1994 Rwanda genocide - what should be responsible?

[YH]

Just recently was the 10th anniversary to the slaughter of nearly 800,000 people by Hutu extremists in Rwanda. During the ceremony, the leader of the UN force at that time, General Romeo Dallaire, accused the international community, specifically Britian, United States, and France, responsible for the genocide - instead of putting in support in that area, the UN Security Council decided to cut down it's troops of 2500 to a small 450. They have their own reasons, apparently to the General, that the Western countries feared a rise in casualties ever since the gunfight incident in Somalia (when the 2 Black Hawks were shot down). This is not the first time that someone has the UN has criticized its own actions; in fact, about a week ago Kofi Annan personally apologized for the lack of action.

Now, I was too young to remember it, so I'm curious about your opinions, if you do remember the incident back then. What does everyone think about this particular 100-day-tragedy? Was the Security Council justified in removing its troops then? Should the Western countries have intervened? What involvement did Britian, France and the US have in Rwanda to make them be singled out? Searching for weapons of mass destruction asides, should that have been another Iraq for the US?

[Bigity]

Well, the administration back then let the events in Somalia influence policy. Clinton didn't want any more dead soldiers on his hands, at the cost of allowing things like this to occur unchecked.

This discussion or event or whatever, is a good example of why the U.S cannot sit on it's butt and refrain from deploying troops in certain hotspots.

[MissCheetah]

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Bigity]

Exactly.

[Makh]

The premier responsible for that carnage are the Hutus. We can blame UK, we can blame France or United States, the great responsible are Hutus. We have to remember that THEY ARE the murderers.

[Bjarni Herjolfsson]

History of the conflict: When Britain was ruling the place, the put the other group in power (I forgot the name, Tutsis?) probably because they were the minority and Machialvelli said it would be a smart move. The minority group Britain put in charge was very oppressive.

My take on is Britain started the mess so they should go back down and clear in up. Problems like this are all over Africa. Before Imperialism and the slave trade, Africans were happy in their tribes but the British saw them as uncilivilzed so they brought "Civilization" to them. There was a good book on Imperialism in Africa. It is called Things Fall Apart.

[Bigity]

This is quite funny to read.

African tribes were constantly at war with each other, long before the British showed up.

Next, African tribes practiced slavery amongst themselves before any other nations started the slave routes. A good portion of the time, these slaves were not taken as prisoners, but bought from African tribes.

Regardless, these little dictatorship countries have major corruption and other issues, regardless of what some Western country did to them centuries ago.

[Bjarni Herjolfsson]

But if you read the book I wrote about, you will see these battles were like jokes. About 2 people would die in each one. It was almost over nothing. 7 people would participate in them. And dont think of the African slavery in terms of American slavery. It was alot better. Before the British showed up, society was alot better.

[Bigity]

They were jokes until Shaka Zulu revolutionized the way the tribes fought each other. He then led bloody wars to conquer other tribes. The British started showing up years after he started.

How is one kind of slavery better then another? Slavery = slavery in my book. I guess you can't expect African nations to make payments to other Africans though.

Society was better back then? I don't think so. The transition to old tribal ways to new, modern ways was going to occur sometime. Perhaps interfacing with the British and other nations sped it up, but it was going to happen eventually. In alot of ways, it's not finished yet even.

[Imperator Severn]

The premier responsible for that carnage are the Hutus. We can blame UK, we can blame France or United States, the great responsible are Hutus. We have to remember that THEY ARE the murderers.

Thank you, Makh.

[Bjarni Herjolfsson]

They sped up a society which wasnt ready for it. Unlike the American slaves, the African slaves were not beaten, they usualy received a wage, and most married into the tribe and bought their own freedom.

Even if Zulu changed it that much, do you think he would have made much of a difference. He was isolated in a single region of Africa. He wasnt going to live forever. Besides, the problematic regions are in central Africa. Zulu was in South Africa.

[Bigity]

You're right. Instead of trying to "better" (read: modernize) these African tribes, the British should have swept them clean off the land like they did in North America and then there wouldn't have been any problems I guess.

BTW, I don't think your view of slavery in Africa is correct. Some tribes perhaps acted in such ways, but perhaps not. Without some research in the area, I'd at best agree that they acted as some Native American tribes did, and allowed slaves to integrate into the tribe eventually. Note, however, that some tribes did not, and slaves were brutally mistreated until they died.

[Imperator Severn]

You're right. Instead of trying to "better" (read: modernize) these African tribes, the British should have swept them clean off the land like they did in North America and then there wouldn't have been any problems I guess.

You're confusing the British and the Americans.

[Bigity]

Not really. I mean, we're all the same Western Devils to Bjarni and his news/history sources right?

[Bjarni Herjolfsson]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ ... F4E140.htm

Bigity, the British were not trying to better these people's lives in any way at all. If you study imperialism, you will find the British and the rest of Europe were doing nothing but exploiting these people.