Rwanda Essay

The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 consisted of many extremes and opposites. People who gave their lives to protect the innocent children of Rwanda died at the hands of many vicious leaders in the country who individually killed hundreds. Men like General Dallaire faced questions of authority with morality and a need to do the right action, even if it required disobeying orders, while whole countries like America wallowed in apathy with the dead continuing to pile up in the African nation. A few individuals like Paul Rusesabagina saved more lives than all the powerful nations of the world who sat by doing nothing but saving their own kind. Even when General Dallaire pleaded with the international community to send more troops, the United States and UN community refused, allowing the killings to proceed unchecked for ninety days. Even today, few Americans know or care about what happened in Rwanda, and in their apathy, Americans as a whole and the entire world community are partially responsible for the genocide occurring in the Sudan presently. By taking in several hundred Tutsis, Mr. Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, helped stop more killing than the UN, an entire international organization created to stop these genocides from occurring. Even though Paul, a Hutu, was in no immediate danger of dying since his ethnicity perpetrate the genocide, he helped his family and many other strangers escape the killing , bloody machetes of the Hutus who roamed the country for over three months without international opposition. Because of his brave actions, many Tutsis live today so they may tell the stories of their culture and tolerance so the cycle of dominance will end in the war-riddled country. Many questions arise from this horrible event where so many died without reason or understanding. A main question ask how a human can kill another human. In Rwanda and almost any genocide throughout history, the perpetration of genocide occurs after a lengthy dehumanization of the persecuted limits any feel of regret. After the original hesitancy falters as a result of many years of injustice, each person involved in the killings begins to lose any sense of individualism as the group mob mentality prevails. In Rwanda, this mob mentality and quick communication through radios led a hundred thousand to die within the first few days. Because of a loss of individual identity and the dehumanization of the oppressed, the Rwandan civil war erupted quickly and violently into mass genocide. Not only should we ask these questions of those involved, we must turn inward and understand that all humans are capable of horrible actions so we must consciously stop these things in the world. Even within our own communities, we can find many genocides occurring, whether social or economical. If we can save just a few people like Paul Rusesabagina, we can make a difference in some way. Even if justice is not served, like General Dallaire observed, we must continue to work for it, no matter what the price. Our challenge in the world is to never allow something like what happened in Rwanda to ever happen again.