United Nations Must Do More To Stop Bloodbaths

Apr 13, 2004

PRESIDENT Paul Kagame and a number of African leaders blasted the international community last week for not intervening to prevent the Rwanda genocide in which close to a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in 1994.

PRESIDENT Paul Kagame and a number of African leaders blasted the international community last week for not intervening to prevent the Rwanda genocide in which close to a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in 1994.
There is consensus that had the United Nations with the support of the USA, France and Belgium intervened in Rwanda, the genocide would have been prevented or stopped quickly.
The Rwanda genocide, to say the least, was despicable and shameful. It is only proper that the international community relentlessly hunts for the individuals who masterminded and executed the genocide and bring them to justice. Nevertheless, I think Rwanda and the international community also need to analyse the factors that precipitated the genocide.
While the international community has obligation to condemn the 1994 genocide and to bring to justice those who masterminded it, it has also to take steps to ensure another genocide does not take place anywhere in the world. The Rwanda conflict that resulted into the genocide has been contained, but remains unresolved. The underlying issue that needs to be addressed is the sharing of political power between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi.
The Habyarimana regime sought not only to exclude the minority Tutsi from sharing power, but also to stop the Tutsi refugees from returning to Rwanda. Consequently, the RPF/RPA picked up arms to fight. RPF/RPA had a legitimate cause to fight. Although the RPF has been able to restore a degree of political stability, it still faces a big challenge to ensure equitable power sharing with the majority Hutu.
The RPF government is still perceived as a Tutsi government. Kagame ought to engage in dialogue with his opponents within and outside the country. In this respect, the continued detention of former President Bizimungu on criminal charges is counterproductive. The international community needs to exert pressure on the RPF regime to engage in dialogue with the opposition. The United Nations must change its policy and adopt a more interventionist approach.
The international community has been seen to concentrate on supplying relief food to the Sudanese displaced by the war, instead of tackling the real causes of the war. The UN has not seen it fit to intervene in Sudan ostensibly because it views the conflict as an “internal” problem, which should be left to the Sudan government to deal with.
In Burundi, over the years hundreds of thousands of people have lost lives in the political conflict there. The UN, besides adopting resolutions expressing concern, has not found it necessary to intervene forcefully to stop the Burundi bloodbath.
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