Rwandan Civil War

English Argumentative/Persuasive Essay

Rwandan Civil War

On July 16, 1994, the world watched the Rwandan Civil War finally end, 800, 000 lives later and after devastating a nation socially, economically and politically. It seemed as if the whole world watched, yet did nothing. Many Rwandans lives are very thankful to the UN's efforts but it wasn't nearly enough. Canada, among many other countries, should have been involved in the Rwandan Civil war. Canada should have especially for it has an obligation to sustain there status as a peacekeeping nation. Canada has the proud history of inventing the idea of peacekeeping with the Canadian Lester B. Pearson. More importantly, Canada could have and should have been involved in the Rwandan Civil war, to save many innocent men, children and women from death from the numerous rusty machetes.

Rwanda, a small, densely populated and landlocked country, is located in the heart of Africa. It has two main ethnic populations, the Tutsis and the Hutus. The Hutus represent 80% of the Rwandan population. Rwanda was once a Belgium colony. When Belgium withdrew from Rwanda, the Tutsis quickly took control of the businesses and the government. Although being a minority, the Tutsis were socially, economically and politically dominant.

Tensions grew rapidly between the ethnic groups, which led to the exiles, in 1959 to 1961, of many Tutsis. With the departure of the many Tutsis, the nation started to deteriorate. It quickly became poor and plagued with drought and famine. 30 years later, the Tutsis were still angry with there exiles. They wanted their country back in their control. In 1990, the exiled Tutsis created the Rwandan Patriotic Front. Unable to feed its population, let alone fight a civil war, the Hutu government agreed to give most power back to the Tutsis in 1993 with the Arusha Accord. Before the Accord could be implemented, Hutu president, JuvÐ"©nal Habyarimana, broke the peace accord. Rwanda here first got a tiny glimpse of the future, 10,000 lives were clamed from guerilla warfare. Habyarimana saw that it was impossible for him to win, so he agreed to go to Tanzania to re-implement Arusha Accord. Once again Habyarimana managed to sabotage peace, but this time it wasn't his fault. On April 6, 1994, during his flight back to Rwanda, Habyarimana's plane exploded. This was the spark that ignited the flame. It was the main cause of the massive genocide. The Hutus quickly blamed the Tutsis but apparently the death of the Hutu president was a result of an extremist group of the Hutus, who objected to any cooperation with the Tutsis. More than 10,000 deaths of soldiers, innocent people and a president lead to what? Many more future victims.

The assassination of the Hutu president led to great chaos throughout the country. Through a 100 day campaign, the Hutu army marched throughout the country, killing hundred of thousands of innocent civilians. The Tutsis were mostly targeted and were in great distress but many Hutus that wanted peace between the tribes or who helped the Tutsis were also slaughtered. According to the UN, even before the assassination, a UN officer and informant, Romeo Dallaire, notified the UN that the Hutu extremist group, Interhamwhe, had registered the location homes of all the Tutsis and was preparing for a genocide. Unfortunately the UN took this lightly. As many Tutsis that could, fled the country right away, knowing that the death of Habyarimana would create many problems. Within hours the Hutu army had created roadblocks preventing the Tutsis from leaving Rwanda. Coordinating bloodshed through the extremist radio station, the Hutus began to massacre Tutsis and important government officials. Several Belgium troops were tortured and killed, which made Belgium make the decision to evacuate all its troops from Rwanda. This was giving the precious lives of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis to the Hutus to brutally murder. The only opposing force that remained was the poorly equipped and trained and inadequately numbered men of the UN. The lives of many innocent lives of Rwandans were left completely unprotected. This is where Canada, among many other countries, should have stepped in and defended the lives of Rwandan men, women and children.

More than 800,000 Rwandan lives were inhumanly massacred between April and July of 1994. So many lives were taken from this earth by a big, rusty and sharp blade of the machete. Imagine waking up to discover