Ethnic Conflict in Rwanda
Name:
Name of Instructor:
Subject:
Date:
Ethnic Conflict in Rwanda
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda is, by all accounts, the worst war related disaster since the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki in World War II. In Rwanda, 800,000 people died in less than one hundred days. As the well wishers of Europe and the United States turned a blind eye to what was happening in Rwanda, thousands of machete-wielding youths turned Rwanda into a mass grave. Although, the United Nations sent its peacekeepers they were few, severely underfunded, and with a mandate limited only to self defense and protection of foreign interests. In short, the peacekeepers could only watch helplessly as the Rwandese butchered each other. By considering Gourevitch’s arguments, this essay analyzes the reasons why the Europe and the United States turned a blind eye to the genocide in Rwanda. It will also outline the strengths and weaknesses of those arguments, and finally put forward arguments that UN officials should have made in order to convince Europe and the United States to intervene in Rwanda.
GOUREVITCH’S ARGUMENTS
The economic underdevelopment of Rwanda made the well-wishers of Europe and the United States doubt the Hutu government’s capacity to carry out systematic attacks aimed at exterminating the Tutsi’s. To them Rwanda was a third world country and, as such, it did not have the economic muscle required in the commission of genocide. They compared Rwanda with Germany and stated that the reason why the holocaust happened was because the Germans had advanced weapons. They forgot to accept one fact, it was not the advanced weapons that killed the Jews but rather it was the Germans who killed the Jews. Hitler was able to turn the Germans into weapons. Similarly, Rwanda was a third world country but its government, with the aid of the media, was able to turn the Hutus into weapons and in a span of a hundred days they massacred more than 800,000 people.
The reason why Belgium was
Name of Instructor:
Subject:
Date:
Ethnic Conflict in Rwanda
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda is, by all accounts, the worst war related disaster since the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki in World War II. In Rwanda, 800,000 people died in less than one hundred days. As the well wishers of Europe and the United States turned a blind eye to what was happening in Rwanda, thousands of machete-wielding youths turned Rwanda into a mass grave. Although, the United Nations sent its peacekeepers they were few, severely underfunded, and with a mandate limited only to self defense and protection of foreign interests. In short, the peacekeepers could only watch helplessly as the Rwandese butchered each other. By considering Gourevitch’s arguments, this essay analyzes the reasons why the Europe and the United States turned a blind eye to the genocide in Rwanda. It will also outline the strengths and weaknesses of those arguments, and finally put forward arguments that UN officials should have made in order to convince Europe and the United States to intervene in Rwanda.
GOUREVITCH’S ARGUMENTS
The economic underdevelopment of Rwanda made the well-wishers of Europe and the United States doubt the Hutu government’s capacity to carry out systematic attacks aimed at exterminating the Tutsi’s. To them Rwanda was a third world country and, as such, it did not have the economic muscle required in the commission of genocide. They compared Rwanda with Germany and stated that the reason why the holocaust happened was because the Germans had advanced weapons. They forgot to accept one fact, it was not the advanced weapons that killed the Jews but rather it was the Germans who killed the Jews. Hitler was able to turn the Germans into weapons. Similarly, Rwanda was a third world country but its government, with the aid of the media, was able to turn the Hutus into weapons and in a span of a hundred days they massacred more than 800,000 people.
The reason why Belgium was