GlobalStudies06

20 responses so far ↓

• 1    globalspartan // Sep 24, 2006 at 8:48 pm

  1. It seems to me that the physical security was not that important and many were affected by it. Women were not treated with respect or protected so they were often raped. The quote “Not a day passes without a refugee being killed” just states that the refugees were not looked at as people. It was wrong that their food rations were being robbed from them. The second security issue that was important was the food supplies allocated to the camps. When the Rwanda government closed the airports it was nearly impossible to have food sent in. But it was actually not as bad as it seemed because water was going into the camps so they were in some what of a good condition.
  2. The biggest failure the UN did to the Rwanda refugee camps was their failure to protect the refugees and aid workers. They refugees were in the camps to be protected from being killed and they have to suffer horrible conditions. Women are a good example of how they weren’t protected because they were often raped. If the UN did a better job monitoring the camps this could have been prevented.

  Jamie W

• 2    globalspartan // Sep 24, 2006 at 9:56 pm

  1. 1) Food supplies: Refugees robbed og their food rations when at first there was no security in camps, then when the Zairian army wanted food as they were protecting the refugees. After Kabila captured the camps the UN could not go there from Rwanda to feed the people because the border was closed.
  2) Threat posed government of Rwanda by militants: militants launched attacks from camps against Rwanda.

  2. The UN’s largest area of diplomatic failure in the camps was not being able to have any effect on groups that ran the camps by just talking to them. The thugs and Kabila’s forces would not be controlled by the UN without force.

  -Torri C

• 3    globalspartan // Sep 24, 2006 at 11:32 pm

  1. One of the most important security issues was the security of the food supplies to the camps. The quote by the Secretary General speaking about how the refuges would, “face certain death unless they receive immediate assistance” states how more refugees will die without food. “…there was water going into that camp and there was also food in that camp…” is another quote speaking about a condition in Mugunga that ended better then this Rwandan situation. The second most important security issue was the physical security of the refuges and aid workers in the camps. The author spoke about how women were raped, people were robbed, and aid workers were even threatened. “Not a day passes without a refugee being killed,” is a quote about the conditions of the camps. This is important because it is showing that the lives of the refugees are still in jeopardy. It seems they have yet to feel safe.
  2. I agree with Jamie that the UN’s biggest failure was the safety of the refugees. These people have just gone through a genocide and finally have a place to stay where they believe will be a new positive experience. Instead besides the lack of food, medicine, and water-they still fear their lives. The author explains how the UNHCR deployed Zairian soldiers to protect the refuges. In the end they refused to disarm the refugee warriors. This is only one example of how there was not complete safety. The others what I stated in number 1; women were raped, people were robbed, and aid workers were even threatened.

  ~Carly S.~

• 4    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 9:56 am

  1. The first of the security issues that I found one of the most important would be the physical security of the refugees and aid workers. In the brief description for physical security the author writes that it was almost completely absent from the camps themselves. Laurent Kabila, a spokesman for a Zairian rebel group stated that, “Not a day passes without a refugee being killed,” which shows that the physical security needed to be upgraded immediatly. The second most important security issue would be the threat posed to the government of Rwanda by camps controlled by hostile militants. Apparently, these militants decided to use the refugee camps to initiate attacks on the Rwandan rule throughout the border.

  2. “The failur of the international community and the United Nations to seperate the refugees from the criminals had driven home to the Tutsis the lesson that only they themselves could and would do what was necessary to protect themselves,” (Adelman 93).

• 5    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 9:57 am

  Sorry I had to repost this because I did not put my name on it!

  1. The first of the security issues that I found one of the most important would be the physical security of the refugees and aid workers. In the brief description for physical security the author writes that it was almost completely absent from the camps themselves. Laurent Kabila, a spokesman for a Zairian rebel group stated that, “Not a day passes without a refugee being killed,” which shows that the physical security needed to be upgraded immediatly. The second most important security issue would be the threat posed to the government of Rwanda by camps controlled by hostile militants. Apparently, these militants decided to use the refugee camps to initiate attacks on the Rwandan rule throughout the border.

  2. “The failure of the international community and the United Nations to seperate the refugees from the criminals had driven home to the Tutsis the lesson that only they themselves could and would do what was necessary to protect themselves,” (Adelman 93).

  Brynley Q.

• 6    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 10:19 am

  1. There were many security issues in Rwanda like the security of the refugees and aid workers in the camp. Throughout the refugee camps women were being raped and refugees were being robbed for their rations. The physical security was basically nonexistent. Aid workers were threatened and refugees were being killed everyday. The government of Zaire sent 1,000 solders to help protect the refugees and were successful in achieving security in the camps at an extent. The solders however refused to disarm the refugee warriors. It also did not prevent militants from scaring the refugees into not returning to Rwanda or taxing them to help with the funds to rebuild their army. A second issue was the security of the food supplies that were due to the camps. The problem was that the Rwandan government closed the airport of Goma and cut off any land route of supplying food to the camps. The U.N told the government that by doing this the refugees would not be able to survive. Four days later however the refugees were okay because there was water going into the camps and they already had food in the camps. So this threat to food security turned out okay. These were two of the four security issues.
  2. The UN’s failure with the Rwandan refugee camps was not separating the Hutus from the Tutsis. The Tutsis (AKA the warriors) knew that they had to protect themselves from the Hutus. They were afraid of the Hutus so they began to protect themselves at any means possible. The Rwandan government warned the UN more then once that they would intervene if the security threat posed by the warriors did not stop. The UN should have listened to the Rwandan government and also should have separated the two ethnic groups. It is impossible for two groups who have just been part of genocide to live with one another. These ethnic problems can be dealt with but not right after genocide when the problem has not been solved.
  Jamie I.

• 7    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 10:45 am

  The Refugee camps fell under control of ex-military interahamwe and the international community made no effort to provide forces that were nessicary for the protection of refugees and disarmy of interahamwe. the Rwandan military targeted the camps under hutu control because the U.N.’s failure to seperate the armed from civilians meant camps ontinued to pose threats to the Rwandan government. -> Gerard Kamanda wa Kamanda, Zaire’s minister of justice, only allowed the hutu refugees to stay in the country for a month, then they had to leave. Zaire’s army was not loyal to Kamanda, so they did not follow such orders. The Secretary General’s report propounded an idea that did not involve the seperation of ex hutu government troops and thus was dismissed as risky and too demanding. later the two governments agreed on a release of refugees back into rwanda, but the priminister again was not able to control the army of Zaire. rebel forces in camps prepared for battle with the forces against them but was left only verbal. Eventually agreements were made to gradually release camps back to rwanda, but sepration of genocidaires from refugees was not decided upon. after an attack on a refugee camp various camps began flowing back into rwanda at 10,000 an hour as the camp’s defense fell the ex-military interahamwe fled.
  despite the UN’s contemplation of multi-national troop deployment for the security and seperation of civilians from interahamwe, no military was deployed ant the interahamwe was able to firmly grip the refugee camps with fatal control and the Rwandan Government was left to make the decision to attack the entire camps. this is where the UN failed most predominately. the international comunities disregaurd for the people on both sides of the Rwandan conflict(including Genocide) left room for even greater violence and terror. For instance- despite the minimalistic attempt to protect the camps with the employment of 1,000 Zairian soldiers, they did not disarm the militants in the camps. the militants were able to indoctrine fear into the refugees, recrute for their rebel army, and take various forms of tax from the already suffering refugees. The Rebels murdered the eyewhitnesess to the genocide and launched attacks from the camps on The Rwandan regime across the border. “In June 1996 alone, 11 genocide survivors were killed by Genocidaires.”p.91 and eventually the militants were able to attack the tutsi’s in south kivu which through a ontinuation of various threats lead to a civil war in zaire and collapse of the country itself.

• 8    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 10:47 am

  September 25th, 2006 at 10:45 am e is Jon B.

• 9    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 10:49 am

  1) Two secruity issues that the camps in Rwanda had that were most imortant were the security of the food supplies allocated to the camps, and the threat posed to civilians in Rwanda who might identify the Genocidaires and serve as witnesses against them in international trails.

  2)”Sadako Ogata, the high commisioner for refugees, admitted that from the outset the mixing of refugees and killers had been the problem”(93). The U.N. should have separated the refugees.

• 10    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 10:50 am

  Jay Long^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

• 11    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 1:15 pm

  1. The first most important issue is the physical security of the refugees and the aid workers. This is important because no one would be there is it were dangerous, because that is the purpose of a refugee camp, for people to escape the fighting and escape. Two the next most important thing is the Security of the food supplies, this is important because with out food people will either leave of starve. And if you are protecting people then they should not die from lack of basic needs, nor leave because they must to survive after they have already left their homes.
  2. The biggest problem was the not separating the two groups the Tutsi and the Hutu. After the genocide neither group will be willing to live with the other group and nor should they. The Rwandan government warned the UN that they should be separated but the UN did not listen and so when one came forward to accuse another they most likely were killed by the other mans friends. Or the fact that many of the women were raped in the camps that were supposed to be a safe place.
  jody affel

• 12    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 2:09 pm

  1.) There are four separate security issues that are discussed through this article. First was the physical security in the camps. The problem was that there was no security. Women were being raped, refuges were being robbed, and workers had been threatened. Then the Zairian soldiers established camp security, but refused to disarm the refugee warriors. The third one is the threat on civilians in Rwanda, which may be able to identify the genocide’s. Then may serve against them in trial.

  2.) One of the main mistakes that the UN made was in the area of protection. It should have been a number one concern to them, regarding their refugees. But not only them even the women were being raped, and the aid workers were being threatened. I think that safety is very important and the UN needed to improve greatly on that issue.

  Shawna O

• 13    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 6:09 pm

  1. One pressing security issue was that physical security in the camps was basically nonexistent. For instant women were being sexually assisted and robed. To help change this issue the UNHCR signed an agreement with the Zaire government to get 1,000 soldiers to protect the refugees. This strategy was successful because it did provide security in the camps but the soldiers refused to disarm the warriors. All the solders did was provided physical security in the camp. Another issue was the fact that people who committed the genocides were living side by side with the survivors of the genocides. This was a problem because the survivors who witnessed the genocides and were being killed by the genocide committers. Eleven of the people who were going to testified to put the genocide committers in jail were killed so they would keep quite. The first thing that the U.N needs to do is find a way to separate the killers from the survivors so that no one else gets killed for no reason.
  2. There were many failures in regards to the Rwanda refuges camps such as the U.N failed to separate the survivors from the killers. This was a huge problem because innocent people were being killed. They had no protection from the same people who ruthlessly killed thousands. Even though the solders were sent in for protect they could only provide a little protection because they could not disarm the worriers. So because no one was helping to stop the Hutus from killing the Tutsi the Tutsi made it clear that they were going to try to take matters into their own hands. The Tutsi and Hutus needed to be separated from each other and the Rwandan government made it clear to the U.N that if they did not separate the two groups they would take matters into their own hands. So as of 1996 the Rwandan government decided to take matters into their own hands so that no one else would die who did not need to.
  Erika I.

• 14    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 7:17 pm

  1- One concern of the author lies in food distribution. The author uses the situation in Goma when the Rwandan army captured camps there to exemplify the stability of food allocation. The author describes how NGO’s over-concerned themselves about what would happen once the airport, the chief aid distribution point, was closed. He points out that four days after the capture the condition was called stable and in “reasonably good condition,” (pg 92.)
  I, however, disagree with the authors naïve stance towards this basic obstacle; food can be used as a powerful political tool and when armies siege camps or rebels disrupt convoy routes, the results can be mass starvation. This can in turn cause more problems. A steady supply of food has to be upheld to keep neutral refugees from taking drastic measures to secure their basic right of nutrition.
  Another concern in the Rwandan refugee scenario is the militant genocidiaires. These murderers fled Rwanda when the Tutsi rebel army recovered their military hold on Rwanda. Now in the camps, they are free to use forceful or persuasive methods on the thousands of refugees in the camps. These renegade groups are often times armed and use food as a key weapon in their arsenal for rebellion. These groups can attack outside of their camps and inflict damage on local communities and military outposts. They add a very dangerous element to the volatility of these refugee camps.

  2- The U.N. failed to view the refugee camps as a key support factor in continued rebel opposition to the Rwandan Government. The United Nations cannot enforce in these camps and they are now dominated by armed militants who continue to pledge violence agiasnt tutsis. The failure of the U.N.R.W.A. in Cambodia and more currently, Palestine, are strong examples of this security failure. All the mentioned camps have harbored a strong opposition force in their midst

  -Peter

• 15    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 7:32 pm

  1.Physical Security – At first security was nonexistent, women were raped, refugees were robbed of their rations and the aid workers were only threatened, these camps should have been a safety zone to these Rwandese who had endured so much…Along with the security many of the camps were taken over be militants who then launched attacks on Rwandan regime across the border. Also this was a huge threat because the civilians were to serve as witnesses to the trail of genocidaires when in many cases they were killed if they did so.
  2. The main mistake that U.N made was the failure in protection. Many of the killers were kept with the civilians no one was separated. The problem was more people were being killed after that fact.
  Monica C

• 16    globalspartan // Sep 25, 2006 at 7:52 pm

  1. The one pressing security need is the physical security of the refugees and aid workers in the camps. There was little to no physical security in the camps. Women were raped, refugees were robbed of their rations, and aid workers were threatened. Another pressing security need is the security of the food supplies allocated to the camps. Kabila/ Rwandan forces captured the camps, and the Rwandan government had to close the airports at Goma. This cut off any land route for resupplying the camps with humanitarian aid.

  2. The largest area of diplomatic or United Nations failure in the Rwanda refugee camps was the security of the camps. It was unclear which individuals were the ones that took part in the genocide or the ones that were the victims of the genocide. I agree with many of the other people in the class that without separation it was not safe in the refugee camps.
  Alli B.

• 17    globalspartan // Sep 26, 2006 at 2:00 pm

  1. Two of the security issues are:
  a) the physical security of the refugees and aid workers in the camps
  b) the security of the food supplies allocated to the camps
  The physical security of the refugees and aid workers in the camps were nearly nonexistent. They had very little physical security with women being raped, refugees being robbed of their rations, and aid workers being threatened. The security of the food supplies allocated to the camps were at first thought to be rare, but four days after, they found out that there was still enough to go around.

  2. The largest area of United Nations failure was the late arrival of help to Rwanda refugees. Another problem was that there was not enough help from the United Nations, concerning food, money, and people for Rwanda.

  - Maggie L.

• 18    globalspartan // Sep 27, 2006 at 6:04 am

  1. The security at the camps was almost nonexistent, like Alli and Monica said. Rape, murder, and robbery continued to occur at the camps through 1996. Warriors at the camps also had machetes and guns still, and even when the Zairian army came in to protect the refugees, they would not take the arms away. Some refugees were threatened into giving up some of their relief supplies to help build a new army, and many were scared to return to Rwanda. Another pressing issue was, as Jay and Erika pointed out, that génocidairies were murdering refugees who might serve against them is a trial. In June 1996 alone nine prospective witnesses were killed in the camps in Zaire. Another 37 survivors were killed. This problem routes back to the general lack of security, but this would call for security not just within the camps but around their border too.
  2. The largest area of diplomatic failure on the part of the U.N. in respect to the refugee camps was not deploying more troops to protect the refugees. At this point the U.N. did not need to go in and fight anyone’s war, but just offer their protection to frightened and threatened people. The presence of only one thousand Zairian soldiers helped things run slightly smoother in the camps, so imagine what a large U.N. force could do. The mere appearance of guards would probably be enough to scare of some would-be felons. And if that means one less raped woman, assaulted child, or robbed man, that still makes a huge difference in that person’s life.

• 19    globalspartan // Sep 27, 2006 at 6:05 am

  Oh, number 18’s Kara B.

• 20    Cara Wakelin // Oct 28, 2006 at 1:09 pm

  zaire…

  Interesting post. I came across this blog by accident, but it was a good accident. I have now bookmarked your blog for future use. Best wishes. Cara Wakelin….

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