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This essay will start by observing the principles of preventing genocide that are described under the Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide that was approved in 1948 by the United Nations General assembly (United Nations, 1948). This report will examine the events leading up to and after the Rwandan genocide and the decision by the United Nations that they needed to intervene strictly on humanitarian grounds in Rwanda. It will be argued that the international community and the UN had an inability to recognise the early warnings of international crisis and there was a general unwillingness of national governments to contribute military and financial support. The essay will also critically evaluate the incapacity
Genocide is a pressing issue with a multitude of questions and debates surrounding it. It is the opinion of many people that the United Nations should not get involved with or try to stop ongoing genocide because of costs or impositions on the rights of a country, but what about the rights of an individual? The UN should get involved in human rights crimes that may lead to genocide to prevent millions of deaths, save money on humanitarian aid and clean up, and fulfill their responsibilities to stop such crimes. It is preferable to stop genocide before it occurs through diplomacy, but if necessary, military force may be used as a last resort. Navi Pillay, Human Rights High Commissioner, stated, “Concerted efforts by the international community at critical moments in time could prevent the escalation of violence into genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing.”
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.
Many innocent lives were taken during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Philip Gourevitch’s “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families,” explains why the genocide that occurred in Rwanda should not be written off in history as just another tribal disagreement. This book entails the stories of Gourevitch and the people he interviewed when he went to Rwanda. These stories express what people went through during the genocide, the loss they saw, the mass killings they tried to hide from, and the history of what led to the Rwandan genocide. Rwanda’s colonial past did influence the development of the genocide in Rwanda. The hatred between the Hutus and the Tutsis had been going on for many years before the genocide.
The Rwandan Genocide was a terrible event in history caused by a constantly weakening relationship between two groups of people. The country of Rwanda is located in Africa and consists of multiple groups of people. Majority of Rwanda is Hutu, while a smaller amount of people are Tutsis. The genocide started due to multiple events that really stretched the relationship between the two groups to its end. One of the starting factors was at the end of World War 1. Rwanda was a German colony but then was given to Belgium “who favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus, exacerbated[exacerbating] the tendency of the few to oppress the many”(History.com). This created a feeling of anger towards the Tutsis, because they had much more power then Hutus.
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
Percival, Valerie, and Thomas Homer-Dixon. "Getting Rwanda wrong. (genocide in Rwanda)." Saturday Night. v110. n7 (Sept 1995): p47(3). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. K12 Trial Site. 12 Apr. 2010 .
The analysis of the genocides that took place both in Rwanda and Sudan’s Darfur region exhibit some similarities as well as differences. The character of violence was similar in both cases, but in Rwanda the violence was more intense, participatory, and extraordinary. The violence in these two places took place in an environment that had experienced civil wars. It was a period of political transition which was further aggravated by ethnic nationalism and a conflict of ethnic populations that were living in close proximity. However, in the Rwandan genocide, the state is more centralized, compact, and effective. This is what explains the intensity and variation. The international response to these genocides through observers emphasized on using the genocide label to create domestic constituencies especially in the Rwandan case.
Massacre, annihilation, extermination, these are just some synonyms for the word Genocide. Genocide-the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. When one thinks of mass murder, they think of the Holocaust. A genocide that many people may not know of is the Rwandan genocide, also known as the Genocide against the Tutsi. It was a mass slaughter of Tutsi in Rwanda by members of the Hutu Majority government in East Central Africa. They murdered from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people. This genocide took place during the Rwandan Civil War. Hutu nationalists were the first to start this genocide. This genocide spread through the country like an epidemic; fast and deadly.
Various schools of thought exist as to why genocide continues at this deplorable rate and what must be done in order to uphold our promise. There are those who believe it is inaction by the international community which allows for massacres and tragedies to occur - equating apathy or neutrality with complicity to evil. Although other nations may play a part in the solution to genocide, the absolute reliance on others is part of the problem. No one nation or group of nations can be given such a respo...
From April to July of 1994, in about 100 days, an estimated 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda by Hutu extremists. The Hutu extremists were said to be targeting only the minority ethnic group called "Tutsi", but were also found to be killing any of their political enemies regardless of their race.
When the Rwandan Hutu majority betrayed the Tutsi minority, a destructive mass murdering broke out where neighbor turned on neighbor and teachers killed their students; this was the start of a genocide. In this paper I will tell you about the horrors the people of Rwanda had to face while genocide destroyed their homes, and I will also tell you about the mental trauma they still face today.
“What distinguishes genocide from murder, and even from acts of political murder that claim as many victims, is the intent. The crime is wanting to make a people extinct. The idea is the crime.” - (Philip Gourevitch, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.)
Former UN Secretary- General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once said, “ We were not realizing that with just a machete, you can do genocide.” The continent of Africa has been continually engaged in civil, tribal, and cross national conflicts from the colonial era up until present day. The Hutus and the Tutsis, two ethnic groups within Rwanda, have been at repeated unrest for the past half a century. During the 100 day massacre of 1994, a murder occurred every two seconds, resulting in half of the Tutsi population being killed. It was the fastest, most efficient killing spree of that era. Nevertheless, in 2004 the film Hotel Rwanda was released and it portrays the consequences that took place. The movie showed how Paul Rusesabagina keeps over 1200 Tutsis refugees in his hotel. The Hotel De Milles Colliness, a five- star resort, became a refugee camp to keep the Tutsis safe. The international community utterly failed to prevent and stop this massacre from happening. The purpose of this paper will be to focus on how Belgium, United States and France, knew that there was genocide underway in Rwanda- therefore, they had a responsibility to prevent and stop the genocide, but lack the political will that could have put a stop to this massacre. Finally, it will be shown that this international letdown had dreadful consequences for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), which, with neither sufficient resources nor permit, became an eyewitness to the massacre.
This research paper will explore the topic of sexual violence in conflict, specifically analysing rape in the Rwandan civil war. I will explore experiences of life within conflict and draw out areas of interest relating to gendered violence within an Anthropological framework. I will look at victim testimonials from SURF Survivors Fund (2008-2013) and conclusions drawn from data collected in the form of interviews in The Lived Experience of Genocide Rape Survivors (2008) in order to comment on accounts of the use of rape and other violence of a sexual nature from Rwandan civil war survivors. I will assess explanations of sexual violence in war from ‘weapon of war’ theory and feminist theory in the understanding of masculinity and femininity
United Human Rights Council. (2014). Genocide in Rwanda. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm [Accessed: 21 Feb 2014].