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Impact of UN on Rwandan genocide
UN's role in the Rwandan genocide
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The United States should have intervened, and without a doubt would have been able to stop the genocide. The United States military had the power to be in country and neutralize the threat of the untrained, and not well armed people who were participating in the genocide. Even if we did not really see it coming, 100 days was an incredible amount of time to realize that something needed to be done (UNMICT, n.d.). The United States could have stopped the genocide and had troops in place for security. Why didn’t we? Is it because there was no economic reason too? It’s hard to believe, especially after all we have done in the Middle East that we did not do something. Not only could we have helped, but by our holding back, it most likely
They don't want to send their troops or help with food and necessities because of the possible financial impact to their own country. However, once the people committing the genocide multiply and pose a threat to more countries, the international community must help in order to prevent the genocide from entering their own countries. The world didn't get involved in both the Holocaust and the Bosnian genocide until the German empire and the Serbs in Bosnia, respectively, became very powerful and dangerous to the surrounding areas. The only way to prevent genocide is to destroy it on impact and not wait for six million to perish senselessly.
contributed to helping this Genocide as well. This is because the U.S. was the first to tell the world that what was happening in Darfur was a genocide. On September 9, 2004, the United States secretary of State Colin Powell announced the genocide (World Without Genocide). The was the day when many came to know about the harsh reality that people in Darfur have to face. The bystanders of this genocide would notice how horrible the genocide is, but may not do much about it. There will be some that will but many will just ignore it probably. Since nothing bad is happening to themselves then they aren’t worrying
Chris Bohjalian once said, “But history does matter. There is a line connecting the Armenians and the Jews and the Cambodians and the Bosnians and the Rwandans. There are obviously more, but, really, how much Genocide can one sentence handle?” and Elie Wiesel says, “To forget a Holocaust is to kill twice.” There is a connection between every genocide, but how much can one sentence actually handle? This is just a repeating thing that keeps on happening and it has gotten to the point where it is not getting any better. If we stop teaching about the Holocaust, it is to kill twice because there will always be that one person who can actually make a huge difference and make good and peace in the world. However, there will always be that one person that has no care for the world and wants to discriminate one race, gender, or religion for no reason, or even because of stereotypes. We should continue teaching about the Holocaust and
Human rights violations, unfortunately, have been common in all parts of the world for thousands of years. Not all abuses lead to world attention or mass causalities, but large-scale tragedies that do gain notice often involve the use of propaganda. Propaganda has often been used to promote an individual leader, political party or government’s agenda, which will often tyrannize specific groups. The definition of propaganda according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary and for this paper is, “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.” One of the major questions many have when investigating the causes of genocide and why average citizens often accept and at time tolerate mass violence and permit their friends and neighbors rights to be taken away. To understand this issue we must look to past examples of propaganda that demoralized and demonized entire communities that eventually lead to genocide. During the Nazi rule in Germany and the genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s there have been clear cases where misinformation has been used in order promote violence and repress the rights of citizens. More often than not, similar manipulation and deception techniques have been used during these periods to oppress the basic rights of groups and individuals. Germany and Rwanda both exercised comparable methods such as emotional manipulation, media and demonization of minority/weaker groups in order to harm/eliminate large sectors of the population. Overall, propaganda is often a tool used to commit massive manipulation and rationalization for large-scale human rights violations.
People wonder why other countries stayed silent for so long. They could have prevented millions of deaths! Much like the Syrian refugee problem happening today, countries did not want to become
Intervening in countries facing genocide costs hundreds of millions of dollars. History clearly shows the cost to intervene, take WWII for example or the Rwanda genocide, or the Somali genocide. All of these genocides costs interventionists $400 million or more, “ Each of the more than 220 Tomahawk missiles fired by the U.S. military into Libya, for example, cost around $1.4 million… Spent between $280,000 and $700,000 for each Somali saved” (Valentino). $280,000 is a ton of money to save one person, and given these high costs, it could cost up to $7 million dollars to save ten people. They are not saving that many lives by deciding to intervene either, “Scholars have estimated that the military mission there probably saved between 10,000 and 25,000 lives,”(Valentino). 10,000-25,000 lives and the U.S. spent $7 billion to intervene
The word genocide was derived from the Greek root genos (people) and the Latin root cide (killing), and did not exist in the English language until 1944, which was the end of World War II (Power). According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” Such violence occurred during the Holocaust and during the separation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The problems of ethnic cleansing and repression have become so prevalent in the last century that they have contributed to two world wars, over fourteen million deaths, and a new word. United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said, “Far from being consigned to history, genocide and its ilk remain a serious threat. Not just vigilance but a willingness to act are as important today as ever.”
Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once said, "We were not realizing that with just a machete, you can do a genocide." To be candid, nobody anticipated the Rwandan Genocide that occurred in 1994. The genocide in Rwanda was an infamous blood-red blur in modern history where almost a million innocent people were murdered in cold blood. Members of the Tutsi tribe were systematically hacked or beaten to death by members of the Interahamwe, a militia made up of Hutu tribe members. In just 100 days, from April 6, 1994 to mid-July, 20% of Rwanda's population was killed; about 10,000 people a day. Bodies literally were strewn over city streets. Genocide obviously violates almost all articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; however, the article I find most important is Article 3 - the right to life, liberty, and personal security. In just 100 days, one million people were denied the most basic privilege granted to every human – the right to live, simply because they were born to the wrong tribe.
“Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, independent, and indivisible.” (Webster Online Dictionary) These rights are taken away during genocide. Throughout history genocides have taken place time and time again from the Armenian genocide of 1915, to the Darfur genocide starting in 2003, and is still in progress today. Genocide is a barbaric practice that dehumanizes people and takes away their basic human rights ; American Foreign policy should be to intervene in foreign affairs when human rights violations are evident.
The genocides of the 20th century which occurred in Rwanda and Germany had striking similarities, something that should have alerted the world to stop them. At the core of these two massacres, patterns existed that outlined how similar thinking and reasoning could lead to something as horrible as these two events. One can see how both groups used their command of knowledge as a way to control the people, how the rest of the world refused to step up to stop the killings, and how the people were thought of as less than humans to provide a just cause for such terrible acts.
After Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, he gave an acceptance speech reflecting upon the true meaning of his novel and reflecting upon the crimes in our history. He revealed how “silence encourages the tormentor” while “indifference [is] the most insidious danger of all.” I find a lot of truth in these words and I agree with his assertion. Individuals tend to get overwhelmed by desperation, a sense of helplessness and fear in the face of acts, such as oppression and genocide. During these times, it is the responsibility of the world community to step in. This is proved to be true by the novel Night, the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and by the article called “A Secret Life.”
- Specifically state to the reader if there was U.N. intervention, could genocide have been avoided?
In the years after the genocide, we as people had questioned our past decisions and our countries decision to stay out of the genocide until it was too late. I too have question my countries decision. Why didn’t the US interfere with the genocide and be the hero my favorite historical anime, Hetalia, made it out to be? I believe not helping the innocent people being murdered in Rwanda was wrong of all the countries of the world but now it is too late to change the past and we can only look to the future. We can look to the future and hope and pray that another genocide never occurs but it’s useless. As long as there are people, there will be hate and as long as there is hate there will be murder.
UN peacekeepers in Rwanda sent warning of an “Anti-Tutsi extermination” plot, and there were stories in Washington Post & New York Times but President Clinton specifically avoided calling the killings a genocide to avoid U.S involvement. The U.S would have no participation in stopping the Rwandan Genocide.A UN peacekeeping operation was sent to Rwanda in April but they failed to be an benefit and they weren't very well equipped. Quickly medical supplies ran out with no money to restock and other supplies could rarely be
Baldauf, S. (2009). Why the US didn't intervene in the Rwandan genocide. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2009/0407/p06s14-woaf.html [Accessed: 21 Feb 2014].