What were the moral dilemmas faced by the UN during the Rwandan genocide?

Question: What were the moral dilemmas faced by the UN during the Rwandan genocide!?
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Basically, it was whether to abide by their(limited) mandate or to follow their humanitarian instinct!. The peacekeepers sent by the UN were supposed to be just that: unaligned peacekeepers!. Thus, they were not sufficiently armed and they were only there to pacify the warring parties with their moral presence and to facilitate the flight of non-Rwandans out of the conflict area!. As a result, we see those heartbreaking scenes on TV where non-Rwandans, especially whites were made to pass through a gauntlet of natives desperately trying to escape the massacres!. The natives were the object of the massacres in the first place and yet they were not allowed to board planes that would have saved them from eventual deaths simply because- in the flawed logic of the United Nations, to do so would be to take side in an internal conflict!. But in doing so, the UN peace-keepers were in effect taking sides with the killers, and those whom the peace-keepers kept out of the departing planes were given over to the machete wielders!.

Is it really wrong for peace-keepers to take sides!? Between two groups of non-violent parties, perhaps yes!. But when the choice came to be between those that held weapons and those that did not, common sense would have told these UN people that the choice is for the salvation of human life!. What has gone wrong with the United Nations!?

Borne out of the ashes of the Second World War , representatives of several countries met in San Francisco in 1945 to hammer out an international super body that would ensure lasting peace for mankind!. While they called themselves the "United Nations", it quickly degenerated to become "United Countries!." This is not a case of semantics!. Nation is an ethnic designation, presupposing a group of people bound together by a common culture, history and tradition!. Countries on the other hand is a political subdivision of nationalilies!. What the UN failed to consider since 1945 was that many countries in the world are made up of more than one nation!. Many countries especially in the Middle East and Africa were artificially created by Westerners along political divides, not traditional national borders!. As a result, many nationalities became lumped together to form separate and distinct states!. Rwanda and Burundi were made two different states composed mainly of Hutus and Tutsis, with the Hutus predominating in Rwanda and the Tutsis in Burundi!. The Kurdish nation was split into three different nations - Turkey, Iran and Iraq!. On the other hand we see two nationally united people split into two political states, as in the case of the two Koreas!.

A study of the brutal wars fought since 1945 would reveal these were mostly ethnic conflicts arising from big national minorities trying to assert their cultural existence in a political establishment that oppresses them!. Today many cultural groups exist under the mercy of the state that claim to represent them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The crux of the dilemma was that the continent of Africa had suffered (to a lesser degree) under colonial rule by the Europeans!. The colonial period had at last come to an end and with the departure of the Europeans, the people there were to have to now face the reality of making their own decisions and dealing with the consequences of those decisions!. -- First they wanted the west out, and then, they wanted the west to come save them (from themselves)!. They could not have it both ways!.

If you watch the movie "Hotel Rwanda" it will give you a somewhat slanted perspective of all of this!. In the movie, they blamed the Belgians for the racism and hatred, even though it existed long before the Belgians had set foot there AND it was not the Belgians who supplied, purchased or wielded the 5 cent Chinese made machetes that were used in that genocide!. (Hint, it was the Rwandans killing fellow Rwandans)!.

The same is now happening and has been for some time in the Sudan -- where slavery is STILL practiced!. It happened in Uganda and recently, almost happened in what used to be Rhodesia -- the U!.N!. had to ask her neighbors to intercept shipments of more 5 cent Chinese made) machetes going into that country!. Historically, it seems that the only time there was peace and prosperity on that continent was during the colonial period!. Sad!.Www@QuestionHome@Com