Ourgrations
Rwanda: A Neglected Nation
The east-African country of Rwanda is different from other African nations. The beauty of the landscape and the green of the foliage surprise some people who expect to see very dry and arid country. There are two main tribes of people that live in Rwanda: the Hutus and the Tutsis. The majority of the people, about 85%, belong to the Hutu tribe. The rest are Tutsi. In 1898, and after, Rwanda was colonized by Germany. It was again colonized in 1923 by Belgium. Before colonization, and afterward, the Tutsi tribe was the ruling and dominant tribe in Rwanda, both socially and economically. The European nations exploited and used the division between the Hutus and the Tutsis to create tensions between them. However, in the late 1950's, the Tutsis tried to lobby for control of Rwanda. The Belgian government found out about this and began to encourage the Hutus to rise up and overthrow the Tutsis which they eventually did to become the dominant tribe. During this overthrow tens of thousands of Tutsis were massacred, causing many more to flee to the neighboring country of Uganda. These Tutsis eventually formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), an army made up of Tutsis and moderate Hutus who wanted the government to share power between the two tribes. Eventually Rwanda became an independent nation with its own government. This government governed Rwanda until 1973.
On July 5, 1973 the government of Rwanda was overthrown in a military coup led by General Habyarimana, who became the president of the new regime. President Habyarimana was a Hutu who caused the differences and tensions between the Hutus and Tutsis to become bigger and bigger. In 1990 the RPF wanted the government of Rwanda to share power with the Tutsis and invaded from Uganda to accomplish that end. This began the Rwandan Civil War, which would last for almost four years. During those years, there were many different times of fighting, negotiations, and cease fires called and broken. Finally in August of 1993, the civil war came to an end. President Habyarimana met with the leaders of the RPF in the neighboring country of Tanzania and negotiated an end to the war. The Arusha Peace Accord was signed, which guaranteed the Tutsis an equal part in the government of Rwanda. The UN, who was the motivating force in the signing of the accord, sent a detachment of troops under the command of General Romeo Dallaire to Rwanda to make sure the peace accord was kept. However, they were little more than an observance force. They had a very strict mandate and very little equipment, which limited their effectiveness in maintaining the accord.
With the signing of the peace accord, it seemed that there would be equality between the Hutus and the Tutsis. However, not everyone was happy with this outcome. Certain military leaders and government officials wanted things to stay as they were, with the Hutus as the socially dominant tribe. They began to organize groups of Hutus, both old and young, into militias and militant groups. The most notable of these groups was called the Interahamwe, a group created to harass and persecute the Tutsis. These groups were trained in the use of firearms, explosives and hand-to-hand combat. They were also taught and trained in military tactics and city warfare. Since they were formed and supported by the government, the police could not arrest them for their acts of violence against Tutsis. They persecuted, taunted, and oppressed the Tutsis not only in the capital, Kigali, but all over Rwanda.
In January of 1994, a member of the Interahamwe, one who was high up in their leadership, came to Dallaire and told him of a conspiracy within the government. The government and Interahamwe were stockpiling weapons and plotting to assassinate members of the Rwandan Parliament, certain BelgianUN troops, and Tutsis in Kigali. Dallaire sent a request to his superiors in New York for permission to raid the weapons caches and confiscate them. The reply was negative, they were not authorized to engage in any operations or missions, especially those that could result in the use of force, against the conspirators (Ferroggiaro 1). Eventually this conspiracy came to fruition.
On April 6, 1994, the Rwandan President's plane was shot down by a surface to air missile as it tried to land at the airport in Kigali. President Habyarimana, who was returning from more peace talks in Tanzania, was killed along with the president of Tanzania. The government blamed the attack on the RPF and the Tutsis. Within 30 minutes of the attack the military, Presidential Guard, and Interahamwe set up barricades in Kigali and began to kill prominent Tutsi families in the city (Burkhalter 45). They also killed the Prime Minister of Rwanda and took captive the Belgian UN troops who were guarding her. These troops were taken to a compound, brutally tortured, and then murdered. The army and Interahamwe began to kill both Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Kigali, then started to spread out to the rest of the country. They used the media to spread their propaganda all over Rwanda and call upon Hutus all over the country to kill their Tutsi neighbors. The killing fever became an epidemic. Massacres were occurring all over Rwanda. Normal men, women and children who were unarmed were killed by their Hutu neighbors. However, the RPF saw what was happening and took action to stop it. They invaded from the north with their troops and began to once again fight the Rwandan military. Their intentions were to take the capital, stop the killing and start a new government.
As the killing continued General Dallaire wanted to stop it, but lacked means to do so. The few troops he had weren't well armed and had no outside support from the UN. Their mandate still held. They were not allowed to take any action which would require the use of force. All they could do was try to talk the killers into stopping what eventually escalated to genocide. First world countries began to evacuate their citizens from Rwanda. Once they were gone, they withdrew their soldiers as well. On April 21, the UN voted to reduce Dallaire's men from 1800 to 250. Dallaire himself said that if he had been given an enhanced mandate and better equipment, he could have stopped the killing with the 1800 men that he had(Burkhalter 47). Dallaire was eventually ordered to withdraw his forces from Kigali. He disobeyed the order and stayed to help in whatever way he could. He set up safe havens for Tutsis within Kigali, but they were too small and his troops too few to expand very much farther.
In the United States, the question of helping Rwanda was never even considered. The issue became finding the best way to withdraw from Rwanda. No actions were taken to interfere with, or even investigate the actions of the Hutu government. Peacekeeping and interference in Africa was frowned upon after the events in Somalia the year before: a military operation conducted by the United States went badly and several marines were killed. Their bodies were dragged through the streets of the city of Mogadishu. The U.S. would not interfere and discouraged a strong UN response to the crisis in Rwanda.
For over 100 days the killing continued for the most part unchallenged. The death toll rose to the hundreds of thousands. The killers searched out and killed any Tutsis they could find, and their radio broadcasts filled the radios with anti-Tutsi material. After a couple of months the UN voted to send 5,500 troops to Rwanda to stop the killing. The only problem was that the UN had no troops to send. They had to approach countries and ask them to send troops. The only country to send troops of their own accord was France. They entered Rwanda and set up camps to protect Tutsis and moderate Hutus. However, the French sending troops into Rwanda actually caused harm in a way. Since France had sent troops in, other countries no longer saw a need to send their soldiers to interfere. They decided to let the French take care of it.
After several months, the killing came to an end. The RPF had broken through the Rwandan army in the north and had taken Kigali. They stopped the killing and set up a new government. Thousands of Hutus fled, fearing reprisals from the RPF. Some even fled to the French camps. When it was all over upwards of 1,000,000 people had been killed in the genocide.
During the genocide almost the entire world turned their backs and ignored what was happening in Rwanda. Many nations, including the United States, didn’t even want to call it genocide. They got caught up in the legal and technical definitions. There are many different kinds of reasons that were given. First there was the lack of U.S. interests in Rwanda. Then there was the fact that people didn't know how bad the genocide was. It was only until after the genocide had actually ended that nations began to condemn the killers and take action, which came in the form of humanitarian aid, food, and supplies.
Whatever the reasons, the failure by first world countries to act and stop the genocide only made it worse. By not responding in some way to what was happening, the nations of the world showed the killers that they would not interfere to stop the killing or stand in their way. Thousands of lives could have been saved and a massive genocide could have been averted if action had been taken soon enough. The genocide in Rwanda only strengthens the truth of the saying “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Rwanda teaches that lesson the hard way.
Works CiteD
Burkhalter, Holly, "The Question of Genocide: The Clinton Administration and Rwanda." World Policy Journal 11 4 (1994/1995): 44-54
"Ghosts of Rwanda" Frontline Dir. Greg Barker Narr. Will Lyman PBS 1 April 2004
Ferroggiaro, William, "The U.S. and the Genocide in Rwanda 1994: Evidence of Inaction" The National Security Archive 20 August 2001 3 April 2008 <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/index.html>
"Peacekeepers in Rwanda" Historica Foundation 3 April 2008 <http://histori.ca/peace/page.do?pageID=339>