"Ghosts of Rwanda" and the United Nations

After watching the 2004 episode of Frontline “Ghosts of Rwanda” (lots of information on it on the “Ghosts of Rwanda page of the blog), I felt much differently about the role of the United Nations than I had before. I had thought of the United Nations as a facilitator of peace and peaceful resolutions, as a body that has the power to prevent anything and make real change. However, after watching “Ghosts of Rwanda”, which describes the lead-up, the genocide itself, and the aftermath of the horrific 1994 Rwandan genocide, my view on the UN changed. In “Ghosts of Rwanda”, General Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian military officer who led peacekeeping efforts in Rwanda, as a man who strived to do everything he could to prevent the genocide before it started, and once it started, to lessen its effect. However, it showed the head of UN Peacekeeping, Kofi Annan, as dismissive regarding reliable intelligence regarding a planned genocide, which is against the UN rules, as the UN and its member nations are obliged to stop conspiracies of genocide. After Annan dismissed Dallaire’s report, genocide occurred in Rwanda, and almost no member nations let their peacekeeping troops stay in Rwanda (Ghana was the primary exception to this). Due to this, the UN could not keep peace with only 400 peacekeeping troops from the armies of developing nations, and no support from the United States in Europe. This shows that although every nation has made a promise to the United Nations, almost no nations actually kept it. What is the meaning of a law or agreement when nobody follows it? In order for the United Nations to have a real impact on preventing genocide before it starts, or if it starts, to stop it quickly, is for it to enforce all member nations to aid it in order to stop it. Here is a segment from “Ghosts of Rwanda” (it’s segment 2/12. The other segments are also available on YouTube, but this has the most information regarding the UN)