Tutsis In Rwanda Genocide

In just 100 days in 1944 over 800,000 tutsis were killed in the Rwandan genocide. That is a horrible and shocking fact, but the worst fact is that no one stepped in to help them. From 1922 to 1962 Belgium came and took Rwanda over. There were two different kinds of people in Rwanda, the Hutus and the Tutsis. The Hutus made up about 85% of Rwanda while the Tutsi was a minority making up only about 14%. Despite being a minority Belgium favored the Tutsi people because of their longer noses and brighter skin, they thought they looked more European. Belgium gave the Tutsis power to control the Hutus, kind of like in the Holocaust how they had Kappos. They were called the Tutsi Elites. The Tutsis treated the Hutus like they were nothing and always
thought they were better than them because of what Belgium said. In 1959 the Hutus decided to rebel against Belgian colonial power and the Tutsi elite, a lot of the Tutsi people fled to Burundi. From 1961 to 1662 the Belgians start to withdraw, giving the Hutus more power and causing more tutsi to flee Rwanda. During a hutu revolution a new president of Rwanda was elected, George Kayibanda. The fighting against both sides continue, there are many tutsi massacres. From 1990 to 1991 the Rwandan army started taking civilians and training and arming them for the next three years and during this time thousands of tutsi were killed. In august of 1993 the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which was tutsi dominated, sign a peace accord that allows for the return of refugees with the president. The president of Rwanda’s plane is shot down on April, 6 1994, while he was on his way to sign the peace accords. Some believe that this was an act of the tutsi not wanting to share equal power, others believe that the hutus shot down the blame just to have another reason to kill the Tutsis. During this whole crisis Rwanda got very little help. The two people that could have helped were the United States and the United Nations. The reason they decided not to help is because Rwanda did not have any valuable resources, they did not want to involve themselves into any violence, and no one wanted to acknowledge that it was a genocide till after the fact. One main reason no one came to aid the tutsis in the Rwandan genocide is because they did not have any valuable resources to offer.
Rwanda is located in central Africa and is not very big, you could compare it to the state of Massachusetts in the United States. It has little arable land and has no important natural resources that the United States could use. “The US arguably chose to ignore the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Rwanda was not an oil, gold or diamond rich country and from an economic perspective, the US did not have a lot to gain by intervening.” I found this quote in an article I was reading, it shows us how the United States decided to ignore the genocide due to to the fact that Rwanda had nothing of value to offer. They basically said that intervening would not benefit them in any way so they had no reason to help. President Bill Clinton's administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by genocide in April 1994 but buried the information to justify its inaction, according to classified documents made available for the first time. The president did not think Rwanda was important enough to be thought about. Him not saying that he knew about the genocide gave him an excuse not to intervene and made it okay. He allowed the massacre to go on and acted as if he did not know, in fact senior officials privately used the word genocide within 16 days of the start of the killings, but chose not to do so publicly because the president had already decided not to step in and help. The United States let the genocide happen with no intention of helping all because Rwanda had nothing of value to give back. President Clinton was basically saying resources were worth more than human life. "Our conclusion is there is one overriding failure which explains why the UN could not stop or prevent the genocide, and that is a lack of resources and a lack of will - a lack of will to take on the commitment necessary to prevent the genocide.” The United Nations didn't want to help
Rwanda due to the lack of resources and will. They also did not find the country of enough significance to help them.
Other than the fact that Rwanda had no valuable resources, no one intervened because they did not want to be involved in any violence. The United Nations sent troops to Rwanda to help protect them but they were not allowed to fire at the hutus, so in reality they were not doing much. "The United Nations launched its peacekeeping mission for Rwanda in October 1993 to monitor a cease-fire agreement between the Rwandan Hutu government and the rebel Rwandese Patriotic Front. The mission, which was not allowed to use military force to achieve its aims, was limited to investigating breaches in the cease-fire, helping humanitarian aid deliveries and contributing to the security of the capital, Kigali. The mission proved insufficient after the government launched the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus" All the United Nation did to help was monitor a cease-fire agreement between the hutu government and the rebel force. Which did not help very much at all still leaving many dead, the actions being taken were not enough to even help Rwanda. They were more worried about keeping themselves out of the situation then they were with saving the lives of the tutsi people. They said that they wanted to be the peacekeepers and not make the situation worse by involving themselves. "If ever there was a peacekeeper who believed wholeheartedly in the promise of humanitarian action, it was Dallaire." Dallarie was the general of the United Nations during the time of the genocide and did not believe in violence so only helped in a peaceful way not because he did not want to help fight back because he saw peace as better. Although peace is better than violence, in a situation like this, more serious actions should have been taken to save these people.
Another major reason Rwanda had no help during the genocide is because no one said anything until after the fact. During the genocide a few countries, like the United States, knew what was going on but chose not to say anything, so therefore other countries did not what was going on until it had already happened. "The United Nations Security Council created the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in November 1994 to investigate and, when an apparent case exists, prosecute a select number of political, military, and civic officials for their involvement in the Rwandan genocide that took place from April to July 1994." After the genocide concluded the ICTR investigated and prosecuted the main people responsible for the genocide. They did a lot to bring justice to the people of Rwanda, if they were to do this during the actual genocide a lot of people could have been saved. The international community began to develop technologies that detect hate speech and such things that might lead to another genocide. They put so much effort in after the genocide when they could have done things during the incident, in doing that they caused such a huge massacre.
The Rwandan Genocide was tragic and horrific event that will forever scar the people of Rwanda. Although there could have been a lot more done to save the Tutsi people no one helped because Rwanda had no valuable resources, they did not want involve themselves in violence, and nobody said anything about the genocide until after the fact. Other countries were to selfish to help others in need and allowed more than 800,000 people to die in just 100 days. If anyone would have stood up for Rwanda more countries would have most likely joined along, or did even a little to help like a chain reaction. Something everyone should have taken away from this genocide is that you should never turn your back to those in need no matter who they are, we are all human.