Genocide In Rwanda 

     We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen. Look at the word responsibility- “response-ability”- the ability to respond. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling (Covey, 2004). Leaders of the other countries were briefed on the situation building up in Rwanda before the genocide. The warning signs were ignored.  Key international leaders have admitted that they should have acted.

 

     In a news conference on May 4, 1998. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who was under-secretary-general for peacekeeping at the time of the genocide, said: "I agree with  General Dallaire when he says, If I had one reinforced brigade - 5,000 men - well trained and well equipped, I could have saved thousands of lives" (Dorn & Mattloff, 2000).

 

     On a visit to Africa in March 1998, President Clinton admitted that the world "did not act quickly enough" and that "we did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name - genocide"(Dorn & Mattloff, 2000).  Secretary of State Albright stated that "we - the international community - should have been more active in the early stages of the atrocities in Rwanda” (Dorn & Mattloff, 2000).

 

     There are, however, no detailed studies on the precise measures that could have been undertaken by the international community and the international organization that bears the most responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, the United Nations (Dorn & Mattloff, 2000). What has been shown is how the leadership around the world let the people of Rwanda down.

 

     The readings throughout the course Survey of Leadership Readings covers a leader’s responsibility to their followers. Leaders also need to show they are trustworthy and can be relied on to protect the people they serve. Leaders of the U.N. had a job responsibility as well as a job duty to respond to clear signs of danger and the protect those that were in the line of danger.  Through the explanations given by top officials, it is clear that the leadership was not proactive at a time it most needed.