Lessons from the Rwandan Genocide - Essay Example

Lessons from the Rwandan Genocide Introduction Peace is an important component that is needed for any society to grow and develop in different aspects. Countries that have managed to establish better social, economic and political systems have done so in an environment that is peaceful. Whenever, there is war, many people are known to lose their lives and properties. While some are murdered in merciless ways, many are raped, molested and displaced from their homes. Across many societies in the world, there is none that desire a state of war, it is a worldwide concern that people should live peacefully in an environment that encourages freedom of interaction, movement and exchange of ideas. The concept of fighting and killing each is often characterised by societies that do not respect the rule. Causes of war are different from one country to another, there are those countries that fight for resources, just because there is persistent inequality in terms of resource allocation. In such countries, politicians and people in powerful government positions decided to allocate most of the important resources to their people just for the sake of winning elections. The world has witnessed many war crimes being committed in some countries in Africa like Rwanda, DRC Congo and some countries in West Africa. Dispute in elections has also been one of the causes of civil war which when is not well taken care of, leads to genocide and many other inhuman acts. Genocide Genocide does not usually start instantly in a country that is unable to resolve its internal affairs, in most cases, the situation starts as a slow process that does not portray signs of escalating to unmanageable levels. In most cases, leaders pay little attention to the impact of their words and efforts to calm raising tensions between warring parties (Baeand Ott, 107-8). The exact actions that can qualify to be classified as genocide have become a subject of debate by many scholars and legal experts in many countries across the world. In this case (Sanín, 260), the particular definition of genocide has seemed to differ too, although the United Nations has played an important role in defining and explaining the extent to which certain actions can be classified as acts of genocide. Through article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), the United Nations has defined genocide as actions that are carried out with an intention to destroy in whole or part, a whole nation, ethnic group, race or members of a certain religious group (Brownand Langer, 415). For this case, the process of killing member of a certain group of people as mentioned above, causing any form of bodily or mental harm or purposely difficult conditions of life in a manner that is calculated with an aim of physically destroying and eliminating the group totally. At the same time, genocide can also be taken to be actions done with an aim of preventing births with the particular group of people; alternatively, it may also involve transferring children from the group to another place. Causes of genocide In some of the countries that have suffered from the actions of genocide, there are many factors that can be said to cause civil war, which escalates to genocide. In many cases, when these actions are beginning to happen, particular leaders are always never aware of the extent to which the war can go, the suddenly, what seemed like a small issues escalates to widespread killing, rape and other inhuman acts. It is important to understand that genocide is not civil war, this is because, it involves deaths of people on a much larger scale, with the target group being specific. In many cases, the people who suffer most from acts of genocide are innocent civilians who are usually meant form complete extermination. The violence in genocide is mostly one sided, when the minority group is targeted (Guichaoua, 167), however, it is important to note that genocides are much rare that civil wars. Most social scientists have explained that the causes of civil wars that escalate to genocide are almost similar. Political and social partners in some countries have often been cited as the major cause of misunderstandings that culminates to hate for a certain group of people. As the trend continues, tensions between the ethnic begins to rise and fighting ensues, if efforts are not taken to calm these tensions, civil war begins which advances to become genocide when more and more people are targeted and killed. Studies on this issue shave also revealed that cases of civil wars are often higher in countries that have slow economic growth, this are countries with very low incomes, and whose people are very poor (Fearon, 484-5). On the other hand, genocides are known to be common in middle low income and middle income countries as well as those that can be characterised with authoritarian regimes. However, both civil war and genocide have been known to come about during periods of transition from one regime to another and in times of political upheavals. As pointed out earlier, genocides are usually brought about increased cases of civil war, this means that civil war is a predisposing condition for civil war. This means that strategies that are used to end civil war can be essential in alleviating the possibilities of genocide. However, it is hurting that in case there is a situation that proves to have high risks or actual episodes of genocide, in most cases, policy advice in the aim of preventing genocide or civil often falls on deaf ears. For this reason, there should always be appropriate policies available in any multi-ethnic society in order to avoid risks of any potential genocides and civil war. The Worlds response to genocide incidents and why genocides are not being stopped The Rwandan genocide presents a good case where world leaders in Africa and other countries should sue as lesson for prevention of civil war and cases of genocide. The Rwanda genocide is said to have been prevented had world leaders taken an initiative to take the necessary steps (Power, 1; Wadleyc 2014). It has often been said that the international community could have used all the means to end the violence without necessarily using military intervention (Wadleya, 2014; Wadleyb, 2014), as it was the case. Solidarity that is often known to exist in the United Nations was completely non-existent in the case of Rwandan Genocide. It is said that three among the permanent members of the United Nations were better placed to prevent the genocide, although they made no meaningful efforts. The United States is said to have had nothing to benefit from the genocide while China and France used to assist the government by supplying it with arms and other forms of military aid to help the government to stop. The United Nations showed much concern about the events that were going on, had this effort been done earlier, and then it would have been easier to prevent China and France from arming government forces and fueling the genocide (Wadleyd 2014; Bulletin, 2014). Soon after the genocide was stopped, the effects were widespread, something that prompted most of the African leaders to vow to prevent these incidences. Most of the world leaders have been doing all they can to embrace dialogue and other methods to solve any kinds of misunderstanding in the government (Weinstein, 234). The international community and other international organizations engage different election candidates in different countries during and after elections in order to have smooth transitions. In spite of all this efforts genocides are still emerging in different countries in Africa and beyond. The latest incident has been the genocide incidences that have been happening in the Darfur regions in recent weeks. Different nations have been experiencing increasing cases of civil war, with potential cases of genocide pending, the questions that most people continue to ask themselves is why these acts are still going on in spite of world leaders having vowed and promised to embrace peace (Urdal, 608-9). Most of the reason that contribute to civil war are still the same reason that are causing tension in some countries and contributing to cases of genocide. For instance, most of the countries that are experiencing civil wars and genocide have weak or dysfunctional legal institutions (Wayman and Tago, 5-6). A good case in point is South Sudan, new country in the world at the moment, just like other nations, there is a lot that needs to be done so that the general public can have confidence in legal institutions. In many countries, the legal fraternity is instrumental in implementing and interpreting the constitution. Whenever, there are misunderstandings, the legal institutions is always on the forefront to provide better systems of governance and ensure that leaders dispense their duties, for the benefit of every citizen in the country. This explains why most of these countries do not prosecute the perpetrators of civil wars and other kinds of injustices in their countries, leading to increased cases of genocide. At the same time, there are still weak social and political systems that that is characterised by extreme inequality in resource allocation (Powerb, 2001). Political leaders in these countries do not have the people’s welfare in their hearts, they main aim is usually consolidating their individual wealth and those of their constituents to win succeeding terms in government. Until leaders know and embrace total and genuine concern for all people, there is still a big vacuum to be filled in terms of sustainable governance and management of national resources. 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