For years, Rwanda was a hotbed of racial tension. The majority of the Rwandan population is made up of Hutus, with the remainder made up of Tutsis. Since European colonial powers entered the country and favored the Tutsi ethnic group over the Hutus by placing Tutsis in all important positions in society, there has been a decisive political division between the two groups. This preference for Tutsi over Hutus and the subjugation of Hutus as an inferior ethnic class resulted in the civil war and revolution of 1959, during which Hutu overthrew the Tutsi-dominated government and allowed in Rwanda to gain its independence in 1962. However, tensions remained between the two ethnic groups, with a civil war raging between the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front and the Hutu Government of Rwanda, until August 4, 1993, with the signing of the Arusha Accords. Before this, all attempts at UN intervention were in vain to try to bring together a government with both Tutsis and Hutu in power. On April 6, 1994, the President of Rwanda's plane was shot down, killing him and other chiefs of staff when it crashed. This was the catalyst needed for the Hutu to implement their "final solution", a plan of genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group that they had been planning for years. This led Hutus to take up arms, mainly machetes, to openly attack and massacre all Tutsis, families of Tutsis and even moderate Hutus who were not attacking Tutsis. Over a period of approximately 100 days, the toll fluctuated between 800,000 and 1,100,000, the Rwandan genocide became infamous for the high number of deaths in such a short time and for the inadequate response by the UN and ...... middle of paper ...... involved led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans. The UN's involvement in Rwanda is seen as an excellent example of the ineffectiveness of international law and the UN's inability to manage conflicts.BIBLIOGRAPHYhttp://www.ppu.org.uk/ Used for find historical context regarding the genocide.http: //www.rwanda-genocide.org/index.html Good research base for accessing statistics and other sources.http://www.hrw.org/legacy/ reports/1999/rwanda/ Excellent website with lots of information on all aspects of the issue.http://www.warriordoc.com/rwanda/ For more information on Australia's involvement in Rwandahttp:/ /www.unitedhumanrights.com/ Information regarding United Nations involvement http://www.idrc.ca/cp/ ev-106013-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html Media response in Rwanda.