Soldiers In Rwanda Research Paper

From 1993 to 1996, The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda was commissioned when a peace treaty signed by the two tribes – The Hutus and Tutsis. Under the supervision of Romeo Dallaire when the peace broke lose. The next few months were “hell” as slain government officials, innocent Tutsis and Hutus laid on the streets in this massive genocide. In “Shattered” by Eric Walters we are introduced to a former soldier from the civil war in Rwanda named Jacques. Jacques was born and raised in the Canadian army as his father and grandfather were soldiers too. He was trained in the Special Ops Unit that he could withstand unarmed combat. Jacques served in Yugoslavia, Haiti, the Middle East twice wearing the blue beret of The United Nation

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 documentary “Ghost in Rwanda” illustrates the devastation of the 1994 Genocide where approximately eight hundred thousand Rwandans were exterminated by their own government. The genocide was a result of ongoing conflicts between the Hutu, the ethnic majority in Rwanda, and the Tutsi the ethnic minority. The United Nation assisted in the establishment of a peace agreement between the two warring parties and sent General Romeo Dallaire, UN Force Commander, to Rwanda to ensure the terms of the agreement were honored. Dallaire had never seen action and welcomed opportunity to make a difference supporting peace in Africa. The peace mission was especially important to Dalliaire in light of recent U.N. failures to maintain peace in Somalia and Bosnia.

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 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.

The final reason why the United Nations is to blame for Rwanda’s Genocide is because of the fact that they ignored evidence of planned genocide and abandoned Rwandans in need of protection. The United Nations failed trying. The independent report, commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan ( who was in charge at the time of the Rwandan Genocide), says the UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda was hopeless from the start by an poor consent and destroyed by the Security Council's unwillingness to strengthen it once the slaughters, murders and rape began. UN officials, together with Annan and then-Secretary-General

During the beginning of July in 1994, they recaptured Kigali, which ended the genocide and liberated all of the remaining Tutsis and moderate Hutus. However, it also created 2 million Hutu refugees, which only made UN presence even more of a necessity. UNAMIR was extended and became more useful, so it continued to deal with the crisis until March 1996, after having been completely useless during the genocide. The rest of the world also decided that it was a tragedy and labeled it a genocide, just as soon as the killing had

The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was one of the worst crimes in human history, which saw the brutal killing of almost a million Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus. (Khan) The genocide had took place in the context of the Rwandan Civil War, an ongoing conflict beginning in 1990 between the Hutu-led government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which was largely composed of Tutsi refugees whose families had fled to Uganda following earlier waves of Hutu violence against the Tutsi. The Arusha Accords (also known as the Arusha Peace Agreement, or Arusha negotiations) were a set of five accords (or protocols) signed in Arusha, Tanzania on August 4, 1993, by the government of Rwanda and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), under mediation, to end a three-year Rwandan Civil War.

The Belgians also decreed that Tutsis should be the only ones in power and thus removed Hutus from positions of power and excluded them from higher education (Arraras). “By assuring the Tutsis’ monopoly of power the Belgians set the stage for future conflict in Rwanda” (Arraras). The Tutsis were enjoying their status as being superior to the Hutus but all that changed in 1959 with the Hutu revolution and so in 1960 and 1961 the Hutus won the elections. Since then, ethnic tensions had always been brewing between the Hutus and the Tutsis. However the tensions escalated when Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994. I consider this to be a form of political violence because someone or a group that opposed this President which represented only the political interests as well as the viability of the Hutus had to be killed in order for another group possibly the Tutsis to fill the vacuum of power left by the Hutu president. The Hutus blamed the assassination of their president on the Tutsis and in turn sparked an all out massacre waged on to the Tutsi people.

In 1994 the Rwandan Genocide led to the deaths of 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. Meaning 75% of the Tutsi and between 100,000 sympathetic Hutu were murdered in the span of a 100-day period. Decades of civil war and ethnic rivalry had torn these ethnic groups apart. In Rwanda, the Hutus (primarily) broke the Geneva Conventions and U.N. Assistance in Rwanda (UNAMIR) tried to assist the Rwandan civilians.

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 Rwandan genocide did not occur overnight, but was a result of the ethnic conflict building up between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. In the late 1980’s, Tutsi exiles living in Uganda, formed an army called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), with the intention to overthrow the Hutu government and return home. On October 1st, 1990, the RPF invaded Rwanda, beginning the civil war that lasted for almost two years. On July 12th, 1992, a cease-fire accord was signed, which went into effect on July 31st, 1992. Meanwhile, in the early 1990’s, Rwandan government officials met secretly and began assembling the Interahamwe, a militia of Hutu youths. Dr. Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, explains that the Rwandan army provided the Interahamwe

The 1994 genocide permanently implanted itself on the nation, which will not change in the upcoming decades. However, the genocide was not the event which begun the important themes behind Rwanda’s international affairs. The horrific event instead solidified them. For any study of Rwanda, these central themes must not be put to the side or ignored as they are core to how officials view their responsibilities to Rwandans. Rwandan foreign policy is not carried out through the guilt card or any one simple mechanism. It is instead very complex with divisions within the country of how to prevent a future genocide and lead it to development. This creates the opportunity for more that can be learned about how the Rwandan government interprets how

Rwanda is a small country located in central Africa. It borders with Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. One of the most terrible “ethnic conflicts” occurred here in 1994, two tribes fought each other within the same territory, the rest of the world bizarrely ignored this event and thousands of people were killed. The event lasted 100 days and almost 1 million people died, even though the Rwanda government asked other countries for military

Central Africa continues to experience instability with civil wars; terrorism; ethnic violence and a lack of proper governance. Each conflict has its own individual history, perpetrators, victims and bystanders with difficult answers on how to solve them. The post-genocide nation of Rwanda witnessed one of the most horrific events a nation could experience, genocide. However, it has rebuilt itself to become an example nation for transitional justice, political stability and economic development. Rwanda’s military capabilities within the institute of the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) are well known for its organisation capability and effectiveness in compact. In a Gallup Polling 2013 Global States of Mind: New Metrics for World Leaders report, Rwandans reported satisfaction rates of eighty-six per cent feeling safe and secure in the country thanks to the RDF. This confidence stems from the high utilization of RDF effectiveness in promoting domestic and regional security alongside with the Rwandan National.