tion and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It stated that if there is a genocide, the people who have agreed to the convention (which is the United States included) have to act to stop genocide when it is happening. In other words, if it is genocide, you must act. However, the United States had no interest in doing so, especially after its failure towards peacekeeping in Somalia, and the fact that Rwanda had no value to them in the first place. The Clinton administration conveniently did not label the events in Rwanda as genocide because then the United States would be obliged to intervene (Gourevitch). There are many lessons to be learned from the Rwandan genocide. One lesson is that racism combined with power struggles, and violence can have deadly consequences. Another lesson to be learned is that powerful and elite nations may not always have the backs of third world countries in their time of trouble unless the powerful nations have something to gain from the third world countries. One very last and important lesson to be learned is that genocide is a serious matter and this should be evident to everyone in the world. It is a deadly crime against humanity and should never be taken lightly nor ignored. Unfortunately, and tragically, genocide was a recurring theme in the 20th century (occurred three times). However, now that we are in our 21st century, it is up to all the people of the world to preserve humanity and eliminate genocide altogether by ending all the racism, power struggles, and violence that currently surrounds us all. ...
