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Rwandan Genocide

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Recent History

   SOS Children works with children orphaned by the Rwandan Genocide. For
   more information see SOS Children in Rwanda, Africa

   The Rwanda Genocide (French: Génocide au Rwanda) was the massacre of an
   estimated 800,000 to 1,071,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in
   Rwanda, mostly carried out by two extremist Hutu militia groups, the
   Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, during a period of about 100 days
   from April 6th through mid-July 1994.

   The Rwandan Genocide stands out as significant, not only because of the
   sheer number of people murdered in such a short period of time, but
   also because of how inadequately the United Nations (particularly, its
   Western members such as the United States, France and the United
   Kingdom) responded. Despite intelligence provided before the killing
   began, and international news media coverage reflecting the true scale
   of violence as the genocide unfolded, most first-world countries
   including France, Belgium, the United States declined to intervene or
   speak out against the planned massacres. Canada continued to lead the
   United Nations Peace Keeping force in Rwandan territory.

   The United Nations established UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance
   Mission for Rwanda), in October 1993 "to help implement the Arusha
   Peace Agreement signed by the Rwandan parties on 4 August 1993"; its
   "mandate" ended in 1996 (UNAMIR official website). Prior to and during
   the genocide, the UN did not authorize UNAMIR to intervene and to use
   force quickly and/or effectively enough to halt the killing and other
   atrocities in Rwanda. While it "adjusted" UNAMIR's "mandate and
   strength . . . on a number of occasions in the face of the tragic
   events of the genocide and the changing situation in the country"
   (official website), given UN Security Council policy and various
   procedural constraints and other limitations imposed on UNAMIR, the
   United Nations failed to prevent the genocide. The leader of the U.N.
   mission was Canadian Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire.

   In the weeks prior to the attacks, the UN did not respond to reports of
   Hutu militias amassing weapons and rejected plans for a preemptive
   interdiction. Despite numerous pre- and present-conflict warnings by
   Dallaire, the United Nations insisted on maintaining its rules of
   engagement and preventing its peacekeepers on the ground from engaging
   the militias or discharging their weapons, except in self-defense. Such
   failure to intervene in a timely and effective manner to halt the
   killing became the focus of bitter recriminations toward the United
   Nations, Western countries such as France and the United States, and
   individual policymakers, including Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh and U.S.
   President Bill Clinton, who described U.S. inaction as "the biggest
   regret of my administration."

   The genocide ended when a Tutsi-dominated expatriate rebel movement
   known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, overthrew the
   Hutu government and seized power. Fearing reprisals, hundreds of
   thousands of Hutu and other refugees fled into eastern Zaire (now the
   Democratic Republic of the Congo). The violence and its memory have
   continued to affect the country and the region. Ethnic hatreds that
   fueled the Rwandan Genocide quickly spilled over into Congo, continuing
   after it ended and fueling both the First and Second Congo Wars. Ethnic
   rivalry between Hutu and Tutsi tribal factions is also a major factor
   in the Burundi Civil War.

Background

   The key background issue in the Rwandan Genocide is the relationship
   between the two ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi.

Migrations

   Map of Rwanda
   Enlarge
   Map of Rwanda

   Among the current inhabitants of the region now known as Rwanda, the
   earliest are believed to have been the pygmy Twa. The Twa now account
   for only about one percent of the country's population and as a group
   are at the margins of the Rwandan conflict. Anthropological and
   linguistic evidence suggests that after the Twa settlement, the
   ancestors of the Hutu immigrated to the region and supplanted the Twa,
   perhaps in several waves. The last wave of immigration is thought to
   have brought the ancestral Tutsi. The Tutsis were considered a
   linguistically separate Hamitic people apparently from eastern Africa,
   possibly the horn region of the modern Oromo group.^[ citations needed]

   There is some debate about the size of the migrations into Rwanda and
   the impact of each. Colonial scholars of the early 20th century adopted
   the preceding migration theory, but current research contests it. Since
   all three groups now speak the same language and regularly intermarry,
   some argue that the differences between the Tutsi and Hutu may be
   exaggerated cultural constructs.^[ citations needed]

Geography

   Some analysts see an economic explanation for the violence in Rwanda.
   The Great Lakes region has rich volcanic soil and a more temperate
   climate because of its altitude. Because of the favorable environment,
   it is one of the most densely populated parts of Africa. This has led
   to a great deal of competition for scarce land and resources.^[
   citations needed]

   In his book Collapse, author-scientist Jared Diamond argues that this
   overpopulation contributed heavily to the violence. He believes that
   the mayhem of the genocide provided a pretext for some Rwandans to kill
   their wealthier neighbors in order to seize their land.

                              Rwandan Genocide

     * Initial events
     * Nyarubuye massacre
     * Causes
     * Role of the International Community
     * Glossary and supplements
          + Bibliography

                Parties involved
   Interahamwe militia (Hutu)
   Impuzamugambi militia (Hutu)
   Rwandan Patriotic Front(Tutsi)
   UNAMIR Mission (United Nations)
   RTLM Radio
                 After-effects
   International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
               Media adaptations
   Hotel Rwanda
   Shake Hands with the Devil
   Shooting Dogs
   Sometimes In April

   In the 15th century, several Tutsi clans merged to establish the
   Kingdom of Rwanda, which ruled over the region throughout recorded
   history. Although some Hutus were among the nobility and significant
   intermingling took place, the Hutu majority made up 82–85% of the
   population and were mostly poor peasants. In general, the kings, known
   as Mwamis, were Tutsi.

   Before the 19th century, it was believed that the Tutsis held military
   power while the Hutus possessed supernatural power. In this capacity,
   the Mwami's council of advisors (abiiru) was exclusively Hutu and held
   significant sway. By the mid-18th century, however, the abiiru was
   increasingly marginalized.^[ citations needed]

Land Ownership

   As Tutsi Mwami centralized their power and authority, they distributed
   land among individuals rather than allowing it to be passed down
   through lineage groups, of which many hereditary chiefs had been Hutu.
   Most of the chiefs appointed by the Mwamis were Tutsi. The
   redistribution of land, enacted between 1860 and 1895 by Mwami
   Rwabugiri, resulted in an imposed patronage system, under which
   appointed Tutsi chiefs demanded manual labor in return for the right of
   Hutus to occupy their land. This system left Hutus in a serf-like
   status with Tutsi chiefs as their feudal masters.^[ citations needed]

   Under Mwami Rwabugiri, Rwanda became an expansionist state. Rwabugiri
   did not bother to assess the ethnic identities of conquered peoples and
   simply labeled all of them “Hutu”. The title “Hutu”, therefore, came to
   be a trans-ethnic identity associated with subjugation. While further
   disenfranchising Hutus socially and politically, this helped to
   solidify the idea that “Hutu” and “Tutsi” were socioeconomic, not
   ethnic, distinctions. In fact, one could kwihutura, or “shed Hutuness”,
   by accumulating wealth and rising through the social hierarchy.^[
   citations needed]

German Colonial Policy

   The turning point was the Scramble for Africa and the Berlin
   Conference, held in 1885. Rwanda and Burundi were ceded to Germany and
   administered as a joint colonial territory. Because the Germans did not
   intend to colonize Rwanda themselves, they sought to rule indirectly by
   appointing an elite class of indigenous inhabitants which could act as
   functionaries. Drawing on John Hanning Speke's Hamitic Theory of Races,
   and recognizing that the Tutsi held political power in Rwandan society,
   they chose the Tutsi to rule. This development further exacerbated the
   divide between Tutsi and Hutu both economically and politically;
   historians speculate that it is to be one of the root factors leading
   to the extreme hostility between the two groups.^[ citations needed]

   Following World War I, Rwanda became a protectorate of Belgium, whose
   colonial policy over the territory followed the German example and is
   considered especially influential in priming the genocide. In 1959,
   Belgium granted Rwanda self-government. Elections advanced the Hutu
   nationalist party Parmehutu (Parti du Mouvement de l'Emancipation
   Hutu), which worked to empower the Hutu majority, especially in the
   western part of the country. In the process, some 20,000 Tutsi were
   killed and an additional 200,000 fled to neighbouring countries. ^[
   citations needed]

Entrenched Rwandan Racism

   Some argue that the violence in the region is a result of the theories
   of race developed in Europe that also led to the Holocaust perpetrated
   by Nazi Germany. These ideas were started by John Hanning Speke's
   initial speculations on African races. Unlike the other African states'
   mixed ethnic groups, Rwandans were considered by Speke and later racial
   theorists to be divided between sub-Saharan "Blacks" and the favored
   Hamites. Ostensibly the Tutsi were assigned the role of the "more
   noble" Hamites and Hutu as inferior Bantu.^[ citations needed]

   During the colonial period, the dominant Tutsis encouraged the racial
   speculations that justified their rule, but that policy poisoned
   Rwandan culture with racism that became a danger for the Tutsis once
   they lost power. The ingrained Rwandan racism was reversed when Rwanda
   gained independence and majority rule gave political power to the
   Hutus. The majority Hutus who had previously been oppressed by the
   Tutsis retained the same ingrained racist beliefs, but now came to view
   the Tutsis as "foreign invaders" rather than "true Rwandans". Similar
   ethnic and racial divisions in other parts of Northeastern Africa have
   led to similar violence.

   Many Rwandans claim that there was little inter-ethnic rivalry until it
   was deliberately encouraged by the Juvénal Habyarimana government as a
   ploy to counter Paul Kagame and the Rwandan Patriotic Front's (RPF)
   largely Tutsi invasion on October 1, 1990.^[ citations needed]

Psychology

   Psychologists have also attempted to explain the genocide that occurred
   in Rwanda. They have done this by using the available theories.
   Firstly, the agency theory proposed by Milgram could explain this with
   strong evidence of the experiments conducted by Milgram. The
   Charismatic Leadership Theory, Social Identity Theory and
   Authoritarianism Theory could also be used to explain it.

Prelude to the Genocide

   Another source of mounting tensions in 1990 was the grumblings of the
   Tutsi diaspora in refugee camps ringing the nation, particularly from
   Uganda. Rwanda had been given independence before Uganda, and the early
   Tutsi outcasts saw history played out in 30 years of Uganda's history,
   from independence from Britain, to a fledgling democracy, and on to Idi
   Amin and successive military overthrows. Rwandans fought alongside
   Ugandans, where they had helped depose Milton Obote with Yoweri
   Museveni's National Resistance Army and saw his installation as
   president in January 1986.

   The mainly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was formed in 1985 under
   Paul Kagame and saw an opportunity in their own country to demand
   recognition of their rights as Rwandans, including the right of return.
   On October 1, 1990 RPF forces invaded Rwanda from their base in
   neighbouring Uganda. The rebel force, composed primarily of Tutsis,
   blamed the government for failing to democratize and resolve the
   problems of some 500,000 Tutsi refugees living in diaspora around the
   world.

   The Rwandan government portrayed the invasion as an attempt to bring
   the Tutsi ethnic group back into power. International reaction was
   ambiguous. The violence increased ethnic tensions as Hutus rallied
   around the President. Habyarimana himself reacted by immediately
   repressing Tutsis and Hutus who were perceived to be in league with
   Tutsi interests. Habyarimana justified these acts by proclaiming it was
   the intent of the Tutsis to restore a kind of Tutsi feudal system and
   thus to enslave the Hutu race.

Arusha Accords

   The Arusha Accords were a set of five accords signed by the Rwandan
   Patriotic Front (RPF) and the Government of Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania
   on August 4, 1993, ending the civil war. The United States and France
   orchestrated the talks, under the auspices of the Organization of
   African Unity. The accords stripped considerable power from the once
   all powerful president, then Juvénal Habyarimana. Most of the power was
   vested into the Transitional Broad Based Government (TBBG) that would
   include the RPF as well as the five political parties that had formed
   the coalition government, in place since April 1992, to govern until
   proper elections could be held.^[ citations needed]

   Of the 21 cabinet posts proposed in the new government, the former
   ruling party the Mouvement Républicain Nationale pour la Démocratie et
   le Développement (MRND) was given five posts, and the RPF received the
   same number. The major opposition party, the Mouvement Démocratique
   Républicain (MDR; aka Parmehutu), or the Democratic Republican
   Movement, was given four posts; the Parti Social Démocrate (PSD), or
   the Social Democratic Party (Rwanda), and the Parti Libéral (PL), or
   the Liberal Party (Rwanda), each got three portfolios; and the Parti
   Démocrate Chrétien (PDC), or the Christian Democratic Party (Rwanda),
   was given one.^[ citations needed]

   The Transitional National Assembly (TNA), the legislative branch of the
   transitional government, was open to all parties, including the RPF.
   The Hutu-extremist Committee for the Defense of the Republic (CDR),
   also controlled by the previous President Habyarimana, was strongly
   opposed to sharing power with the RPF, however, and refused to sign the
   accords. When at last it decided to agree to the terms, the accords
   were opposed by the RPF. The situation remained unchanged until the
   genocide.^[ citations needed]

Preparations for the Genocide

   During this period the rhetoric of Hutu nationalism escalated. Radio
   stations, particularly Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines
   (RTLM), owned by top government leaders, and newspapers, began a
   campaign of hate and fear. They broadcast and published material
   referring to the Tutsi as subhuman and making veiled calls for
   violence. Radical Hutu groups, organized and funded by members of the
   government, started to amass weapons and conduct training programs.
   Government leaders met in secret with youth group leaders, forming and
   arming militias called Interahamwe (meaning "Those who stand (or fight)
   together" in Kinyarwanda) and Impuzamugambi (meaning "Those who have
   the same (or a single) goal").^[ citations needed]

   There is ample evidence that the killing was well organized. and the
   evidence was presented at the International Criminal Tribunal for
   Rwanda (ICTR). By the time the killing started, the militia in Rwanda
   was 30,000 strong — one militia member for every ten families — and
   organized nationwide, with representatives in every neighbourhood. Some
   militia members were able to acquire AK-47 assault rifles by completing
   requisition forms. Other weapons such as grenades required no paperwork
   and were widely distributed. Many members of the Interahamwe and
   Impuzamugambi were armed only with machetes, but these were some of the
   most effective killers.

   According to Linda Melvern, in Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwanda
   Genocide and the International Community, convicted war criminal
   Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda revealed, in his testimony before
   the ICTR, that the genocide was openly discussed in cabinet meetings
   and that "one cabinet minister said she was personally in favour of
   getting rid of all Tutsi; without the Tutsi, she told ministers, all of
   Rwanda's problems would be over." In addition to Kambanda, the
   genocide's organizers included Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, a retired
   army officer, and many top ranking government officials and members of
   the army, such as General Augustin Bizimungu (who is portrayed in the
   film Hotel Rwanda). On the local level, the Genocide's planners
   included Burgomasters, or mayors, and members of the police.

Arms shipments and the Rwandan Genocide

Delivery from France

   In the early morning of January 22, 1994, a DC-8 aircraft loaded with
   armaments from France, including 90 boxes of Belgian-made 60 mm
   mortars, was confiscated by UNAMIR at Kigali International Airport. The
   delivery was in violation of the cease-fire clauses of the Crushable
   Accords, which prohibited introduction of arms into the area during the
   transition period. General Dallaire put the arms under joint
   UNAMIR-Rwandan army guard. Formally recognizing this point, the French
   government argued that the delivery stemmed from an old contract and
   hence was technically legal. Dallaire was forced to give up control
   over the aircraft.

Mil-Tec Corporation Ltd (UK)

   A UK company, Mil-Tec Corporation Ltd, was involved in arms supplies to
   the Hutu regime at least from June 1993 to mid-July 1994. Mil-Tec had
   been paid $4.8 million by the regime in return for invoices of $6.5
   million for the arms sent. The manager of Mil-Tec, Anoop Vidyarthi, was
   described as a Kenyan Asian who owned a travel company in North London
   and was in business with Rakeesh Kumar Gupta. They both fled the UK
   shortly after the revelations.

Arms shipments by Mil-Tec

     * 6 June 1993 ($549,503 of ammunition from Tel Aviv to Kigali);
     * 17 - 18 April 1994 ($853,731 of ammunition from Tel Aviv to Gooma);
     * 22 - 25 April 1994 ($681,200 of ammunition and grenades from Tel
       Aviv to Goa);
     * 29 April - 3 May 1994 ($942,680 of ammunition, grenades, mortars
       and rifles from Tirane to Goa);
     * 9 May 1994 ($1,023,840 of rifles, ammunition, mortars and other
       items from Tirane to Goa);
     * 18 - 20 May 1994 ($1,074,549 of rifles, ammunition, mortars, Rocket
       propelled grenades and other items from Tirane to Goa);
     * 13 - 18 July 1994 ($753,645 of ammunition and rockets from Tirane
       to Kinshasa).

Catalyst for the Genocide: Initial assassinations

   On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying the Rwandan President Juvénal
   Habyarimana, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, was
   shot down as it prepared to land in Kigali. Both presidents were killed
   when the plane crashed.

   Although the exact responsibility for these assassinations has not been
   established with certainty, one theory is that Paul Kagame, the leader
   of the RPF who later became President of Rwanda, ordered the plane to
   be shot down. According to Steven Edwards, in "'Explosive Leak on
   Rwanda Genocide," published in the National Post on 3 January 2000,
   initially, "UN investigators believed that Hutu extremists within Mr.
   Habyarimana's family circle had killed him," since, "at the time, he
   was involved in talks that aimed at sharing power with the Rwandan
   Patriotic Front, a mainly Tutsi rebel army in which Mr. Kagame was a
   military leader." But "just three senior UN officials" were given
   access to this "extremely sensitive . . . confidential report" obtained
   by the National Post, containing "explosive" claims that Habyarimana's
   assassination was actually carried out by members of the Rwandan
   Patriotic Front with foreign help:

     Three Tutsi informants told UN investigators in 1997 that they were
     part of an elite strike team that assassinated the Hutu president in
     1994, shedding new light on an event that triggered the genocide of
     at least 500,000 people in Rwanda . . . [and] that the killing of
     president Juvenal Habyarimana was carried out "with the assistance
     of a foreign government" under the overall command of Paul Kagame. .
     . . The informants told the investigators that the [Rwandan
     Patriotic] front decided to kill Mr. Habyarimana because the group
     was not pleased with the slow pace of the talks.

   Specific allegations assigning responsibility for Habyarimana's
   assassination to Kagame are made by Lieutenant Abdul Ruzibiza, who, in
   his 2005 book, accuses Kagame of directly planning it in a meeting at
   RPF headquarters in Mulindi (Byumba, northern Rwanda) on March 31,
   1994. (Cf.)

   Others claim that the United States CIA was involved in Habyariman's
   assassination.

   Despite unresolved uncertainty about the actual identities of its
   perpetrators, many observers view the dramatic airplane attack as a
   catalyst triggering the subsequent genocide. Rwandans interpreted it as
   an unambiguous signal: the ultimate killers knew that they were to
   begin murdering others; Tutsi and moderate Hutu understood that they
   would be attacked.^[ citations needed] (The movie Hotel Rwanda
   dramatizes this phenomenon as a coded radio broadcast instructing Hutus
   to "cut the tall trees." The real-life hero, Paul Rusesabagina, claims
   in his autobiography that he indeed heard such a phrase over the radio
   on the morning of the first day of the genocide.)

   On the nights of April 6 and 7 the staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces
   (FAR) and Colonel Bagosora clashed verbally with the UNAMIR Force
   Commander General Dallaire, who pointed out the legal authority of the
   Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, to take the control of the
   situation as outlined in the Arusha Accords. Colonel Bagosora disputed
   the authority. General Dallaire decided to give an escort of UNAMIR
   personnel to Mrs. Uwilingiyimana to protect her overnight and to allow
   her to send a calming message on the radio the next morning. By then,
   the presidential guard occupied the radio station and Mrs.
   Uwilingiyimana had to cancel her speech. In the middle of the day, she
   was assassinated by the presidential guard. The ten Belgian UNAMIR
   soldiers sent to protect her were later found killed. In his book, Me
   Against My Brother, Scott Peterson describes the barbaric details of
   their murders:

     Their Achilles tendons were cut so they couldn't run, and the
     Belgian soldiers — all of them privates — were castrated and died
     choking on their genitalia.

   Other moderate officials who favored the Arusha Accords were quickly
   assassinated. Protected by UNAMIR, Faustin Twagiramungu escaped
   execution. Dallaire informs us about events from April 7th, the first
   day of the genocide:

     I called the Force HQ and got through to [Ghanian Brigadier General]
     Henry [Anyidoho]. He had horrifying news. The UNAMIR-protected VIPS
     - Lando Ndasingwa [the head of the Parti libéral], Joseph
     Kavaruganda [,president of the constitutional court] and many other
     moderates had been abducted by the Presidential Guard and had been
     killed, along with their families [...] UNAMIR had been able to
     rescue Prime Minister Faustin, who was now at the Force HQ.

Genocide

   MRND, the ruling party of Rwanda from 1975 to 1994, under President
   Juvénal Habyarimana, has been implicated in organizing many aspects of
   the Genocide.^[ citations needed] Military and Hutu militia groups
   began rounding up and killing all Tutsis they could capture as well as
   the political moderates irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds.^[
   citations needed] Large numbers of opposition politicians were also
   murdered. Many nations evacuated their nationals from Kigali and closed
   their embassies as violence escalated. National radio urged people to
   stay in their homes, and the government-funded station RTLM broadcast
   vitriolic attacks against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Hundreds of
   roadblocks were set up by the militia in the capital Kigali and around
   the country. Lieutenant-General Dallaire and UNAMIR, escorting Tutsis
   in Kigali, were unable to do anything as Hutus kept escalating the
   violence and even started targeting, via RTLM, UNAMIR personnel and
   Lieutenant-General Dallaire.

   The killing swiftly spread from Kigali to all corners of the country.
   Between April 6th and mid-July, a genocide that is estimated to have
   left between 800,000 to 1,071,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead at the
   hands of organized bands of militias, as reported by Helen Vesperini:

     James Smith of Aegis Trust, a British NGO dedicated to the
     prevention of genocide, says finding an exact number is not the
     point: "What's important to remember is that there was a genocide.
     There was an attempt to eliminate Tutsis — men, women, and children
     — and to erase any memory of their existence."

   One such massacre occurred at Nyarubuye. Ordinary citizens were called
   on by local officials and government-sponsored radio to kill their
   neighbors and those who refused to kill were often killed themselves.
   "Either you took part in the massacres or you were massacred yourself,"
   said one Hutu, rationalizing an ambivalent mixture of regret, fear, and
   shame at being forced to kill Tutsis.

   Most of the victims were killed in their villages or in towns, often by
   their neighbors and fellow villagers. The militia members mostly killed
   their victims by chopping them up with machetes, although some army
   units used rifles. In some towns the victims were forcibly crammed into
   churches and school buildings, where Hutu extremist gangs massacred
   them. In June about 3,000 Tutsis sought refuge in a Catholic church in
   Kivumu. Local Interahamwe then used bulldozers supplied by the local
   police to knock down the church building. People who tried to escape
   were hacked down with machetes.^[ citations needed]

UNAMIR

   For the next couple of weeks, many questionable decisions were made by
   members of the United Nations Security Council (Report of The
   Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations During the
   1994 Genocide in Rwanda; Statement of the Secretary-General on
   Receiving the Report [1999]).

   UNAMIR's Force Commander Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire became aware
   of plans for the genocide in January of 1994. He sent a cable to the
   then head of UN peacekeeping, Kofi Annan, for authority to defend
   Rwandan civilians - many of whom had taken refuge in UN compounds under
   implicit and sometimes explicit promises of protection. Throughout
   January, February and March, he pleaded for reinforcements and
   logistical support. The UN Security Council repeatedly refused his
   pleas. Annan's faxed response had ordered Dallaire to defend only the
   UN's image of impartiality, forbidding him to protect desperate
   civilians waiting to die. Next, it detailed the withdrawal of UN
   troops, even while blood flowed and the assassins reigned, leaving
   800,000 Rwandans to their fate.

   Following the failed US efforts in Mogadishu, Somalia, the United
   States refused to provide requested material aid to Rwanda (Evidence of
   Inaction: A National Security Archive Briefing Book, ed. Ferroggiaro).
   France, China and Russia opposed involvement in what was seen as an
   "internal affair". Dallaire was directly "taken to task," in his words,
   for even suggesting that UNAMIR should raid Hutu militants' weapons
   caches, whose location had been disclosed to him by a government
   informant. The United Nations "failed" to respond adequately to
   Dallaire's urgent requests (Report of the Independent Inquiry;
   Statement). In the United States, President Bill Clinton and U.S.
   Ambassador to the U.N. Madeleine Albright refused to take action
   (Evidence of Inaction). Only Belgium had asked for a strong UNAMIR
   mandate, but after the gruesome murder of the ten Belgian peacekeepers
   protecting the Prime Minister in early April, Belgium pulled out of the
   peacekeeping mission.^[ citations needed]

   The United Nations and its member states appeared largely detached from
   the realities on the ground (Report; Statement). In the midst of the
   crisis, Dallaire was instructed to focus UNAMIR on only evacuating
   foreign nationals from Rwanda, and the change in orders led Belgian
   peacekeepers to abandon a technical school filled with 2,000 refugees,
   while Hutu militants waited outside, drinking beer and chanting "Hutu
   Power." After the Belgians left, the militants entered the school and
   massacred those inside, including hundreds of children. Four days
   later, the Security Council voted to reduce UNAMIR to 260 men.^[
   citations needed]

   The administrative head of UNAMIR, former Cameroonian foreign minister
   Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh,has been criticized for downplaying the
   significance of Dallaire's reports and for holding close ties to the
   Hutu militant elite.^[ citations needed]

   Following the withdrawal of the Belgian forces, General Dallaire
   consolidated his contingent of Canadian, Ghanaian and Dutch soldiers in
   urban areas and focused on providing areas of "safe control". His
   actions are credited with directly saving the lives of 20,000 Tutsis.^[
   citations needed]

   The new Rwandan government, led by interim President Théodore
   Sindikubwabo, worked hard to minimize international criticism.^[
   citations needed] Rwanda at that time had a seat on the Security
   Council and its ambassador argued that the claims of genocide were
   exaggerated and that the government was doing all that it could to stop
   it. Representatives of the Rwandan Catholic Church, long associated
   with the radical Hutus in Rwanda, also used their links in Europe to
   reduce criticism. France, which felt the United States and United
   Kingdom would use the massacres to try to expand their influence in
   that Francophone part of Africa, also worked to prevent a foreign
   intervention.^[ citations needed]

   UNAMIR's Kigali sector commander, Belgian Col. Luc Marchal, reported to
   the BBC that one of the French planes supposedly participating in the
   evacuation operation arrived at 0345 hours on 9 April with several
   boxes of ammunition. The boxes, about 5 tons, were unloaded and
   transported by FAR vehicles to the Kanombe camp where the Rwandan
   Presidential Guard was quartered. The French government has
   categorically denied this shipment, saying that the planes carried only
   French military personnel and material for the evacuation.^[ citations
   needed]

   Finally, on April 29, 1994, the United Nations conceded that "acts of
   genocide may have been committed."^[ citations needed] By that time,
   the Red Cross estimated that 500,000 Rwandans had been killed. The UN
   agreed to send 5,500 troops to Rwanda, most of whom were to be provided
   by African countries.^[ citations needed] The UN also requested 50
   armoured personnel carriers from the United States but for the
   transport alone they were charged 6,5 million USD by the American army.
   Deployment of these forces was delayed, however, due to arguments over
   their cost and other factors (Evidence of Inaction: A National Security
   Archive Briefing Book, ed. Ferroggiaro).

   On June 22, with no sign of UN deployment taking place, the Security
   Council authorized French forces to land in Goma, Zaire on a
   humanitarian mission. They deployed throughout southwest Rwanda in an
   area they called "Zone Turquoise," quelling the genocide and stopping
   the fighting there, but often arriving in areas only after the Tutsi
   had been forced out or killed. Operation Turquoise is charged with
   aiding the Hutu army and fighting against the RPF. Due, purportedly, to
   confusion among French troops about what was actually going on, many
   Tutsi were massacred in French controlled areas.^[ citations needed]

Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) renewed invasion

   The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) battalion stationed in Kigali under
   the Arusha Accords came under attack immediately after the shooting
   down of the president's plane. The battalion fought its way out of
   Kigali and joined up with RPF units in the north.^[ citations needed]

   The RPF renewed its civil war against the Rwandan Hutu government when
   it received word that the genocidal massacres had begun. Its leader,
   Paul Kagame, directed RPF forces in neighboring countries such as
   Uganda and Tanzania to invade the country, battling the Hutu forces and
   Interahamwe militias who were committing the massacres. The resulting
   civil war raged concurrently with the genocide for two months.^[
   citations needed]

   The Tutsi rebels defeated the Hutu regime and ended the genocide in
   July 1994, 100 days after it started. Approximately two million Hutu
   refugees, most of whom participated in the genocide and feared Tutsi
   retribution, fled to neighbouring Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zaire
   (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC]). Thousands of them
   died in epidemics of cholera and dysentery that swept the refugee
   camps. The Rwandan genocide and the resulting large numbers of refugees
   destabilized the regional balance of power along the Zairian border,
   resulting in the start of the First Congo War, which set the stage for
   the Second Congo War that continues to trouble the region. Battalions
   of Interahamwe continue to operate in eastern Congo, destabilizing the
   region and causing tension between Rwanda and the DRC.^[ citations
   needed]

   In March 2000, after removing Pasteur Bizimungu, Paul Kagame became
   President of Rwanda. On August 25, 2003, "he won a landslide victory in
   the first national elections since his government took power in 1994."
   Led by his government, Rwanda is still in the process of prosecuting
   thousands of genocide suspects in its national court system of justice
   and through Gacaca courts, a participatory justice system implemented
   in 2001.

Relief efforts

   Refugee camp in Zaire, 1994
   Enlarge
   Refugee camp in Zaire, 1994

   The United States which lost 19 soldiers in October, 1991 in Somalia
   was reluctant to involve itself in the "local" conflict in Rwanda (a
   decision which Clinton later came to regret). The United Nations, in
   the absence of any serious military aid from the United States, was
   forced to open its communication pathways wider than before and urge
   other countries to join the efforts. The United States agreed to
   support these efforts with finance and some equipment. Early in the
   relief process, American relief planes began to drop large food
   packages from the air in hopes of alleviating the suffering in the
   camps below. The opposite effect occurred, however, as people were
   slaughtered by members of mobs trying to reach the precious food. Due
   to the perils of such chaos in the refugee camps, the United States
   refused to bring its aid closer to the ground, and, as time went by,
   dysentery and cholera began to spread rapidly through the crowded
   refugee camps, ultimately killing tens of thousands. Soon, the problem
   was exacerbated as rain began to fall and many people contracted septic
   meningitis.^[ citations needed]

   By this point, France had established a field hospital at the area of
   Lake Kivu in an attempt to help the large numbers of refugees. Some of
   these refugees were Interahamwe leaders and members of the government
   who fled the country fearing retaliation from the RPF. To aid the
   ground forces, Israel conducted the largest medical mission in its
   history, and, although their supplies were not as abundant as those of
   the other forces, their all-volunteer force of military surgeons was
   composed both of specialists and sub-specialists, including well-known
   surgeons. The two units established a unique and constructive method of
   operation which relied on France's abundant medical supplies and
   Israel's medical expertise.^[ citations needed]

   In tandem with these two units, the Netherlands had sent a small
   contingent consisting mostly of medics and nurses. This force turned
   out to be beneficial for rehabilitation efforts and ambulatory care
   after patients left the French-Israeli medical quarters. CARE
   Deutschland assisted by supplying ambulances, and Merlin of Ireland
   assisted by supplying trucks and heavy equipment to distribute food and
   supplies to the refugee camps. Working together, these two units are
   credited with curbing the death toll in the area of Lake Kivu, near
   Goma, Zaire.^[ citations needed]

   After the victory of the RPF, the size of UNAMIR (henceforth called
   UNAMIR 2) was increased to its full strength, remaining in Rwanda until
   March 8, 1996.^[ citations needed]

   In October 1996, an uprising by the ethnic Tutsi Banyamulenge people in
   eastern Zaire, marking the beginning of the First Congo War, led to a
   huge influx of refugees, resulting in the return of more than 600,000
   to Rwanda during the last two weeks of November. This massive
   repatriation was followed at the end of December 1996 by the return of
   500,000 more from Tanzania, again in a huge, spontaneous wave. The
   Interahamwe continues to operate in eastern DRC.^[ citations needed]

Justice, reconciliation, reforms

   With the return of the refugees, the government began the long-awaited
   genocide trials, which got off to an uncertain start in the closing
   days of 1996 and inched forward in 1997. In 2001, the government began
   implementing a participatory justice system, known as Gacaca, in order
   to address the enormous backlog of cases. Meanwhile, the United Nations
   set up the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, currently based
   in Arusha, Tanzania. The United Nations Tribunal has jurisdiction over
   high level members of the government and armed forces, while Rwanda is
   responsible for prosecuting lower level leaders and local people.
   Tensions have arisen between Rwanda and the United Nations over the use
   of the death penalty.^[ citations needed]

   Despite substantial international assistance and political reforms —
   including Rwanda's first ever local elections held in March 1999 — the
   country continues to struggle to boost investment and agricultural
   output and to foster reconciliation. A series of massive population
   displacements, a nagging Hutu extremist insurgency, and Rwandan
   involvement in the First and Second Congo Wars in the neighbouring
   Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to hinder Rwanda's efforts.^[
   citations needed]

   Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire co-wrote a book, Shake Hands with the
   Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2003) describing his
   experiences during his months in Rwanda. As he reveals, after he
   returned to Canada, he suffered severe depression and post-traumatic
   stress disorder.^[ citations needed] In 2000, he was hospitalized after
   being found under a park bench, intoxicated and suffering from a
   reaction to prescription anti-depressants. The story gained national
   headlines in Canada and sparked a fierce debate over the rules of
   engagement for UN Peacekeepers. In 2004, he testified at the
   International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Dallaire is considered a
   hero in Canada, whose prime minister appointed him to the Canadian
   Senate in 2005.
   Poster of fugitives wanted for genocide in Rwanda
   Enlarge
   Poster of fugitives wanted for genocide in Rwanda

   On March 31, 2005, the successor organization to the Interahamwe, the
   Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), finally
   condemned the genocide of 1994.^[ citations needed]

   In May 2006, the Paris Court of Appeal accepted six courtsuits deposed
   by victims of the genocide to magistrate Brigitte Reynaud.^[ citations
   needed] The charges lifted against the French army during Operation
   Turquoise from June to August 1994 are of "complicity of genocide
   and/or complicity of crimes against humanity." The victims allege that
   French soldiers engaged in Operation Turquoise have helped Interahamwe
   militias in finding their victims, and have themselves carried out
   atrocities.

Charges of Revisionism

   The context of the 1994 Rwandan genocide continues to be an important
   matter of historical debate. There have been frequent charges of
   revisionism. Suspicions about United Nations and French policies in
   Rwanda between 1990 and 1994 and allegations that France supported the
   Hutus led to the creation of a French Parliamentary Commission on
   Rwanda, which published its report on December 15, 1998. In particular,
   François-Xavier Verschave, former president of the French NGO Survie,
   which accused the French army of protecting the Hutus during the
   genocide, was instrumental in establishing this Parliamentary
   commission. To counter those allegations, there emerged a "double
   genocides" theory, accusing the Tutsis of engaging in a
   "counter-genocide" against the Hutus. This theory is promulgated in
   Black Furies, White Liars (2005), the controversial book by
   investigative journalist Pierre Péan. Jean-Pierre Chrétien, a historian
   whom Péan describes as an active member of the "pro-Tutsi lobby,"
   criticizes Péan's "amazing revisionist passion" ("étonnante passion
   révisioniste"). Chrétien participated in a panel discussion on "Hate
   Media in Rwanda" during a 2004 symposium commemorating the tenth
   anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide entitled "The Media and the Rwandan
   Genocide," whose keynote speaker was Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire.

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