UN General Assembly
2005

would be that it must learn from its mistakes and be more effective in implementation. There are probably no States members of this Assembly apart from Rwanda where the United Nations has consistently neglected to learn from its mistakes, resulting in massive loss of life and untold misery. Allow me to explain. It was in 1959, while Rwanda was still under United Nations trusteeship, that the first acts of genocide against Tutsis took place there, leading to the first mass refugee problem on the African continent. The United Nations watched unmoved and no action was ever taken. In the years following 1959, the United Nations stood by in silence and inaction as pogroms took place throughout the country, resulting in massive loss of life and compounding the refugee crisis. More recently, in 1994, while the United Nations had a huge political and military presence in Rwanda, it watched without taking action the planning and 34 implementation of genocide. We all recall the shocking decision of the Security Council to withdraw peacekeepers at a time when hundreds of thousands of