What role did the UN play during the Rwandan conflict?

The UN played a largely ineffective role during the Rwandan conflict, failing to prevent or halt the genocide.

The United Nations (UN) involvement in the Rwandan conflict, particularly the 1994 genocide, has been widely criticised for its ineffectiveness and lack of decisive action. The UN had a peacekeeping force in Rwanda, known as the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), which was deployed in 1993 to oversee the implementation of the Arusha Accords, a peace agreement intended to end the Rwandan Civil War. However, the force was ill-equipped and lacked the mandate to intervene militarily, which severely limited its ability to prevent the escalation of violence.

When the genocide began in April 1994, the UN and its member states were slow to recognise the scale of the atrocities and failed to label the violence as genocide for several weeks. This delay had significant implications, as recognising the violence as genocide would have legally obligated member states to intervene. Even when the genocide was acknowledged, the UN Security Council voted to reduce the UNAMIR force rather than reinforce it, leaving it powerless to halt the mass killings.

The UN's inaction was largely due to a lack of political will among its member states, particularly the United States, which was reluctant to involve itself in another African conflict following the disastrous intervention in Somalia in 1993. The UN's bureaucratic structure and the veto power of the Security Council's permanent members also hindered decisive action.

In the aftermath of the genocide, the UN established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to prosecute those responsible for the genocide. While the ICTR has been credited with delivering some justice, it has also been criticised for its slow pace, high costs, and perceived bias towards the Tutsi victims.

Overall, the UN's role during the Rwandan conflict was marked by a failure to prevent or halt the genocide, despite having a peacekeeping force on the ground. This failure has led to significant criticism and has prompted changes in the UN's approach to peacekeeping and genocide prevention.