Hotel Rwanda discussion: colonial guilt & the U.N

C

chewie_nz

Banned
i have just finished watching hotel Rwanda.

How is it that we in the Western world have a habit of sitting on our hands when Genocide happens;

Cambodia
Rwanda
Darfur
Yugoslavia
etc etc
etc

is it Colonial guilt? is it the fact that it doesn't directly affect us? is it just too hard?

many of us on this board are military folk and it must pain you as it did me to see UN soldiers having to stand by and watch the slaughter...but what are the solutions?

i also see many people bagging the UN...but what would it be like without them?

with a view on preventing (or stopping as soon as possible) situations such as Rwanda from ever happening again, what are your thoughts on how to make the UN more effective

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda_genocide
 
Well to help fix the UN, first sack Kofi Annan. He was the Secretary of Peacekeeping Department during the Genocide. He reckons making a teary eyed speech at a memorial serivce will fix it.

The other nations could deploy troops within days, as seen with the French Foreign Leigon, being sent to evacuate Westerners. And I hardly think the Belgains were going to sit around after having 10 of there own killed. No, they weren't allowed to intervene, because there was no UN mandate. And there was no UN mandate because the Security Council didn't either care, or couldn't be bothered staying back after 5pm and weekends to work out a plan. Rwanda was an Inconveinance to the UN.

And the thing with colonial guilt, that probably played a part, but not a major part. Yes the Old Colonial Powers have alot to answer for in Africa, but I beleive that the Politicans in charge would jump at any opertunity to look like the good guys.
 
could agree more about kofi annan...i just dont see how they ever thought fit to promote a man who basically OVERSAW the genocide and did NOTHING!

as i said further up, what would it be like without UN peacekeepers in alot of these conflicts? you cant tell me that western nations would've got involved out of the kindness in their hearts? These genocides shoud SHAME US! have we learned nothing from the holocaust?

we shouldn't want to scrap the UN, we should want to fix it! personally i think it needs to be stripped back to a prime role...more teeth less tail.

somthing like a standing UN Ready Reaction force, ready to go in and STOP (not contain) situations like Rwanda.

Africa is like an open sore...so much is wrong. but you dont just amputate the limb that has the sore...you try to heal it, and we have not done enough yet to heal what is wrong in africa
 
I see what you mean. I know allot of nations wouldn't have done anything (Australia in that list). There does need to be a force sent in purely to create the peace before the UN calls on other nations to intervene
 
I think there was talk of making a completely seperate military force for just that reason.
Seeing how succesful many security firms have had in various African states.
Got vetoed pretty early on as who would have control of this basically private army. A dangerous political tool indeed.
The UN is basically a money hungry bueracracy. They move in to a trouble spot and quickly divvy up what they want.
Anybody remember the crap that went on in East Timor?
How quickly did they confiscate businesses and sell them on to the many Asian and European businessmen that showed up on the floating Brothel!!!!!!!
 
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