Monday, June 11, 2007

Tom Hill's Personal Reflection

I think that the horrors of the Rwandan Genocide tells us that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is established but is not listened to by people in the world. The Rwandan citizens human rights were stripped from them and were given absolutely nothing. The U.N. didn't act to stop this atrocity and the Declaration of Human Rights was just a piece of paper that people ignored. If the Declaration was something that people didn't ignore then things like this would have been avoided.


This event relates to the holocaust in that people's rights were severely violated. The government told them what to do and gave them absolutely no say. Also, in both instances people were killed in extreme amounts and given no mercy. In both countries the people had their human rights violated and were given absolutely no power or chance to change anything. People also heard things about what was going on in the countries but did nothing about it. The Rwandan Genocide and the Holocaust were both horrible incidents that will always be remembered.

The idea of humanism was completely ignored when the Rwandan Genocide took place. Individuals did not matter to the Interahamwe or the other Hutu militia groups. They killed the people without thinking about the person but just what they believed or were brainwashed with. They did not give the least of concern to the 800,000 to 1,000,000 people that were killed during the hundred day long genocide in Rwanda.

This event makes me wonder why people do this to other people that they used to live near or know and talk to. I don't know how a certain few people can make themselves think that it is okay for them to kill a whole entire kind of people. I feel very sorry for the victims that only wanted to live and did everything they can. These people murdered them in cold blood and didn't think twice. I also feel bad for the people that didn't die but went through the crisis and saw thousands die in front of their eyes. That must be extremely traumatizing for those people and I can't imagine trying to live with an experience like that. The leadership showed during this time that they don't deserve to be part of it. They should have seen something like this coming with all the hatred between the Tutsis and Hutus. The perpetrators that had the idea of doing this kind of thing should be punished severely. The things they did to those people were unforgivable.

I feel a lot of pity for the victims and survivors that were threatened or witnessed the death that occurred there. I can't imagine how it effected the kids that grew up in Rwanda during that time for the rest of their lives as long as the other people. In no way was the actions of those people justified because they had no right to tell an entire type of people that they should not live anymore. No one has that right to kill innocent people and anyone who thinks they do are strongly mistaken. Hopefully the things that are taking place now and how people learn from Rwanda and other genocides help to prevent the occurrence of this kind of thing from this point forward.


No I don't think that they are acceptable because they don't want to break the sovereignty of the countries. They are standing by that law while in that country laws are being repeatedly broken and people murdered in the streets. When things like that are going on and the Declaration of Human Rights is being completely ignored they should have the right to go in and stop the things that are going on. If the U.N. wanted to step into the sovereignty of the U.S. then I would not have a problem with it as long as they had a good reason like a genocide taking place. Overall, the Rwandan Genocide opened my eyes to what is happening other places and that people are being murdered inhumanely.

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