- To what extent did the international community

fail to prevent the Rwandan Genocide?

‘It wasn’t failure to act. The decision was not to act. And at
that, we succeeded greatly.”

- Today’s lesson will focus on the response of the international community

and the now scathing criticisms that their inaction played a huge role in
allowing the Genocide to occur
- These arguments include:
- The fact that the United Nations repeatedly ignored calls from UNAMIR
commander Romeo Dalaire that a genocide was occuring and refused
to send more troops and support
- Most notably, on January 11th, 1994, Dallaire sent a cable to the UN in
New York asking for more reinforcements as he had credible evidence
by way of a government informer(known only as Jean Pierre) that the
Hutu extremists were planning an extermination campaign against the
Tutsi minority.
- Most importantly, Dallaire asked the UN for permission to raid 4 arms
caches in Kigali that were being prepared for the Interhamwe to carry
out the Genocide. The UN refused to give Dallaire permission.
- Belgium even withdrew their peacekeepers(which made up the largest
force in UNAMIR) from UNAMIR after 10 of them were attacked and
murdered by members of the Rwandan Government Forces in the wake
of Habiryamana’s assasination
- Despite the ongoing killings during the ‘100 Days’ The United Nations
along with other countries refused to label the events a ‘Genocide’.
- This may in part be due to the fact that Boutros Boutros Ghali, the then
UN Secretary General was the former foreign minister of Egypt - during
which time he maintained close working ties with the Habyarimana
regime.
- The UN Security Council even voted to withdraw the bulk of UNAMIR
forces on Ghali’s advice. Astonishingly, Ghali reversed the decision 8
days later after mounting evidence that a genocide was taking place.
- The French likewise argued that there was no genocide occuring, and
that the deaths were casualites of an ongoing civil war.
- The US also refused to acknowledge that the events constituted a
genocide. Worse still, the US under then president Bill Clinton actively
discouraged other UN members from taking preventative action.
- One of the major reasons behind this was the deaths of 18 US soldiers
in Somalia in October 1993.
- Clinton, who would later apologise to Rwanda during a 1998 visit to the
country stated during the Rwandan Genocide; ‘Lesson number one is
don’t go into one of these things and say, as the US said when we went
into Somalia, ‘Maybe we’ll be done in a month but its a humanitarian
crisis.’
- During the genocide, France continued to support Rwandan
government forces. In June, 1994, the French sent more
reinforcements to Rwanda - ‘Operation Turquoise’ whose stated aims
were to ‘...break the back of the RPF’
- French forces even established a ‘Safe Haven’ zone on the border of
Zaire to protect the Hutu population from the advancing RPF. It is
through this zone that many leading Hutu power figures of the Genocide
were able to flee to neighbouring countries.
- The UN did eventually vote to send reinforcements of peacekeepers -
UNAMIR 2 - but this was widely recognised as a farce as the unit was
poorly equipped/lacked training and experience
How responsible is the international community for the Rwandan
Genocide?
Read through Chapter 1/7 of the textbook + conduct your own research to
review the different parties from the international community and their
actions/inaction that led to the Rwandan Genocide.
Once you have gathered research on each - determine their culpability in the
form of a percentage.
This will serve as preparation for our Formative Assessment - the debate we
will hold next Wednesday

Party Action/Inaction that arguably led to the Percentag

Genocide e of
responsibili
ty

The United - The fact that the United Nations repeatedly 30%
Nations ignored calls from UNAMIR commander
Romeo Dalaire that a genocide was
occuring and refused to send more troops
and support
- Most notably, on January 11th, 1994,
Dallaire sent a cable to the UN in New York
asking for more reinforcements as he had
credible evidence by way of a government
informer(known only as Jean Pierre) that
the Hutu extremists were planning an
extermination campaign against the Tutsi
minority.
- Most importantly, Dallaire asked the UN for
permission to raid 4 arms caches in Kigali
that were being prepared for the
Interhamwe to carry out the Genocide. The
UN refused to give Dallaire permission.
- Belgium even withdrew their
peacekeepers(which made up the largest
force in UNAMIR) from UNAMIR after 10 of
them were attacked and murdered by
members of the Rwandan Government
Forces in the wake of Habiryamana’s
assasination
- Despite the ongoing killings during the ‘100
Days’ The United Nations along with other
countries refused to label the events a
‘Genocide’.
 - This may in part be due to the fact that
Boutros Boutros Ghali, the then UN
Secretary-General was the former foreign
minister of Egypt - during which time he
maintained close working ties with the
Habyarimana regime.
- The UN Security Council even voted to
withdraw the bulk of UNAMIR forces on
Ghali’s advice. Astonishingly, Ghali
reversed the decision 8 days later after
mounting evidence that a genocide was
taking place.
-

France - The French likewise argued that there was 10%

no genocide occuring, and that the deaths
were casualites of an ongoing civil war.

The USA - The US also refused to acknowledge that 25%

the events constituted a genocide. Worse
still, the US under then president Bill Clinton
actively discouraged other UN members
from taking preventative action.
- One of the major reasons behind this was
the deaths of 18 US soldiers in Somalia in
October 1993.
- Clinton, who would later apologise to
Rwanda during a 1998 visit to the country
stated during the Rwandan Genocide;
‘Lesson number one is don’t go into one of
these things and say, as the US said when
we went into Somalia, ‘Maybe we’ll be done
in a month but its a humanitarian crisis.’

Belgium - The belgiums started the whole genocide by 35%

planting the seeds for the genocide. They
segreagted the hutus and tutsis from
eachother starting racial distinction.
- Left the country in 1960, while the country
was undergoing a massive political, and
social catastrophe
- They also left rwanda while thousands of
tutsis were being slaughtered during the
rwandan genocide
- Started the genocide and then backed out
when they should’ve helped fix the problem.
Any other
parties?