Essay on the Rwandan Genocide 1994

The Rwandan genocide was a mass massacre in Rwanda committed by the Hutu against the members of the Tutsi community. Based on estimations, more than 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 100 days between April 6, and mid-July 1994. More than 2 million Rwandans were displaced from their homes and sought refuge in the neighboring countries. The genocide ended when Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) backed by the Tutsis and led by Paul Kagame took control of the country.

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The prelude to the genocide began the early 1990s when the Rwandan economy stumbled under President Juvenal Habyarimana because of poor harvest, increasing levels of corruption, and the enrichment among the social elites which led to social unrest. By 1990, over one million Tutsis were living in exile, among them, Paul Kagame who founded a movement called the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) whose aim was to overthrow Habyarimana so that the Tutsis in exile would return home. The RPF returned to Rwanda territory in 1990, occupied parts of northern Rwanda provinces but were killed and halted by the Rwandan army.

A ceasefire in 1993 was brokered where President Habyarimana was forced to join the leaders of RPF in negotiation table in Arusha, Tanzania to sign the Arusha Accords. This power-sharing deal was meant to bring peace to the Rwandan situation and formation of a transitional government which the warring parties would be part. Despite the power-sharing deal, President Habyarimana approved propaganda campaigns that evoked war images, slavery, death, and cruelty meant to alienate the Hutus from the Tutsis. The influential Rwandan newspaper published the Hutu Ten Commandments whose main plea was to convince the Hutus that the Tutsis were their enemies while radio broadcasted news full of gossip and scandals. Just before the genocide, four different groups were fighting for power. There were the Hutus led by the Prime Minister, Hutu extremists, and RPF. On April 6, 1994, the France Air jet carrying the president was shot down and landed on the presidential palace grounds nearby. Following the assassination, Tutsi elites and Hutus in influential positions were killed.

The response of the international community to the genocide involved different bodies and countries which made an effort to stop the genocide. Before the start of the crisis, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) had been in Rwanda since 1993. Its role was to assist in the implementation of the Arusha Accords, monitoring the ceasefire, and the repatriation and settlement of Rwandan refugees as well as facilitating of conditions that would make it easy for the transition government to take over. Commander Romeo Dallaire led UNAMIR with a force of approximately 2,000 United Nations peacekeepers and Belgium; a former colonizer also sent soldiers. The United Nations Secretary General and Annan (1999) in their letter to the president of the Security Council notes that despite the presence of the UNAMIR forces, fighting escalated between November and December 1993 which caused a lot of concern because it was clear that political difficulties were taking place. UNAMIR foresaw some of the Arusha Accords resolutions being realized, but a stalemate ensued when the factions could not agree on the national assembly formation.

A major blow to UNAMIR was documented by the United States Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) about a massive purchase of guns, machetes, and grenades. This information was relayed to Commander Dallaire, but his request to the Security Council to intervene was declined. Such efforts hampered the intervention of the international community coupled with President Habyarimana hard line stand and the position taken by the Hutu rebels. The United Nations found it hard to continue with their mission and threatened to call it off if the warring factions did not implement the Arusha Accords as the distribution of arms, militia activities, continued killings, and escalating ethnic tensions were reported. The security situation was deteriorating daily because of increased violent demonstrations, assassination attempts, and grenade attacks during the night and reported cases of armed militia stockpiling and preparation were underway for weapon distribution to Hutu supporters (The United Nations Secretary General and Annan, 1999). The UNAMIR commander begged the United Nations to be given the go-ahead to conduct missions to capture the piled ammunitions but was not granted the request. This marked one of the failures of the United Nations in stopping the genocide and threatened to withdraw the troops.

The international response was prudent but was marked by failure. UNAMIR withdrew its forces because the requirements of the peacekeeping mission were no longer met, failure of the Arusha Accords, and there was no existing dialogue between parties. The contingent from Ghana fled leaving UNAMIR with a handful of troops which made it difficult for UNAMIR to discharge its mandate. Similarly, the Belgium contingent was tricked by the militants to surrender their weapons, and ten were killed. This act was orchestrated by the militants to create an urge to withdraw (Eriksson, et al., 1996). The United Nations Secretary General and Annan (1999) agree that the Security Council voted unanimously to cut down the number of UNAMIR force and change the mandate of the mission. The United Nations could not use force because the international law prohibits such (O'Connell, 2000). The council was appalled by the massive scale of violence which resulted in the killing of innocent civilians including women and children. The United Nations security council, realizing their failure, sought a second phase of troops from member countries name UNAMIR 2 which required troops of up to 5,500 but months after the resolution, few countries were willing to send troops to Rwanda. This hampered the peacekeeping mission noting that there was a lot of violence going on.

The United Nations failure in the Rwandan crisis became apparent: there was an inadequate supply of resources to the mission and gave vague directions to the troops who waited for a political solution to the problem even when people were being massacred. The United Nations Security Council also failed to act on the information from the UNAMIR commander of an impending genocide. The Security Council showed clear division because there were some who sympathized the Belgian forces and supported their withdrawal while other member states encouraged the strengthening of UNAMIR. The international community also refused to refer the killings as a genocide because it would have compelled them to intervene based on the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Despite the catastrophe resulting in massive loss of human lives, it was an important happening that reminds the world of the need for humanitarian intervention. In spite of the suffering faced by Tutsis, there was a limited intervention by the United Nations Security Council. The Rwandan genocide is still in the discussion up to today. The magnitude that the crisis had on human lives was so immense that nations in the world today are cautious to avert a similar occurrence. The killings and the weakening of the Rwanda government after the assassination of President Habyarimana attracted an enormous focus all over the world. The effects of the unrest were not felt by the people alone. The environment felt the brunt of the crisis because natural resources and biodiversity were destroyed because the government had to create land for the settlement of people. Woodlands and forests were cleared after the genocide for settlement, firewood and the construction of roads. The effects of the killings and the subsequent clearing of forests are felt to date.

There are a string of lessons learned from the genocide both within Africa and beyond. The silence during a horrific occurrence serves to embolden the perpetrators and encourage the occurrence of other crimes of a similar magnitude. The 1994 genocide would not have occurred if the international community had stopped the previous crimes that happened in Rwanda in the past years. Despite the existence of the 1948 Genocide Convention, the international community did not consider the massacre in Rwanda a genocide and thereby failed in prevention and punishment of the culprits. Because of this, killings went on with the watch of the United Nations Security Council. There was a lack of mechanisms for analyzing and bringing to the attention of the United Nations Security Council of information that suggested the planning and execution of the genocide. The United Nations went silent because no strategic information was timely brought to their attention for action to be taken before the crisis went out of control.

Moreover, the failure of the political leaders and the poor implementation of the international law perpetrated the crisis. Lack of political will by leaders in Rwanda hampered the international law and the commitments shown by some nations in ending the war were fruitless. The genocide began when the UNAMIR troops were already in Rwanda, but the militants weakened them so as to instigate their withdrawal. Also, despite the initial warning of a possible genocide before and immediately after it begun, the United Nations Security Council reduced the troops instead of calling for more reinforcements, only to seek additional troops when the damage was already done. The Belgian contingent evacuated foreign nationals only, leaving the locals at the mercy of the militants.

The Rwandan genocide left a legacy of death, destruction, the growing number of refugees who sought shelter in the neighboring countries, economic loss and continued suffering among the people. Despite these unfortunate setbacks, it left a positive mark in the country. The legacy left by political killings are rare but economic downfall after unrest may determine violence and future financial performance. After the genocide, the Rwandan government received funds from the West which was instrumental in the expansion of healthcare access, electricity, and education, catapulting economic growth. This clearly indicates that politically instigated mass murder have positive effects on the economy. Rogall and Yanagizawa-Drott (2014) agree that households that experienced more violence own more assets, have a high per capita output and more agricultural income that was realized after peace and stability returned to the country.

The magnitude of the cases of the perpetrators of the genocide was overwhelming, therefore led to the inception of International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania (Borton and Eriksson, 2004) and the subsequent revitalization of the traditional system of justice called Gacaca. This system was tasked with finding out the truth of the genocide, speeding up the trial of those involved in the genocide, and participate in the process of reconciliation. The United Nations Security Council established the ICTR so as to judge those responsible for the genocide and any serious infringement of the international law in Rwanda.

After the genocide, recent developments in Kosovo received quick intervention and may suggest that the Security Council and the member states have shown willingness to respond to genocide and ethnic cleansing related threats briskly. For instance, the UN member states supported the bodies created by the Security Council such as International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Charney, 1999). On the contrary, African countries which experienced unrests after the Rwanda genocide such as Sierra Leone received no humanitarian intervention from the international community (Independent International Commission on Kosovo, 2000)....