Humanitarian intervention and the media: a comparative analysis of Somalia and Rwanda

Abstract

The central problem of this study is that despite many years of experience and evolution of humanitarian intervention, it has not yielded a desirable pattern globally. It continues to attract much criticism. This is because of the way humanitarian intervention of each state has been handled differently and has not been carried out in some states like Rwanda and Srebrenica. This , study however narrows down to Rwanda where hundreds of thousands of people were massacred. It draws a comparative analysis of Rwanda and Somalia.

The study did a random sampling of seven internal conflicts from the 1980s to the present year. The data was collected on the justifications for intervention was tabulated and analyzed. The major finding was that each internal conflict is handled differently depending on the prevailing circumstances. Humanitarian reasons were found to be dominant in each case.

This was closely followed by other reasons which included security and success of previous interventions. Media alert featured least and thus is not a determinant of humanitarian intervention. it also seeks to find out if media is an important actor in making the interventionists to act and finally the role of the humanitarian intervention. Various humanitarian interventions are examined for comparison.