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Rwanda Genocide reasons for lack of international intervention - Coggle…
Rwanda Genocide reasons for lack of international intervention
Role of Belgium:
On April 16th , ten Belgian peacekeepers were tortured and killed by the Rwandan government's soldiers and the Belgian government declared a unilateral withdrawal of its contingent.
Secretary General Boutros-Ghali believed that the withdrawal of the Belgian contingent meant that the UNAMIR would be unable to carry out its mandate
On April 14th, the Belgian Foreign Minister called the US State Department and informed them that "we are pulling out but we do not want to be doing it alone"
Belgium began lobbying the United States to end UNAMIR's mandate
Role of France:
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France had trained members of the Interhamwe.
France was the only country to recognize the interim government that committed the genocide.
In spring of 1994 there is evidence that large quantities of French armaments were delivered to the Hutu governments and militias
8 April 1994 France launched Operation Amaryllis, dispatching 500 French soldiers to secure the
evacuation of foreign residents Operation Amaryllis was terminated on 14 April.
On five occasions in May and June 1994 French weapons were delivered to the Rwandan government
France obtained the backing of the UN to lead Operation Turquoise in June 1994 to protect
‘Threatened populations’ on both sides in the conflict. 2,300 elite French troops were deployed in a zone in the south-west of Rwanda
The French intervention saved the lives as after a safe zone was established there were no more large-scale massacres
Paul Kagame has the view that French complicity in the killings and genocide was profound
French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur claimed in 1998 that France had been ‘the only country in the
world to have acted’ and rejected all charges of having ulterior motives.
Role of USA
The USA and UK argued against help for Rwanda for economic reasons.
The main reason for US inaction was the ‘Somalia syndrome’. On 3rd October 1993 18 US troops were killed in Somalia. This had shaken the confidence of even those in the US that advocated intervention
There were already seventeen UN operations and 80,000 peacekeepers worldwide, and the US was liable for one third of the peacekeeping bill.
Staying out of Rwanda was an explicit US policy objective.
US government did not use the word genocide to describe events, to avoid international pressure to intervene.
The Americans never took ‘Rwanda’ seriously as a global issue or crisis.
President Clinton wanted to demonstrate his tough policy on UN peacekeeping to an anti-UN
congress member
Issues relating to international law.
Due to the media’s failure to report on the genocide there was no internal pressure from citizens that could have influenced policy makers.
Member states of the UN security council focused on the ongoing civil war rather than discussing the genocide, which would have forced them to act under the 1948 Genocide Convention
As a result the UNAMIR became an eyewitness of the genocide