Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh

Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh is the former foreign minister of Cameroon, best known for his role as the head of UNAMIR, the small force (approximately 2,548 military personnel) dispatched by the United Nations to Rwanda in 1993 in an effort to aid in the implementation of the Arusha Accords and to keep the peace between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.

Related Topics:
Cameroon - UNAMIR - United Nations - Rwanda - Arusha Accords - Hutu - Tutsi

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Booh-Booh's role has been the subject of harsh criticism, as it appears that he played an instrumental role in forestalling any UN military preventive action against the Rwandan genocide that appeared imminent in the country in mid-1994.

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(Then) Canadian Major-General Roméo Dallaire, who led the UNAMIR forces on the ground, had been given warnings from a reliable government source of an impending extermination campaign by Hutu extremists against the country's Tutsi minority, as well as moderate Hutus. He passed this information along to the UN's headquarters in New York and reported his intent to inspect alleged arms caches. He was ordered not to intervene, and his later requests to increase the UNAMIR force by 5000 peace-keeping soldiers were also denied. The United Nations, restrained by the political interests of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and reluctance of the international community, remained passive before and throughout the predicted genocide of some 800,000 people that took place from April to July 1994, finally ending around the time the predominantly Tutsi Rwandese Patriotic Front took the nation's capital, Kigali, on July 18, 1994. As the genocide was occurring, the UNAMIR peace-keeping force was reduced from over 5,000 to a mere 270 soldiers.

Related Topics:
Roméo Dallaire - United Nations - United Nations Security Council - Rwandese Patriotic Front - 1994

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Despite Dallaire's attempts to avert tragic consequences, Booh-Booh appeared to be working at cross-purposes. Handpicked by then-Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali (a personal friend), he was supposed to report back to New York jointly with Dallaire. However, Booh-Booh periodically downplayed the significance of Dallaire's reports, both in terms of how deadly and how organized the attacks were.

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Moreover, Booh-Booh allegedly held close ties to the Hutu militant leadership. The Rwandese Patriotic Front claims to have intercepted secret communications between him and the Hutu-dominated Rwandan military.

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