The role of the west

Rwandan President Habyarimana and the Burundian President are killed when Habyarimana's plane is shot down near Kigali Airport. Hutu extremists, suspecting that the Rwandan president is finally about to implement the Arusha Peace Accords, are believed to be behind the attack. The killings begin that night.

The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and Hutu militia (the interahamwe) set up roadblocks and go from house to house killing Tutsis and moderate Hutu politicians. Ten Belgian soldiers with UNAMIR, assigned to guard the moderate Hutu Prime Minister, are tricked into giving up their weapons. They are tortured and murdered.

The next day, the Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the UN peace-keeping, put in an urgent request for a doubling of his force to 5,000. He was told not to intervene in the conflict.

Estimated death toll 8,000

France and Belgium send troops to rescue their citizens. American civilians are also airlifted out. No Rwandans are rescued, not even Rwandans employed by Western governments in their embassies, consulates, etc.

Belgium withdraws its troops from the U.N. force after the ten Belgian soldiers are tortured and murdered.

Estimated death toll 64,000

The U.S. and U.N. Security Council vote to withdraw 90% of the peacekeepers in Rwanda. Human Rights Watch calls on them to use the word ‘genocide’ - a term which would have legally obliged the UN to act.

Gen. Dallaire is left with 450 ill-equipped troops from developing countries. The press ask the American State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelley whether genocide is happening.

Her response carefully tries to avoid the word: "the use of the term 'genocide' has a very precise legal meaning, although it's not strictly a legal determination. There are other factors in there as well…we have to undertake a very careful study before we can make a final kind of determination…"

Later, the U.N. Security Council passes a resolution condemning the killing, but omits the word "genocide."

Estimated death toll: 168,000

A U.S. Defence Dept discussion paper warns, “Be careful… a genocide finding could commit us to actually ‘do something.’"

The head of UN peacekeeping, Kofi Annan, says, “we are watching people being deprived of the most fundamental of rights, the right to life, and yet we seem a bit helpless ..."

Estimated death toll: 200,000

The UN finally asks the US to provide 50 armoured personnel carriers. They argue for weeks over who will pay for them. They don’t arrive until July.

Estimated death toll: 328,000

At a State Department briefing, spokesperson Christine Shelley is asked, “"How many acts of genocide does it take to make genocide?"
"That's just not a question that I'm in a position to answer."
"Well, is it true that you have specific guidance not to use the word 'genocide' in isolation, but always to preface it with these words 'acts of'?"
"I have guidance which I try to use as best as I can. There are formulations that we are using that we are trying to be consistent in our use of. I don't have an absolute categorical prescription against something, but I have the definitions. I have phraseology which has been carefully examined and arrived at as best as we can apply to exactly the situation and the actions which have taken place ... "

RPF forces capture Kigali. The Hutu government flees west to Zaire, with a tide of refugees.
The genocide is over.

Estimated death toll: 800,000

The media arrives, and the world is galvanised into action by the images on their televisions.

Dallaire watches with a mixture of awe and frustration as planeload after planeload of soldiers, armoured vehicles, water tankers and humanitarian aid arrive at the refugee camps on Rwanda’s borders.

But the world still doesn't understand what they are seeing. Among the innocent are tens of thousands of genocide perpetrators - soldiers and militia - still armed. They rule the camps with fear and brutality. Aid workers find themselves being used as caterers to probably the largest collection of mass murderers ever assembled.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is set up in Arusha, Tanzania, after a vote by the UN Security Council.

“This tribunal was created essentially to appease the conscience of the international community.” said Charles Murigande, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Accountability for the Genocide.

“The international tribunal was painfully slow to begin work, had great trouble locating and capturing suspects and spent more than $1 billion to try the less than seventy it managed to arrest. Defendants enjoyed private cells, television, and three meals a day.

They also had free access to the world’s finest medical care, meaning that rapists among them who had infected Rwandan women with HIV during the genocide were given expensive antiretroviral drugs, while their victims, mired in Rwanda’s poverty, wasted away and died with little or no care.”

(Stephen Kinzer. A Thousand Hills)