It has been over ten years since the Rwandan civil war, but Rwanda, a small rural nation in central Africa, is still coming to terms with its violent past. Significant ethnic tensions between the two Rwandan tribes – the Tutsis and the Hutus, had been brewing for decades. The Tutsis, despite being the minority, controlled Rwandan economy and politics for centuries - one of the reasons why the Hutus were taught to hate Tutsis from birth. In 1994, fueled by hate media, tensions between the two Tribes rose to an extreme. The result: a full-scale civil war. Today, although Rwanda has made progress, the country is still in recovery. Rwanda is still in the process of rebuilding its country and healing its shattered society.
Historically, the Rwandan genocide was one of the International community’s greatest failures. With the world focused on Yugoslavia, few acknowledged the tensions that were brewing in Africa. Approximately 2,000 United Nation (U.N.) troops were on the ground when the genocide began, but after the deaths of 10 Belgium soldiers and the Rwandan Prime Minister, the number was reduced to a mere 270. By refusing to acknowledge that Rwanda needed more troops, the U.N. and the International community were not able to prevent one of the most horrific genocides of the 20th century.
Despite the U.N.’s failure however, the Rwandan genocide was historically, a turning point for the United Nations. The U.N. acknowledges the incident, and made reforms to prevent further genocides from occurring. To start, they’ve appointed a new U.N. special advisor on the prevention of genocide. This advisor will collect information on situations in danger of becoming genocides and inform the U.N. Secretary-General and the U.N. Security Council. The U.N. have also taken more interest in large-scale human rights violations within other countries, for they could now be seen as having the potential to become a full-blown genocide. This is perhaps, their way of preventing genocide from occurring again. After the genocide, the U.N. also took legal action. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was founded by the U.N. Security Council to charge and judge people responsible for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda. This tribunal has jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. So far, trials have been brought up for genocide, rape with the intent to kill, and hate media. The Rwandan genocide represents a failure of the U.N. and the International community to help a country in need. However, the newly updated U.N. system as well as the legal action taken, shows that the U.N. isn`t above caring. They have acknowledged their failure to act, and hope to look forward from there. With renewed efforts from both the international community and the Rwandan government, progress has been made to rebuild the country. Many Rwandans now understand the need to live in peace with one another, despite being of two different tribes. Rwandan economy has also rebounded significantly, averaging an increase of more than 15 percent between 1995-1999 and 7.4 percent from 2000-2002, above average for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. One can see the strength of the Rwandan people from the Rwandan recovery from national devastation.
As U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan states: "Today, Rwanda has much to show the world about confronting the legacy of the past and tackling the challenge of recovery. It is demonstrating that it is possible to reach beyond tragedy and rekindle hope."