Rwandan Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide was the slaughter of an estimated 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by a group of Hutu extremists known as Interahamwe during a period of 100 days in 1994.

Genocide

As though the assassination was a signal, military and militia groups began rounding up and killing all Tutsis they could capture as well as the political moderates irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds. 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. 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 General Dallaire.

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The killing swiftly spread from Kigali to all corners of the country; between April 6 and the beginning of July, a genocide of unprecedented swiftness officially left 937,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead at the hands of organized bands of militias known as the Interahamwe. One such massacre occurred at Nyarubuye. Even ordinary citizens were called on by local officials and government-sponsored radio to kill their neighbours 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 who was forced to take part. The president's MRND party was implicated in organizing many aspects of the genocide.

Related Topics:
April 6 - Interahamwe - Occurred at Nyarubuye - MRND

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Most of the victims were killed in their villages or in towns, often by their neighbours and fellow villagers. The Interahamwe mostly killed their victims by chopping them up with machetes, although some army units shot and killed the Tutsis and moderate Hutus. In some towns the victims were forcibly crammed into churches and school buildings, where Hutu extremist gangs then massacred them. In June 1994 about 3000 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.

Related Topics:
1994 - Kivumu

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UNAMIR

For the next couple of weeks, many questionable decisions were made by members of the United Nations Security Council. The UN had a peacekeeping force in the country, UNAMIR — the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda.

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UNAMIR's Force Commander General Dallaire became aware of the genocide taking place, and pleaded for reinforcements of 2000 soldiers and logistical support. The UN Security Council refused, several journalists laying blame on the administration of US President Bill Clinton which refused to provide requested material aid after the failed US efforts in Mogadishu, Somalia. 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 reliable government source. Future Secretary General Kofi Annan, who was undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, insisted on 'impartiality' even in the face of genocide, to Dallaire's frustration. Annan's deputy, Iqbal Riza, who was intimately involved in the UN's weak response, would be kept by Annan as his deputy even after assuming the UN's top role. Annan would eventually be held accountable by the UN inquiry into its role in the genocide both for blocking Dallaire's proposed action, as well as failing to mention his alarming report to the Security Council.

Related Topics:
UN Security Council - Bill Clinton - Mogadishu - Somalia - Kofi Annan - Iqbal Riza

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The UN appeared largely detached from the realities on the ground. In the midst of the crisis, Dallaire was instructed to have UNAMIR focus only on evacuating foreign nationals from Rwanda, and the change in orders even 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 Belgians withdrew their peacekeepers, and the Security Council voted to reduce UNAMIR down to 260 men.

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The administrative head of UNAMIR was former Cameroonian foreign minister Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh, who has come under criticism for downplaying the significance of Dallaire's reports, and holding close ties to the Hutu militant elite. The Rwandese Patriotic Front claims to have intercepted secret communications to this effect between Booh-Booh and the Hutu-controlled Rwandan army, a fact which would make Booh-Booh's role in UNAMIR -- handed to him by UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali -- appear absurd.

Related Topics:
Cameroon - Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh - Rwandese Patriotic Front - Boutros Boutros-Ghali

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Following the Belgian forces' withdrawal after 10 soldiers were killed, 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.

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The new Rwandan government, led by interim President Théodore Sindikubwabo, worked hard to minimize international criticism. 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.

Related Topics:
Théodore Sindikubwabo - Catholic Church - France

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Finally, on May 17, 1994, the UN conceded that "acts of genocide may have been committed." 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. The UN also requested 50 armoured personnel carriers from the United States. However, deployment of these forces was delayed due to arguments over their cost.

Related Topics:
Red Cross - Armoured personnel carrier

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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.

Related Topics:
Goma - Zaire

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At the height of the conflict, United Nations employee Callixte Mbarushimana, a Hutu, took part in the murders of 32 people, including other UN employees. UNAMIR forces were also complicit in some of the massacres, for example when a Ghanaian detachment charged with protecting chief justice Joseph Kavaruganda turned him over to Hutu militants for immediate assassination. The Ghanaians then laughed and drank with the death squad as it attacked his wife and children.

Related Topics:
Callixte Mbarushimana - Joseph Kavaruganda

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