Rwanda Genocide Research Paper

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 At the twentieth anniversary ceremony of the genocide, UN chief Ban Ki-moon mentioned, "In Rwanda, troops were withdrawn when they were most needed (Rwanda Genocide)."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 United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda was a mission designed to help carry-out the conditions set forth in the Arusha Accords, which were signed in 1993, with the purpose of ending the Rwandan Civil War. The UN was aware of the situation in Rwanda, and the tension between the two ethnic groups, well before the genocide was committed.

The first reason that the US did not intervene in Rwanda is the previous Black Hawk Down incident. This unfortunate event took place in 1993 when a group of soldiers attempted to make peace

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.

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)

The United Nations had been very hesitant about the issue. When the genocide came to an end, it was not even the forces of outside help, but rather the own Rwandan Patriotic Front that overthrew the Hutu power in the government and stopped the killings. The United Nations had little influence, whether it was publicizing the genocide, or actually sending troops to help the civilians in Rwanda. Where the killings had started in April, troops were sent only in May to involve in actual military

The international community largely remained on the sidelines during the Rwandan genocide. A U.N. Security Council vote in April 1994 led to the withdrawal of most of a U.N. peacekeeping operation.. As reports of the genocide spread, the Security Council voted in mid-May to supply a more robust force, including more than 5,000 troops. By the time that force arrived in full, however, the genocide had been over for months.

UNAMIR was given a mandate to help guide and overlook the Arusha Accords [what are the arusha accords] which was meant to stop the Rwandan civil war, signed August 4th 1993. The mandate is made very limited by the UN. Before the genocide, early warning by General Dallaire and his plead to expand the mandate went ignored and rejected many times (Caplan, 2004). It is pure ignorance by the UN to reject the call to expand the mandate by General Dallaire. Had the UN took the early warning and pleas to expand the mandate to allow intervention and force, many Rwandans would still be alive today and the situation would have been under control with the perpetrators fearing and backing away from the inhumane plot. The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations gave UNAMIRauthorization to excel the already narrow mandate, only to help evacuate foreign nationals from the country which turned out to be a major mistake and seemed racist for only saving white lives (Melvern, 2000). The new mandate that is authorized made the situation worse. The Belgian UN troops guarding the Kigali ETO school were told to abandon the school, leaving 2500 Tutsis and Hutu opposition leaders looking for UN protection

On May 25, 1994, U.S. president, Bill Clinton, wrote in a letter to Representative Harry Johnston, “The White House issued a strong public statement calling for the Rwandan Army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front to do everything in their power to end the violence immediately. This followed an earlier statement by me calling for a cease-fire and the cessation of the killings” (qtd. in Baldauf). It seems that by calling out those engaged in the conflict, the U.S. took the responsibility from themselves and took no further action. In the post-Cold War era, it is not surprising that most other countries followed the lead of the U.S. and also chose to not take any significant action

The United States could have done so much more to prevent the Rwandan genocide, thousands of lives could have been saved if only the United States would have tried harder. “First, the international community could have made clear to the killers that no assistance would be given to a regime based on genocide, however, Washington resisted making such a declaration and therefore assisted the killers in continuing their genocide. Second, the international community could have announced that no diplomatic recognition would be extended to a genocidal regime. Washington never made such a statement, but continued its diplomatic relations with the interim government until the RPF took Kigali. Only then did Bill Clinton self-righteously declare that the United States ‘cannot allow representatives of a regime that supports genocidal massacre to remain on our soul’” . Basically, Clinton did not want it to look like he was helping the genocidal regime so once the “good” people, the RPF, came into power he immediately stated that they would not help this government in anyways, even though they were in desperate need of money and food to help the remaining Tutsi and Hutu recover from the genocide. “Third, the interim government could have been isolated by expelling its representatives from the UN Security Council, where it ironically was permitted to retain its seat throughout the genocide. Moreover, it was allowed to participate in debate and votes on Rwanda, while the RPF was denied the opportunity to present its views.” The easiest task that could have been done was to publicly identify the leaders in charge of the genocide, as they were known by the United States. Simply identifying the killers and warning them that they

Yes, they did send in peacekeepers, but they were not allowed to shoot guns so they were near worthless. If they actually stepped in this tragedy wouldn’t be remotely as bad as it turned out to be. So many innocent lives could have been saved if the U.N would have came in and took out the Interahamwe. The U.N is the most powerful group in the world that can nearly break up any troubles that are happening in a country or between countries. Their soldiers could have been a game changer against the extremist groups that primarily only used machetes. You could argue that this wasn’t the U.N’s problems which is a true statement, but the reason they are around is to keep peace around the globe. In Rwanda there was everything but

Rwanda’s horrific history is continually being researched in order to better understand how the nation descended into the horrors of the 1994 genocide. The effects of the genocide are felt throughout Rwandan public policy as the current government is composed of many individuals responsible for ending the massacres. The genocide’s ripple effects are felt in all aspects of the nations including its foreign policy. This thesis attempts to explain how historical experiences coupled through the themes of abandonment, self-reliance and the promotion of security along with interpretations by government officials of how international order operates shapes how the Rwandan government interacts with the global community. This is not a new endeavour as

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 international response to this crisis was absolutely abysmal. Despite having had clear knowledge of the events occurring in Rwanda, the international community, namely the United States and the United Nations, remained unresponsive, allowing the genocide to proceed unabated. In late April 1994, amid urgent calls for an increase of forces, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 912, which, despite their stated, ‘deep concern’ for the Tutsi people, withdrew 90% of UN troops from Rwanda, leaving only 270 soldiers in the country to protect civilians from genocide. NSA declassified documents clearly show how the United States willfully chose to be bystanders to the conflict that decimated the Tutsi population of Rwanda, having