This Youtube video explains that Theoneste Bagasora was the man who was in charge of the mass murder of Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide. It turns out that it has taken nearly a decade before the UN tries him for his horrible actions.
Although he was, in fact, sentenced to life in prison, it still made me think why it took so long for this trial to happen. Was the UN still deciding on whether he was the mastermind behind the genocide, or were they simply not caring? It took the UN 800,000 innocent lives before they had the wits to intervene in 1994 when the actual genocide happened. To me, this is like another insult to the Tutsis.
If the Tutsis saw this, they would be grateful that this man is gone. However, much like my reaction, they would be wondering why it took an entire decade before this man would be sentenced to prison. It seems like the UN is always too late to judge what needs to be done or corrected when it comes to this genocide.
In addition, I feel that this man is worth a single life. However he killed 800,000 lives. In my opinion, 1 life is not equal to 800,000 lives. Simply sentencing him to prison is not enough to amend the wrongdoings that this man has committed.
I totally agree with you Donald. I do not understand why it has taken them so long to finally punish Bagasora. He has been in a detention center since 2001, so the UN has definitely had plenty of time to find evidence against Bagasora and to find a suitable punishment. I also agree that one life doesn't equal eight hundred thousand lives, and that life in prison seems like a relatively "easy" punishment.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I agree with the fact that punishing Bagasora so late is to insult the Tutsis again, since i find it hard to believe that the UN was trying to insult the Tutsis in the first place, especially when thousands of lives were at risk.