History Lesson

Today in my Global Issues class, we saw a documentary on the genocide in Rwanda. What was troubling was the fact that the United Nations, as well as the other big countries, stood by while this was happening. Here’s a little background info.

The main component of the United Nations that is focused in this incident was the Security Council. They are made up of 15 members, 5 permenant and the rest are elected to 2 year terms. The 5 permenant members are: the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, and France. Each of the 5 permenant members have the power to veto any resolution. If one member votes down a resolution, that resolution can’t take into effect. The United States have vetoed any action against their allies; same with Russia, and China.

Anyway, Rwanda is made up of the Hutu (majority) and the Tutsi (minority). A representative of the Hutu met with a representative from the United Nations and informed him that the Tutsis were going to disappear off the face of the Earth. The UN representative sent the warning to headquarters, but his warning was not heeded.

There were about 2,500 “Blue Helmets” in Rwanda. Their orders were pretty simple: they were to avoid any action that would necessitate use of force. The reason was because in Somalia, the United States experienced 18 U.S. rangers.

Anyway, the Hutus set up road blocks and began killing anyone associated with the Tutsis. These included men, women, and children. What’s even more disturbing is that the radio broadcasters helped encourage the genocide by playing the “he said” thing. They would say that so and so was fleeing from this place and all of that. Later on, individuals were being targeted and exterminated. It reached the point where the Tutsi people fled to a school building protected by Belgium soldiers. For a good while, the refugees were protected from the Hutus. However, ten Belgium soldiers were tricked into handing over their weapons and subsequently tortured and mutilated before being killed. As a result, Belgium wanted to withdraw their troops.

Here’s another chilling fact. The U.N. was supposed to protect a politician by the name of Mr. Lando. However, when the Hutus confronted these soldiers, they just stepped aside and allowed Mr. Lando to be killed. Also, it reached the point where the United States, France, and Belgium sent in extra troops to retrieve their own troops! The saddest part was that an embassy was evacuated but those who were Tutsi were left behind; further, the embassy dog was rescued. The refugees had realized the Belgium soldiers were going to leave. They requested to be killed by machine gun fire instead of machettes because they felt they were safe under the watchful eye of the Belgium soldiers.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, politicians didn’t call what was happening ethnic cleansing. Instead, they said that what was happening was a breakdown in the cease fire agreement. Later on, it was revealed that the politicans didn’t want to call it genocide because they were up for reelection and they would have lost votes. Same thing was happening in the UN. The UN didn’t want to call it genocide because that would require action. However, the Security Council did want to keep behind 200 troops. These troops would receive weaponry from the United States, but it never came. The U.S. did send something (I forgot the actual machine), but it remained in Uganda until after the genocide was over.

Case in point.

A representative from the Clinton administration was giving a press conference and said something like, ‘an act of genocide is happening…’; then, a reporter challenged her by saying, ‘how many acts of genocide before it becomes official’ or something like that. She started stuttering and was saying something like, ‘I uh..umm..I can’t give any…uh…’ etc.

Three years later, Clinton returned to Rwanda and gave a speech of apology. The striking thing is that he stayed in the airport for the whole trip (about over an hour); air force one was still on the whole time and he presented a plaque to someone (forgot who). That is abominal if you think about what happened.

One thing was that the bodies started to end up in the river. Two, the United States presented a Holocaust memorial for those who died in the concentration camps in Germany. What’s shocking is that the Hutus, in 100 days, killed 5 times as many people as Hitler did. All Rwanda got was a plaque. A plaque.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe things like that goes on in other countries. Before September 11th, we never knew what terrorism was like. We were always like, ‘it never happens here’. Could you imagine living in a world of fear? What about if you were a Tutsi? I know someone in my Global Issues class who actually lived during this time.