The world’s reaction to the Rwandan genocide in 1994 is widely considered as one of the biggest failures of humanity and the UN, hundreds of thousands of innocent lives were lost over the course of the 100 day mass killing. The response has been described as” too little, too late” as an earlier intervention could have saved many more lives, which brings the question why did the world wait? Why did we fail all of these innocent people? The answer lies within the structure of our world’s political system and the different ideals and definitions of key concepts by different states. While no one state can be blamed completely for the lack of aid, the Rwandan genocide brought forward the need for a more comprehensive action plan for intervention
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Upon arrival Belgium acknowledged the difference between two groups, the Tutsi and the Hutu, and separated them into separate groups even identifying who belonged to each group on identification cards. The Tutsi at the time were favored by the Europeans and given the positions of power within the country, which lead to the systematic oppression of the Hutu population. During the 1950’s the Tutsi began to support decolonization, which lead Belgium to switch sides and support the, now very large, Hutu population (3). During this time the Belgians sent troops to aid in the hostile takeover by the Hutu they supported, by 1961 they had consolidated their power over the country and began to oppress the Tutsi in revenge for the hundreds of years of oppression they had experienced. This lead many Tutsi’s to flee the country and take refuge in surrounding areas to avoid the Hutu, after sometime a rebellion started to brew within Tutsi groups wishing to return home. Over the next few decades the country experienced never ending political unrest between the two groups as the Hutu would punish the Tutsi for any retaliation against them, leading to a buildup in hostility between the two essentially waiting for something to spark a major violent attack by one or the other. This spark came on April 6, 1994 when Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down by air …show more content…
The decision to intervene in another countries affairs is much more difficult than we would like to believe it is, in our minds if someone needs help we should help them however intervention has many political implications. The UN’s definition of genocide is “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” (6), to define something as a genocide it must also fit into the eight stages of genocide defined by the UN. These eight stages are: classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination and finally denial (8). These eight stages must be met to classify a genocide, in 1994 it is important to consider who had what information when during the genocide. Kofi Annan, the head of peacekeeping, had enough information to sound the alarm about the events in Rwanda to the UN, however he was “overly passive” (9) and admitted years later in an apology from the UN that he could have and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support
Upon arrival Belgium acknowledged the difference between two groups, the Tutsi and the Hutu, and separated them into separate groups even identifying who belonged to each group on identification cards. The Tutsi at the time were favored by the Europeans and given the positions of power within the country, which lead to the systematic oppression of the Hutu population. During the 1950’s the Tutsi began to support decolonization, which lead Belgium to switch sides and support the, now very large, Hutu population (3). During this time the Belgians sent troops to aid in the hostile takeover by the Hutu they supported, by 1961 they had consolidated their power over the country and began to oppress the Tutsi in revenge for the hundreds of years of oppression they had experienced. This lead many Tutsi’s to flee the country and take refuge in surrounding areas to avoid the Hutu, after sometime a rebellion started to brew within Tutsi groups wishing to return home. Over the next few decades the country experienced never ending political unrest between the two groups as the Hutu would punish the Tutsi for any retaliation against them, leading to a buildup in hostility between the two essentially waiting for something to spark a major violent attack by one or the other. This spark came on April 6, 1994 when Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down by air …show more content…
The decision to intervene in another countries affairs is much more difficult than we would like to believe it is, in our minds if someone needs help we should help them however intervention has many political implications. The UN’s definition of genocide is “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” (6), to define something as a genocide it must also fit into the eight stages of genocide defined by the UN. These eight stages are: classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination and finally denial (8). These eight stages must be met to classify a genocide, in 1994 it is important to consider who had what information when during the genocide. Kofi Annan, the head of peacekeeping, had enough information to sound the alarm about the events in Rwanda to the UN, however he was “overly passive” (9) and admitted years later in an apology from the UN that he could have and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support