Essay Example on One of the so called failures of the UN is its inability to prevent Conflicts

One of the so called failures of the UN is its inability to prevent conflicts but in reality the majority of these conflicts arise as a result of deep rooted ethnic political and ideological tensions which cannot even be resolved through bilateral diplomatic efforts as exemplified in the Arab Israeli conflict Western Sahara and the disputed region of Kashmir This reflects unrealistic expectations of the UN as an actor However although the deepness of the conflict affects the success of the peacemaking operations as structural realism supports main goal and interest of the member states constrain the effectiveness of these operations during conflicts In Rwanda case structural realism fits the nature of the conflict with its self help system principle and untrustable anarchic system concept As structural realism argues Rwanda unfortunately did not draw interests of international organizations and developed states Therefore peacemaking operations remained ineffective and genocide couldn t be precluded Because of being a poor country in terms of resources Rwanda couldn t attract the post colonial powers attention and the country which was divided into different ethnic groups by them post colonial powers for some political reasons couldn t be rescued by them again unfortunately Brief Overview of Historical Background of the Genocide In the late 1800 s Rwanda became the target of European colonialism when a German nobleman declared to the Rwandan King that the East Africa is now under control of Germany 

When colonial rule landed on the territory of Rwanda the German forces collaborated with the Tutsis which is smaller than the two main tribal groups to suppress the uprising German leader Richard Kandt seeking an economic profit similar to that of nearby British and Belgian colonies grew coffee crops and transferred money to the German and Rwandan economy This decision divided Rwanda more because cattle dominated wealth understanding which is owned by Tutsi people mostly were no longer considered as wealthiness Olson Shadle 1991 After the First World War Germany has collapsed as a result of this League of Nations declared that administration of Rwanda was given to Belgium Feil 1998 The initial goal of the Belgian government was to promote good administration order development and of course peace However the Belgian administration acted against this mission and took sides with Tutsi people Olson Shadle 1991 The administration of Belgium in Rwanda started to create some racist theories and divided the people of Rwanda into different categories or ethnic classes by their physical characteristics As a result of this division the administration gave people and ethnic identity card that indicate the ethnic class either Hutu or Tutsi A Belgian ethnologist measured the Hutus and Tutsis noses and Tutsis which have average of smaller nose than Hutus were accepted as ethnically superior and after this classification Belgian administration began to replace Hutu chiefs with Tutsis in governmental institutions and in army Lo 2001 Separatist policies such as the sharp ethnic distinctions between Hutu Tutsi and minority pygmies and the ethnic classification of people on their identity cards have made these communities hostile In addition to them while granting educational privileges scholarships and the vocational training to the Tutsi because of their so called intelligence made them to become leader of the society it also pushed other communities out of social life and economic activities This attitude which transferred the understanding of cultural and physical racism of Europe to Rwanda eventually made the communities hostile to each other