Genocide in Rwanda

            The country of Rwanda used to be under the control of the Belgians. While they were in power they distinguished one of the two ethnic groups as superior based on physical traits. This "superior" group is called the Tutsis, and the "lesser" of the two groups is the Hutu. The Hutus created the majority in the country but the Tutsis held most of the power because of the favour that the Belgians showed them. After Rwanda gained independence, civil conflict between these two groups became rampant. The two groups began targeting specific figure heads of the enemy and publically declaring the people who managed to kill these targets. Since the Hutus were the majority, most of the casualties were Tutsi. In 1993, the UN tried to intervene by sending a small force of soldiers to the country. However, in 1994, the Rwandan President's plane was shot down. The Hutu's blamed the Tutsis for this incident and mass killings broke out throughout the entire country. In total about 800,000 people were killed, 90% of them Tutsis.
           During the violence, the UN was effectively paralyzed because their mission was labelled as "peacekeeper". This prevented them from taking any real action against the violence that was taking place. Does this make the UN responsible for the murders? Could have the UN done anything even if they had been able to intervene? In my opinion, the hatred between the Tutsis and Hutus was so deep that it wouldn't have mattered if outside forces came to quell the violence. It was still going to happen.

The genocide in Rwanda claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and left a nation divided and shattered.