Genocide

War is not a necessary evil humans must endure. Although, war is not necessary, humans go to war to try to gain power, fortune, and to spread their particular group's religions and beliefs. By definition civilization is an advanced state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in human society, marked by progress in the arts and sciences, the extensive use of record-keeping, including writing, and the appearance of complex political and social institutions. The chaos of war is reflected in the semantic history of the word war. War can be traced back to the Indo-European root *wers-, "to confuse, mix up." In the Germanic family of the Indo-European languages, this root gave rise to several words having to do with confusion or mixture of various kinds. War is a state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties. The most widely used excuse to go to war is to progress civilization. To progress, is to advance toward a higher or better stage; as of a society or civilization. Burundi and Rwanda went to war with each other because of the "need" for a class of people to be looked at as the "dominant race/class".

On April 6, 1994, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana's personal plane, a gift from French president Francois Mitterand, was shot down as it returned to Rwanda, killing Habyarimana, Burundian president Cyprien Ntarymira, and members of their entourages. In this tense climate, the assassination of Habyarimana was an act akin to throwing a match on kerosene. The events surrounding the assassination itself remain obscure, with theories abounding as to what party was responsible. The most likely scenario suggests that Hutu militants arranged the President's death, which they required as a pretext for mass murder. These two president's were on their way back from Tanzania. In August 1993, at Arusha in Tanzania, a new comprehensive accord was concluded between Habyarimana and the RPF. A coalition government was promised, featuring a Hutu Prime Minister, and a 21 member cabinet with five Tutsis. Habyarimana was about to try to implement a power sharing, Arusha Accord in his government with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). . To do so, however, would mean the effective end of his 20-year, one-party rule over Rwandan politics and society.

Extremists in the military and government bitterly opposed the accord; they are the likely culprits in his assassination. Within an hour of the plane crash, the Presidential Guard, elements of the Rwandan armed forces and extremist militia had set up roadblocks. They also had begun organized slaughter, starting in the capital Kigali. They had killed nearly one million Rwandans in 100 days time.

The first people to be killed were those most likely to resist the plan of genocide. Those people included the Prime Minister, the Prisdent of the constitutional court, priests, leaders of the Liberal Pary, etc. Also, those who did not immediately join the comapaign, like the governor of the south, were removed from their political positions and some politicians were killed.

As the killing intensified, the international community deserted Rwanda. The US closed their eyes to the problems going on in Rwanda and Burundi because it did not affect them. Western nations landed troops in Rwanda or Burundi in the first week to evacuate their citizens, did so, and left. The UN mission (UNAMIR), created in October 1993 to keep the peace and assist the governmental transition in Rwanda, sought to intervene between the killers and civilians. It also tried to mediate between the RPF and the Rwandan army after the RPF struck from Rwanda to protect Tutsi and rescue their battalion encamped in Kigali as part of the Accord. On April 21, 1994, the United Nations Security Council, at the behest of the United States--which had no troops in Rwanda--Belgium, and others, voted to withdraw all but a remnant of UNAMIR. The Security Council took this vote and others concerning Rwanda even as the representative of the genocidal regime sat amongst them as a non-permanent member. After human rights, media, and diplomatic reports of the carnage mounted, the UN met and debated and finally