The Rwandan Genocide Began On April 6Th 1994 Culminating

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.

Other nations, as humanitarianly inclined as they may be, will always put their interests - whether it be geo-political, economic, military or social - ahead of all other considerations. It is an inescapable fact that many countries are often reluctant to act in a situation which does not directly impact their own welfare and sometimes actively obstruct action by the UN or other forces to satisfy their self-serving purposes. As Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, the Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), stated when explaining the reasoning behind the UN's inability to act during the Darfur genocide, "..., it's because Sudan is obstructionist, China is complacent, and Canada and the rest of the international

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)

By early July, the RPF had control of the majority of the country. Fearing reprisal killings, hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled the country. To think that people would have that much disrespect for human life is unbelievable. Instead of taking the initiative to put an end to the brutality, the international community ignored the crisis. While the United States created a ton of excuses regarding the lack of intervention. The genocide was distorted and incompletely portrayed by the international community for months due to a lack of interest in the country of Rwanda. Even today, large governments choose not to intervene in circumstances of human rights violations when those countries are not part of the Western world. If the international community had given more help to the people in Rwanda instead of focusing on their own national interests, the genocide’s effects possibly could have been minimized or even

The evens that unfolded on that date of April 9th 1994 in the country of Rwanda sparked, what we now call today as the Rwandan Genocide. On April 9th 1994 the president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana was killed as his airplane came to land in Kigali. Immediately after president Habyarimana was declared dead, the country of Rwanda erupted into 100 days of terror and genocide. Fergal Keane asserts very early in his book SEASON OF BLOOD, that during these 100 days “one million people were hacked, shot, strangled, clubbed and burned to death” (Page 29). And this is to vehemently remind the reader to never forget the events that occurred in Rwanda from April to July of

In Rwanda during 1994 Genocide happened between the Hutus and Tutsis. Hutus and Tutsis had disagreements on who will have power which effected the whole population of Rwanda. This leads to the question why there is Genocide in Rwanda? Genocide happened by two clans who caused mass causalities. Others did little to help which caused Genocide to happen in Rwanda.

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.

Genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, ethnic, political, or cultural group”. In Rwanda for example, the Hutu-led government embraced a new program that called for the country’s Hutu people to murder anyone that was a Tutsi (Gourevitch, 6). This new policy of one ethnic group (Hutu) that was called upon to murder another ethnic group (Tutsi) occurred during April through June of 1994 and resulted in the genocide of approximately 800,000 innocent people that even included women and children of all ages. In this paper I will first analyze the origins/historical context regarding the discontent amongst the Hutu and Tutsi people as well as the historical context as to why major players in the international

Over “the 100 day period from April 7th to mid-July 1994 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsi natives were murdered by the Hutu population of Rwanda” (Wikipedia Rwandan Genocide). This horrific event in human history is indeed categorized as genocide. What was the reason for the United Nations inaction in responding to Rwanda? Is the structural realist right in saying that in a world of anarchy and state sovereignty states must provide for their own defense and protection? Are the realist claims right that the Rwanda genocide proves the inherent weakness of international institutions like the UN?

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

On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying Habyarimana and Burundi’s president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down over Kigali their were no survivors. They did not know who shot the plane down but they are blaming Hutu extremists and the leaders of the RPF. An hour after the plane went down the Rwandan armed forces and the Hutu militia groups had started setting up roadblocks and barricades, and started killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus. the first victims of the genocide were the moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her 10 Belgian bodyguards, with that happening it started more conflict and interim government of extremist Hutu Power leaders from the military high command had stepped in on april 9. The killing in Rwanda had spreaded to the rest of the country, up to 800,000 or more had been slaughtered within 3 months.

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 third focus question is How were the genocide’s perpetrators brought to justice? The judicial mechanisms for bringing the perpetrators to justice has its origin in the first major trial against genocide: the Nuremberg Trials. The Allied Powers’ negotiators created four levels of indictment of increasing severity, (1) conspiracy to commit the following, (2) crimes against peace, (3) war crimes and (4) crimes against humanity - committing genocide falling into the fourth category. This model was used for future genocides and other atrocities, including in Rwanda. Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter was invoked in the UN Security Council Resolution 955 to establish the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. Its

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

Genocide is defined by the United Nations as "...acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group..." (UN, 1) While there are many sovereign nations engaged in international politics, only a few engaged (or disengaged) in African politics during the Cold War era. Through realism and liberalism the actions of global leaders and members of the United Nations will be explained and their actions defined that led to the crisis of Central Africa from 1960 through 1994 and ending in Rwanda. These global state actors have an obligation to protect human rights throughout the world, but in 1994 allowed 800,000 ethnic Tutsi to be brutally murdered in their homes and in the streets of a place that once used to be safe. This all occurred because a global power struggle was top priority.