Genocide Debate

This past Thursday our debate on the Rwandan genocide took place in class. My group was assigned to the view point of Belgium, I feel what my country did during the genocide was bad, we favored one side too much then to fix it we favored the Hutus more instead to help balance things out which in the long-term effects did not help at all.

I learned that France was the one to train the Rwandan army, which helped more people to be killed during the genocide, and that neither the United States nor United Nations did anything to help stop the genocide in any way. Another thing I learned about the genocide is that the MRND hosted a radio broadcast which talked badly against the Tutsi people (A hate radio). The RPF asked why they would influence so many people to start hating the Tutsis, the MRND defended by saying they were simply saying what they felt and were not saying it in a hateful or negative way.

Overall I enjoyed the debate very much; I learned many things of many groups both bad and good. It was a very good way to help each group think and say about the issue we are trying to resolve. I also like the fact that instead of reading about it or having a test on an article referring to the genocide we had something hands-on to do instead, which helped me learn more quickly of the problems happening in Rwanda.

No one can blame what has happened in Rwanda to just one country, because it was the act of all of the groups and countries acting together and making wrong choices that really triggered this whole genocide. Most of the groups blamed the US and UN but there was many others such as Belgium and the RPF that took a major role in the genocide. I hope we can have another debate such as the one we had last Thursday because I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot of different things.