Rwanda Genocide Case Study

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Questioning the Rwandan Genocide’s Necessity to Call for Genocide

While studying the Rwandan genocide, one of the main questions that was brought up in class was, “Why does the UN need the killings in Rwanda to be classified as a genocide in order to help save the people’s lives?” This is a question that everyone studying the Rwandan Genocide should be thinking of, or to have it posed as a question. What is quite odd that it seems to stems from one single aspect of disagreement: the designation of “genocide” as the term used during the Rwandan killings. Without the Rwandan killings being dubbed a genocide, there was no help that was provided to the innocent people whose lives were being taken each day. The main question that should be asked …show more content…
Alternatively, if the Rwandan genocide could have been prevented or at least minimalized based on changes in laws and regulations through the UN.

First, when considering the Rwandan Genocide, it is important to decide if the classification of the killings that took place in Rwanda had more significant after they were thought of as a pert of a genocide, or a mass killing. When thinking of this, it may be a common thought process to believe that it is either necessary to decide, or not, but it can be argued that it doesn’t matter enough to allow for no action at all to take place. This is one main concern with the Rwandan genocide because terminology should not decide whether lives should be saved. This is one main point that is brought up in every debate regarding the subject of the …show more content…
When asked about this in an interview Brent Beardsley a Military Assistant to General Dallaire said in very simple terms “The world just didn't care." (the Ghosts of Rwanda). In short, the answer is yes, we most definitely do need to change the way tragic events like this take place in our world. It is so easy to look at events like these and state the same thing that is cliché towards tragedies like this, the words “never again” pop into the heads of many but they don’t mean anything. They give hope… possibly. They show no signs of learning from mistakes made, no signs of actions towards actually prevention, and no help for those in need. It is merely a way of coping with the tragedy and making sense of it, while imagining a better world in which saying those two words would actually stop such an event. This is not the way to change things such as this. What needs to be done is a redefining stance on genocide. One that will not and cannot be interpreted in different ways. We need more strict regulations on how quickly the UN needs to react to things like this. We also need for the media to bring this sort of news to the public while the public needs to be more interested, intrigued, and ready to help people like this. This unfortunately, cannot be done with wishful thinking. This is something that
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