I am delighted to see so many of you continue to visit this site despite the lack of new postings. Interestingly, the most viewed pieces continue to be those dealing with the Rwandan genocide. I am guessing students and perhaps historians are reviewing these posts. I would love to hear from you. In the meantime, I am reposting these most popular items. Thanks for your continued interest.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Rwandan Genocide: Who Was Really To Blame?
France today (8/6/08) accused Rwanda of making “unacceptable accusations" by alleging top French officials played an active role in the 1994 genocide. A 500-page report released Tuesday in Kigali alleged that France was aware of preparations for the genocide and said the French military helped plan the massacres and actively took part in the killing. It named 13 senior French politicians and 20 military officials as responsible raises the prospect of Rwandan legal action against them. But the foreign ministry spokesman, Romain Nadal, told reporters: “This report contains unacceptable accusations made against French political and military officials.”
Well, the accusations may not be acceptable to French authorities but they may be true. (See my eyewitness accounts from inside the so-called Zone Turquoise here and here.) And it recalled a piece I did in March 2004 when a French news report, in an adroit effort to muddy the facts, alleged Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, was responsible for the missile attack that marked the start of the 1994 genocide. What I reported from the Pentagon was that declassified US government documents pointed at another culprit.
The French newspaper Le Monde triggered an international controversy in early March when it reported on an investigation by a French judge into the April 6th, 1994 downing of an airplane carrying the then Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana.
Le Monde, citing the judge's official report, said French authorities have concluded then Rwandan rebel leader Paul Kagame gave the orders for the missile attack that brought down the plane.
Mr. Habyarimana's death marked the start of the Rwandan genocide.
Mr. Kagame is now Rwanda's president. He has rejected the French finding.
Newly-released, declassified US government documents also contradict the French version.
One is a memo to the Secretary of Defense written two days after the plane crash in Kigali. It says Hutu extremists "probably shot down the president's plane."
Another document, a May 9th, 1994 Defense Intelligence Agency report, also points to Hutu extremists -- this time, a group within Rwanda's military. The DIA report explains that President Habyarimana, a Hutu, supported a reconciliation agreement with Mr. Kagame's mainly-Tutsi rebel group. It says Hutu hardliners were against the peace-and-power-sharing deal, especially provisions for integrating Tutsis into a new military.
The report then goes on to say, quoting now, that "fueled antipathy to the president among hardline elements within the Army, particularly the Presidential Guard."
It concludes the plane crash, quoting again, "was actually an assassination conducted by Hutu military hardliners."
The State Department appeared to share that view. Another declassified document says the truth behind President Habyarimana's death may never be known. But there are, in theState Department document's words, "credible but unconfirmed reports that Hutu elements in the military" opposed to a peace deal with the Tutsis "killed Habyarimana in order to block the accords."
Almost immediately after the president was killed, Hutu extremists began the systematic slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus who supported reconciliation. The violence was directed by high-level Rwandan government officials.
Bizarrely, that declassified memo to the then US Secretary of Defense written two days after the plane crash took an optimistic view of the situation. It reported what the document termed "a glimmer of hope that this crisis is waning" -- based on the fact there had been a meeting between government and rebel generals and the leader of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda.
But the meeting did not bring about a hoped-for cease-fire or a disengagement of forces. In the bloodshed that followed the assassination of the president, more than three-quarters of a million Rwandans died.
The declassified documents were obtained and released by the National Security Archive, an independent, non-governmental research institute attached to George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Well, the accusations may not be acceptable to French authorities but they may be true. (See my eyewitness accounts from inside the so-called Zone Turquoise here and here.) And it recalled a piece I did in March 2004 when a French news report, in an adroit effort to muddy the facts, alleged Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, was responsible for the missile attack that marked the start of the 1994 genocide. What I reported from the Pentagon was that declassified US government documents pointed at another culprit.
The French newspaper Le Monde triggered an international controversy in early March when it reported on an investigation by a French judge into the April 6th, 1994 downing of an airplane carrying the then Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana.
Le Monde, citing the judge's official report, said French authorities have concluded then Rwandan rebel leader Paul Kagame gave the orders for the missile attack that brought down the plane.
Mr. Habyarimana's death marked the start of the Rwandan genocide.
Mr. Kagame is now Rwanda's president. He has rejected the French finding.
Newly-released, declassified US government documents also contradict the French version.
One is a memo to the Secretary of Defense written two days after the plane crash in Kigali. It says Hutu extremists "probably shot down the president's plane."
Another document, a May 9th, 1994 Defense Intelligence Agency report, also points to Hutu extremists -- this time, a group within Rwanda's military. The DIA report explains that President Habyarimana, a Hutu, supported a reconciliation agreement with Mr. Kagame's mainly-Tutsi rebel group. It says Hutu hardliners were against the peace-and-power-sharing deal, especially provisions for integrating Tutsis into a new military.
The report then goes on to say, quoting now, that "fueled antipathy to the president among hardline elements within the Army, particularly the Presidential Guard."
It concludes the plane crash, quoting again, "was actually an assassination conducted by Hutu military hardliners."
The State Department appeared to share that view. Another declassified document says the truth behind President Habyarimana's death may never be known. But there are, in theState Department document's words, "credible but unconfirmed reports that Hutu elements in the military" opposed to a peace deal with the Tutsis "killed Habyarimana in order to block the accords."
Almost immediately after the president was killed, Hutu extremists began the systematic slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus who supported reconciliation. The violence was directed by high-level Rwandan government officials.
Bizarrely, that declassified memo to the then US Secretary of Defense written two days after the plane crash took an optimistic view of the situation. It reported what the document termed "a glimmer of hope that this crisis is waning" -- based on the fact there had been a meeting between government and rebel generals and the leader of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda.
But the meeting did not bring about a hoped-for cease-fire or a disengagement of forces. In the bloodshed that followed the assassination of the president, more than three-quarters of a million Rwandans died.
The declassified documents were obtained and released by the National Security Archive, an independent, non-governmental research institute attached to George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Rwandan Genocide: Who Was Really To Blame? (Part Two)
Newly-released, declassified documents show senior US government officials were well-informed about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda --- even though they failed to use the word publicly to justify not intervening to halt the bloodshed. I filed this report on March 31st, 2004 – just ahead of the 10th anniversary of the start of the genocide.Just two weeks after the start of the killings in Rwanda 10 years ago, senior Clinton administration policymakers were told by the Central Intelligence Agency that what was happening in the tiny Central African country was genocide.
The word appears in the CIA's April 23rd, 1994 National Intelligence Daily, a top secret intelligence summary delivered to senior US policymakers. Three days later, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research provided more detail. It noted some Hutu extremists were speaking of a "final solution" to eliminate all Tutsis. It went on to say, quoting now, "the butchery shows no sign of ending."
Despite this and other information flowing into Washington, the Clinton Administration waited until late May to publicly acknowledge that what it termed "acts of genocide" were taking place in Rwanda.
It took then Secretary of State Warren Christopher until early June 1994 to finally use the word "genocide."
Other declassified documents released by the independent National Security Archive of George Washington University show the administration deliberately sought to avoid using the word genocide. Officials feared, in the words of one declassified Pentagon paper, that it "could commit the US government to actually do something" under international law--- something the Clinton administration wanted to avoid.
Alison Des Forges is an authority on the 1994 Rwandan genocide with the organization, Human Rights Watch. She says the US position was inexcusable.
“A genocide should demand an investment of resources, a level of concern beyond other crises in the world.”
The administration felt it was militarily overextended elsewhere in the world and that there were no compelling American interests in Rwanda. It also wanted to avoid any repetition of the bloody experiences of US peacekeeping troops in Somalia.
The Clinton administration later apologized to the Rwandan people for its failure to do more. In 1998, President Clinton travelled to Kigali and met survivors of the genocide. He said the international community did not act quickly to prevent the massacres. Mr. Clinton also said the international community must bear its share of responsibility for the tragedy.
Note: Having seen the butchered bodies, at a time when US officials were still avoiding public use of the word “genocide,” I can tell you I was personally outraged. I agree with Ms. Des Forges that the position taken by the administration at the time was inexcusable.
