Did the United Nations Fail to Prevent the Rwandan Civilian War and Genocide in 1994? (PDF)

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject History - Africa, grade: 5.0, Mount Kenya University, language: English, abstract: This essay focuses on the United Nations' and the world's greatest powers' role during the Rwandian civil war and genocide in 1994.

In 1994 Rwanda was involved in a civil war between its two major ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi. The civil war results in a genocide where 800,000 people were killed within 100 days. United Nations and world superpowers are primarily blamed for not doing enough to prevent the genocide from occurring. In this research, the author answers the question where the UN failed in preventing the Rwandan civil war as well as genocide in 1994. The study demonstrates that the UN failed in its mandate of stopping the genocide. Most of the United Nations member's states failed to show their responsibility and preparedness to send material or troop to the genocide. Also, the research shows that the peacekeeping mission sent to Rwanda was ill-prepared and lacked the appropriate commanding structure to effectively respond to the killings that were taking place in the country. Thus, the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 can squarely be blamed on failures of the UN to prevent and respond to the civil war effectively.

The genocide in Rwanda is perhaps one of the most intensive killing campaigns to take place in human history after the Second World War. The Rwanda genocide came as a result of ethnic division which was not a feature of Rwandan society before the establishment of colonial rule. Initially, Rwanda was colonized by Germans, but it was taken over by Belgium which came up with the divide and rule policy to control Rwanda.