The 13th Anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide

April 6th marks the 13th anniversary" of the beginning of a tragic occurrence in world history, that of the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide was a part of the gruesome, long Rwandan Civil War, in which The genocide, for those not familiar with the situation, was committed by two extremist Hutu militia groups: the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi. These two groups conducted the mass-extermination of at least 500,000 Tutsis and tens of thousands of Hutus, in order to ethnically "cleanse" their nation. A majority of these mass murders occurred during a 100 day time frame, from April 6th through July of 1994.

Unfortunately for the families and victims affected by a series of such brutal, inhume acts, the United Nations nor the western powers of the world (including the United States) were timely in their intervention of the crisis. United Nations "Peacekeeping" troops entered the country with not only an inadequate amount of force, but also after a majority of the damage had already been done, thus only being present for the aftermath. The United Nations has since received much criticism over their reaction to the genocide, as it is evident that they had the intelligence provided to them with what was occurring in Rwanda, and if they would have responded immediately, they would have potentially saved tens of thousands of Rwandan lives.

There are several theories as to what led the Hutu militia groups to the alienation and extermination of the Tutsi and Hutu minority groups. One potential cause is the geographic situation in Rwanda, the area in which this genocide took place, was in an area of Africa that has very rich soil and a moderate climate. This caused massive migration to this area of Africa, which led to it being densely populated, and these extremists wanted to alleviate the problem by ridding the area of the Tutsi. Another potential cause is the unjust distribution of land by the Tutsi, which caused a great rivalry between the two tribes. The Hutu were forced to labor the land in the Tutsi possession, and thus they chose to revolt. A psychological perspective of the genocide, is that the Hutu had more effective, radical leaders that were able to entice other people to join their cause, which led to isolation and discrimination against the Tutsi.

Regardless of the causes of the genocide, it was unfortunate that it ever had to occur. The tragic events of the Civil War, and the lack of reaction by the world powers have led this issue to become one of the largest activist issues in the past decade. Interest in what occurred subsided for a brief period in the 1990's, however recently interest has re-emerged, as a similar tragedy is now occurring in Darfur, Sudan. Much like the Rwanda situation, a mass-genocide of the minority population is occurring by Sudanese militants, and the world powers are refusing to learn from their historical error, and intervene before it is too late. It is a pity (which is understating it), that if the United Nations refuses to intervene once again, history will have repeated itself and more innocent lives will have been lost.