UNAMIR: The Un's Fight For Peace

The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 caused the death of nearly one million Rwandans. In the genocide the Hutu ethnic group targeted the Tutsis in this genocide and mass murdered them. Government involvement? The government was composed of Hutus, allowing this genocide to take place easily. As hundreds of Tutsis were being killed every day, the world was watching on . Except they were just watching. The United Nations responsible for being involved in preventing and punishing genocide as enforced in 1951, did not take enough action during this time. As quoted by the CS Monitor “With Congress looking toward the president, and the White House looking toward the UN, nothing was done, and the genocide ran its course.” The UN did not have enough involvement

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

The UNAMIR was originally established to help implement the Arusha Peace Agreement signed by the Rwandese parties on the 4th August 1993. Although the mandate was adjusted on a number of occasion due to the tragic events such as the genocide and the Kibeho Massacre which changed the situation in Rwanda. The new mandate aimed to provide security and protection of the refugee civilians at risk. After a long deliberation the Australian government decided to provide 600 Australian men and women from the medical contingent along with an infantry company to provide security. These people of the Australian Military Forces worked alongside the United Nations over this 3 year Mission to manage the peacekeeping agreement, supervise Rwandans progress, and eventually provide support and help to the injured refugees and aim to return them to their home

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.

Peace talks to settle disputes between the Tutsi and the Hutu set up by the US, France, and Organisation of African Unity had tried to establish a peaceful government between the two groups. That went up in flames fast as the President of the Rwanda was killed as his plane was shot down. The next day the genocide began even with UN peacekeepers in the country. I was astonished to see that the UN peacekeepers just left without taking any military action. The UN was founded after the holocaust in Europe, one of the worst events in human history. Still, rather than the UN intervening and preventing another genocide from occurring they simply left. The UN failed to do one of its most important jobs and it was deeply

The UN was contacted by the Tutsi members to come in and help them wipe out the Hutu population, but as they entered the country the UN members did not have the ability to shoot or kill anyone, becoming useless. The genocide only ended when the Tutsi-dominated rebel group, the RPF, defeated the Hutu regime and President Paul Kagame later took control. Finally having the RPF captured, the government collapsed.

The assassination of Habyarimana in April of 1994 set off even more violence during which Hutu groups conducted mass killings of Tutsis. The genocide was supported and coordinated by the national government as well as local military. Along with the local military, primary responsibility for all of the Tutsi killings lies with two Hutu militias that were organized for this purpose by political parties, the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi. Although once the genocide began, a great number of Hutu civilians took parts in the murders as well. There was no peace agreement in place at this point, the Tutsi rebels started their offensive, defeating the army and seizing control of the country.

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.

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

In October 1993, the United Nations deployed a peacekeeping force, called United Nations Assistance Mission (UNAMIR), to Rwanda for the purpose of monitoring the cease-fire accord between the RFP and the Rwandan government. The UNAMIR consisted of 2,500 soldiers from 23 countries, with Canadian General Romeo Dallaire as the Commanding Officer. In December 1993, Dallaire received a letter from a Hutu informant revealing plans of mass murder of the Tutsis by the Hutus. Dallaire sent a cable to the United Nations warning of a potential genocide risk, however, the cable was disregarded. On April 8th, 1994, two days after the genocide began, Dallaire sent a message to the UN characterizing the killings as mass extermination. Again, his message was disregarded. After the death of 10 Belgium soldiers, 2230 UNAMIR troops were withdrawn, leaving only 270 unarmed troops under the command of Dallaire and hundreds of thousand Tutsis at the mercy of the Interahamwe. Chris McGreal, a senior writer for Guardian US and witness to the genocide, recalls Helena Nwitizina, a Rwandan survivor stating, "We knew the UN was abandoning us. We cried for them not to leave. Some people even begged for the Belgians to kill them because a bullet would be better than a machete" (McGreal 2). The Tutsis knew the UN could help, yet the UN decided to abandon them. Fortunately, with the onset of the genocide, the RPF

In 1990, forces of the RPF(Rwandan Patriotic Front) which consists mostly of Tutsi refugees attacked Rwanda from Uganda. Tensions were forming against the RPF and the government, in August 1993, Habyarimana signed an agreement in Arusha, Tanzania for the government to include the RPF, this power-sharing agreement angered some Hutu extremist who would try at any means to prevent it

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

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.