Rwanda and the United Nations

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the history of the ethnic conflicts in Rwanda and the outcome of the genocide. The paper determines that the United Nations (UN) facilitated the catastrophe and failed the suffering people of Rwanda. The paper also asserts that the UN may be closer to the brink of disaster than almost any of the conflict-torn states it has failed to help in the past. The paper includes a copy of the source material and an annotated bibliography.

From the Paper:

"When the fighting broke out in April of 1994, most of the world was caught in the unhappy position of trying to figure out what could have triggered some monstrous acts. What it learned is that the history of Rwanda has long been, for all intents and purposes, a history of two people: the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. For many generations, there has been a lingering enmity between the two parties that only needed one spark, however contrived, to burst into a conflagration. In early April of 1994, the murders of Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, and Burundian president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, proved that fateful spark (Michaels & Mutiso, 44). The question thus becomes, what was it precisely that turned the Hutu against their Tutsi co-citizens in such a dramatic and barbaric way? The answer, perhaps not surprisingly, is found by looking at Rwanda's colonial past."

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Aid Groups Caught in Ethnic Clashes." Christianity Today, 41.1 (1997): 62.
• Buckley-Zistel, Susanne. "Dividing and Uniting: The Use of Citizenship Discourses in Conflict and Reconciliation in Rwanda." Global Society: Journal of Interdisciplinary International Relations, 20.1 (2006): 101-13.
• Du Preez, Peter. "In Search of Genocide: A Comparison of Rwanda and South Africa." Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 3.3 (1997): 245-259.
• Michaels, Marguerite, and Mutiso, Clive. "Descent into Mayhem," Time 18 Apr. 1994: 44.
• Morgan, Timothy C. "Healing Genocide." Christianity Today, 48.4 (2004): 76-83.

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