(November 30, 2006)
There are things you can point to, but do they explain what happened? What could possible explain what happened?
Here‘s one explanation from one killer who had been Immaculee‘s neighbor, Alex Ntibirukee, who spent 11 years in prison after admitting he killed six people: „They told me that I would be rewarded with a piece of land and a banana plantation. They told the same to other people, but you see they didn‘t give me any banana plantation.“
(December 16, 1999)
In a statement, Annan acknowledged the systematic failure of the United Nations and expressed his „deep remorse“ on behalf of the organization. Annan, who was head of UN peacekeeping operations during the genocide, commissioned the report to find out the truth about the UN role in the massacre and to learn from the mistakes. He appointed a three-man team to conduct the 6-month-long analysis, and turned over UN files, cables and archives as well as UN personnel for testimony.
(…)
The report faulted the United Nations in several key areas leading up to that date, including its failure to act on a now-famous cable sent by the force commander, Canadian Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire on Jan. 11, 1994 warning of the risk of genocide. The cable was received by Annan and wasn‘t shared with the Security Council and didn‘t receive the follow-up such an important piece of evidence deserved, the report said. In addition, the United Nations and Security Council virtually ignored a groundbreaking assessment by the UN human rights investigator for Rwanda who raised the possibility in August 1993 that a genocide might occur.
But the report points most of its criticism at how the United Nations – and in particular its Security Council members – reacted to the killings once they started. There was little political will within the council, particularly from the United States, to authorize a robust peacekeeping force in the months after the failed Somalia mission, that left 18 Americans dead. After rampaging killers in Rwanda killed 10 Belgian peacekeepers at the beginning of the genocide, there was little will to keep the peacekeepers in place, much less strengthen their mandate.
The departure of peacekeepers from a school where thousands of civilians had massed hoping for protection was cited by the report as one of the main reasons for the enduring bitterness Rwandans feel Thursday toward the United Nations because of the ensuing massacre there. „The manner in which the troops left, including attempts to pretend to the refugees that they were not in fact leaving, was disgraceful,“ the report said.
(December 30, 1995)
The Belgian paratroopers were guarding Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, who was also killed by rampaging Hutu soldiers.
Families of the troopers have charged that Marchal and other officers placed the lightly armed peacekeepers in a position of excessive danger and failed to launch a rescue mission after their capture.
Prosecutor Bernard Dejemeppe said the investigation found that Marchal could have done much more to prevent the deaths, including using other U.N. forces present, seeking the advice of other officers and better assessing the risks his men faced.
May 30, 2025 #paulkagame #historydocumentary #africanhistory
In just 100 days, nearly 1 million people were killed in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. This documentary explores how decades of colonial division, civil war, and the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana led to one of the most horrifying massacres in modern history.
(April 7, 2014)
Ever since the massive killing spree, the world community has been forced to acknowledge that it stood by and did nothing.
(May 17, 2011)
When the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity.
The Belgians considered the Tutsis to be superior to the Hutus. Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than their neighbours.
Resentment among the Hutus gradually built up, culminating in a series of riots in 1959. More than 20,000 Tutsis were killed, and many more fled to the neighbouring countries of Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.
When Belgium relinquished power and granted Rwanda independence in 1962, the Hutus took their place. Over subsequent decades, the Tutsis were portrayed as the scapegoats for every crisis.
This was still the case in the years before the genocide.