwandan president, Habyarimana and the president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, are killed when the president’s plane is shot down near Kigali Airport, on April 6th, 1994. That night on the 6th of April, 1994, the genocide begins. Hutu people take to the streets with guns and machetes. The Hutus set up roadblocks and stopped anyone that looked Tutsi or suspected of helping Tutsi people to hide. On April 7th, 1994 the Rwandan Armed Forces set up roadblocks and went house to house to kill any Tutsis found. Thousands of people die on the first, while the U.N. just stands by and watches the slaughter go on. On April 8th, 1994 the U.N. cuts its forces from 2,500 to 250 after ten U.N. soldiers were disarmed and tortured and shot or hacked to death by machetes, trying to protect the Prime Minister. As the slaughter continues the U.N. sends 6,800 soldiers to Rwanda to protect the civilians, on May 17th, 1994, they were meant to be the peacekeepers. The slaughter continues until July 15th, 1994, in the 100 days that the genocide lasted 800,000-1,000,000 Tutsis and Hutus

The UN and the US government are accredited for deploring conflict situations as well as contributing humanitarian aid, and this is what these two organizations did in Rwanda and Darfur. However, the UN did not do anything to punish or prevent the genocides that took place in these two countries. The US government promised to support the peace talk’s agreement in Darfur and hold the perpetrators accountable for their acts. It never kept that promise since nothing has been done. So far, the UN’s Security Council has also failed in its peace keeping mission effeorts, and is instead pressuring Sudan with words only. No solid steps have been made to bring the wrong doers into justice (Shapiro).

The United Nations served there to save all the victims of the massacre and help to stabilize the situation. However, the Interahamwe militia acts more violently by also killing United Nations soldiers while they were protecting the lady Prime Minister. The Europeans then plan to put interference power on the circumstances that happened in Rwanda.

The recent arrest of General Karenzi Karake is part of the international community trying to grasp its understandings of Rwanda’s bloody history. On the night of April 6, 1994, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana assassination while flying back to Rwanda by unknown fighters triggered the last genocide of the twentieth century. The Rwandan Genocide or also named the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis, ravaged the entire country as neighbours killed neighbours. Genocide perpetrators claimed that the massacres were required in order to protect the nation from the invading Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), which Rwanda had been fighting since 1990. It was the belief that the RPF wished to reestablish dominance over the majority Hutu population such as during the Belgium colonial period (1922-1962). The international community decided within the first few days to remove its presence with the removal of its citizens and the downgrading of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). The world looked away as in around one hundred days; over one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were butchered by the genocide forces. The massacres only ceased when the RPF’s military wing, the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) fully invaded the country and expelled the genocide forces into eastern Zaire or know named the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As expected, the genocide cannot be as easily defined as it composes various elements that all play a role in the history of