United Nations and Rwanda Genocide - Essay Example

?The Right Thing to do United Nations and Rwanda Genocide The United Nations organization was formed in 1945 after the World War II ended. It was formed to ensure that the world became a better place of living for everyone. In other words it was formed to avoid war, killings, injustice and promote peace in all areas of the world. It basically aimed to influence all the countries of the world through economic progress, social security and international law. Presently it has 192 Member states which have to follow the rules laid down by the UN in the general assembly along with 5 permanent states and 10 non permanent states in the Security Council. It also has an Economic and Social council which has 54 members and an international court of justice consisting of fifteen judges. It has a Trusteeship council and a secretariat which are discussed subsequently. The United Nations through its five bodies is helping to maintain international politics in such a way that the whole world remains in peace and harmony. It is basically acting as a judge of politics so that countries do not fight or the populations of the countries do not suffer either financially or physically because of any threat. In order to develop a norm for all the countries international laws are laid down by the United Nations which have to be followed by all the member countries. These international laws are regulated by treaties between the UN and the countries. These treaties are broad as they consider many aspects of the society such as human rights, refugees and border restrictions (United Nations 2010). The question now arises as to if the United Nations has remained successful in achieving its objectives or not. This question can be viewed from several perspectives as some would view the role of United Nations to be limited to only the betterment of itself however some would view the UN to be an organization which is working for the betterment in the society. Rwanda Genocide is cited to be one of the failures by the United Nations organization which shows that the UN has not been very successful in achieving its objectives. On the contrary many other successful scenarios of UN can also be analyzed all over the world which shows that they have regulated international politics in such a way that many wars have been avoided. An example of Indo Pak can be cited here which was stopped with the help of UN intervention. Rwanda Genocide is cited to be one of the failures by the United Nations organization which shows that the UN has not been very successful in achieving its objectives. The United Nations Security Council played an important role in the failure of the organization in the Rwanda genocide when it did not forward directives to the soldiers to bring an immediate ceasefire between the fighting groups of Hutus and Tutsis. The genocide occurred because of the complete failure of UN as the region of Rwanda had been suffering from trouble since 1918. The trouble began in 1918 when the Belgians took over Rwanda which comprised of two ethnic groups namely Tutsis and Hutus. The Tutsis were less in number than the Hutus but still they were given the leading positions of the state by the Belgian forces. This was the step which created anger amongst the Hutus and they began to react. After Rwanda gained independence from Belgium the Hutus came with a strike on the Tutsis and exiled them from the region making their own president. The Tutsis then formed a militia known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). In 1991 the RPF launched an attack on the state of Rwanda killing many Hutus and this led to an organization of army by the state leading to massacres of the people living in the region who were mainly Tutsis. It was in 1993 that a pact was signed under the supervision of UN between the RPF and the state government of Rwanda. It was after this act that UN Security Council had to follow all the happenings of the region but it did not do so even though it was constantly reminded by the commander Romeo Dallaire (Dallaire 2004). In 1993 an army was sent by the UN to check on the implementation of the accord by both parties and this was commanded by the hero Romeo Dallaire. In 1994 Dallaire saw a large massacre happening in Rwanda as the Hutus were equipping their militia. It was then that Dallaire informed the Security Council of possible threats but all these warnings were ignored. In April 1994 the president of Hutu was shot dead and this led to a widespread massacre killing many Tutsis along with Hutus. The numbers of the people dead have been pronounced to be more than 800,000. It was in May 17 1994 that the UN recognized the event as a genocide and thereby deployed 2500 troops in Rwanda to stop the killings. The RPF took over the state of Rwanda and declared a ceasefire in July 1994 (Dallaire 2004). Even though the genocide occurred and killings spread after the withdrawal of the forces from Rwanda, Dallaire did not lose hope and tried to save the citizens of Rwanda. The Tutsis were the main target of the armies in Rwanda and thus Dallaire used his forces from other member states like India, Canada, Nigeria and Ghana to avoid their killings. It is maintained that through the actions of Dallaire around 32,000 of the Tutsis were not harmed by the forces. It is because of his brave actions that Dallaire is still known to be the hero from the Rwanda genocide (Dallaire 2004). But I believe that the actions of Dallaire could be further excelled and in this effort Rwanda Genocide could have been avoided. The genocide was a great failure for the United Nations as it was under their supervision that the accord was signed between the two ethnic tribes. However after the killing of 10 Belgian soldiers the UN backed off from their track and this gave a worst condition to the whole genocide. The UN has ever since admitted its mistake in preventing the genocide of Rwanda and sort out its policies to further prevent any such genocide from happening in the future. The UN changed its stance on many issues after the genocide happened and many of its senior leaders were seen to state that they learned a lot from the genocide (United Nations 2010). Richard Holbrooke an ambassador of UN stated "The prevention of another round of genocidal violence in central Africa is one of the core elements of US policy in the Great Lakes, and is one of the United Nations' greatest challenges" (BBC News 2000). In my view if the UN Security council acted in the right manner the situation could have been avoided. Rwanda genocide occurred primarily because of the faults committed by the members of the organization. The efforts of Dallaire are still praised all over the world and he is presently working as a human rights activist. The Rwanda genocide could have been avoided if the hero was given orders by the UN. In my view the UN bodies could have arranged a meeting even before the genocide occurred to avoid it. The tensions building up in the region were long known to the whole world including all the officers deployed in Rwanda. The UN Security council could take a stand on the issue and maintain their efforts to deploy army in the region so that the conflict could have been avoided. Dallaire at one instance could have avoided the orders by UN Security Council and could have used his forces to maintain peace in the region. In my view the officers deployed in the region of Rwanda could have acted together so that the population of Rwanda could be controlled. The militia was gathering all over the region and no efforts were taken by the UN or other officers to control the region. A specific army could have been deployed to fight off the militia in Rwanda. A peace accord could have been boosted by the UN organizations which did not play much role during the genocide. In my view the whole situation could have been avoided if the officers and UN body took a stand on the issue. Powers and orders should have been implemented in the region so that the armed officers took control of the region. The Hutis and Tutsis could have been joined together by a pact if the UN interfered to aware them of possible consequences if the pact was violated. In my view the problem should have been cut out from the grass root level. The officers in Rwanda were less in number because of the UN orders and hence these officers could have been designated specific tasks so as to tackle the situation. The arms and weapon supply to the militia should have been cut off with the help of the officers deployed there. During the conflict some of the soldiers were also harmed and this situation could have been avoided if the soldiers were given full control of the region. I think that the whole problem could be tackled if the situation was handled in a more professional manner by the officers deployed there and the UN bodies. References Dallaire, Romeo L. G. E. N, and Brent M. A. J. O. R. Beardsley. Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Toronto: Vintige Canada, 2004. Print. United Nations Official Website 2010 UN admits Rwanda genocide failure. BBC News 2000. Read More